Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war"

by An Sturmmann

Rating: teen
Tags: Death, Alternate Universe, Human, Main 6, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure, Profanity, Violence, Princess Celestia
Length: 54218

Equestria had been at peace for a long time, however, one day, the moon refuses to come down by command, and, it seems that this is the first of many changes...

In this tale, we shall see how our beloved Equestria, and the world it once lived in, is changed forever by the sudden aparition of gigantic landmasses where there once was water and the bad augury of sun and moon refusing to obey their princesses...

The once close kingdoms and countries, are now distant partners... or foes, as the history is forced to change forever when two worlds collide, and many different nations must face each other, will friendship prevail?, or maybe, only maybe, war may be the only way to stop the gathering storm?

Besides, the event did brought a certain creature from another land, a "man" as he calls himself, will this strange alien stallion be able to help Equestria?, or will this country run by mares refuse to listen to this strange, yet curious stallion?

So... in this story, I will try to mix the canon Equestria from FiM, with a whole new world, inhabitated by ponies and many other species we know and love, and many new ones, as if the classic transported fiction, but, instead of humans or human nations being sent to Equestria, Equestria is sent to a brand new world, ruled by other kind of ponies... and with them, comes a lonely guy that knows a bit too much in certain areas. I hope you like it!

English isn't my first languague, so, sorry in advance (This story is RGRE).

Published 2023-08-26 01:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-10-14 21:37:48 UTC

Chapter 2: But the Moon refused to obey

Ponies, at their barest level, are no different from their equine forefathers, a family, a town, even the mighty Vanhoover, they are still groups of ponies, huge, yes indeed.

But, what's the difference bewteen a massive herd of ancient equines that just saw the nearing pack of wolves, and a modern day city that just saw their beloved sun refuse to come out in command?

The only difference, is that the incoming stampede can at least be avoided with a little lie... thus, saving hundreds, if not thousands from being stomped to death as the masses run in sheer desperation, their baser instincts almost overwritting their sapient brains in a full return to primal states.

Either, this is part of our evolution, as one last safe measure, since no sane predator would even dare to attack a herd so huge and would rather be happy with whatever spoils remain.

However, I do believe that the only things wich could make a full city revert back to that primal state of fear and the need to run away, may as well be walking disasters themselves... Nightmare Moon, was proof of that, and I hope, that this book will never be opened, since, if it is ever open, it means that something is so utterly wrong that failure into "calming down" the population would mean that society itself was experiencing such a change, that it may as well collapse overnight.

Prologue of "Equestria at her lowest" by former Lieutenant General Fear of Night
~~Censored by the Canterlot Bureau~~
Reason: The Psychological weaknesses there may as well be a invader handbook to get Equestria to submit

The moon shone, bright and beautiful, her sweet white rays gently projecting over the city, Canterlot may be a golden city during the day, but when the night falls, it becomes something equally beautiful, but in a different way.

The gorgeous white buildings gave the moon a perfect stage to be the center of attention, as one curious mare was walking in one of the many hallways in the big palace wich was the center of Canterlot itself.

The mare had a light violet coat, with a pair of wings resting on her back, with equally colored feathers, those feathers albeit looking simple, held a rather big complexity when the moonlight touched them, since, by a mix of the homogeneous first glance, and the darkness wich engulfed the castle insides, it was quite hard to see the actual layout of those feathers.

Besides that, the mare had a long mane, with pink and purple stripes, just like her tail, the look on her eyes was one of clear attention, as she was walking, pretty much all alone in the middle of the palace, as if she knew exactly how to move inside of it, her attention focused in the floating book in front of her, as she seemed... conflicted.

Something in that book had her focused, yes, but, at the same time it held her worried, her mouth softly whispering the words she read, as if she was trying to convince herself that those, were in fact the words she was reading.

However, her travel, would be cut short, the second a golden door, in a nearby hall, opened up.

Her focus switched, from the book, to the doorframe, as it opened up in an almost tantalizing way, her body languague showing up clear hope and happiness, but also doubt.

As she awaited, a nearby shadow began to move, with soft hoof sounds, telling the mare that someone else was near, looking behind, she saw the responsible.

A clearly bigger mare, one wich held a look of anger, fury, and despair, with eyes reddened, and wings retracted, a trio of moon drawings in her body, one on her chest, the other two on each flank, her blue long mane seeming a bit darkened, but not as dark as her coat.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, a pleasure to see that you came with upmost haste" She spoke, a hint of hostility in her voice, however, there was also quite the cocktail of emotions in there, it wasn't a voice of someone angry at Twilight, but at something else "Princess Luna!, Are you allright?!"

"I am as fine as I could be, in fact, in quite the mood to go out and deliver some proper fear of the night on whoever was the one who caused THIS to happen" Luna spoke back, as she pointed towards a window with her right hoof, straight towards a beautiful full moon "Did something happen to your night?!"

Twilight answered up, if Luna was full of rage, Twilight seemed full of fear, however, a huge white wing gently patted her back, as the sounds of the door finally opening reached her ears.

"Lulu, please, calm down for a moment, I know that this isn't exactly the best thing to say, but, being angry won't help us at all" A mature and kind voice spoke back, making Twilight turn around and get quite the big smile with happiness "Princess Celestia!"

"Hello Twilight, I'm happy to see you too" Celestia spoke as Twilight gave her a little hug with her wings, however, after a few seconds Luna spoke again, or better said shout again. "I SHALL NOT 'CALM DOWN', THOUST PERHAPS HATH FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE LAST TIME SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED?!"

"I haven't, however, we had this exact conversation back then, last time you wished to go into a full blown military assault, against Discord himself, and I will not allow you to send a thousand good mares to become mere shadows of themselves until the elements of harmony are used over whatever has caused this!" Celestia for the first time shouted back, making Luna take an step back "And, if you care about our subjects, I think using the Canterlot voice may as well be a horrid idea, unless you want everypony to learn about this!"

"Princess... I..." Twilight spoke but Celestia held her hoof up, gently but firm "Now... breath up a little Luna, and then we can tell Twilight about this... and hope that Candance gets the letter too"

"I... just... just imagine for a moment that this was about the Sun... Would you be calm Celestia?" Luna answered and her sister nodded "Not 'calm' but at least try to hold my hooves to the ground instead of preparing to fly to war as if this was a milennia ago, remember that now we have far more subjects to care for, and besides, we have two new alicorns to help us"

"..." The princess looked down, as her right hoof stomped, lifting it again to point at the moon "Twilight Sparkle, lower the moon, please"

"I... me?!" Twilight answered suprised as she took a few steps back, breaking free from Celestia wing range "But... princess Luna, last time I barely managed to lift the sun after lowering the moon!, I... I even distracted Shining armor from what I was told!"

"It matters not, I am here to help if that happens" Luna spoke as she took an step towards Twilight, gently touching her shoulder with her hoof "But please... recover my moon"

Twilight swallowed as she felt quite surprised and by her body language, quite awkward, however, that didn't stop her from walking towards the window frame, her horn brightening up with light, as she reared, her front hooves standing in the frame after the window opened, the bright light stopped in that instant.

With a deep breath, Twilight's horn started lighten up again, but this time, there wasn't anything in sight getting covered by that energy, however, her eyes were glued to the beautiful white moon, wich seemed smaller and far more distant.

A shudder went through the mare spine, just as her face became filled with an mixture of emotions, her body trembling, shaking, as her horn light got brighter and brighter, sparks flowing around or being send in all directions with her horn as an epicenter, and yet, her eyes seemed full of doubt, unlike her body wich was tense, specially her legs, as if the endeavour was simply too much for her.

"Twilight, keep at it!" Luna said, her voice with the smallest hint of hope, as her horn lit up too, her energy soon joining in Twilight apparently meaningless effort, but with an even greater emotion, as Luna slammed shut her jaws teeth crushing against teeth, with such an strenght and rage that perhaps sparks could also originate from there " GO ALL OUT, I WILL DO MY BEST TOO!"

"Luna!" Celestia shouted as she looked at her sister, her magic being poured with such strenght that her beautiful mane stopped waving the way it usually did, not only that did happen, but also, after she spoke, she bit her own lip, with enought strenght to cause an smal injury "I'm sorry auntie!"

Another voice sounded, just as an small energy beam hit Luna in the back of her head, making her eyes first go wide, then get closed as she couldn't even finish up the words she whispered, falling to her knees and then collapsing over the floor.

"Twilight!" Celestia quickly stopped the smaller mare from pouring more magic, and she quickly gasped as her legs failed to hold her, collapsing too over the floor, but unlike Luna, her eyes were kept open, and in quite the show of resilence, she rose up, slowly but surely "I... I am so... sorry... I... failed to lower the moon..."

"Don't be sorry Twilight, the moon has refused to obey any command, not even Luna could lower her, not even I could do something, neither both of us together... that's why I called you two... sadly Luna couldn't wait any longer" Celestia spoke as she gently helped Twilight to stand again, giving her some support "Thanks Cadence, I should have used a sleep spell before..."

"There's nothing to apologize auntie, were it not for my years of experience in emotional and mind related magic I wouldn't have been able to cast an strong enought spell, sadly it would have required you a lot more of the effort you can currently muster, you must be exhausted after spending the whole night trying to lower the moon with Aunt luna"

"THE WHOLE NIGHT!" Twilight shouted in clear fear and surprise, but calmed down a bit after Cadence embranced her "Aunt Celestia Knew you would be afraid of this... so she wished to speak to you personally, that's why your letter only asked you to deliver that forbbidden book, It was my suggestion to her..."

"However, My timing wasn't as Good as I expected "Cadence apologized after breaking up the embrance, her magic lifting up the sleeping Luna "Aunt, I have quite the dire news from the north, Luna's night is not the only strange thing tonight, but also, there's have been many disasters in the borders, Shining is working hard to calm down everypony... but with this, I fear that only you could calm down the whole of Equestria."

Celestia sighted as she stood, her left leg trembling just a little bit, while as she couldn't avoid licking her lips with a nervous stare, looking towards the moon, she swallowed some saliva before noticing something.

"is... the moon just a little bit down?" Celestia said, catching the attention of both smaller alicorns "It... seems so, it does looks a bit like how the moon lowers herself over the everfree"

"Perhaps that's why nopony could lower it tonight" Cadance said before shaking her head grunting a little "But, I believe that there are more importants things for now, there are Earthquakes all around the northern border of the Crystal empire, thankfully no casualties yet, but I think we should work on something before it starts spreading or something"

"Earthquakes?" Celestia seemed shocked before turning and stomping towards the open doors "Come now, both of you, there's no time to lose if ponies are being hurt or worse..."

Killed

Chapter 3: The Earthquakes in the north (part one)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4: The Earthquakes in the north (part 2)

The princess Cadance soared the skies, her elegant frame moving in a quick and precise manner, all the way from the lower levels of her castle, towards the very top, her wings flapping with strenght and determination, as her eyes were set towards a light that came from the very top of the tower.

The building wasn't exactly shaking by now, enduring pretty well the growing earthquake down there, however, the ocassional shake was clear, the crystal structure holding its own against nature's wrath, a luck, wich seemed to not be shared by another buildings down there...

"DIVE!" The instructor shouted, the old mare leading a group of unicorn guards in a hallway, their horns shining bright as they galloped, eyes focused towards the city outside the palace, most of the guards looking surprised at best, or outright scared at worst "Keep moving, we need to get as many civilians safe!"

"Lead everypony away from any building, we don't know if they endure this this!" Shining armor shouted as he quickly teleported from the palace towards a nearby a house, quickly using his magic to catch a foal that fell from the shaking building "Are you okay?"

Shining armor asked the shaking foal, she nodded before a pegasus landed not too far

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" The pegasus shouted quickly hugging Shining armor taking the young foal on his back "It's nothing, hurry up and go with the guards, its somepony else inside the house?"

"N...no, I'm a single father" Explained the Stallion and Shining armor took an step back, a bit surprised, but soon nodded "Very well then, hurry up and be careful!"

The pegasus nodded and quickly flew away, the scared foal hugging the back of his father with all of his strenght, fighting back some tears of fright.

"Captain, the royal guard is mobilizing every single reserve towards the aid efforts, however, we are still too few right now, we cannot take care of the souther half of the city!" An armored mare quickly galloped towards Shining, bowing down to him before he shook his head "No, we can if we mobilize every single pegasi, deliver the message to everypony, I want every single pegasus soaring towards the south, I don't care they need to go withouth armor, we need every civilian safe with haste!"

"Roger that!" The mare spread her wings before jumping into the air, flapping quickly, flying with haste.

"ATTENTION EVERYPONY!" The voice of Cadance suddenly boomed, as a bright light came from the tower, almost blinding those who had the bad luck of look at it, however, it wasn't as blinding as one could expect, just leaving a slight headache that dissapeared in mere seconds "LISTEN TO THE ROYAL GUARD AND FOLLOW THEM, I WILL HOLD BACK THE TREMOR, BUT I NEED YOU TO MOVE WITH HASTE!"

Shining armor blushed a little upon hearing the princess voice, but quickly looked down, as the earth began to be covered in a soft pink light, one wich spread out from the base of the palace all around the city, softening the motions until they weren't capable of doing any damage.

"You heard my wife, let's go!" Shining armor shouted out loud to a group of unicorns, they quickly followed suit, galloping behind the white coated stallion "Hurry up everypony, we are waiting for you!"

As he ran leading the growing herd, he used his magic to open up the doors of the buildings, helping the ponies inside to leave faster, however, he a rather grim sight made him stop on his tracks for a moment.

There was a building, made of crystal like the others, but far bigger than a single house, Shining armor eyes widened in horror looking at it...

The crystal was broken, collapsed in a grim sight, as the building laid victim of its own weight, the nightlight making it look far more impactful, since, the crystal was made an absolute mess, most of the structure broken, a bit turned into nothing but dust, and some bits still standing.

"EVERYPONY, GALLOP TO SAFETY, AND TELL AN SQUAD OF UNICORNS TO COME HERE, THE CLINIC HAS COLLAPSED!" Shining armor ordered, as he ran towards the building, using both, his hooves and magic to move the debris away, with a rather desperate expression on his face, he didn't like this in the slightest "GO ON, PLEASE!"

A few foals cried, some stallions gasped, while most mares quickly joined the captain on his duty, trying to take away as many debris as they could, while the young ones quickly were dragged away by their fathers, towards safety.

"Hurry up!" A mare shouted as she kicked away a rather big crystal, her ears twitching a bit as she seemed to be desperate on cleaning up as much debris as she could, since she lacked both horns or wings, she was using her strenght in quite the noble endeavour, uncaring of the bruises she got against the hard crystal "I can hear something, there's someone on the other side!"

Shining armor felt his senses sharpening as the mare said that, and he quickly took a few steps backs, his horn lighting up quickly with an almost blinding light, making everypony stop in their tracks, quickly backing up, as a ray of pure magic came out of his horn, towards the debris.

"Thanks Celestia!" A voice could be heard from the debris, as the magical energy swarmed the crystal, lifting it into the skies as an smaller light came to sight as the crystal could no longer hold it down, this light was light brown colored, and formed an half sphere, and a rather big one underneath the debris "Go, go help everypony leave!"

Standing in the middle of the debris, there was a group of unicorn mares, using their magic to form a shield, they seemed rather tired, sweating and panting loudly, as they held the sphere of brown magic, a group of earth ponies tending to the sick and wounded in the middle of the sphere, the sight made Shining armor sight of relief as he laid the debris away from the group, leaving them unscathed, save a few bruises wich the nurses and medics were quickly taking care of.

"Thank you Captain!" The apparent leader of the unicorns said before bowing down, the magical sphere dissapearing as she and the other unicorns took a moment to breath, the group of earth ponies quickly galloping carrying the sick ponies, some them finishing the cleaning of the bruises of the wounded "Thankfully no one was badly wounded, just a few bruises captain, however, we will need some help to carry the sick"

"Spare no effort everypony we need to help them!" The same earth pony mare who was putting more effort into lifting the debris said, quickly followed by other mares who aided the medics and nurses "Captain, I'm sure somepony else is in need of your help, I promise i will try to get everypony to safety"

That same mare bowed in front of Shining armor, quickly offering up aid, aid wich Shining seemed a bit reluctant to accept, but after watching the civilians helping each other, he nodded before lighting up his horn.

"Very well then, good luck miss, if you need aid, just ask an unicorn to use a beacon spell the royal guard nearby will follow with upmost haste!"

Shining armor dissapeared in a flash of light, as the group resumed their gallop, running towards the outskirts of the crystal city, towards the green pastures.

As for Shining armor, he quickly reappeared in the middle of the city, galloping towards a group of guardsmares, the group saw him and quickly saluted, standing tall and firm.

"Situation Report gentlemares!" Shining armor asked as the lead mare, a pegasus spoke in a firm and disciplined tone "No casualties as of yet sir, everypony is being escorted to the outskirts, the pegasus groups are searching for civilians, the earth squads are removing debris to help those trapped, and the unicorn batallions are teleporting those unable to move"

"How many building have collapsed so far?!" Shining armor demanded to know and the second pegasus spoke out loud "The theatre and the tax office so far, the earthquake was stronger at the north, most houses northwards are barely standing, however thanks to the Princess Cadenza the damage was halted for now, most of the royal guard is deployed at the north because of this, however a sizable portion is distributed in the center and south!"

"Understood, something else I should be aware of?!" Shining armor asked, looking as if he just experienced a slight relief, however the third mare nodded "Yes, a group of settlers at the northern frontier, far beyond the barrier had arrived, they can barely speak but tried to ask an audience with the Princess, they brought dire news and seemed too scared to properly speak more than a few words, the message we could understand is grim to say the least!"

"Deliver" Shining ordered and the lead mare spoke quickly "They say that the Northern border is victim of earthquakes too, they lost comunication with the explorers and not even magic seems to be capable of allowing them to speak with the brave expedition, however, that's the only thing we could understand, the rest was nothing but mumbling and words with no logic behind them, with mentions about something hunting deers on the Northwest, nearby the Diamond mountain range"

"We shall deal with that later, return to duties!" Shining armor ordered as the pegasus quickly jumped off the ground flying towards the northern bits of the city as Shining armor, quickly lighted up his horn dissapearing in another flash of light.

The royal guard was doing quite the good work, everypony was getting to safety thanks to the effort of the stallions and mares in armor, however, the greatest effort came from a certain mare, wich was pretty much holding the entire city quiet and still by now.

The princess Cadence stood, alone in a chamber in her palace, her horn shining bright as she stood in front of a heart shaped crystal, sweating as her eyes were shut, she seemed to be in a deep concentration.

"Candance!" Shining armor appeared in a flash behind her, and that caused her to open her eyes, the second she did that, the floor began to quake way more violently than before making her quickly close her eyes, cadance Groaned as a thick ray of light came out of her horn tip, towards the crystal, the energy quickly flowing towards the supports of the heart shaped structure, flowing downwards as the floor returned to the calmer state "Shiny... can you give me a hoof?"

Shining armor nodded as he stood at the side of the taller pony, quickly channeling his magic towards the beam the princess was making, giving the princess some respite, however he quickly began to sweat and pant too.

"Do you feel that?" Shining armor asked looking atCadence and she whispered back "Yes... the cold... something... feels wrong with the heart..."

Both of them stood, side by side, shoulder against shoulder, magic beamed towards the crystal structure, slowly but surely getting closer and closer to each other, until their horns were touching, the magic no longer being a pair of beams wich fused at some point, but one single beam coming out of both of their horns.

It was quite the cute sight, with their eyes closed, their cheeks rubbing with each other, their horns together, it was like an embrance, as they simply stood together, working together, as the ground began to quake less and less until after a minute it was still, like if there wasn't any single earthquake.

Time passed, and after a few minutes everything seemed to be calming down outisde, after ten more minutes, a lone pegasus flew towards the pair and fell on her knees in a respect gesture.

"Princess Mi amore Cadenza, the population is finally safe at the outskirts" The pegasus spoke as she looked at the floor, then as both ponies heard her, their magic began to slow down, and slowly but surely they broke their closeness, as the eartquake resumed at all of its strenght... "Shiny... do you think the tower can endure this earthquake?"

"I... I think it can, however, I will gather as much unicorns guards as possible if the worst happens" Shining armor answered as Cadance couldn't avoid stealing a kiss from him, making him blush brightly "Good... I... I need to go to Canterlot, my magic is pretty much drained save for enought for a teleport spell and some others... my Aunt needs me"

"Go ahead Cadence I will protect the Crystal empire while you are there... just tell Twilight I said hi please, I barely could speak to her after her ascension" Shining armor quickly stole a kiss from Cadence and she smiled widely, embrancing him with her wings for a brief moment "Very well, I'll tell her you were 'leaking liquid pride' for her"

"Hehe" Shining smiled a bit, in playful manner as he looked towards the crystal heart, the tower shaking violently, and yet, it seemed as solid as ever, pretty much unfazed much to the surprise of the stallion, however, the alicorn princess quickly galloped towards the opening and jumped out the tower, spreading her wings and flying with upmost haste, her horn shining bright as she seemed to gather magic for something "Please... I really hope this works..."

Shining armor pointed his horn towards the crystal heart as he closed his eyes, casting an spell...

Author's Note

Well... action may not be my forte when it comes to english language, and yet i'm somewhat satisfied with this chapter, certainly it wasn't the most intense or action drived, but it had a bit of adrenaline.

Once again if i have done a mistake i'm open to any criticism, specially since the Crystal empire isn't exactly the place I know best when it comes to the FiM world.

However I think this was somewhat decent, thank you for reading!

Chapter 5: A royal discussion

Silence, the beautiful silence in the middle of the night, that was the only thing that could be heard all around inside the room.

The soft sounds of the wood, coal and oil alike as they burned, making a beautiful combination of three different kinds of sources of light, the combination made the room have a cozy ambience, not so different than if it the light came from the very own sun, like if the night, was a day.

However, the soft tones, colors, and the overall cozy ambience, was not of the concern of a certainly serious Cadence, as she made her way inside, carrying over her back a deep asleep Princess Luna, following the steps of the Princess Celestias as she led both, Cadence and Twilight inside the room, the trio of mares being quick to gather an small group of soft looking pillows and lay them together, in a sort of makeshift bed, letting the sleeping Alicorn continue her dreams there.

Celestia used her magic to lift her sister from Cadence's back, and bring her to the pillows, as Cadence didn't even took a second glance before quickly giving a little nudge to Twilight, the smaller alicorn being quick to recover from her sudden daze, sitting down on the other side of a table, just a few inches to the right of Cadence, while Celestia stood on the other side, Luna sleeping on the left side of the table, shifting on her sleep and quickly breaking any semblance of order that the set of pillows could have had.

"As much as I would prefer us to speak in the safety of my own room, we cannot allow ourselves to be seen carrying my sister while she is unconscious, the royal guard should arrive any time soon, and this is something we better keep hidden until we find a solution" Celestia spoke as she sat down, her beautiful eyes, so full of questions, of doubt, but also, sorrow and fear alike, as if her very own soul was struggling with something. "Yes, it would be something to really hard to explain, not even the guards are truly ready to hear up this kind of thing, even less when there doesn't seems to be any root for this sudden problem"

"But alas, that isn't something we should be speaking about in this exact moment, specially when there was something far more dangerous happening at the same time, I'm sorry nephew, If I only had know that such a thing would suddenly hit the Crystal empire..."

"No one was ready for it, just like I wasn't ready to be sent a letter midflight, I had to stop for a minute or two at one of the outskirts outposts to quickly write up and send answer, thankfully I could find one as quickly as needed" Cadence chuckled a bit, a mix of pride and relief in her face, While Celestia sighed, all the while Twilight Sparkle seemed to be too confused to properly speak, just switching her glare from Celestia, to Cadence as both spoke "While the city is probably still at risk if another earthquake comes, most of the ponies are safe now, however, I'm not exactly sure about what to do in this kind of situation"

"Sadly, Tirek had quite the massive effect on Equestria, so, I can't exactly give you the aid I would like to, Twilight?" Celestia answered before calling for her student, who quickly stood as tall as she could, and really stiff too, she seemed to not know how to act in this kind of situation "Do you remember the small project you spoke to me about?"

"Hmmm, the... essay about the effects of Lord Tirek's actions against Equestria as a whole?" Twilight gave another question as an answer, as Celestia nodded, spreading her wing softly and giving her a little reasurring pet on the neck "Yes Twilight, that essay, I guess that you are still in the process of researching information, I am right?"

"So far, I could only use ponyville as my Research site, and, as strange as this may sound... I'm not exactly sure i'm researching properly... " Twilight spoke, a little mix of embarrassment mixed with her honesty, as Celestia nodded and stood tall " Equestria hasn't been hit by an Earthquake that could realistically kill a pony since the days of the everfree civilization, let alone the crystal Empire, not even Amore lived throughout one in her days of yore, neither has the Sun and the Moon refused to obey the will of anypony with power, let alone two, for no reason, and to this utter chaos, we still had the conflict with Lord Tirek"

"I really, really hope that the three things are just unrelated events that can be solved" Cadence spoke, fighting back a shudder, all the while Twilight swallowed her own spit, letting out a little cough as she did so without care. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza... I fear that we are facing changes in our world, there is no way that Tirek's magic could have caused such effects in our lands, there must be something else behind, because... if you haven't noticed, the magic in the air feels different too"

Twilight's eyes opened up like a pair of plates as she suddenly could feel what her teacher told her, her horn gave a little spark from its tip, a side effect of the strange feeling that was covering it, it was as if the air around her horn had turned into an strange mix of water and gel, being cold and hot at the same time, each inch of her horn felt it in a different but subtle way, as if a constant unending stream of this watered down gel covered it, it was such a subtle feeling, being so soft that it could as well pass as the everyday feeling of a breeze passing by, but, unlike a breeze, it never ended, not until Twilight's attention was took back by Celestia's words, her focus changing and the feeling returning to be utterly ignored in the split of a second, as if it wasn't there at all.

"Yes, I have felt that too Aunt, however, the change at the crystal empire is a bit more aggressive, being somewhat similar to a filly first night after using her first spell, something that is there, that you can't forget it is there, but it is so subtle that it may as well be forgotten too" Cadence spoke as she tilted her head, Twilight was quick to open an small saddlebag she had with her and take outside a pencil and a notebook. "Fascinating... this is something I didn't even knew I was feeling, it is so subtle I would have never noticed until a magic sensing training... Now, i'm feeling a bit unworthy of my element..."

"Trust me Twilight, this magical feeling doesn't has anything to do with the harmony which rules over your element... I know this magical feeling a bit too well... so does Luna, but, if I had told her about this, instead of going along with her attempts to recover the moon, well... lets just say that you don't tell a warrior princess that is in anger and despair, that the air feels like there are enemies around us... you know, it is hard to try to stop Luna when she gets fixiated on something, let alone if you give her a second thing to be focused about" Celestia said as both, Twilight and Cadence felt the color being drained from their faces after hearing what Celestia said " En...en....enemies?"

"Yes, Mi Amore Cadenza, enemies, the magical feeling you are noticing, is fruit of an actual battle bewteen armies, thankfully, with it being so subtle, it may as well be on another continent, or a battle bewteen ships in deep sea, I myself couldn't avoid feeling scared the second I felt it, because, it has been more than eight hundred years since the last time the entire world had a proper battle on the scale needed to make the magic wave spread around like that, the last fight bewteen the decadent Yak khanate and the Changelling Queendom, while i made sure that not a single word was written down about the former days of war, even if that meant going after the warnings of the long deceased Lieutenant General, I can't bring myself to forget the clash of the last Khan and the mother of Queen Chrysalis..."

"B...but... i'm sure that the battle must have been pretty small... right?, you said the Khanate was decadent" Twilight spoke, her inner academic desiring knowledge, while her inner element of harmony couldn't be more horrified "Twilight... at its peak the khanate had an army of a hundred thousand yaks, they were the most numerous species in the whole continent, even its weakened army of a few tens of thousands, was capable of crushing other nations with ease, the Changelling Queendom on the other hand, did had more than a hundred thousand warriors, they were sent in a single huge swarm, why do you think the lands in the northern west are forbbiden even if they are full of gems?, I don't want anypony to find the bones I had to personally bury, since at the time, no country would show that mercy to the poor youths that were sent to die in war"

The silence took control of the whole situation once more, as neither of the three mares could even speak, one deep inside her own mind, reviving old memories, the other two, gawking in sheer surprise, the implications of what happened, being so horrible that their minds were trying to understand everything, but yet, refused to truly acknowledge the sheer weight of what they were told.

"While, I would like to discusss the details of what I have in mind, the time is running low, listen up, both of you, this feeling is something I cannot simply ignore, we three need to take care of too many things in too few time, Equestria may as well be a its lowest right now, recovering from an unprovoked attack by an old foe, with nature herself attacking our beloved northern empire, and the very own sun and moon refusing to obey if the moon refusal also applies to the sun"

Celestia stood tall in front of the table, making the other two mares stand too, the size difference making Celestia look far more regal, as her eyes were full of an emotion that neither of the smaller ones could truly grasp, something had switched inside of her, not fully, but there was something different.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you must embark in a journey to research all the things that Tirek brought, good and bad alike, we must know the sheer impact of what happened, if possible, this research project must also bring possible solutions for the obstacles you may find in the full recovery of Equestria"

Celestia didn't even ask, this sounded like an order, as if she was commanding Twilight to do her will, the smaller, purple alicorn, couldn't avoid nodding as she stood stiff, way too stiff, like a newbie guardsmare in front of an officer.

"Go forth then, Princess Twilight, don't worry about the public opinion and the astral disobedience, I shall deal with both" Celestia commanded, and Twilight opened her mouth to say something "Don't, this isn't the time Twilight, I'm really sorry to cut you, but the time is running low, as I told you before this feeling means that somewhere there is a major battle, and Equestria is woefully underprepared for those, it has been for more than a half of milennia..."

As Twilight stood back, Cadence looked at Celestia and the princess nodded.

"Take as much regiments and supplies as you need Cadence, lead them to the empire and start the rebuilding duties, if possible identify the source of the earthquake, and send scouts to the northern regions wich connect to the icy sea, we need information as fast as possible, for that is the direction that the magical wave came from"

"Now go, my faithful alicorns, our little ponies need us, they have been living at peace for far too long, and it is our duty to keep them that way!"

Author's Note

Perhaps I changed Celestia's personality a lot with this... but... well, she is older than a milennia, I can only guess she had her own fair share of battle an conflict, and as such, perhaps a more "serious" Celestia could be possible.

Please, tell me I didn't ruin the best princess with that...

Chapter 6: The plight of the two princesses

"I still can't believe it!" Twilight couldn't avoid shouting, as she breathed heavily, trotting from one side of the room, to the other, she was in a rather simple looking room, her eyes focused on a sheet of paper that floated around in front of her, merely titled 'Planning' "Neither I can Twilight, but... can we really do something more besides listening to Aunt Celestia?, We pretty much know nothing about what is happening, let alone, how to solve it"

"I know!" Twilight halted in her tracks with a loud stomp, just as the sheet floated into the table, landing just a few inches apart from another paper, this one titled 'Ponytarian efforts'. "But, one thing is dealing with a lone, albeit powerful threat, the other is dealing with what sounds like actual warfare!"

"I know that the situation isn't exactly good, but, Twi, relax just a bit, and analyze the situation, we are just 'feeling' that there is a battle, or at least that's what aunt Celestia told us, that doesn't means that Equestria will be at war, it just means that someone else, is, sadly, at war" Cadence spoke, as she was sitting in front of the table, looking at her sheet while levitating a feather with ink, starting to write out an small text. "I know, but, think about it for a second Cadence, on one hoof we have the fact that the sun and the moon are seemingly rising on their own if what we saw during this last hour is in fact the sun rising, and on the other hoof, we have the fact that there is a battle happening somewhere, while also having the fact that an earthquake just happened on the crystal empire!"

"Truth to be told, i'm scared Twilight, however, we must endure this, soldier on like a Mare, we cannot allow us to be paralyzed, we need to do as we were told, for Equestria as a whole" Cadence spoke but she sounded a bit unconvinced, that didn't go unnoticed by her fellow princess "You know that trying to act like a guardsmare won't help us, right?"

"I had to give it a little try, you know that speeches like that do work quite a lot, well, at least when the Canterlot sister's give them" Cadence blushed a little bit embarrased, but seemed calmer, now that Twilight answered in a less stressed tone " Yes... I know, but, Cadence, we aren't the Princess Celestia, or the Princess Luna, we aren't by any meaning ready to deal with sudden changes like this, let alone after such a short time of dealing with Tirek almost absorbing all the magic in Equestria"

" And, remember me who was the one who defeated Tirek, and with the aid of who?" Asked Cadence as Twilight couldn't avoid letting out a sigh and looking at her in the eyes "I wasn't in control of that, it just... happened, it honestly felt as if it was some sort of 'Celestia ex machina' from one of Spike's comic books, I didn't had any plan, or any way to properly deal with Tirek, and while I would still give him the magic to save my friends anytime... I really don't know how I could have beated him withouth that resource"

"And yet, you won, just like how Shining and I managed to send Chrysalis and her army flying away during our wedding, we managed to turn the tide against overwhelming odds, we showed everypony that harmony would always triumph, and, Equestria needs us more than ever, you know the actual dates, but there haven't been a single earthquake in history in quite the long time, neither the whole Equestria has faced so much danger in less than five years, be it Nightmare moon, Chrysalis, Tirek, Sombra, or the nature itself, we need to show everypony, that they can trust in us, their alicorns"

"But... Cadence... what if we cannot protect Equestria?" Twilight asked as she sat down in front of Cadence, looking at her sheet as she seemed to be in doubt "We did defeat most of the threats, but, we were just on the verge of losing, Nightmare moon almost won, Chrysalis tricked everypony and almost got rid of us two, Sombra was just about to win, and Tirek did win, but we managed to make a comeback, the threaths, the 'villains' are just getting closer, and closer to winning with each one that comes, and... this feeling, this constant feeling that somepony is fighting, as Celestia explained to us, it simply won't stop, it has been more than an hour, and it simply refuses to go away, either the fight is still going, or there is more than one"

"That's fair Twilight, honestly... I'm not sure either of how we could deal with that... and yes, the pattern you noticed does have a point, but, haven't we grow stronger with each foe?, I mean, think about it, we were just two alicorns before the defeat of nightmare moon, and now with you, we are four alicorns protecting Equestria, we have the elements of harmony, and even Discord himself is slowly but surely becoming a better 'pony', after Tirek betrayal, he really did begin to change"

"But, Equestria itself isn't ready, we aren't ready, most buildings aren't made to endure Earthquakes to put an example, I really, really hope that the earthquake in the crystal empire was the first and the last, but, the question is killing me, just like the doubt about why somepony out there is fighting, and why they won't stop because the feeling won't go away!"

Cadence sighed as she looked down and nodded slowly

"Sadly, We don't have too much time Twilight, we must act first and question later, the sun is still rising by itself, and soon the palace will be swarmed by scared ponies and journalists, that alongside the news of what happened in the crystal empire will surely make any task way harder to do, we need to prepare everything as fast as we can for our missions"

"Can I help you with the planning of the ponytarian duties?" Twilight asked, her eyes pleading, as she looked at Cadence, in a bit of a mix of determination and a somewhat childlike look "Yes Twi, Please, help me with this..."

Certainly, the smaller alicorn mare seemed to calm down the very second she began to aid her friend, as her eyes focused on the numbers, the maths and the logistics she instantly brighted up.

This didn't go unnoticed by Cadence who smiled a bit for herself, quickly writing down the kind of things she would need for her duties.

Being a princess isn't easy, there is too much things that you need to know, to understand, and consider, all the way from the basics, to far more complex things.

After all, when a city is struck by a natural disaster, you always need supplies, there will always be ponies with the bad luck to be hurt, bandages are a must, so are as much first aid kits, and medical personnel, those, alongside a enought rations of food and water were Cadence priority.

Her list kept getting longer, and longer, just like the one of her partner, both of them working together, splitting the work, but alas, not having a single problem with asking the other about their opinion about certain matters.

"Twilight, do you think that mobilizing three hundred ponies would be enought to transport all the supplies?"

"Well, that is considering wagons, however if we use the railways towards the north, we could reduce the number by quite a good margin..."

The mutual work was good, both mares had one thing in mind, one common goal, and they would work hard to archieve it.

"If I divert some funds from the aesthethic gardening program, then the budget should be enought to fully repair the Northern neighbourhoods, and, if to that we add the funding that Celestia offered, the budget would be more than enought for the whole city"

"Yes, by an 3% margin, and with the ponytarian aid, there shouldn't be any major problems!"

Their efforts were clear, and while it was clear that neither of them had as much experience when it came to repair duties, they really poured their hearts into making sure that the ponies of the crystal empire could have their city back, sooner than later getting smiles on their faces as everything was brighter the more they planned, the original dread being replaced by a feeling of hope and optimism.

However, while both mares were working... something a bit different was happening in the Crystal empire, or well, on its northern border, way too far from the city, in the lands that, while in the crystal empire, were yet to be tamed.

A group of guardsmares were exploring, the rocky and snowy lands making their path harder to traverse, but the hardened mares were capable of making way trought the snow and rock alike, their eyes set on something.

"Lieutenant, we found something in the cave, you must come to see this"

"It better be good filly, we have orders to keep exploring to the north, we cannot allow us to waste time"

This isn't a waste of time, miss, you really should come over here, this wasn't here the last time we came

Author's Note

Well, well, a shorter chapter, buuut, I think it works for what I have in mind, after all, a princess duty isn't merely to beat a villain and look pretty... they do need to know how to repair a damaged city after all!

Thank you all for reading my little fanfic, any feedback is welcome and sorry if I did something wrong!

Chapter 7: Duty of the princess

"Okay Twilight... you are a grown Mare... you are Equestria newest princess and you have one of your best friends by your side... you are in a mission tasked by Celestia herself... and you even have a cute Stallion as an aide... you can do this..." Twilight sparkle mumbled to herself in an extremely low voice, almost no sound coming from her mouth, and the few audible words being quickly extinguished by the loud sound of hooves as a trio of ponies made their way "Oh, Twilight, darling, don't be like that, you will do a great job in this task"

"As miss Rarity said, you will do great Princess Twilight Sparkle, I can assure you that!" Came a male voice, from Twilight left side in the back, it was somewhat high pitched, but clearly masculine, it had a little song-like tone with an small skeaky sound "So, miss Twilight, what do you need me to aid you?"

Twilight looked back, and felt herself having an small blush on her cheeks as she saw the stallion, he does was cuter the more she looked at him, his cream colored coat shone a bit with the morning sun, making a good contrast with his fairly darker mane, both of them being different shades of blue, giving him a fairly serious appearance, on his back there was an small brown saddle with a pair of bags hanging on its sides, the left bag was mostly empty, save for trio of small notebooks, some feathers and a container of ink, on the other side however, the right bag was almost overflowing with clothes and hats.

Besides the Stallion there was a pale mare, she looked outright gorgeous with a perfect mix of natural beauty and make up, her pale fur and violet mane making a clear elegant contrast, she only had a bag hanging from her right side, and looked happy, smiling softly as she looked forward, her cutie mark were a trio of blue gems, and while she looked at the front she did gave some glances at the stallion, mumbling something for herself.

"Thanks Rarity, and, to be honest I'm still not sure, mister Duly noted, for now we don't even know the effect that Tirek's arrival caused at new horseleans so, I think that you and Spike could take notes of things that seem out of place?"

Twilight spoke as she stopped in her tracks to turn towards the duo behind her, as she did that, an small bipedal reptile who had been sitting on her back quickly stood up proudly, smiling as he waved in a friendly manner at the stallion, this caused him to smile too and give an small bow.

"As you wish Princess, I promise to do my best alongside your faithful assistant" Duly noted answered, his long hair waving a bit with the current of breeze as he stood tall again looking at the lizard "So, I take you are mister Spike, I am right?"

"In person!, A pleasure to meet you Duly noted!" Spike answered up with an smile waving his claw before sitting on Twilight back again "So, I guess you brought your own notebook?"

"And a few spare ones, do you need one perhaps?" He asked in a calm manner and Spike nodded quickly, jumping from Twilight's back to quickly land in front of the Stallion "Yes, please"

The Stallion lifted his right hoof towards his head, taking off a rather big hat to reveal a blue horn, soon this horn shone as a bright light appeared inside his bag, the bag opened up and one of the notebooks alongside one feather and an smaller ink container quickly floated towards Spike, who held them with his claws.

"So, what we say when someone gives us something?" Twilight questioned and Spike sighed causing an small giggle from Duly "Thanks mister, thanks a lot!"

"You are welcome little one, do you want me to carry you the rest of the way?" Duly asked before Rarity quickly interfered " Nuh uh!, You are already carrying quite a lot of things in those bags darling! Allow me to carry little spikey wikey instead!"

Spike didn't even had to answer that, as he quickly ran towards Rarity's side, causing Twilight to roll her eyes and Duly to giggle a bit more "Just be careful little fella, your claws are really well done for them to get ruined by running"

"Well..." Spike stopped on his tracks a second, before Rarity lowered herself a bit, allowing him to instantly climb on her back, blushing red bright "Don't worry darling, I won't allow your male beauty to be ruined by this dirth path."

"She really is going along with it..." Twilight mumbled a bit before a blush spreaded on her cheeks as she walked to the Stallion's side "W...well... do you need any help with those bags?, they do look a bit heavy"

"Oh, what a gentlemare!, Here, thank you" Twilight blushed furiously as she soon had one of the bags, however the other one was still on Duly's back "So, Spike, Duly, I need you to take notes, we are going to interview some of the Horseleans population, we need to register their answers, and any useful data, this city was one of the most affected by Tirek's attack, and as such we need to take extra att...!"

As Twilight spoke, suddenly something passed in front of her at an extremely fast pace, whatever it was it ran over a big puddle of mud covering Twilight from head to hooves, making Duly scream in despair as he quickly ran towards her, While Twilight looked back to see what had suddenly covered her in mud.

"Oh damn" A lonely pegasus mare with a fairly heavy accent spoke as she was a few meters away from the group, she was dragging a big cart full of fruits, her face was pale, so pale that she could easily pass for a ghost as she saw Twilight covered in mud "Umm, ummm... he....hey Princess..."

"Princess, are you allright!" Duly was quick to use his magic to take the bag away from Twilight, as he looked at her, but soon changed his attention to the bag full of clothes, crying a little silent tear as he saw the bag full of mud and his spare changes soaked, however he does was focused on Twilight a lot more "I...I am fine, don't worry you two"

"That's a relief..." The tall pegasus mare spoke as she quickly bowed in front of Twilight, still dragging the cart "No need to bow, just speak to me as if I was your average mare"

"Oh, that's one tartarus of a relief then miss sparkle!" The mare was quick to hold one of Twilight's hooves and shake it with all of her might, an smile on her face as she spoke in a friendly tone, her accent becoming heavier "The name's Hopper, I'm one of new horseleans newest additions! May I ask what are ya doing in our swampy home?"

"We are on an small task, the Princess Twilight wants to make you some questions, could you please lead us to the city so we can ask them?" Duly asked, looking at the mare with a clearly annoyed expression, but in such a sweet tone that the Mare couldn't avoid looking at him "I'm sure as tartarus that I can help ya to get to the town, The folks will be really happy to see one of our princesses come here, follow everypony!"

Besides the sudden mud bath, everything was allright for Twilight, while she did felt bad for Duly and how sad he looked after seeing his clothes soaked in mud, she really couldn't get angry at Hopper, and, after a few minutes, neither the Stallion could be angry at her.

"Honestly, Ma' used to tell me to be careful when i run around with the cart, however, how can ah be careful when we are in such a hurry?, the folks are starving after that monster-stallion stole our magic, the crops were devoured by those tartarus damned parasprites!, and for some reason the ships we sent to Phillydelphia some time ago aren't coming back, we are starting to fear that something happened to them during the attack of that long legged beast"

"I doubt commenting about legs is something good" Duly was quick to answer while Hopper nodded but answered quickly "I know lad, just a little tongue slip"

"So, when did those ships sailed?" Rarity asked, looking a bit worried while Hopper stood silent for a few minutes and sighed "Ya know?, no one actually remembers, the elderly mare who kept the registers died due to magic deprivation, yesterday we buried her with all the respect we could, she was a good mare, she took dozens of orphaned fillies and turned them into respectable hardworking mares, my mom was one of them, she used to be a pickpocket before she took her under her wing, everypony in town loved her like the reliable grandma"

"May she rest in peace" Twilight said in a respectful manner as Hopper nodded with an sad smile, wich soon turned into a more warm one "Say, it's strange for a princess to come to our little town, what are the interviews about?"

"Mostly about the effects of Tirek's taking away the magic, we are trying to make sure that no one has any long effect dangers, while also seeking to know wich problems afflict the town, so we can deliver proper help!" Twilight spoke, an smile on her face as Hopper couldn't avoid lifting her hoof and dragging her into an small hug also using her wing for that "Thank you Princess!, I'm sure the townfolks will absolutely love this help!"

The rest of the way wasn't remarkable, it was just constant chatting, mostly bewteen Hopper and Twilight, While Spike and Duly mostly kept to each other, speaking about many different things and making notes about things they found remarkable.

For instance, the path wasn't supposed to be full of dirt and branches, neither to have many hoof sized holes full of mud, that was clearly a damage done to it, while also, there were some parts of the swamp wich were clearly burned or dried up, during the walk, spike once commented about a tabletop game, wich soon evolved into a full blown talk between him and Hopper about some book called Ogres and oubliettes, surprisingly, Duly was far more serious about it than spike, causing an small discussion about the nature of rules and editions

Twilight was extremely happy to hear them both talk, while Rarity constantly was a bit confused of the things they spoke about, meanwhile Hopper wasn't even aware of those two, being a bit more invested into telling the two mares about the art of shaving with an knife.

"And, here we are!" Hopper exclaimed as she lifted her left hoof to point to the front, towards a cozy looking city, it was a great look for the group, the many wooden buildings and houses gave it sort of 'old but reliable' look, being at a rather good position, on a relatively high ground alongside the beautiful river, however the most remarkable feature, was the constant stream of ships in the port, or at least the part of the port wich was visible. "Thank you Hopper, your help was very useful to us, see you at the interviews!"

"Oh, it was nothing Princess, In fact I should be the one thanking you for not being mad over the mud" The pegasus answered and Rarity giggled a little bit "Well... let's just say that Twilight does have experience with pegasi covering her in mud"

"Jeez, thanks Rarity" Twilight rolled her eyes as she began to make way, soon enought the rest followed her, save for Hopper who made her way towards a different place of the city, the relief on the faces of Rarity and Duly was huge as they were finally not walking on dirt and mud "Mare... I really need to get my hooves done after this..."

"I was here once when I was the secretary of the mayor, I know the perfect place to get a good hoofcure!" Soon the eyes of both Rarity and Duly shone with excitement and hope over that, while Spike rolled his eyes "Oh no, you are coming too young colt!, You cannot go around acting like a janefilly!"

"Wait, what!" Spike meanwhile Twilight giggled a little bit, looking back at the trio "You can get your hooves or claws done when we finish our work, first, we need to get to the town hall and speak to the local mayor before we do anything else, they will help us to get our work done easier, besides, its legal procedure"

Soon enought the group found itself in the middle of the city, gathering the attention of many ponies, most of them waving at Twilight in respect, as she waved back, all of that in friendly manner, while Duly got a lot of attention too with some friendly greetings, so it happened with Rarity and Spike, but in a lesser manner.

"Now, we just need to..." Twilight spoke as she was about to knock on the door of a beautiful town hall, but suddenly the door swung open before she could finish her little speech, gathering their attention "Ah, you must be the envoys from Canterlot"

Twilight looked back and saw an elderly stallion, wearing an elegant but old looking butler suit, he was quick to bow down to Twilight, and greet the rest with an smile and a little hoofshake.

"Please, follow me, the mayor has been awaiting for you ever since she got the letter from the Princess Celestia, it is our upmost honor to have the youngest alicorn in our little town" The butler spoke as Twilight nodded and walked inside, but not before giving an small respectful bow to the old stallion, Duly walked too and instead of bowing he gave a quick hug to the old butler both of them giving each other a little kiss on the cheek, Rarity followed suit taking the stallion hoof and giving it a little kiss on the back "My, my, what a gentlemare"

"It is my pleasure sir" Rarity soon walked inside while Spike looked a bit angry towards the elderly stallion, but soon warmed up as he gave him an fatherly look "Greetings little colt"

The inside of the town hall was pretty nice, the wood made little creaking noises as it felt the weight of the hooves but those were quickly drowned by what sounded like an small song coming from upstairs.

The hall had many doors leading to different places, however, at its end it had a spiral staircase with a sign, the words "Mayor's office" on it.

"Please, gentlemare, gentlecolts, follow me, I will lead you to the guest room, unless we are bothering the princess?" The butler spoke, it was a bit hard to understand him, due to how some words were spoke in such a low and slow manner that they were almost mute. "It's no bother at all butler"

"Magnificent!, Follow me then respectable guests" He said while the group waved at Twilight and followed suit, awaiting for when she would come back.

The princess made her way upstairs, the song playing in the background was a classic that her father used to hear a lot back in Canterlot, a beautiful song about a Colt's first love and the many hardships they had to face when his rich Mother found out that he loved a poor guardsmare.

A perfect mix of military narrative, romantic lyrics and a great dramatic story, even if it was a Song for lonely middle aged stallions, it does was a beautiful song, however, she couldn't really admit it, save for Rarity and perhaps Fluttershy or Pinkie, she would be called a Dyke for liking that, not that it mattered, the song was beautiful and that was an undeniable fact.

Soon enought, however, there was also a desperate voice, speaking, or rather screaming, the more she climbed, it was the voice of a middle aged Mare, and it didn't sound happy at all... just barely audible there was the voice of another, younger mare, the heavy accent of both of them conveying a clearly bad message.

"It is not possible!, how comes only one ship made it back?!" She could hear it, an angry voice asking questions "The lone scared mare on the ship kept saying that there were pirates out there, she warned us that they know about our town!"

"Absolutely idiotic!, Pirates in Equestria, Really!?" The elder voice answered up in rage as the second, younger one gave the answer to the first question "Y...yes, she's covered in wounds mayor!, sabre's wounds!"

"I swear to Celestia this is some sort of stupid joke!, It must be some sort of sabotage from the opposition, they want to make me look bad in front of the princess!" The elder answered up as Twilight was nearing the end of the stairs, towards a wood door "Gather as many guardsmares as you can and fortify the port!, if the opossition wants to make me look bad with a clearly fake pirate attack, let us show the citizens that we care for their safety!"

"But mayor, the lone sailor said that the pirates had cannons!, We don't have anything on that level to fight back!" The younger one answered up as Twilight hoof was about to grasp the doorknob "And?!, We are mares!, even if the enemy is a dragon with heavy armor and cannons on its back we are going to bring it down! besides, some fake pirates cannot have cannons, since they don't exist in first place!

"But Mayor, the sailor drank a truth potion, she isn't lying!"

Author's Note

Soooo, I really hope this chapter is of your liking!

I'm pretty sure that this isn't something you expected, so I hope it doesn't comes as sudden, because, well, the thing on the crystal empire can wait a bit more, because, let's be honest, if suddenly a place is transported into another world, the first contact would most likely don't be a pretty one, the outlaws are far more spread that the actual desirable contacts.

That aside, have a nice week, and don't forget to drink water, criticism is more than welcome!"

Chapter 8: At the town hall

Author's Note

I'm really sorry for the shorter chapter guys!

I'm planning of making the next one longer to make it up for this, however this week wasn't exactly nice to me...

Sorry in advance if something came out of character from Twilight, any criticism is welcome!

Chapter 8: At the town hall

Twilight Sparkle stood, apparently alone save for the constant shouts of either anger or frustation and disbelief, she stood silent, with her hoof grasping the doorknob in a soft but firm manner.

Her brain was overworking, a thousand different ideas appearing and dissapearing in such a quick manner that her mind was clouded with a mix of disbelief and fear alike, oddly similar to the sensation of waiting after the test to know the results and avoid getting send to magical kindergarten... well, not exactly like that, some odd conspiration wasn't as dangerous as failing a test after all.

Soon, she made her move, opening the door in a soft, gentle manner, standing as tall as she could, puffing her chest just a bit as her wings folded to take a more "proper" appearance, she let out an small sigh closing her eyes for a bit, calming herself and organizing her ideas, slowly but surely making her way inside the room.

"Greetings, Princess Sparkle" Soon enough she was welcomed by a green coated mare who bowed down to her, she stood on her left side, Twilight felt a bit flattered, but soon enought gave a little smile to the mare "Hi there, there's no need to bow down"

"Princess" The elderly voice came too, and Twilight looked to the front, there was a huge desk made of wood, and some bookcases, a tingle of excitement made its way to Twilight's spine upon seeing a certain book she didn't had the chance to read before being given her mission, however, that excitement had to be set apart, as the elderly looking brown mare stood from her seat and walked towards her after going around her desk "Welcome to New Horseleans princess Twilight Sparkle, may I help you with something beforehoof?"

"Well, I would like a cup of water, thanks for the offer" Twilight smiled as she shook the Mare's hoof, her eyes were betraying her apparent calmness, so did the weak hoofshake, the mare leg was quite muscular and yet, there wasn't any single trace of that strenght, it was by far the shakiest hoofshake Twilight ever had, it also lasted for way too long "Hmm, Mayor?"

"Y...YES?!" The elder was quick to answer breaking the shake after a whole minute, smiling a bit too wide in an awkward way, her eyes extremely focused on Twilight ones, as if she was trying to see how would she react "Are you allright?"

Her inner desire of knowledge was itching to hear what happened, from the small bits she could listen before entering the room, there do was a pirate problem or something that resembled it, however she couldn't make any conclusion with the extremely small information she could hear.

"Well, of course i'm fine!, Why shouldn't I be allright? I mean, not everyday my humble town gets a visit from Twilight Sparkle, the very own Protégé of Princess Celestia!" The mayor said and Twilight rolled her eyes before giving a little fake cough "There's no need to lie mayor, I'm not here to judge or something, if you or anypony needs help, you can trust me with that!"

Twilight beamed a friendly aura, raising her hoof to put emphasis in that last sentence, smiling towards the mayor and giving a little nod, this was exactly the kind of situations she loved to be in after all, there's barely anything better than helping somepony when it is in need, she was bearer of the element of magic after all, an example of Equestrian harmony, a messenger of hope and good deeds, a beacon of light and friendship, a Paragon of virtue, a...

"Theresnothingweneedhelpwithontheotherhoofhowcanwehelpyouinstead?!" Her answer was quick and extremely suspicious, even a filly could easily see that this old mare really was desperate and scared about something, so Twilight had no other option but to drop the metaphorical strike "I heard you two speak about the pirates, and... well.. even if I didn't you are being quite suspicious..."

"Oh..." She stood, silent, no answer coming from her lips after that little sound, then she quickly looked back and forth, towards her desk, and towards Twilight, before letting out an small sigh, meekly looking at her eyes with a mix of emotions "Well... Princess..."

"Please, just call me Twilight, tell me, what is happening?" She asked looking at the elder, she seemed at a loss of words but soon enough sighed and walking towards the princess "We... are having some troubles, the upcoming elections are nearing at an extremely fast pace, and after my policies failed to raise a proper guardsmare force that could protect the town from Tirek... well... the oposition gained strenght, to that, there is also the fact that the ships aren't coming back... and the only that did come... well it wasn't... exactly what we expected..."

"Oh..." Twilight watched the mayor turn and walk toward her seat, not even bothering to sit down calmly, just throwing herself into the chair and letting out a dissatisfied grunt " And, that's pretty much the summary, after some nice years of being the mayor, solving most issues, and actually giving everpony a proper healthcare service... Tirek came, destroyed most of my work, and now most of the ships are simply refusing to come back and the only one who arrives has a lone dunkard telling everypony about pirates that are coming here or something, it is outright stupid to even believe that, I mean, pirates?, really?"

"Hmmm, well, I heard you saying something about fortifying the port?" Twilight questioned and the mayor nodded "Good, then we should be able to place guards at the port, so we could theoretically protect the town from any kind of danger, we could use the marked as a supply hub to get as much resources to make the port an stronghold, I may not be a militar mare, but I've spent enought time with my B.B.B.F.F to understand some of the basics of protecting an town."

"The issue Princess, is that apparently the pirates have better 'toys'... hmmm, now that I think about it, bring the sailor here, please"

The mayor said towards her aide who quickly nodded, silently, before quickly turning tail and leaving the room, leaving both mares alone.

"Now..." Twilight looked at the Mayor straight in the eyes with an smile, a rather sharp but friendly smile.

"How's the town logistics?"

Chapter 9: Square up old hag!

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 10: Today is a good day

Author's Note

Well, I'm sorry for not posting a chapter last week, I wasn't exactly sure about how to continue it because I wanted a little more build up... also, I decided to add an small rule to chapters from now onwards, every chapter must be, at the very least 3k words long to make sure to avoid the troubles of posting small 1 or 2k chapters every week, hope you like this new rule!

Chapter 10: Today is a good day

The door sprang open startling everypony in the room, as Twilight Sparkle made her way downstairs, with a certainly annoyed look, her mane a bit careless looking however, it was clear that the smallest spark of satisfaction and pride was hidden in the middle of her annoyed face.

Soon after she stepped off the stairs it was clear that something had happened in the upper room, small patches of ash were all over her fur and mane, and yet she looked unharmed at all, as if whatever had caused the apparition of those patches, had been harmless for her.

However, the trio of Mares that came after... they really looked as if they went to Tartarus and came back, specially the poor aide, her mane was pretty much gone and so were her eyelashes, albeit it was clear that those weren't natural at all, she still looked shocked.

"Well, I'll be chopped and used as bait, I've never seen what a princess can do when she is angry" Current said shuddering a bit, while the Mayor followed suit nodding at a quick pace "Yes... I agree, were it not for my aidé noble sacrifice my coat would be gone, I will have flowers sent to her Stallion"

"Buck off boss, as if i'm allowing you anywhere near my husband or my colt, if you really are thankful, you should give me a break or something" The aide whispered back and the major laughted "You?, on vacations?, as if that is going to ever happen, now get the Princess a coffee"

"Ahem" Twilight feigned a cough and the major shuddered a bit, for an split of a second the princess mane seemed to be a bit fiery "Ummm, now that I think about it, why don't you take the week off?, I'll get the coffee for the princess in just a second!"

"OI! I'll go with ya!" Soon the sailor and the Major dissapeared in what could also be an small cloud of dust due to their sheer speed when running towards a different room, while the aide was quick to bow down to Twilight "Thank you so much princess, Words cannot express how much I wanted someone to teach some manners to that old hag"

"It was pleasure, as the Princess of Friendship it is my duty to help others to get along!, while this solution wasn't exactly the best it allowed you a much needed respite, buuut, later, I will be speaking to both of you in private, you really need to get along better"

"Well... while I could use getting along with the major... she is rather stubborn, it will be a hard task" The aide tilted her head and Twilight nodded "Yes, I noticed that, but don't worry, go home and rest, enjoy your Stallion's cooking and tell him how much you love him"

"Yes... heh, strange enought he always liked maneless mares, guess that for once meat is back in the menu for me" She was quick to blush upon saying that out loud, causing Twilight to blush a little too "Umm, sorry for that"

"N...no problem... just enjoy yourself" Twilight didn't knew what to answer, but soon the aide nodded and began walking towards the exit of the town hall "Thanks Princess, my baby colt will love to have his mommy around during his birthday"

Soon Twilight stood pretty much alone in the hall, her heart feeling a bit warm upon hearing that last bit, but that was quickly replaced with another feeling.

"Hmmm, I know that smell..." Twilight walked towards a nearby room opening the door and entering in a polite manner "Hey, did Pinkie pie send a Cupcake-Messenger?"

"Banana and Choco-mint this time!" Spike answered up as he stood over the couch, cleaning the leftovers of cupcake over his face with his tongue, all the while Rarity and Duly shared a little laugh watching the small dragon "How did everything go Twilight?"

"Well... it went rather well... oh, who i'm trying to trick?" Twilight facehoofed as she tried to hold back whatever she was about to say.

"It's something the matter darling?" Rarity tilted her head standing up and walking closer, clearly worried for her friend, soon Duly joined into the worried advance "Princess?"

"This town is militarized, the average guardsmare standard in the countryside is usually thirty guardsmares for each town, on bigger cities we have an 0.5% standard, while canterlot has an standard of 3% due to being the main headquarters of the Royal guard, while New Horselands has one hundred and thirteen guardsmares!

"W...woah" Duly was quick to react as he didn't even had time to breath, he instantly took a nearby quil that laid in a desk, already with ink, and took his notebook, writing at an rather fast pace "New Horselands last census said that there were around 2260 ponies living in the town, from wich 565 were adult mares... it means that around 20% of the adult mares are in the guard!"

"YES!" Twilight shouted as she began breathing rather heavely "I understand that this parts of Equestria have some dangers, like those Cragadiles the major really wanted gone... but... I'll be honest, what is the need to get around a fifth of your town's adult mares into the guard?"

"W...woah, that... that is really worriying, it is way too much for a peaceful town..." Rarity shuddered upon hearing that, while Duly left the Quill back where it belonged "Yes, Princess, are you sure this isn't a case of Rebellion in brewing?"

"I really, really don't think that's even possible, New Horselands is surrounded by swamps, trying something like that would mean that they would lose everything and gain nothing, I really hope the major wasn't lying and the cragadiles and other animals are the actual reason for having such a military force here"

"I don't get it, isn't it good that the town has many guardsmares?, More guardsmares meen that everyone is safer, right?" Spike tilted his head while Twilight bited her lip, unsure of what to answer, but Rarity was quick to do it "Umm, yes Spikey, the town is safer, but it is also way more expensive, Imagine that ponyville had more guardsmares, it would mean that they would need to get paid, and so, you would have to eat less gems because those same gems would be used to pay them"

"TWILIGHT, PLEASE NEVER ALLOW PONYVILLE TO HAVE MORE GUARDSMARES!" Spike voice was full of dread and horror, and yet, it was such an adorable reaction that everypony in the room couldn't avoid smiling towards the young dragon "Yes Spike... I promise, those tasty gems aren't going anywhere"

"Thank...thanks..." The small dragon ran towards Twilight to hug her, prompting a little 'awww' from Duly "That's adorable!"

"Hehe" Twilight nuzzled Spike a bit before lifting him to her back, where he sat looking a bit calmer "Princess, here is your coffee!"

The major appeared again, carrying a tray of refreshments, mostly cookies and some coffee cups, however there was also a lone Tangerine that Current was eyeing with overwhelming desire.

"Scurvy?" Twilight asked looking at Current and she nodded quickly "Major?"

"Yes, here is it" Everypony gasped in surprise as Current didn't even took the Tangerine, and suddenly shoved her muzzle against the tray engulfing the whole Tangerine in her mouth and quickly swalloing it withouth chewing "Umm... sorry?"

"Careful, please, the tray was about to fall" The major said in annoyed voice looking at the unicorn, who gave a nervous smile towards everypony "Well, just leave the tray on the table, we need to deal with far more important things"

"MAJOR!" Suddenly a powerful kick opened the door again, startling everypony and causing the tray to be thrown towards Rarity, hitting her and covering her fur in coffee and stuffing her mane with cookies much to her dismay and Duly's despair "AH, You daughter of a... WHAT THE BUCK DO YOU W...ant..."

On the other side of the door, the elderly stallion stood, scared to the bone and quivering so much that his legs at times looked like jelly, next to him there was a serious looking mare, who instantly scowled upon hearing the Mayor's swear.

"Ah, Welcome Princess Twilight!" Suddenly the green mare saluted upon noticing Twilight, and after that short gesture she bowed down and spoke in an stern tone "I'm sorry for the failure to follow protocol, but black flag ships have arrived milady, around ten of them, the second New Horseleans archer platoon is preparing for a possible engage, every attempt at communication has failed and the fourth pegasi patrol was executed on sight by some sort of loud extremely fast spell, smalle transport boats are coming ashore and we need permision to engage milady!"

"Wh...WHAT?! " Twilight couldn't hide at all the horror in her face the second she heard the fate of the patrol, galloping towards the apparent guardsmare with a face full of shock, the guardsmare remained stone cold and answered back, her stern voice not changing in the slightest "We request permission to engage with the enemy trans..."

A sudden boom roared in the distance, as the town hall quaked, small bits of powder falling from the ceiling, as the crystal in the windows broke down in several pieces.

"TAKE COVER!" The Guardsmare didn't even hesitate to throw herself against Twilight, taking her to the ground just in time to avoid the impact of an strange and loud thing "Dear Celestia!"

"RUN, RUN, STALLIONS FIRST, COME ON!" The green female easily stood up, helping Twilight with her wing "Princess, we really need permission to engage right now!, We are under attack!"

"P...p...permission granted..." Twilight couldn't even comprehend what was happening, she was in such a shock that it took the joint effort of Spike slapping her cheeks and the Mayor suddenly lifting her to get her to stand up properly "Your highness, follow me, I'll lead you to somewhere safe!"

Life is good in New Horseleans, that's something a certain mare can agree to.

This day was no exception, and, it was a fairly boring one to be honest, at least, that's what Bright Spark would say, the pale coated mare was just one of the many guardsmares living in the town, and by Celestia she was happy with her life.

Bright Spark was just an everyday mare in most senses, a respectable height, some muscle, a clearly under average chest tuft, and a beautiful yellow mane, honestly wearing a golden chest plate most of the time was a blessing in disguise, while the heat and humidity made her stink, it was better to stink a bit than to show everypony the little pride that her mother gave her.

Today was a common day, just stand in the port and look good, making sure that everypony was safe and calm, once in a while walk around a bit carrying her Shield over her back and her spear on her side, her heavy armor making her look a bit taller and more muscular than she was, not that she felt bad with that little plus in presence, besides, no one knew when a 'Drile would appear.

"Hey bastard!" Somepony shouted from a nearby alley, Spark smiling as she halted and turned to see from where the voice came from "Want to earn some bits?"

"Oh come on you two, we are still on duty, let's wait until the seargent is off our backs for that!" She joked back as a trio of mares flew closer to her, landing at her side "Oh really? are you scared of the seargent?"

"Pfffft, as if I would be scared of that Dyke, what actually scares me is the lieutenant" Upon mentioning that rank, the other mares shuddered before recomposing "Well, you do have a point with that"

"Yup, Pukey taught us to not mess with that green bitch... poor pukey" Another pegasus mentioned and now it was turn of Spark to shudder "Yes... I had to clean all that vomit, but cleaning duty saved me from the 'drile attack"

"Yes, That is what I call luck, where it not for that mess you would have been propably 'drile shit by now"

"Jeez, Thank you for the mental image gals" Spark gave an small, friendly kick with her front hoof towards the cream coated mare on her side, the pegasus quickly diving to the ground avoiding the hoof wich instead landed on the face of the pegasus behind her "Coward!"

"Hey, I dodged, I was trained to do that" An small series of giggles followed suit, however, suddenly one of the the trio of pegasus stopped laughting, suddenly turning stiff and saluting, quivering just the smallest of bits " ATTENTION!"

Now it was the turn of the others to stop in their tracks, turning with haste and saluting, turning serious upon hearing the stern female voice.

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am!" The four answered in perfect unison, as another mare, this one, an unicorn stood in front of them "May I know what are you doing gentlemares?"

"Guard duty Ma'am!" Was the answer, once again, in perfet unison, the unicorn narrowing her eyes as she got closer "Really?, I Wasn't informed that the fourth pegasi patrol was on land duty... let alone that one of the heavy guards in the second land patrol was stationed with them..."

The silence that came after was a bit akward, but after a few seconds, the unicorn snorted and began walking once again her spear levitating at her side.

"Very well then, continue your duties, but, be aware that we are being visited by one of the Princesses" The unicorn began trotting and the group nodded "Yes Ma'am!"

"Corporal out"

Spark felt a bit relieved the second the Corporal left, however, duty was beckoning, saluting her friends one last time for now, she soon resumed her patrol, meanwhile the pegasi flew off, save for this little encounter, the day ahead looked as average and boring as it could be, after all, it wasn't as if the princess would call her or something.

"I hope the ships come back soon..." A lone thought escaped her lips, just as she was walking all alone on the port, usually this place would be brimming with ponies, but without any ships in sight, it just felt... wrong, void. "Ummm, excuse me..."

Another voice, this time, a masculine one, and fairly quiet too, Spark was quick to stop in her tracks and look towards the source.

"Yes?, How can I help you mister?" She answered, looking at the male shape that was slowly and shyly making way towards her, it was an stallion, a fairly short and young one "Yes, Excuse me ma'am, but... do you know when the ships are coming back to shore?

Spark tilted her head, not sure about how to answer that question, a part of her wishing to give an exact answer, while the other knew that there wasn't one for this question in particular, however, she quickly decided to give a concise and precise answer.

"I can't answer that question sir, I don't know when the crews are coming back" Spark felt a little bad answering that way, but there wasn't anything else she could do, giving another answer, would be lying after all "Oh... well... umm..."

"Is something the matter sir?" She questioned, and the Stallion gulped "Well... h...how to say it..."

"Just tell me sir, if I can help you I will, If I cannot, I will do my best to contact you with someone who can" Spark gave a little bow to the Stallion to show both, respect and willingness to aid, making him feel a bit better apparently "Can I walk with you miss?"

"Of course sir" Sparky felt herself worry the second the Stallion got closer to her, he was a bit too thin, and looked really thirsty if those dry lips meant what she believed they meant "Do you want some water sir?, The Princess' sun is quite strong today"

"YES... I... I mean yes" There was another worrying sign, the young male didn't even hesitate to drink the whole Canteen the second she offered it, taking all of its content with an almost unnatural greed. "Wait... I know you young colt..."

"..." The smaller pony didn't even bother to answer as he was drinking the water, but his ears gave a clear signal that he heard her "Aren't you... the son of the owner of the Rubber bussinness downtown?"

"Y...yes..." The colt answered up looking at her with shame, as her face was quick to turn worried "Now I understand everything... come on little one, we need to get you something to eat, you must be starving"

Spark was about to say something else, before the loud sound of hooves got her attention, soon meeting up with another guardsmare, this one looking a bit worried.

"Is something the matter?" She asked as both saluted each other, the answer coming rather quickly "Not exactly, the Seargent has called for every mare in readiness to march to the port tower, something is coming from the sea and she saw something worriying"

"Understood, please, escort this colt to one of the public soup kitchens, his mother is one of the presumed lost"

"Understood, I'll take care of him"

With an small nod Spark turned to see the young male, he gazed at her eyes, before giving her a little peck on the nose, soon he was running towards the other guardsmare, but not before thanking her.

"The spirit of that little guy..." She smiled a bit before looking to the sea, noticing an small shape on the horizon, not too different from a ship. "Well, let's hope that somepony came back, that mad gal shouting about pirates really caused an uproar yesterday..."

With that, Spark quickly galloped, the heavy armor not hindering her movements at all, this was a good day to be an earth pony, with her strenght galloping with extra weight felt pretty much pleasurable, nothing could ruin this day, and now, she would have an extra thing to talk with the girls at the bar, specially once those ships came ashore at long last.

Spark was happy, soon her life will return to be like always.

Chapter 11: We love the smell of burning town

"Come on, come on, we have to get the tartarus out of here!" The voice of a mare resounded all around what could only be described as a pile of rubble, as the sunlight shone in the skies above, making the golden plates shine under it "Come on, come on fillies, we need to counter engage!"

Things were rather hectic all over the place, several ponies were running from one place to the other, it was something scary to the sight, as the fresh sound of explosions drowned the voices of the many ponies that were all around the town, several pegasi were flying away from the shore, a curtain of smoke covering the horizon, as the shapes of several things could be barely seen at the other side of the smoke trail.

They were many, and probably as big as an dragon, or even more, even the fiercest cragadile would have looked like an small baby lizard in comparison to the wooden beasts all over the horizon, they lacked any order, or elegance, being all over the water, either alone, or in smaller groups, at totally different distances, whatever they were, they lacked any of the beauty of the Equestrian ships, being mere husks of wood and what could have been described as iron muzzles coming out from the wooden shell thanks to the many windows on their sides.

Black flags waving in the air, slowly coming to be far more visible as the smoke slowly dissipated, revealing more and more of the ships, battleships...

While most of them were old looking, with several parts wich revealed former wounds on their helms, there was one wich stood over all of the others, one ship, wich was taller and most likely bigger than all the others, unlike the other members of the raider's navy, this one was facing forward, as if it was ready to charge any moment and split the town in two like an arrow tip, while the others were mainly facing to the sides, giving a perfect view of the iron muzzles that came out from the windows.

The iron curtain that came from the ships, fell like a deathly rain, turning the weaker buildings in the town into nothing but rubble, mostly the small guard outposts all over the port, soon, five of these were nothing but piles of stone and wood, with a few mares buried alive under them, a good portion of their equipment scaterred or outright broken, the ammount of guardsmares at the port was at the very least a good twenty five, most of them pegasi, with around fiveteen helping out their trapped allies, while a clearly worried unicorn stood in the wooden bridge in the port, looking with a frown at the incoming raiders.

The unicorn was fully armored, while her horn shone with a green light, the energy forming some sort of barrier that managed to stop a projectile wich was aimed straight at her, soon she backed up, almost falling down as the projectile hit the magical barrier, not due to the strenght of the wave after the impact, but rather because of the scare she got upong witnessing that.

Not too far, in the water, nearby one of the smaller but closer ships, there were three reddened bits of the water, like a trio of red stains, a trio of spears floating with one of them seemengly tangled with a series of hair-like colorful strings, before one of the few front facing ships moved over it, slowly making way towards the bridge in the port.

The black flags and the now smaller ammount of smoke, allowed the mare to see as some oddly pony-looking shapes began flying, however, they were certainly bigger... and with larger wings, strange long spear-like things hanging on their waists, or at least, that was what the shape suggested at the distance.

In mere seconds, the green mare dissapeared in a flash, avoiding just barely the last shot from the enemy forces, just in time to not get demolished like the wooden bridge farthest point, reappearing in the shore, not too far from a group of guardsmares.

"Guardsmares, Report!" She commanded, as the roar of the enemies seemed to die down leaving an stiff uncormfortable silence, wich coupled with the smell of fire and ashes, only caused an uneasy feeling to travel down the spines of the defensive forces as just as sudden as the firing began, it ended, giving them an small respite... apparently "Most of the shore fortifications were damaged, around ten were destroyed, thankfully only five mares got buried, this first wave of attacks seemed focused on hurting our defensive capabilites!"

"Is the ballista damaged?" Was the answer to that report, and the earth pony shook her head "So far it is ready to shoot, we just need the order to do so"

"The messenger I sent to the princess is yet to come back, we cannot currently counter engage without permission Lieutenant!" Another mare shouted, she was a silver maned pegasus, helping out another guard to leave the pile of rubble she was buried under, however, the second the green unicorn heard her, she gave an small snort and shook her head "Listen up seargent, sending my sister to speak with the Princess won't stop the attackers, get that ballista ready and start delivering tartarus to those dykes!"

"..." The pegasus backed up a little before the Unicorn reared and landed with a loud thud "DO IT NOW!"

"A...as you wish Leutenant" Soon she flew up, just in time as the unicorn looked up at the recently saved pegasi "Now, start the evacuation protocol, we already failed once against Tirek, this time we won't!"

"Roger that!" The pegasi, most of them lacking armor, soared to the skies, as fast as they could, but keeping a certain order, but, it was clear that the town wasn't exactly void... "W...what is that..."

"Everypony, listen up!" One of the pegasi said as she flew towards the townsfolk who were either leaving their houses to see what was happening, or freezed in shock in the case of those who witnessed first hand what happened "R...RUN!"

"NO, DON'T...!" The mare tried to stop them but the second the first ponies began running in the other direction... a loud and piercing bird cry was heard from the air over the water "O'i lasses, this town will be a piece o' cake, the town is drowning in gold I can smell it!"

"Yo ho horoho ho!" As if it was some sort of song, a new set of voices answered up after the first one spoke in a badly done, almost broken sounding equish, with a hint of a melodical albeit dissonant musical tone, but, it was unnerving, clearly feminine, but with a certain sharpness on it alongside a playful tone "GRIFFONS!"

The second one Stallion shouted, most of the civilians began running, ignoring the attempts of the guard to stop and lead them, it was a chaotic display that would make a certain chimera proud, Stallions screaming in fear as they ran with their colts and fillies on their backs, the mares weren't exactly any better, shouting while carrying whatever they could, most of the time nothing, but there were quite a lot carrying young, or, elders.

The youth, on the other hand, a lot of them while still somewhat scared, there was a good percentage wich, instead of running away, they took whatever they had nearby, be it sticks, stones, or even a torch or a steel bar, as for "armour" most merely took whatever was close enought to function as an shield, it was an strange display of bravery and stupidity.

The guardsmares couldn't exactly control the crowd, being clear that even if they were many, compared to those in other towns, they still were woefully underprepared to properly protect the civilians, however, soon reinforcements seemed to arrived from the other parts of the town, those wich were more inland, mostly earth ponies and unicorns, however, the first to arrive were only five earth ponies, two unicorns and one pegasus, the earth ponies being the clearly heavy hitters with their goldens armors, big round shields on their backs, and some sort of harness with held their spears allowing them to gallop easier.

That aside, all the apparent aid coming from the youth... dissapeared the second the next wave of bombardment began... one thing was just hearing the loud noises while you were inside in your house, or being far enought to not see exactly what was happening... another one, was experiencing it in person...

The curtain of steel poured into the town like some sort of deathly rain, as several projectiles came from the ships, as if this was but another wave and the first one merely was an small warning shot of sorts.

This deathly strike went aimed towards the remaining fortifications, stone and wood alike breaking easily under the bombardment, the booming noises of the explosions, alongside some sort of whistle coming from the round, big projectiles, was enought to put the brave but certainly stupid spirit of the youth into a frenzied escape, with only an scant few remaining, not due to bravery, but due to being freezed in place, a trio of them being saved by one of the earth pony guards, who tackled them down, just in time to avoid being hit by one of the projectiles, this shot destroyed a watch tower, almost burying the four ponies alive under wood, thankfully, a nearby unicorn diverted the rubble with her magic.

"Attention Griffons!" The Lieutenant roared as the guards prepared, the pegasi were mostly armed with short swords, or bows, the earth ponies on the other hand were fully armoured and had both spears and shields, the unicorns were mostly armored but lacked any heavy weapon mostly using a shorter type of bow "This is Equestrian Soil, stop and turn this instant or we shall counter engange and consider this an act of unwarranted agression!"

"Suck a clit!" Was the answer she got from the apparent griffin leader, unlike the guards the griffins mostly wore clothes, old, tattered and foul smelling clothes, but they didn't seem to have any armour. "Open fire lassess!"

The next second, an onslaught happened, as the leader gave the order, the undisciplined mass of griffin flyers lifted up those strange spear-like weapons, they looked mostly harmless, like some sort of overcomplicated staff, but, with a knife attached either under or over the tip.

They also seemed to wear one or two bags on their clothes, hanging and full.

"So be it then, Guardsmares, Op...!" The Lieutenant was about to give the order to shot the arrows, but in just an split of a second, a series of loud booming noises were heard, and in just a few instants the former leader of this guardsmare force, laid down on the floor, with several holes all around her armour "Fi...fire..."

Even still, she managed to finish the sentence, but, with such a display, no one would have been wrong to guess what would happen, the pegasi fled in mere moments dissapearing as they soared the skies... at least those pegasi who didn't had golf ball-sized holes on their bodies, the unicorns weren't as lucky because the few ones that were there, died too, having being shot on their chests.

Such a display wasn't something that the guards were ready to witness, let alone this close, the loud screams of those hit, the smell of sulphur coming from those damned staffs, the loud war cries of the griffons, and the destruction brought by the bombardment, while not devastating to the town, it outright demolished any single fortification in the port, giving such an hopeless sight that the standing earth ponies felt breathless... and freezed.

"ohoho, that colt is PACKING!" One of the griffins roared before diving towards a former vegetable stall, a poor stallion trapped under the rubble barely visible until now "No, NO!"

The male tried to escape the pile of wood, but just as he managed to squirm enought to free his legs, the griffin lunged at him piercing his back with her claws, just enought to lift him mercilessly and start to fly back to the ships, the earth pony squirming and screaming, kicking as hard as he could, but being useless due to the way he was being dragged.

"L...LEAVE HIM ALONE!" luckly, one pegasus guard still stood in place, and in a quick motion she flew upwards tackling the griffin who lost her grasp on the stallion making the trio fall into the water, both females losing their breath as their bellies hit the surface, the stallion falling like a piece of steel with a loud thud after hitting the cold water with his wounded back "Guardsmares, attack!"

The sight managed to spark a response from one of the smallest earth ponies, who instantly called upon her comrades, while badly outnumbered and apparently outmatched, they still could try to engage the landing griffins who were heading straight for the houses and stores nearby.

In fact, being in close combat seemed to be a good answer to deal with these invaders, as one of the mares managed to tackle down one griffon, the raider tried to use the sharp dagger on the tip of her weapon, but it was deflected by her armour, giving her the perfect chance to crush the enemy beak with her hoof in a powerful stomp.

It was a brutal display, a normally calm and honest pony just stomping as hard as she could over one of the raiders, while such raider answered up clawing and kicking to her belly, trying to get rid of the protective armor, blood was spilled by both, as the pony crushed her beak until it simply broke into two, one half piercing her hoof, the other drawing blood as it was almost pulled off the griffin face, meanwhile the pony's belly was clawed at in every single weak spot not fully covered by her armor.

Sadly that apparent proof that the enemy could be defeated, instantly fell down, as one laughting griffin simply took an strange, long but slim metal bar and used it to put something inside a hole on her staff, before pointing towards the pony side, letting out another one of those deathly spells piercing the pony from one side to the other, killing her instantly.

"Oi, looks like someone is now beakless!" She mocked her hurt companion before the other griffins laughted too, ignoring the pain of their ally, who after standing up, mauled the pony face "Ooooh, shiny!"

Most griffons were at awe towards the ponies armor, taking them from the death withouth any sign of respect, a trio of them even took the challenge of taking it from the biggest pony alive, tackling her to the ground before lifting her up, two griffins tearing the armor belts and taking the plates and helmet off, after that, the poor pony was lifted far away into the skies before being left to fall towards her death.

"Yo ho horoho ho!" Roared the apparent griffon leader as she stuffed a big sack with the golden armors and whatever riches she could get from the stalls and houses, not even requiring to use her strange spells to open the doors, just breaking them with a single tackle or kick "Yo ho horoho ho!"

They were apparently singing, it was a fairly happy melody, wich greatly contrasted to the sounds of shots, and battle, the guardsmares being hunted down for their armours, and whatever civilian pony that couldn't run in time before the engage, was being captured and brought to the port, where a new group of griffins chained them together.

It was clear that these raiders were chaotic, lacked any type of order or honor... and yet, not a single guardsmare managed to properly fight back, while some managed to bring down a griffin or two, they never delivered the killing blow, they simply couldn't bring themselves to do so, unlike the trigger happy griffons, who didn't hesitate to shoot their spells towards even fillies, if that just meant getting more riches.

The youngests colts were chained, those who were old enought were captured alongside the stallions, and dragged kicking and screaming towards the hungry lust-filled griffons, however, that all changed once the leader managed to get a glimpse of something, as the civilians that ran first were heading towards the forest...

"A dragon!" She roared in happiness, as she held her claws up pointing at the running masses "A dragon lassess! The one who brings him here will get a fair share of the booty the Princess will pay for him!"

"Hooray matey!" Roared the closest griffins, taking to the skies with their leader, however, before they could shoot, one strange series of magical rays came from the ground hitting their weapons and turning them into oranges "What the devil!"

"ENOUGH!"

Chapter 12: A bargain to do

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 13: Beware the demon next door

Author's Note

This chapter may be a little strange, however, I just want to remind you that this is set in a pony equivalent of the Napoleonic Era, so, this chapter is somewhat historical in that regard, I hope you like it, feel free to tell me if I did something wrong so I can correct it, also, it may be a little strange but trust me, things will get explained eventually.

Chapter 13: Beware the demon next door

"My family fought in the Reconquista, you know?" The lone, female voice was the only friendly sound that could be heard all around the cramped cage, Twilight was tied, chained down, it was an awful position where she couldn't even move enough to deal with the constant itch on her nose, or do something about the rat smelling her hoof, the only thing she could move, was her mouth "My people spent un milenio fighting to recover what was rightfully ours... and now here I am, chained to a wall, speaking with someone I don't know, about past glories, you know, typical stuff"

"I... I'm sorry, the what?" Twilight could barely speak back, in part due to her current weakness, but mostly due to the chains holding her muzzle, just giving her barely any space to answer "La Reconquista, you know, that time the Grifoñoles beated the shit out of the Camels, three hundred years ago if I'm not mistaken, we Hipogriffs take great pride in our foremothers determination to take back a land that was ours"

"I... see" Twilight was curious, however, she really couldn't give herself the chance to speak too much, her jaw hurt, it hurt too much, the chains hurting her lower jaw as if they were cutting it, her newfound jail partner was very aware of this and taking that response as a 'continue' she decided to speak a bit more "I guess you don't really know about what I'm speaking about, am I right?"

Twilight nodded, just a bit, and the hippogriff let out a sigh as she jerked a bit, unlike Twilight who was pretty much chained to the floor while inside the cage, her newfound companion was chained to the wall, in a cross position, allowing her to at least move a bit more than Twilight, and also use her beak to get rid of lices once in a while.

"Bueno, supongo que sería un milagro que me entiendas en Grifoñol, ¿no?" Asked the mare causing Twilight to be confused, she tried to understand and yet only some words made a bit of sense to her "I... Suppose too?"

"Yup, as I suspected, I still can't speak my proper languague... shit" She groaned before a deep voice could be heard from the other side of the wall, it was slow, calm, but with a certain hint of sadness and boredom alike "Poor stallion..."

Twilight said as her eyes wandered toward the walls, her ears moving to hear better, noticing this the hippogrif swallowed saliva and shooked her head, before speaking in a hushed, somewhat scared tone, all the while looking at Twilight straight into the eyes.

"Do not fall for that demon 's trick, 'El diablo carnivoro' its a bloodthirsty monster that used to hunt down beasts twice his size with nothing but his clawless minotaur-like hands and small stone knife, that thing is the reason why me and my squad were sent to the Filliyi islands, the governor in the forever loyal island got a letter pleading for help, and that thing managed to outsmart several hunting parties, mine included, no matter how many good mares were sent after him, he was stronger, faster, and only bullets seemed to startle him, but in the time it took to aim and shoot, that thing could throw rocks with enough strenght and accuracy to kill someone"

The hippogrif tone was grim, dead serious, looking at Twilight with a clear intention of getting all of her attention, even her lower claws twitched a bit, her voice was a bit faster and clearer, but held respect and fear alike for the thing she was talking about.

"I saw it myself, me and several good mares, around forty, were sent to protect one of the venerable birds of the island, one wich the natives believed to be angels, and, as someone who had the chance to meet one, it was clearly an animal, yes, but also, it was clear it was holy, for no animal could be as beautiful and gentle as one of those... during the night, the bird went to the river to drink water, no matter how hard we tried to get it to drink from a bucket, or even golden cups, everypony went to protect it, while we left an smaller party to protect the nest, in just a few minutes the whole island suffered an earthquake, alongside it, a thick cloud formed all over the place, it was hard to see even your own claws, after an hour we found the bird again... but the eggs were nowhere to be seen...

"D...don't tell me that..."

"Yes... that thing got them during the whole event, we eventually found him, cooking the eggs, using a cursed cauldron inside the ruins he seemed to call home, the smell... by the goddess, the smell was the best one I ever smelled, the salty aroma... it was as if the very own gates of heaven were open before me, with an angel called for me to join the ranks of the saints, a beautiful long mane, colty clawless but soft looking claws, predatory but masculine eyes, and the best smelling food I ever had the chance to smell, however, it was clear that "El diablo carnivoro" seemed to think otherwise, he was cooking a wild boar, thankfully, not sapient, but still, it was eating something that resembled a sapient being, I was in front of a meat eater, not like me or any good hipogriff who only eat fish or insects, it ate red meat, just like the first sinner" The hipogriff quickly turned the conversation into a more religious light shaking a bit as she could barely keep herself composed.

"I... I... I'm sorry, did you say that it smelled salty?" Twilight answered, before quickly starting an onslaught of questions, even if her jaw hurt, she needed answers "How can something eat salty food like if it is nothing?, How can something smart feed on unborn creatures?, How can something sapient eat red meat in first place?!"

"It's a demon, a devil, made to tempt mares with those long muscular legs and deep pitched voice, the worst type of demon, an Incubbus, only steel can bring down one of those creatures down, and even then, killing them is almost impossible, unless you aim to the head or the heart with a blessed silver bullet, that creature will just keep fighting, I ran away, while my captain shot it, I heard her beg for me to help her, just as I looked back and saw how that thing managed to duck behind the cauldron, avoiding even if just barely the blessed silver bullet, as my captain tried to recharge and begged me to cover her, I saw it take his knife, and charge straight at my liege, I saw how with a single swing he broke both, his knife and the wooden shield the natives gifted to my liege, then it held her by the throath, lifting her in the air like if she was but a new born chick, I saw it stand at the very least three times the height of a full grown Hippogrif and show small but sharp teeth, I ran, I ran as fast as I could, praying for protection, begging the angels to save me from the demon that the natives had awakened"

The hippogrif began to tear up as she let out an small whine, looking down with a defeated face, her claws retracting, and her breathing becoming erratic.

"It took several attempts to try to bring it down, it was smarter than us, he used the trees like if he was an ape of sorts, but also was more than ready to fight like a minotaur cow, only the gunpowder managed to scare him, but even then, you had one shot, only one, even if there were many mares with rifles, if you failed, you would end like my captain, alive, but with broken wings, the worst part, is that thing can talk, no matter how hard my captain tried to defeat it with prayers, it just told her to shut up, it told her to pack up and leave with us, he lied, saying that he knew the bird wasn't sapient, and also telling that he mostly ate fruits and fish, blaming the villagers for his diet, since they kept harrasing him whenever he tried to forrage, pure lies, for it was crystal clear that such creature, made to kill, to hunt, was a demon, for even us carnivores, would never eat red meat, we would rather starve than become mere animals"

"B...but... there's... no way it can be a demon... magic exist, yes, but, demons don't, d...demons, at least in folkore... are a changelling invention, a way to scare ponies into submission, or, were Thestrals, bat ponies being victims of racism!" Twilight could only give her most logical answer, such a thing as a demon wasn't by any meaning logical, for there was no way that something like that could exist "There do are beings of dark, beings of night, but they cannot be demons, a demon must be something that is..."

"Inherently evil?" The hippogrif spoke back and Twilight ears folded "Trust me, the villagers are far from innocent, they do are pagans who refuse to convert to the true faith, but, ever since the days of the empire that ruled all over the world, even before those days, there have been stories about demons, my ancesters fought the demonical feathered snakes in the new world, and their bloodthirsty priests, saving the natives from their oppressors, and ever since then, when we learned that in places where the one true faith isn't present, demons will materialize, be it in marely, or coltish form"

Then, she gritted her teeth, as she spoke about those things, she seemed to despise the mere notion of these "demons", with a zealous faith, her claws retracting in a threathening manner while her teeth were bared she was angry now, no longer looking like a little scared chicken.

"That incubus in the other room only fell down when he was poisoned with a potent mix of herbs, herbs that were poured into the river and enhcanced with native magic, that's how we captured him, and the direct reason those pesky pirates could defeat us, we lost several good mares in that island, not because he killed them, but because they were so scared they fled back to the island of the prince, flying all the way rather than going in a ship, we had only one frigate, with a chained but sleeping demon... the onslaught that came when he woke up in the middle of the fight, was horrible, one Griffon tried to rape him in his sleep, and with only one kick, her legs were broken, it took twenty griffons to chain him to a rock, and bring him here"

"B...but... I... are you sure it isn't some sort of dragon?, Besides, the way it acted... it sounds as if he... supposing it is male, got attacked first, and only retaliated in reprisal, first with the villagers, then with your captain, later with the griffons, it doesn't sounds like he was the attacker in any of those" Twilight questioned, enduring just barely the pain in her mouth for speaking with the chain holding her down, however, the Griffon took a complicated look "Look equine, now I'm sure that your kind is yet to recieve the one true faith, however, i'm not the best one suited to teach, i'm a soldier after all, but what I can tell you, is that demons are tricky"

"B...but... how?, he hunted a sacred animal, but, does that justify trying to shoot him? What if somewhere a tribe worships fishes as angels? would they had any right to kill you for eating fish?" Twilight replied but the mare, depite the clear doubt in her eyes denied with a sad look "As much as that is valid, there's still the fact that something so 'bull' looking as the minotaurs would say, despite being male, is way more dangerous than several trained soldiers, the natives saw him wrestle down carnivore cats, hunt down sacred birds, eat poisoned foods as if it was nothing, and eating enough fish to leave a pond that fed several generations completely lifeless..."

"Hey, you two, you better shut up" The voice of the Griffon leader could be heard across the room, in the direction of the closed wood door "Unless ye want to eat shit!"

"Boss! The demon is hungry!" Another voice could be heard, before a loud thud was heard alongside an scream "OH GODDESS, IT GOT JESSIE, IT WANTS TO EAT HER!"

"Go, GO, YOU IDIOTS, USE THE ELECTRIC STAFF, PARALIZE THAT THING BEFORE IT CAN DO ANYTHING!"

A loud scream was heard as a zapping sound flew around the place, a loud, deep roar of pain came soon after, before a crying griffon opened the door and entered the room with the two prisoners.

"Y...you... you better tell us what does that thing eats! It almost ate me, and... and... it broke my wing, my fucking wing is broken!"

Chapter 14: Don't stand in the way of "El diablo carnívoro"

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 15: What is this thing...

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, student of the Princess Celestia, bearer of the element of magic, she was powerful indeed, but, now she felt scared, not for herself, but for those behind her.

She was running, following a Colt who seemed to know something, perhaps a way to get out of this ship, but at the same time, she was wary, cautious of any single sound or smell that revealed any kind of danger, however, it was pretty much clear that the danger seemed to be focused on something else.

The defeated bucanneers laid on the floor, bruised and unable to do anything to the group, a curtain of smoke covered several of the ship halls, as if there was a fire somewhere.

And yet, the war cries of the griffons could be heard all around, just to be silenced eventually, turning into screams of pain or plain silence, whatever that thing was, it was clearly well trained into fighting, whenever it went, several griffons were defeated, and judging by the damage the creature really knew where to strike.

The few pegasi in the group couldn't help but shudder noticing the broken wings of the pirrates, but at the same time, they didn't seem that scared.

"Princess, if we find that weird ape again, please don't hurt him, he is friendly" One stallion, pretty much the only unicorn in the group told Twilight, as he used his magic to lift a key he found in the floor, Twilight heard him and felt the need to question, but chose not to "He is as scared as we were, however, the griffons drugged him with something, I was chained with him in the same room, whatever that thing was, it allowed him to break free from his chains, but at the same time hurted him so badly I saw how he began to bleed, both from his mouth and his nose"

"It was horrible, it was like seeing some poor colt be drugged in a corner of Manehattan, but instead of dropping to the floor, he began to kick away, throwing himself against the griffons, he moved so fast and with such strenght that I'm not even sure if he is an stallion, or a Mare"

Almost as if answering that question, a loud shout was heard, masculine in nature, as chest soared in front of the group, towards a griffon who was pointing her weapon against someone in the next hall, the chest hit her straight in the beak, knocking her out, as the ape made its way towards that hall, carrying an statue of sorts as if it was a club, swinging it with violence, breaking everything on his path to make way towards that position.

"DAMN IT, GENTLEHENS, AFFIX BAYON!" The voice was cut short as the loud sounds of pummeling could be heard all around, small bits of the stone statue being thrown in all directions, as the shadows in the wall gave a perfect idea of what was happening, the griffins in their desperation affixed some sort of knives to their weapons, but it was useless, the monster merely hit them with his club, sending two of them flying while the third one had somehow a worst luck, since a second strike went straight to her belly, sending her flying upwards a few centimeters, a wet cough noise coming a bit after.

"SHIT!" The scream of surprise coming from another set of griffons who where just opening a door judging by the shadows was cut short by the creature, wich threw the statue at them before closing the door as fast as it could, lifting some debris from its onslaught to make a makeshift barrier, keeping the door shut "Ah... ah... damn it... it hurts"

The masculine voice could be heard once again, but this time, the monster wasn't shouting, neither running or fighting, it fell to the ground on all fours and began to crawl towards the wall, lifting himself a bit until he was again on two legs, but hunched, making way towards the hallway where Twilight and her group were.

Instinct and logic demanded Twilight to prepare to defend her fellow ponies, but something winthin her heart told her to not search for conflict, instead, await to see what that creature would do, so far it seemed that she was right, that creature could in fact, be a sapient being, not different from her, not different from anypony.

Slowly, she began to walk towards the intersection, as slow as she could, being wary, but not hostile, mumbling something to herself, while focusing on the shadows, the light from the torches made the shadows look big, but that was a blessing in disguise, she could see how the creature heard her hooves, and stood a bit more straight, but yet hunched, taking one of the weapons of the griffons on his claw.

Twilight felt marveled, despite only watching the shadow, she could see how smoothly that thing moved, how his body quickly recovered balance after staggering so much, in just a few seconds she saw it pass from a dangerous hunter, surpisingly fast for its size, to a sluggish tired mess once it seemed to reckon some safety just to take a preventive pose, stopping on its tracks just as she did.

"I... I... I am princess Twilight Sparkle... Princess of Equestria and Friendship... I was captured too, there's no need to be afraid" Twilight spoke, as soft as she could, almost as if soothing a foal, her legs trembling like the time she had to face with an Ursa minor, but at the same time, feeling confident, an small flashback of her fight with Tirek reasurring her that she could take down this thing if it was hostile.

The male seemed to stop for a moment, its shadow revealing that its body language wasn't that convinced, but, soon Twilight decided to do something else, something to get a message quickly and clearly.

"I will walk to the front, then, I'll bow so you can see that I pose no harm, we've got a deal?" Twilight lifted her front hoof, waiting for a response, getting her herself ready to do what she suggested, the answer she got was a mumbled mess she couldn't exactly understand, but took as some sort of yes " A...allright... here I come..."

Slowly, she landed her hoof in the intersection, while keeping her head as down as she could, closing her eyes and getting her ears down, she even made sure to have her tail and wings as down as possible, to present herself as small and less threatening as she could.

Her soft steps were suddenly stopped when something swooped her up, lifting her to the air with ease, a warm, thick liquid falling on her fur, just as the screams of the stallions hit her ears, but at the same time another voice came, a masculine one, the same voice she could now associate with the creature.

"Run!, RUN little donkeys, we've got to hide, those things brought a cannon!" The voice of the male, deep and strong, made Twilight confused, it was the voice an stallion, an scared one, and yet, it clearly came from the creature wich was holding her as if she was nothing but a ragdoll "GO, GO, GO, COME ON YOU COCKSUCKERS, I'M NOT JOKING, RUN!"

Opening her eyes, Twilight finally could see how this creature finally looked up close, on top what she saw last time she met him, she could now see that he had a long mane, black in colour, the movement and perspective making it look as if it was covering his face as he ran, it was unkept, greasy and dirty, covered in mud and blood.

But the blood wasnt from anyone else, it was his own blood, she could see it, he was full of bruises and wounds, but most of the blood came from his mouth, several broken teeth could be seen, shattered, while also his nose was broken, crooked in a clearly painful way, courtesy of some griffon since there were several claw markings all over his face.

It ran fast, but clearly cared for the ponies, leaving her into the ground after a few seconds in the run, just in time as an explosion shooked the hallway, the door and several debris being thrown away into the intersection, the light allowing several shadows to dance in the middle of the smoke.

"Let's see how that demon deals with some good'ol gunpowder, let's go Hens!" The voice of a griffon resounded as the shape of something cilindrical began to poke from the broken door, Twilight could guess it must have been big since its shadow was outright massive.

The creature kicked open a door with ease, and beckoned for everyone to enter, it was silent, clearly scared of whatever was casting that shadow, not a fear to the unknown, but a fear that only knowledge could bestow, Twilight obeyed and entered as fast as she could, lifting the door and putting it back into its frame, just in time as the being entered too.

"Quick, help me to get this secured" It told her, asking for her aid, he quickly ran towards the other corner of the room, taking a huge wooden desk, dragging it by strenght alone towards the door she held in place, several stallions joining him, some pushing the desk, some others dragging or lifting another pieces of furniture to help to get the barrier up, until it finally was in place, just in time as someone tried to kick the door open "We've got you cornered demon, surrender this instant!"

"I AM NO DEMON!" The creature shouted in rage before falling to the ground, in such a pain that even Twilight felt a bit of it, gulping loudly, Twilight decided to do something more as the griffons tried to tore the door open.

Breathing as deep as she could, Twilight began to channel magic, closing her eyes to focus a bit, this kind of spell would usually mean her no effort, but right now she was confused and certainly a bit scared, so, it forced her to make an extra effort to conceal her fears and get herself to focus as much as she could.

After a few seconds, she managed to let an small stream of energy from her horn, it flowed towards the roof in a beam, while also falling down to the floor like an small string, slowly but surely coating the wood with magic, an small purple membrane forming all around the room, until a feeling of safety began to enter the hearts of everypony in there, even Twilight herself, after a few seconds more, the aura dissapeared, but, the door no longer budged, at the same time, the sound of claws and hits was no longer heard, it was as if they were isolated from the outside.

"Huh... a magic shield... like the one the captain used during his wedding?" One colt asked Twilight, and she nodded, smiling softly "Is everyone here?"

"Yes, thankfully those pesky mares decided to make us stay on the same room with the big guy over there, once he set himself free he helped us too! however... I'm a bit scared, he looks really hurt" One pegasus said as he walked closer to the ape, lifting one his wings to try and clean his face from the blood covering it, only getting a painful grunt as a response "Eeeep!"

The poor stallion got scared, jumping behind and landing against Twilight, stomping one of her hooves and getting her to drown an scream, covering her mouth with her other hoof.

"um.... sorry Princess..." The pegasus said sheepishly before bowing several times, Twilight felt the need to tell him not to bow, but couldn't bring herself to speak, her eyes glued on the thing before her "N...no problem... hehe..."

Twilight walked closer to the big male, sitting down to look at him, he was breathing, but it did so with clear pain, its claws twitching, opening and closing, as it trying to grab something, his long legs trembling, squirming a bit, his torn clothing allowed her to watch its body work.

Despite its deplorable state, it was clearly beautiful, taller, stronger than the average pony, with an sturdy black mane, it lacked any sign of fur and clearly felt cold, if the slow, subtle but noticeable change in his skin colour meant something.

"C...cold..." he spoke, closing his eyes in pain as his mouth began to twitch too, the broken teeth touching each other in a painful manner, the clacking usually present in shaking chills gone since his teeth were now both, shorter and sharper, hurting his mouth a bit more as blood gushed out, not too much, but enough to worry her.

Worried Twilight hugged the giant, making it slowly stop shaking, soon a few colts joined in, until everyone was huddled together, the big ape slowly opening its mouth to speak, a single, simple pair of words.

T...t...thank... You....

Author's Note

I Think by now its pretty clear what kind of creature the "demon" is... but alas, if you feel that I did something wrong feel free to tell me.

Also, I'm pretty sorry for my low english level, i've taken notice of several times where I constantly repeat stuff, and I hope to correct it, but since i'm a bit low on time I haven't had the chance so far, please forgive me for this.

Chapter 16: Safe haven

Twilight Sparkle felt herself slowly getting dizzy, her magic slowly drifting away of her, pouring out of her horn like a cold stream of tiny droplets, small specks of light emerging from the main concentration of energy in the tip of her horn, it was not too different from an small washbasin slowly leaking water out, drop by drop.

Then again, her magic had become way stronger than before, ever since her ascent to Alicorn, she had become more and more blessed when it came to magic, her reserves being leagues ahead of her unicorn self, however, right now that wasn't her main concern, she could keep that barrier up for months if needed, what she was actually focused on, was another completely different deal.

The sleeping giant resting in the corner of the room, he was the same thing that easily fought off several griffins, managing to dodge "bullets" as one of the colts called them, and was plenty of capable of dealing some nasty wounds to a full grown griffon hen, and yet, something felt odd, for such a powerhouse, the creature was so... fragile.

She could feel it, this thing should have been death by magic exhaustion by now, and yet it was breathing, not a single speck, spark or drop of magical energy could be felt, it was like looking at a rock, a talking, surprinsingly fast big rock.

On top of that, it wore clothing, while clearly torn and dirty, it still wore clothing, and a rather curious type, for while she wasn't a fashionista she could quickly understand that the fabric was something else completely.

It was far, far more endurable than any other fabric she had ever seen, not only that, but once the giant had fallen asleep she could notice several holes on the clothes, these holes... had bullets on them, the clothing protected him, it wasn't that he could endure several shots, or that he could dodge them, it was that the fabric was in fact some sort of soft armor on hindsight!.

Such a thing was a concept pretty hard to grasp, specially after milennia of metal armor, the concept that something so light could endure hits from such powerful weapons was pretty scary, specially after remembering how easily the griffins disposed of the guardsmares.

She could also notice something odd about the creature, it was clutching some sort of metal chain with his right hand, that chain had a small piece, or rather a plate made of metal in an oval shape, it had some text on it, written in what looked like oddly similar to the Equestrian alphabet, and yet, she couldn't make sense of the words on it, however, she could understand what one of them meant, mostly because of the small drawing that was alongside it.

This creature had a name, those words were its name, the thing is, she couldn't exactly make sense of them, she really couldn't no matter how hard she tried, maybe this was the effect of some sort of magic?

Twilight was cut short once she felt the ship rocking again, but this time, she even felt how her shield was hit by something, on top of that the smell of smoke wich so so far had been quite subtle, was starting to become far, far more present, at quite the alarming speed, it was pretty much as if something was exploding out there, several times.

The rocking became harder and swifter throwing several stallions out of balance, making them fall face down to the wood floor, some of them groaning in pain, others focusing on not vomiting and the many young colts, with a few very coltish looking fillies were huddled together to the sleeping giant, certainly feeling safer near him.

Twilight herself felt a bit of envy of a pair of fillies, sleeping soundly on the giant's lap, she missed sleeping on her father's chest, to feel safe and beloved while being vulnerable, while she knew she could be vulnerable around her friends, she missed a bit the feeling of being a foal.

Despite what the weird ideas, Twilight knew that she had to do something fast, the griffins were trying to tear a hole in the barrier, they couldn't so far, but the sheer feeling of them trying... it was awful, it was just fast enough to force her to feel her magic reserves slowly being poured, but not slow enough to not be a bother, it was akin to having some small rock stuck on your hoof, it didn't hurt but it was horrid, a constant poke with every single motion.

"Is everypony here?" Twilight asked, and several stallions nodded, while one of them seemed a bit worried, noticing this, Twilight walked closer to him. "Is everything okay?"

"W...ell...." His voice was low, but not in the good meaning, it was the weak voice of someone who wasn't feeling allright, he was trembling, shaking, and yet tried his best to stand as firm as he could "There were... a few mares with us.... sisters... wives..."

A second colt heard this and sighed, before walking towards the older unicorn, offering an small hug to help him, he refused shaking his head, before taking an small pendant, it was hidden away underneath his chest tuft, despite being an stalllion, he was still an unicorn, and had quite the thick fur there as expected, the pendant had the photo of a Mare and a colt alongside the Stallion, they were fishing together.

"My son... was raped to death by the pirates... my wife tried to fight them, but we were dragged here... they teared her wings and threw her into the sea" The poor stallion began to slowly weep, and Twilight felt herself on the verge of collapsing upon listening to that, the mental image being far from comforting, however, as the stallion broke down, several colts came closer to help him stand up again "Thanks princess.... for coming to the rescue... thank you..."

Now Twilight felt guilty, but then again, there wasn't anything else she could have done before, she didn't exactly recall why, but she felt way more... weak... she felt weaker when she was trapped and chained down, it wasn't her magic being weak, it was her, she didn't felt capable of using magic at all while she was chained.

The mere notion that, if she had actually tried to fight back she may had saved more lives... made her sick, how could she call herself a princess if she had failed to do something like that?

Despite that, she knew what she had to do, and focusing, she let out an small cough to get the attention of everypony.

"Is somepony else trapped in another ship?" She dreaded the answer, but had to ask, but, to her surprise, she got quite the pleasant response "No, so far no, pretty much everypony is here"

She could recall some mares being captured by the pirates back at the port, but then again she was blindfolded and that odd magical feeling made her unable to properly distinguish what was happening, with the current situation allowing her to calm down just a bit, she could begin to feel magic all around her again.

It was weak, most of the magic was condensed in this room, at least the pony magic, there were some leftovers out there, but she couldn't pin point anypony else being left behind.

With a silent prayer, Twilight closed her eyes, and began to focus, just as the ship rocked harder, this time her shield being unable to endure whatever was hitting it, breaking on one side, forcing the magic to rechannel itself to seal away that hole.

And yet, that wasn't what she felt worried right now.

The magic was... strange, the usual stream of energy she was so used to felt way different right now, as if it was a whole completely matter... energy was streaming down, like a waterfall, straight at her horn, poking right into her very own mind, pouring a constant stream of information she could barely understand right now.

This wasn't what she had in mind when she wanted to use this spell, it really wasn't, and yet, she felt compelled to watch them unfold, slowly but surely the magic took several shapes and forms, allowing her to sense everypony nearby, and not only that, but allowed her to see the outside of the ship, in quite an abstract manner, but just enough to get her to understand what was happening outside.

There were more ships, not only those of pirates, but these ones were bigger, far more organized and better armed, making quick task of sinking the black flags.

However, the presence was different, they weren't griffons, they were hippogriffs, just as the overzealous mare she met just an hour or two ago, and their auras were hostile, full of killing intent, fueled by a mix of faith and fury, shooting several cannons like the one Pinkie pie had back at home, however, with each shot, instead of a harmless confetti stream, there were huge round projectiles.

A courtain of steel and smoke was raining down against the pirates, wich were trying to escape, that was why they were so desperate when it came to breaking her shield, they didn't want their "booty" to fall in these newcomer hooves... or well, claws.

The feeling was overwhelming, with each shot, Twilight felt the entire weight and power, and she could sense how the magic simply snuffed out of the griffins that had the bad luck of being hit.

This wasn't a battle, this was a massacre, several griffins tried to take the battle to the skies, but the hippogriffs were faster, quickly taking to the sky with their wings, taking their weapons, charging and shooting, all in perfectly coordinated squads, the way they were together made a perfect mathematical sense, their rectangular formation allowed the first line to shoot, and then recharge while the second one poured another wall of death.

Twilight puked, the feeling was horrid, so far she had faced many horrible things... but now, she was witnessing something far... far worse... she was witnessing death, not like her brother had told her, this wasn't an honorable fight bewteen warriors, this wasn't a necessary evil for the greater good, this wasn't an old tale passed from generation to generation.

Shining always told her myths and tales about the days were warfare was still fresh in equestria, being a guard granted him the right to read some registers of those days, and he was clearly enamoured with the concepts of gallant soldiers fighting with honour till the last mare, not because they hated what they had in front, but because they loved what they had behind them...

This wasn't that, this was just a single set of motions, like an algorithm, like a machine, three simple steps, at quite the long distance, take your staff... charge it... and shoot... then repeat.

The battle she saw back at the port was horrible, those poor guardsmares never stood a chance, but this?, this managed to get her to have even some pity at these horrible griffins, they were being killed off like if they weren't even people, this wasn't something their murderers would take pride, or effort, or even remember, this was routine, like the cold gears of a clock... those beautifully made and coordinated gears...

With a loud cry, Twilight focused again, tears streaming down her face, as the shield expanded, breaking away the hull of the ship, throwing wood away, and leaving the group to stand inside what may as well be called a bubble in the middle of a battlefield.

Everypony's eyes were on her, and she knew it, but, she wouldn't fail again, she has only this one chance and she will take it, the magic inside of her demands action, logic demands her to take things into her hooves and solve this problem once and for all.

With a powerful cry, Twilight pictured the safest place she could think right now... Canterlot herself, the capital of Equestria, and just as the cannons roared, pouring a rain of steel and death against her and her ponies, the entire bubble holding them together dissapeared in a flash, just like the ship mere instants ago.

She did it... everypony was safe... and yet, she couldn't keep going any longer, the fresh imagery of death in the form of such organized manner... the mere idea that people would learn how to make such horrifying warfare... it made her weep, and fall down to her knees, in a rather pathethic display, her eyes closing, not because of tiredness, or magical depletion... but because of shock.

Her brain demanded rest, her soul demanded comfort, but logic demanded action, she couldn't just allow herself to fall like this... these newcomers... they would go after her... she knew it, their faith ignited the second they began to shoot at her, and their rage exploded in the mere split of a second she left them behind.

Crying, Twilight drifted to sleep, unaware that in her spell, she had fell right in the giant's chest, ironically sleeping like filly over her father... just hoping that maybe, this was just a nightmare... a single too dark and horrible nightmare... despite how real it felt.

But the magic was calling... whispering at her ears, telling her something she couldn't understand now...

But she hoped she could eventually do...

Author's Note

A bit silly I'm aware, but I hope this was good enough!, as I said before, Equestria may not be exactly that far behind the newcomers... when it comes to tech...

When it comes to ideals and mentality? well.... that's another whole tale...

Chapter 17: Earning trust

The soft noises all around the room were the only thing keeping the silence at bay, allowing Twilight sparkle to pace back and forth from one corner of the room to the other, in a series of fast, but constant steps, her hooves making soft noises due to the way she walked, pretty much doing the hoofed equivalent of tiptoing, her breathing becoming slowly but surely mroe and more irregular, not in a harmful way, but an stressed one.

The princess didn't even seem to mind the worried glances from the other ponies, mostly the nurses all around the place, they were busy carrying medical materials from one place to the other, doctors all around the white halls, pretty much running despite the dangerous tools they were carrying.

Twilight was in the hallway, in front of a closed door, there was a constant noise of hooves inside, but also, the feeling in the air was quite dense and heavy, overwhelming the poor Princess, who seemed to grow more and more desperate with each second, not too far behind her, there was an older looking stallion, with somewhat grayish azure coat, and dark blue mane, he was sitting in a chair not too far, looking with concern at the alicorn.

"Twilight... please, sit down for a while, walking all over the hall won't make this faster" He spoke, in a soft voice, as he stood up walking to the side of the alicorn and gently placing a hoof on her shoulder, Twilight looked at him and opened her mouth to speak but chose to remain silent at the end, looking down as the stallion gently nuzzled her "Please dear, come, lets sit down for a bit, you haven't even touched the hayburger I made for you"

"Dad... its just that... Well... That poor stallion saved so many lives... and yet he seems to be struggling to keep his own... It isn't fair... All the things he had been trought... The worse is, that at some point... I was pretty much willing to aid his captors..."

"You didn't do anything wrong Twilight... You were scared, trying to protect others, you didn't knew he was some poor stallion forced to fight for his life, you only knew he was dangerous... once you got to know the truth, you did what was right, you protected everypony that needed protection, you are a heroine Twilight, even if you don't feel like one"

"But dad, that poor colt almost died, what if the doctors can't save him?, would it be fair to be calm and collected when somepony is on the verge of dying after fighting for so long?"

"It wouldn't be fair, you are plenty of right Twilight, however, you need to understand something dear, you did your best, you did what it was needed to do, protected the innocent colts, saved everypony, even this... creature, everypony has another chance because of you, however..."

The stallion suddenly lifted his hoof and slapped Twilight in the face, making everypony nearby shudder after they saw that.

"DONT YOU EVER DARE TO DO SOMETHING THAT STUPID AGAIN YOUNG LADY!" The stallion shouted as he began to softly cry "You could have died!, That's what you should be wary of!, What kind of logic you used? Offering yourself in bargain to pirates, you could have been murdered in cold blood, or worse!"

Twilight backed down a bit as her father stopped to breath for a while, before lunging at her and hugging her, so strongly that Twilight felt herself choking a bit.

"Please... don't you ever dare to do something that stupid again... I'm already worried that Shining is a royal guard, don't you dare worry me too!, One thing is fighting against some magical villain you can outmatch, one thing is fighting against an enemy that wouldn't kill you..."

The stallion sobbed a bit as he embranced Twillight even more tightly, nuzzling her as much as he could, while petting her mane with his hoof.

"Another... is fighting bloodthirsty enemies... We both have read plenty of books about the horrors of pre-Pax Celestia Equestria... we both know the kind of horrible things somepony would do just for fun... if what you faced is true, then you better be careful from now onward, buck it, you are a princess! You should have at least two or three guardsmares with you from now onwards!"

Twilight felt horrible, now that she was safe, several ideas and plans began to pour inside her mind, like a flood of countermeasures, the way she acted was far...TOO FAR, from the most optimal way to have dealt with the situation, however, despite her sudden influx of ideas, something else sprout from her mind.

Her bad choices led her to save plenty of lifes, and thanks to this she could save the creature, her heart felt heavy, but the weight of guilt was drifting off, allowing her to breathe, she thanked her mother in silence for teaching her an small trick to calm down.

Picturing an small feather in front of her, Twilight breathed slowly, in a soft but steady rythm, trying to make the feather keep as stable as possible, inhaling and exhaling to control the feather, after a few seconds, she was feeling a bit calmer, allowing her to look to her father who was gently hugging her by now.

"Dad... I'm sorry" The princess said while hugging back her parent, who gently held her before kissing her cheek "Just be careful dear, I know that you are a grown mare, a princess on top of that... but... please, excuse your old man for getting emotional, in my eyes you are still that tiny filly you were mere weeks after you were born... no matter how hard I try, I still have it pretty hard to picture you as a grown mare"

"Come on dad, I will always be your little filly" Twilight smiled nuzzling him a bit more before they broke the embrance, the Princess looking towards the door with a worried face "However, i'm starting to feel that Equestria won't be the same, I overheard some things while I was captured, and, well, I don't think I should say them out loud..."

"You better don't, at least for now, however, I expect you to take some lessons with your Mother, you will learn how to shoot a crossbow and fight with spears... after we spend some time together. When Rarity sent the letter, everypony was scared, praying that you were safe... And, I think we should do something as a family before returning to work, you need to rest a bit after all"

"Yes, I know dad, I already had an itinerary for a vacation in Puerto caballo, I made it for Rarity's parents but they decided to go to New mareland at the end." Twilight said and her Father nodded with a soft smile, softly stroking her mane, as the mare sat down next to him, softly breathing in and out. "Dad... what rank was mom before her Honorable Discharge?"

"First Lieutenant, she led an artillery platoon in Trottingham, she was so... marely in that beautiful Chainmail vest... I remember that she was called to duty against a Thestral coup in Manehattan, a group of twenty thestrals wanted to proclaim 'The lunar republic' as they called it and decided to seize manehattan, they spent a hundred years gaining enough support to attempt the coup, just for your mom and her friends to come into play and teach those rascals a lesson!, i was there as a part of a Nurse volunteer group, mostly to help the Thestrals understand that we meant them no harm, since back at the time there was quite the big language barrier, your mom saved me from one of those rascals and carried me under the Dusk back to safety, it was so beautiful, she was my knight in Shining armor carrying me to safety under the Sparkles of Twilight..."

"Thanks dad, I always loved that story" The princess nuzzled her father, as he let himself fall back into the memories of his story, focusing so much into those old, but strong memories that he softly began to cry a tiny bit, a collective 'awww' could be heard from certain stallions not too far, while some mares lifted their hooves in respect, saying something about Twilight's mom being a true 'Trixie'. "After that battle she got hurt quite badly in the hip, she got shot by a crossbow dart, she wanted to keep serving but I couldn't allow her to do that, back then I wasn't even a friend of her, I was just that weird colt who loved itineraries a bit too much..."

"But, I still don't understand something, how did you get mom to accept the honorable discharge?"

"He kept pestering me until I got angry enough to shout at him, then he silenced me with a kiss" A female voice could be heard as mare stepped in, with firm steps with her front hooves, while her back legs had an small, barely visible limp, mostly visible around her right leg, near her hip. "Then he threw me into my bed and forced me to stay there as he prepared the most delicious rice I ever had in my whole life, turns out that even the most stubborn mare can be convinced with some homemade stallion cooking"

"Oh, come on, you know my cooking isn't that good, you would praise anyone who boiled something barely organic in water..." He chuckled while a Gray coated mare came closer to him and gave him a little peck in the cheek "Those divine Neighponese styled rice rolls don't say the same dear"

"Hehe" Both, husband and wife shared a laugh while Twilight couldn't avoid chuckling herself, as she looked towards the door, feeling a bit better, not exactly good, but at least better enough to think more clearly. "Mom... I... have a question..."

"Go ahead Twilight, Go ahead, I will do my best to answer" The Older mare said as he took seat to the other side of Twilight, letting her stay bewteen she and her husband. "how... how does... it...it...it feels to kill..."

"That.... that's something I can't answer." Her mother seemed surprised, shocked even, but tried her best to keep her voice low enough to not be heard by anyone nearby, and loud enough for her family to listen. "It ain't a good feeling at all, it is a cold, eerie feeling of dread and voidness, hollowness if you must, it feels like it should be a crowning moment of awesomeness, the big heroine bringing down the bad gal and saving the cute colt in distress... but it ain't like that at all... it feels cold, weird, the second you do it, you feel your whole body go numb, your mind going blank, your very own soul shocking itself... only to have that feeling dissapear the next second, leaving you with nothing but the guilt of what you did...

The older mare tried to explain as her face slowly turned more and more into an akward poker face, but her lips defied her neutral looks, trembling ever so slightly to prove that she wasn't that ready to talk about it, her words coming out as soft spoken and yet, clearly with a hint of agression, as her closed eyes didn't do much to hide her conflicted ideas and mind, on top of that, there was the fact that her small limp became a bit more noticeable, mostly because of an small twitct in her leg.

Those quickly dissapeared once she took a deep breath, and with an small smile gave her daughter a sudden hoof to the face, making the Mare stumble on her chair and almost falling down, were it not for her father.

"That's for doing something as stupid as to give yourself to pirates! YOU COULD HAVE DIED, LIFE IS NOT ONE OF YOUR NEIGHPONESE COMICS, LIFE ISN'T ONE OF THOSE!

"While I agree on the scolding part... I take you didn't read the second letter, didn't you?" Asked her husband as Twilight softly massaged her cheek, attempting to ease the pain of the hit, cursing herself for what she did back at New Horseleans, but then again, thanking her luck for actually managing to survive that. "Well... when I read what Twilight did... I'll be honest I couldn't exactly focus on the rest, I felt... well, you know, exactly like you did.

"Well, you see..."

"Don't tell me, there's some stallion that the pirates have captured, minus the alien part, and that colt was in the same ship Twilight and the captured stallions were" She asked and her husband nodded "Plus, the alien part darling, the colt resembles a mythological being"

"Dad, I think that yetis do exist, They aren't some myth, at least from what little I could read about them in the crystal empire" Twilight said and her father nodded "Yes, but i'm talking about their fabled cousins, the Sasquatch, unlike the Yetis wich have plenty of history with the southern tribes around the Shores of Feuerland, back at the griffon continent".

"We still can't pronnunciate the name of that continent, don't judge us Twilight" Her mother joked while her Father giggled gently, Twilight smiled and opened her mouth to speak, pronnunciating the name of that place, however no one could hear her, because the doors were suddenly kicked open allowing a Mare to run towards the family, however, she slipped and fell face down to the floor, with a loud thud and a horrible noise as her teeth dragged on the floor, in a clearly painful manner. "Ugh... Princess... the thing... is... gone..."

She coughed before fainting after the hit, and Twilight didn't even heed the sudden call of her parents to stop, she threw herself with a jump at the door, landing just a tiny distance away from it, then she held the knob and opened it, before running as fast as she could again.

What she found out was quite... unexpected...

She could see an open door, where a rather big bed, clearly not meant for ponies but for bigger beings, she didn't even think twice about entering the room flapping he wings softly, in an attempt to present herself as least threathening as possible if by somehow the creature was still there, hoping to not scare him away.

"I... i know you may be scared, but, we mean you no harm, please, come out"

She drew herself closer to the floor wanting to land, but then she could see an small glimmer of light, looking down she noticed a few broken srynges, tiny puddles of red around the broken glass, however the small shimmer didn't came from the light... no...

It came from an small gray dot, hidden in the puddle of red, that gray dot suddenly moved, at an outrageous speed, Twilight could barely follow it with her eyes. It went out of the room and she followed suit, still flying, because only like that she could actually follow it.

Her parents called for her, but she couldn't avoid her need to know what that dot was, or why it was moving so fast on the floor, moving trought the halls so fast it forced Twilight to teleport a few times to avoid hitting some scared nurses and medics, most of them were already surprised before she even arrived, however they upon noticing her tried to tell her something.

But alas, her eyes, her everything was glued on following that small dot, not unlike opalescence whenever she was in the mood of playing, her focus forcing her to focus so much on that thing that her own mind was clouding a bit, and she couldn't help but wonder why.

Once again, logic was taking its sweet, sweet time to actually hit her, once again she was cursing herself for this strange attitude she had, acting before thinking, unlike what she usually was.

The dot finally slipped under a door, and she landed, noticing that the door had an small text on it, the warning "Staff only" being in thick red letters, that seemed to actually trigger her logical thinking once again.

She stood in silence, wondering, pondering what she should do next, trying to understand just how much she had done right now, and in what kind of problem she would be if she did so much as graze something delicate or with a biological risk, specially since she was deep inside the most restricted part of the hospital.

"C...come in..." That deep voice... masculine, clear, but weak and distant, it came from inside the room, just as she was deep inside her mind, the soft noises of chalk coming from inside too, barely audible, but present. "A...are you there?"

Who was there?, why did she even believe that whoever was inside would know her?, as far she concerned she could just be ruining the work of some doctor, but the answer, came pretty late after the noises of chalk were slowly dying.

"Y...yes... it is me... h... h..." He answered back before coughing again, with a somewhat wet noise too, as if droplets of something had just hit the floor. "J...just come inside... alicorn... this is... what... I wanted to tell you, but... I don't know if i will be able to say later..."

The voice made sense, it was the ape!, and by Celestia, he really, really sounded hurt... Twilight could notice that her parents alongside some of the hospital staff and a few guards were drawing near... on top of that, she swore she could see even just a glimmer of the mane of Celestia.

However, despite being aware that she deserved an scold for this, she also needed to make sure that whatever the creature wanted to say, could be heard by everypony, and maybe, only maybe that would ease her punishment a bit and make Celestia not send her back to magical kindergarden.

Softly pushing the door, she made way as everyone tried to call her...

What she saw was at the same time the most beautiful and worrisome sight ever... now she understood why the chalk noises... and... why the wet noises too...

Author's Note

Nothing to add, just sorry for the delay.

Hope you like it fellas!

Chapter 18: Cryptical Knowledge

Author's Note

Here's another chapter! Hope you like it fellas!

Chapter 18: Cryptical Knowledge

"What is this..."

Twilight spoke as she drew nearer and nearer, just in time for everypony to get just close enough to witness the same things she was witnessing... and it was by far something she never expected to see today...

The trembling creature, stood in front of the chalkboard, using one of his claws to hold the chalk, softly drawing in the board.

The creature was shaking, covered in a mix of sweat with a really powerful smell, while from its wounds small drops of blood slowly oozed out mixing with the sweat and dripping down to the floor, the giant creature stood tall, but clearly tired, barely holding its own as of now, and yet, every movement it made... was clearly far more elegant than one would expect for such an strange ape-like entity.

However, that wasn't the main focus... but rather, what he had just finished drawing, it was something wich made Twilight sit down to actually try to understand just what that was.

It was a map, drawn on the board with a surprising ammount of detail for the short time it had took the creature to make it, it had some odd symbols in what Twilight could only guess was the languague of the creature.

The map in question showed a series of four islands, each of them being quite small and barely remarkable, save for the strange beak-like symbols that could be seen in each of them, those four islands had weird irregular shapes and somewhere around their middle points there was a dot in each.

Small barely remarkable boat drawings could be seen, following a series of dotted lines towards a bigger set of islands, these ones being just a pair, but far bigger and longer, with more elongated shapes, those two islands seemed to be not too far from the first set, however unlike the beak-like symbol the smaller ones had, these ones had a pair of hooves and then a pair of claws, having far more ships drawn around them.

There was also an skull drawing around those two islands wich were surrounded by a circle, while the skull didn't resembled one from any Equestrian species the message was quite clear...

The male made a last attempt to finish the last part of the map, easily half a board away he finished drawing a dotted line wich connected with a lone island, and then... he barely managed to drew another line and the coast of something, just before falling down and starting to cough.

The medics and nurses were fast to take him again, despite his efforts to stand up and try to finish the map, however, during the small struggle to drag him away, he suddenly lifted his hand and pointed towards Twilight.

"H....l...leans..." He could barely mutter before falling victim to his horrible wounds again, being carried away as fast as the personnel could, leaving twilight to marvel at the sight in front of her. "N...no magic..."

It was clear, the creature didn't use any single trace of magic, all of this was done by hoof... or well... claw?, in such a short span of time, it was a rough but really precise drawing, and the more she tried to analyze it, the more clear it was that the creature knew about what scale it was using, each small piece of the lines was almost identical to the next one, despite the signs of stuttering and weakness, on top of that, each part of the lines wich connected the islands seemed to be following certain patterns, it wasn't just a quick straight line, it followed an order.

To even think that a creature with no magic would be able to create such a piece of cartographical art in such a short timespan was quite the beautiful revelation, any doubts in her hearth were gone, this creature truly was no different from a pony... it was a sapient being...

But... to think... even worse, to witness someone so hurt to do put so much effort in drawing something like this... it didn't make sense... while this could have been a perfect map for an epic novel, the truth is, there wasn't any place in the known world wich looked like this.... why the claws and beaks?, why the warning?

"Twilight" A soft feminine but mature voice could be heard, as the princess turned behind and saw her parents, standing side by side with no one but Princess Celestia Herself, the instinct to bow was quick to appear and yet Twilight hesitated for a while, she truly didn't knew if she was even worthy of standing before the princess knowing the kind of things she did not too long ago. "Princess Twilight Sparkle..."

"Princess Celestia" Twilight coudln't fight back the instinct and fell to her knees before the bigger alicorn, the sight being quite scary from an outside perspective, due to how massive the princess in question happened to be when compared to her student, the white fur of the bigger mare being a huge contrast to darker colours of the smare one, on top of that, her longer horn and outright gigantic wings made it clear that Celestia could stomp Twilight down with just a single movement, and her body languague betrayed any neutrality in her tone, due to how her front left hoof was lifted and her legs were ready to give their all the second the mare wanted to do something. "Come here, you two, This is about your daughter after all"

Twilight's parents felt a bit scared but quickly obeyed, walking until they were at the sides of their daughter, this exact same situation having happened quite a long time ago, back when Twilight was nothing but a filly, however, the serious look in the face of the princess made everything far, far worse, making even the battle hardened mare take a few hesitant steps before dragging her daugher a bit closer to her using her hoof, soon her husband stood on the other side, both of them sandwiching Twilight in bewteen, looking like a trio of foals in front of an clearly not amused matriach.

"I'm glad you are allright" Celestia said as she softly embranced the trio, and held them together, like if she was their mother, kneeling to make it easier, softly petting the backs of the three using her massive wings " While I do not approve of your actions... I do approve of your intentions, you took a rather dangerous move, but it saved so many lives... so many colts, so many stallions..."

Celestia softly spoke and everypony nearby couldn't help but try to give them space, the sight was akin to a mother breaking the tough looks and opening to her daughter, and while rare, most of them knew their princess wouldn't hesitate to do this for anypony who needed it, and as such, merely gave them space.

"B...but... the fillies... the captured mares"

"You can lift your worries about that I took care of it" A second voice came, this one a bit more marely than Celestia's just as she broke the embrance letting the trio look to the side, as another, smaller alicorn stepped in with a clearly mix of worried and proud look "I congrat thee Princess Twilight Sparkle, while Mi amore Cadenza may have beaten you on the race to become a Mare, you became one in a far more marely fashion!"

"T...thanks?" Twilight answered in a bit of confusion while Celestia rolled her eyes and her mother chuckled a bit, meanwhile her Father pouted a bit "Princess Luna, No offense but... do you really think that saying such a thing is appropiate?"

"I see no reason why it wouldn't, Cadenza became a Mare earlier because she married the best colt in all of equestria as of yet, meanwhile Twilight became a Mare by surviving against all odds and returning not only victorious but bringing the perfect chance for the armada to ambush the slaver ships, her sacrifice led for the fastest and most dangerous ships to leave the shores earlier, that mistake costed the slavers the protection they needed to avoid us saving the captured fillies and mares, and with Twilight coming back with the captured Stallions and colts, the invaders have nothing worth with them now, not even their lives for such scum doesn't even deserve respect"

"I... would rather not speak about their lives" Twilight shuddered a bit as she remembered something, quickly turning to see the drawing in the chalkboard, and walking closer she could see something. "Wait a minute... this... I've heard about this before"

Twilight said as she pointed at the two bigger islands in the drawing quickly galloping as her mind began to work, trying to descipher what was what she had in mind.

Her memory screamed something about these islands, and seeing the pair of hooves and claws made her pretty much scream in fear deep inside her heart, something was extremely scary or dangerous, specially once she noticed a certain something hiding just bewteen the two pieces of land.

"This... I've heard about this one" Twilight spoke as Celestia and the others drew near, the moon princess getting closer and noticing something about the smaller island of the two big ones. "This isn't an island, its an island chain..."

Luna spoke as she lighted up her horn, and using her magic she pointed at the cracks in the terrain, those at first glance seemed to be mere rivers, but on closer inspection revealed to be, in fact, not only connected to the sea, but big enough to divide the whole island in several smaller sets wich were so close that they could be called one island, but a the same time, separated enough to be technically an island chain.

"Well... geographically speaking... that could be called an island chain, but being so close to each other it wouldn't surprise me if it was considered one single island with several rivers... I mean, wasn't Prance considered part of a subcontinet pre-unification? despite being quite obviously a part of Eqqus and not a separated land mass. " Twilight's father spoke while Celestia nodded and Twilight's mother drew near and pointed at the upper island. "look, there's something written here"

"Yeah, I saw it too mom, but i'm not sure if it supposed to meant something or if it represents a part of the geography" Spoke Twilight while Luna quickly opened her eyes and took a few steps back. "Sister, do you remember the black stone?"

"The tablet of heaven?" Questioned the bigger alicorn while Luna rolled her eyes "The thing that fell from the skies right into the latrines during the first foundation at the everfree"

"Yes, I do remember how awfully it smelled, and how anypony who got near that thing grew sick and died, why is it important now? As far I do concern I think we should rather focus on this strange message the ape left for us"

"The symbols, the same symbols that were there " Luna said while quickly Celestia got closer to the drawing, shifting in place a bit to get her left eye as close as she could to read it "Y...you... you are right..."

"H...hold on... the ape wrote in some sort of ancient language?" Twilight spoke as she froze up looking at both princesses, then Luna nodded "Not exactly, the symbols are oddly reminiscent but not the same ones, they look more akin to a mix of ancient Equish and those symbols, so much that I think I could actually read them"

"Wait... it is because of the tilt, don't you remember than the tablet was in fact just as similar to ancient Equish as these symbols?, it is only to the differences in angle that it looks totally different, however if I move just a bit..."

Celestia said before she suddenly did a series of movements with both her neck and body, leading to she standing at an awkard position, most ponies would have laughted were it not for the fact this was the Princess... and the fact that now only Twilight, her family and luna were here to witness such a funny sight.

"Yes... as I suspected, just like the tablet, it is ancient Equish, not some odd language" Spoke Celestia with a triumphant smile while luna groaned and lifted an ancient looking tablet made of some sort of dried clay, and using an small beam of light from her horn she drew an small stick on the right side of the tablet, one of many, however, on the left side of that face of the tablet there was another series of sticks drawings, just a tiny bit behind in numbers about three or four, now with the newest one five "Yes... Celly 5, Lulu 0"

"You are cheating and you know it, i'm yet to adapt to this odd new world where stallions constantly show off their manes in such outrageous styles!"

"Ahem" Twilight's father fake coughed and luna bowed in apologize "Sorry, some... stallions show off in such outrageous styles" Luna apologized and he smiled back "No offense taken Princess"

"I thank thee for your kindess venerable Patriarch of the house of Sparkle" Luna spoke and he blushed a bit in pride before his wife rolled her eyes amused "Returning to the symbols"

Celestia said just a tiny bit louder to get their attention back, as she pointed with her hoof at the drawing holding back an small chuckle while Twilight just felt a bit weird after witnessing her Princesess shenaningans, not used by any meaning to see both of them acting like that instead of their usual regal manners.

"The symbols say the following" Celestia said out loud as her magic focused on the bigger island the one wich was one single landmass, highlighting it with an small golden aura. "Siempre Fiel isla Fuba" and right next to it, what I suppose is a translation of those words, wich It seems its the island name; 'Forever Loyal Island of Fuba'.

Celestia said before taking a few steps back and using her magic to highlight the island chain.

" Muy valiente y santa isla de la pimienta" Celestia said outloud before closing her eyes just a tiny bit to read better what was written next to it. " Courageous and saint island of the pepper"

Everypony had to hold an small chuckle upon to hearing that even Celestia herself, however, following the dotted lines she read out loud some other names until she saw a tiny dot, with just a tiny name over it.

" Isla de Filly" She read before drawing a bit near and quickly looking a bit confused before silently asking Luna for help with an small motion of her neck, the small alicorn followed suit and drew near too, before being equally confused. " 'Former Grifo... grifo... how does one pronnounces this..."

"Griffoñol?" Asked Twilight and Luna looked at her with surprise, so did Celestia as she looked back and forth to Twilight and the writings. "Well... it does sounds correct... it does fits with the rest of the word, save for that one syllabe wich I don't know how to pronnounce"

"How do you knew that Twillight?" Her mother asked and Twilight spoke "I... I heard it from a captured hippogriff... she was some sort of zealot, overly proud of her country and religion and more than willing to kill the poor alien stallion, she told me how she was part of some sort of expeditionary force to capture him because they believed him to be a demon."

"There isn't such a thing as demons, the word itself was racial slur against Changellings, even back when ponies did believe in demons" Spoke Luna and Celestia nodded "Yes indeed, the concept of demon comes from a series of epic tales and songs from milennia ago, even way before us or Starswirl, no one truly knows what the original concept meant but eventually it became a racial slur against Changellings, akin to calling Thestrals 'winged rats' "

"Something wich I would prefer you don't remember me" Luna asked and Celestia gave a quick silent apology, before Twilight's dad spoke again "So... you not only meant pirates... but also a dangerous zealot... who tried to convert you to her religion?"

"Not like that, she called me witch just like the griffons, but she never bothered in trying to convert me, she was focused on 'warning' everypony about the dangers that ' El Diablo Carnívoro' represented, that thing being the poor alien colt that her country sent her to capture in first place... now that I think about it, she did say that she came from the Forever loyal island... and she went towards the Filliy islands..." Then it clicked, Twilight eyes opened wide as she quickly connected every single dot "Princess Luna... you said that the armada caught the pirates and saved the fillies and mares?"

"Yes, exactly yesterday, just a day after you were captured" Said Luna while Twilight looked at her with the horror of the realization "How many...ships were sunk..."

"No casualties thanks Faust, but alas, we lost twenty ships taking down five of theirs, our ships are badly outmatched at long range, and getting at close range only was useful when several unicorns could cast their shielding spells at the same time. Said luna with clear frustration "I was just this close of just flying and delivering upon them all the wrath of the moon, just this close of sending them to Tartarus myself... and not the prison."

"Please refrain of speaking so casually about killing sister, while Equestria may be at danger we still need to be careful about what we say"

"Well... the thing is... if you fought against five ships... wich is what I can infer... then Equestria is at the very edge of being stabbed with a really sharp sword, pointed straight at her underbelly" Twilight said as she pointed at the Two bigger islands. "These two islands must be part of the 'Griffoñol' empire, wich seems to be one of at least two major powers, from what little information I have"

Twilight spoke as she shuddered, remebering something...

The smell of death... smoke and steel, the courtain of steel and fire wich rained upon the pirates, the disgusting loss of life in such an organized manner... being akin to the perfect work of a machinery made exactly for one purpose, a beautiful display wich only the best trained ponies would ever be able to do... sadly, not done for something beautiful and good, but for something horrid and evil, the stench of death was so potent and so nasty that she could swear she smelled it again after remembering just a mere fragment of it.

"Twilight Sparkle do you even understand what you are saying?" Luna asked being the only one who seemed to have the stomach to ask the question, however Celestia lifted her hoof and tapped her in the chest to let Twilight speak.

"I... I saw how those Hippogriffs fight... they form perfect formations, more artistic looking than anything, using strange staffs wich shoot small pellets, I am yet to understand what kind of magic they use, but it looks like some sort of hand canon... their cannons are stronger than any canon in Equestria's know history, on top of that they don't show any regret on murdering... were it not for my Teletransportation skill we would have been killed..."

Everypony froze upon hearing Twilight's words as she pointed at the Filliyi island and then to the nearest landmass.

"And if what I can infer is correct... due to weather and time I spend at that ship... supposing that i was around this part when the armada intercepted the pirates..." Twilight said pointing bewteen the island and the bigger landmass nearby.

"This... is New Horseleans"

Chapter 19: A talk bewteen friends

"This is stupid" A rowdy voice could be heard as a pegasus mare flew from one side to the other of a room, while three other Mares were sitting in a couch, looking at the cowering alicorn in front of them "You, saw a group of nasty pirates, murderers... ponies that only the royal guard could take on... and offered yourself as a bargain even after seeing the guardsmares being murdered in cold blood..."

The rainbow maned mare spoke as she stopped mid air and looked back a Twilight who was cowering in place.

"And you... never told us you did something so utterly EPIC!" The mare shouted as she suddenly bolted down and lifted Twilight with her front hooves, smiling so widely her jaw could dislodge any time. "Mare, I knew you were a badflank but this?, I think that not even Spitfire would do something so Trixie, please tell us more Twilight, this is worth a book, just like one of Daring do series!"

"Ah' be honest Twi, that was idiotic, but awesome and gentlemarely, Darn it, i'm not even sure how you don't have a hole the size of a ping pong ball aywhere, but i'm damn happy you made it back and saved everypony, just that, next time you better bring us too, kicking flanks is nice on its own, but kicking flanks with friends is far, far better" An orange mare spoke with an smile as she gave a little kick with her front hoof to the rainbow maned pegasus, disorienting her and getting her to sit down, wide eyed and unable to focus her eyes for a few seconds. "OW! What was that for Applejack!"

"Don't be a fancolt Dash, you pretty much drooled Twilight's mane, do you think that colts would like a Mare who smells like other Mare drool?" Applejack chuckled and Dash rolled her eyes "Really?, Again with the colt thing?"

"Not my fault you like mares" Applejack laughted softly and Dash gave her a little kick on her own disorienting her this time, after a few seconds she shook her head and recovered " Ah' guess I deserved it..."

"Yeah, you kind of deserved it Darling" Rarity spoke as she was sitting on the couch, next to Twilight gently hugging her "I mean, you know that Rainbow Dash isn't exactly in the mood to talk about colts... or relationships in general"

"Ow, ow!" Dash fainted... or apparently feigned so before getting up and smiling widely "Hey, I know I had a really bad break up but that isn't a reason for everypony to change how they talk, just be a bit careful and I'll be all right"

"Heh, Knew it" Applejack smiled before suddenly she was shoved to the side by a pink hoof "YEEEES! I knew that dashie was feeling allright!, We should throw a party for Twilight! All hail Princess Twilight Sparkle saviour of Equestria, protector of the colts and the most heroic Mare ever!"

A pink pony spoke, pretty much shouting and laughing as she did, causing both Applejack and Rainbow Dash to chuckle before the trio stood up and began to chant out loud while holding a hoof in a military salute.

"All hail Princess Protector Twilight Sparkle, savior of Equestria, protector of the Colts and the biggest bad flank in Equestria's recent history!" The trio chanted several times as if it was some sort of military parade causing Rarity to giggle and Twilight to blush a little before laughting out loud. "Thanks girls, I'm happy to be back"

"And we are happy to see you back and in one piece, however you really have to be careful" Dash spoke as she flew a bit to land just to the side of another mare... a bigger, far more beautiful mare, with a pink mane and yellow fur, that mare was easily towering over the other five and yet she was the only one who kept silent "Come on Shy, I think that Twilight deserves to hear your voice, don't ya think so?"

"I... i'm happy to see you back Twilight, I'm sorry for not talking much but... it is just that... Zephyr Breeze happened to be at a date with one of his bad influence marefriends... he was on New Horseleans when all of that happened, He managed to escape yes, but he can't stop crying..." She spoke, her voice being the epitome of what a Mare's voice should sound like, oddly resembling that of Celestia's or Luna's, standing up she towered even more over the other Mares, her sudden movement making Dash lose her balance in her seat due to the sudden loss of weigh in the couch "I'm.... silent because I truly don't know how to thank you Twilight... so please, I hope, I really hope a mere Thank you can be enough for now..."

The yellow one said as she bowed down a bit, Twilight got up and walked closer to her using her hoof to softly tell her to look up.

"Come on Fluttershy, don't be like that, we both know that given the situation, you would have done the same" Twilight smiled as Fluttershy seemed a bit surprised, before smiling too "W...well... y...yes... I would..."

"Now, all of this is making me a bit hungry, and I'm sure you all are hungry too!" Spoke Pinkie pie as she jumped out from somewhere, tackling Applejack down and offering Twilight a burger. "Here!, Your favorite!"

Twilight didn't hesitate at all, taking the burger with her magic and starting to eat like if she was starving, wich logically she was after refusing to eat due to her worry, then Applejack stood up as Pinkie Pie used her like a plataform to jump and reach Rainbow Dash wich was flying in the air, hugging her and tackling her down to the couch.

Upon landing Pie quickly did another jump spinning in the air around twelve times in just the time span of a few seconds, launching at maximum speed a pair of cupcakes wich quickly fell in place before Applejack and Dash, intact as if they were simply laid there rather than thrown at maximum speed, causing both mares to chuckle.

"OH NO!" Rarity shouted as she tried to jump away, but failed to do so, getting a cake straight to her face, launched at such speed and strenght she barely had enough time to brace for impact, the cake spread out all over her face, however by some kind of miracle the cake never reached any part of her mane. Rarity looked down with the cake smeared all over her face before letting her tongue out and taking an small bit of the cake, nodding with delight "Well, at least the flavour is nice"

"Bleh, Cake with makeup!" Dash joked causing everypony to laugh a bit, just as Pinkie Pie landed over the floor with a wide smile. "Heh, See dash? Ten seconds flat!"

"Good work Pie, I see you have been training!" Rainbow Dash chuckled as Applejack smiled too. "Oh, Almost forgot!"

Pinkie then took an small cupcake and walked up to Fluttershy, offering it to her with a wide smile.

"Thank you Pinkie" Fluttershy smiled softly taking the cupcake and giving it an small bite, almost mouse sized while Applejack whistled suddenly "Damn straight! Exactly ten seconds flat counting that!"

"What? Did I miscount before?!" Rainbow Dash looked at her friend and she nodded "Eeeeyup, as Big Macintosh would say, she did all of that in five seconds flat, then took four seconds to reach Flutters and one for her to take the cupcake, at this rate Pinkie may be the fastest out of us"

"Pffft, as if I would allow that to happen!" Rainbow Dash smiled widely before looking at the pink mare "What do you say Pinkie? Should we have a race someday?"

"ohyeswhynot!?,perhapswecouldevenraceallthewayfromcanterlottocloudsdalesoIcantrytousetheflyingmachineagainyouknowtheonethatbrokewhenwemeetthatsillyandmeangriffonwhoIstillwanttogiveacupcakebecausenoonegetsdeniedacupcake!" Pinkie shouted so fast and so suddenly that Twilight had to cover her ears to avoid getting hurt by the loud voice of her friend, meanwhile Fluttershy kept nibbling at the cupcake in such a slow and steady manner, it was by far the cutest thing in the entire room "YES! Next week?"

"I accept thy challenge!" Pinkie roared happily as she clashed hooves with Rainbow, both of them smiling widely, before looking at Applejack "What?"

"Aren't you gonna join us?" Asked Rainbow Dash and Applejack stood up, walking to the two of them before clashing hooves with the two "DAMN STRAIGHT I WILL!"

The trio laughed as Twilight chuckled, before looking back and noticing how Rarity had almost cleaned up the whole cake by now, however what was far stranger than the eating speed she had just revealed she had, was the fact that her makeup was mostly intact, except for that tiny spot on her muzzle were she always had some extra sparkles, something wich Applejack was very vocal against.

"Well, I have to be honest, the cake was not only delicious, but by somehow it didn't ruin my makeup, is this a new recipe darling?" She questioned as she walked up to both, Twilight and Fluttershy, while Pinkie Pie looked back and nodded fast enough to cause an small wind current akin to that of a fan "Yes! I learned it while I was practicing my Long distance cupcake messages! Who would have guessed that I only needed to use some cinnamon in the mix?!"

"I doubt cinnamon can cause such an effect... So i'll attribute this to Pinkie being well... Pinkie" Twilight chuckled as Fluttershy helped Rarity to finish cleaning the cake off of her face, using a napkin. "Oh, I almost forgot Twilight, Spikey was worried, extremely worried once we reached safety, Right now He is asleep so I haven't had the time to tell him you're back, poor little Spikey couldn't sleep for days, we had to get him an potion from Zecora to help him take a little nap, I brought him here and he is currently sleeping with your parents, I think that you should check on him soon"

"Yes, Thank you Rarity, I... had been so busy and worried of everything that I almost forgot my own little dragon... has he been eating?"

"Barely enough, he was a mess of tears and fear, no matter how much Sweetie Belle tried to play with him he refused, looking at the library and hoping you would appear as if nothing happened, even if Duly tried to talk him to go to the Spa with Him he refused, he just ate some gems, looked at the library and then cried... for hours, no matter how much I tried he wouldn't even sleep"

Twilight felt a hint of sadness and dissapointment, feeling worse than she ever felt, once again she had completely forgot about Spike during the whole turmoil, and while logic dictated that she did the right thing focusing on what mattered at the time, her heart felt hurt upon noticing how much pain she had inflicted on the little one with her decision.

Then, she took a deep breath and began walking up.

"Girls, I'll be going to my parent's house, do you want to come?"

"Of course!" Was the answer by everypony but Fluttershy who nodded while giving one last tiny nibble to her cupcake, or well, what remained of it, finishing it up, and walking to reach the others."

The walk home was rather nice, her friends were pretty much national heroes so the ocassional noble or merchant would be as polite as possible, specially now that she was a princess.

If her eyes didn't lie, she could even see one of her former bullies before she joined Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns... heh, seeing that unicorn just cower and hide felt abnormaly nice, even if she shouldn't feel proud about scaring someone... but then again she still had several ties to correct and heal... for instance there was Moondancer, she really should go on and meet up with her again, and over everything else apologize for just dissapearing like that and not even bothering to go to her party... and overall being quite the bad friend to her.

Another hint of sadness and dissapointment, she really was a neglectful pony, wasn't she?

Then again, her former house was on the horizon, just a mere minutes away now, and she wasn't the only one here it seemed.

There was Cadence... there was Shiny... there was...

Twilight stood silent before slowly walking... quickly turning into a full sprint and then a full speed flight as she heard a male voice shout her name.

Tears streaming down her face, Twilight embranced the scaly body that threw itself against her, crying out loud just like she was, but while she kept silent, the small being was very vocal about its sadness... and relief.

Her posture switched, landing on her back and acting like a pillow for the small creature, embrancing him just like he did embrance her, like a mother embrances her foal, slowly petting the back of his head with her right hoof, spreading her wings to hug the scaly being, cuddling it and letting his head lay against her neck.

Slowly Twilight began to sob too, while she kept nuzzling and cuddling the creature, tears coming down her face, before an smile began to appear, soft and weak at first, but turning more and more confident and happy with each second.

There... there... I'm here Spike... I... I'm here again... I'm sorry for leaving you behind... I really am...

Chapter 20: The after-effect

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 21: The Princess thoughts

Economics... Princess Celestia old foe, a foe as old as the one time when she, in her filly foolishness decided to take a look at one of Starswirl books about managing the feudal economies of the many ladyships that once held power over large tracts of land in what today is Equestria, long before Equestria was one country, back when it was just a single league of several ladyships and queendoms.

She herself was but a foal who began to read information she wasn't meant to even know about, information about how you were expected to treat your slaves, how you were supposed to take care of your stallions and colts, and how you could steal away the stallions of another High lady or feudal warlady and get away with it.

Truth to be told, those days were horrible, Equestria was a loose union of warmongers, rapists and many, many other bad mares, Starswirl could barely hold them together with the help of a few honorable queendoms and princessdoms, using mostly the unified faith around Faust herself as the force wich kept them together against many threats.

The Changellings at the north, The buffalos at the south, the Yaks north of what today is the crystal empire, at the time a tiny city-state wich was ruled by Amore, a princess wich may be the closest thing to a hero to her, a respectable mare who taught her many of the ideals wich today everypony in Equestria follow, for the Era Amore was quite the liberal ruler allowing stallions to be politicians, soldiers, merchants, and many other jobs... or to treat stallions like actual ponies rather than mere baby-makers or cheap labour cooks.

Luna was a bit more traditional than her, even back in the day, Luna fought for the rights of Stallions, yes, but was a keen defender of the idea that Stallions should be protected, loved and never allowed to join the battlefield, but quickly changed ideas when she met a brave batallion of colts who fought off a Yak raid all alone, even since then she grew to be the most loyal advocate of meritocracy no matter the gender, something wich despite a thousand years having passed, she still fights for.

Anyway, economy back then was way easier than today, merely dealing with the ladies, convincing them to allow for trading, since most of the trading was done by nobles and rich folks, making it impossible for even the greatest of farmers or artisans to get more than what the local noble was willing to give, it was a harsh life, but certainly way easier to just make sure that everypony was willing to pay what the goods were actually worth.

She had to break a few noses back then, how she missed when she could just trample over some mean, spoiled rich who believed that earning a few extra coins was worth the death of innocents, a single duel was enough to pass a law if needed, and the only one who could actually defeat her was Luna, for even Starswirl knew that it was a bad idea to get in the way of an Alicorn who just saw a filly die of hunger...

She missed the feeling of imposing order alongside her sister and teacher, saving lives and overall being a heroine, sadly that life was left behind once the first article in the league was triggered.

When the Yak khanate invaded Vanhoover, wich was the home of the strongest Queendom at the time and destroyed it, razing it to the down, and leading to the utter collapse of the north, most of the ladies and warlords had to join together, they had no other option but to give the leadership to Starswirl, he quickly send them to deal with the invasion, during several battles most high ladies took reckless and stupid choices, no matter how hard Luna tried to stop them from doing suicidal charges.

The full might of the Khanate fell upon most of the armies and razed them, the entire north and center of what today is equestria was lost in but a single year, forcing most civilians and militias to hide in the south, there she and Luna led the defensive efforts, stopping the yaks for ten years just enough for their khan to die, once she fell the khanate fell to infighting.

In a few months they recovered the north, using a mix of pegasi charriots and unicorn transportation spells to retake chokepoints and vital places, acting as an unifying force to all ponies, stopping the efforts of the yaks to retake what they conquered, Equestria could have expanded north but doing so would have defeated the idea of an unified pacifist Equestria, the dream that they shared with Starswirl.

Once the Khanate was expelled, a series of inner conflicts and Changelling raids insued, but after a few years peace was restored, the last battle happening bewteen the Changellings and the Yaks, ending both hostile empires in a matter of months, with that, began the short-lived peace before Nightmare Moon insurrection, wich led to the thousand years peace wich most called "The Celestia Era" even if she felt wrong being considered some sort of Goddess-Empress with an entire time period called after her.

The only thing wich she missed of those days was the simple economy, mostly artisans, farmers, fishers and miners, trade was done by few individuals and everypony worked for their own food, most of them shared with whoever was in need, despite the nobles outright evil actions.

Economy today was... complicated to say the least...

Maybe the fact she was currently holding her head with her hooves while looking down with several papers all over her already paper-filled room was proof of just how hard it was to manage an outright gigantic country.

But then again, this was the price of prosperity and peace, the Rich, industrial cities of Manehattan and Fillydelphia were the heart of the small but powerful industry that Equestria had, rich capitalists and nobles pouring a constant stream of money wich allowed the creation of wealth, jobs, and goods.

She herself felt enamoured with the idea of a society where machines solved most problems allowing ponies to live their lives to the fullest and focus on what really mattered, but then again, the idea was rather silly, a rather guilty wish she had, because, what good was in life with no hard work?

A pair of working hooves lead to a happy pony, a pony who works to earn what it wants is a happy pony, and she had to make sure that work wasn't the only thing somepony did, family, friends, love, fun, all of them are even more important, food, water, all of them are needs.

The north was a pioneer in this area, the mix of machines and hard work led to the growth of two medium-sized cities, just a hundred years ago Vanhoover was the biggest urban setlement in all of Equestria, around two million ponies lived there after all, the number grew to become five millions just until five decades ago, and then... Manehattan began to industrialize.

At first they had troubles and asked for help from the Crown, she gladly gave them the founding they required, and in just a few decades Manehattan had overthrown Vanhoover as the biggest most populated city in all of Equestria, with six million souls there, most of them factory workers, but also builders, merchants, clerks, teachers, in all but political power Manehattan became the beating heart of Equestria.

But then happened the tragedy...

Manehattan had followed the example of the Kirin Empire, a friendly country wich was the de-facto superpower back then, it had started to industrialize a hundred years ago, almost fifty years before Equestria, and it became such a powerful nation that even if the other "great queendoms" were to join together they would still outmatch them in everything but landmass.

She had met with their empress a few times, a rather gentle and motherly mare who was more than willing to help other leaders to industrialize their countries, most agreed to a testing period of a few decades, she refused because at the time she was busy trying to help Queen Novo to deal with the worst famine her allies had suffered in hundreds of years, for ten years straight the clouds refused to rain, and even if pegasi tried their best, or unicorns used their magic, the clouds simply put, refused to even be touched, they acted in a weird way wich resembled how the everfree clouds acted.

So, while she and Novo were left out, thus getting ponies and Hippogriffons out of the deal, The kirins and their sphereligns began to quickly reap the benefits of their machines, that is what inspired most of the Manehattan industralists fifty years later.

But then, with no reason they closed their borders, began an aggresive policy demanding tribute and resources from anyone they could, even going as far as to destabilize the Kingdom of Griffonstone, just to take as much resources as they could, and just like it began, the Kirin golden era finished.

No one is sure what happened, but for ten years their entire continent was covered in dark clouds, acid rain came from the skies and sometimes their strange technology seemed to activate, pumping out entire hurricanes of dark, pestilent clouds, just to later become inactive again. That lasted for four years before suddenly the entire continent was engulfed in dark clouds, before becoming lush and green again, whatever explorers were sent came back with news of the land being as virgin an untainted as only those lands wich nopony has ever lived on could be.

It is completely unkown what happened, but some voices tell of unkown tribes of Kirins wich kept silent and roamed aimlessly, before settling around places wich once were the hubs of the former Empire, they refused to speak, and mostly led explorers to traps where they fell prey of powerful spells, just to wake up next morning in the middle of their ships, already on their way to their homelands, and their ships refusing to obey them, it didn't mattered if the whole crew tried to turn, or if they flapped their wings to create wind currents, the ships simply refused to move towards the continent.

After a few expeditions it simply became impossible to do anything about this, so a sort of mystic aura formed around those lands, wich died off after a few months.

However what was discovered was that their machines damaged the soil and the skies alike, poisoned the waters and plants, killed animals even, it is because of this that both She and Novo decided to take special care of their own flowering industries.

By making sure that only Manehattan and a few selected cities could experience the massive industrial growth, while also giving artisans a way to keep in the competition via tax breaks, loans, lifting debts and others, she was able to create a balance...

And judging by Raven face as she finished telling her this small tale she was right in her choice of not revealling to everypony this truth, it did took a long while for most to forget about the Kirins after all, today, most people simply think of them as some sort of lost continent or mystical legendary civilization...

Anyway, she really needed to stop her small history talks, specially with the whole economy facing the threat of losing its balance with the attack on New Horseleans.

The economic efforts must begin, at once!

First of all, she had to made sure that everypony involved in the attack is safe and healthy, wich means that the Canterlot hospital and the Blue Horseshoe can deal with that easily, she just needs to deal with whatever noble may want to charge extra costs for what is essentialy state-sponsored medical services, something wich had happened more than once, however she already dealt with this.

Currently Cadence is leading the medical efforts, her husband meanwhile is collecting information about the battle from whatever survivor he could find of the battle, thankfully a recluit had managed to sneak past the griffons and warn the garrison of the Tenochtitlan Basin, in the process she also met Daring Do and fought off some sort of dog-creature called Ahuizotl.

The second is make sure whatever the creature Twilight brought keeps alive, it seems to know a lot about the unkown, considering it had fought off griffon pirates and hipogriff soldiers all alone until they managed to drug him, that creature could have really useful information, however it also was, a living being, it was imperative to make sure nopony died because of this, Equestria was a safe haven to everypony after all, even those who aren't a pony at all.

The third and upmost important is kickstarting the recovery of New Horseleans, by giving the Treasury the order to deliver a few thousand bits to the local treasury of New horseleans they can start the rebuilding early enough to restart the trade routes with only a few months lost, she was sure it would be way harder than what it may look due to the risk of another raid, however she had a nice idea in mind.

Asking Raven to tell her about the recent revenues Celestia found out exactly what she wanted, until recently the fishing industry mostly fed the hipogriff and griffon minorities at the western coast, however recently an small business led by hipogriff inmigrants has started to take a hoofhold of small but promising revenues around fishing on the east coast.

This was exactly was she needed, by giving them an good loan and some tax breaks in exchange of them settling on New horseleans she could give an small boost to the population of new horseleans to help them recover from the disgusting loss of life of the raid.

Hipogriffs despite being similar to griffons looked more like ponies than griffons, while lots of griffons became hunters and bounty hunters Hipogriffs usually chose to become part of their town's guard, or to become police officers, just like griffons were more than eager to fight back against whatever threathens their home towns, Hipogriffs are more than eager to protect their fellows, together they laid way for some pony settlements in the uncharted deep south of the west coast.

With Hipogriff settlers on new horseleans, the townsfolk would feel way more safe than they would feel with extra guards, after all if you know that your neighbour is more than ready to fight alongside the guard to protect you, you would feel safer than if only the guard was ready.

On top of that hipogriffs tended to flock together, that's the reason why most ponies had never met one, they did concentrate on the deep south in the west, by having some of them settle on the easter half of the deep south she could even create a sort of healthy competition bewteen their fishing business wich would create jobs, integrate them more in Equestrian society and repay Novo for all the years of alliance bewteen Ponies and Hippogriffs.

Then again the average pony/hippogriff didn't even knew about this alliance, mostly because the voyage bewteen one continent to the other is expensive, dangerous, and really long...

And if what Twilight said is true, then there are more griffon and hipogriff countries out there, the hippogriff she met seemed honorable despite being a zealot so, having hippogriffs on new horseleans could be the key to actually archieving a dialogue with this new country.

Obviously she needed to protect her little subjects, it wasn't just sending them to the wolf jaw and praying the wolf will talk with them, she needed to give extra funds to the guard there, perhaps by sending enough bits to maintain a five hundred strong pony garrison?

Or... she could finally give an use to that old friend of hers.

"Raven, could you please call Lord Albatross?" Celestia asked as raven nodded and left.

It didn't took long for a young stallion to appear, he gave a respectful bow to her at the door and she answered in kind inviting him to enter the room, Raven following after.

"Good Afternoon Princess Celestia, It is a honor to be here" He spoke in a polite, truly respectful manner, not a single trace of disdain or fear, akin to a foal who spoke to its professor. "Good Afternoon Lord Albatross, the honor is mine"

The Stallion took seat to the side of raven as both of them looked at the Princess who used her magic to close the door.

"Excuse me if i'm wrong but, as far I do concern your family is currently having some troubles with the merchant ship consortium, Am I Right?" Celestia asked and Albatross seemingly embarassed nodded. "Y...yes... we are currently in a harsh debt after my father's lawyer failed to win the case"

Albatross looked down and Celestia smiled a bit before standing up and gently giving him a hug with her wings, the Stallion semeed surprised at first, but quickly hugged back with his own wings, on the verge of crying...

"Calm down young colt... rest assured that such a debt won't be a problem..." She said and the Stallion eyes opened up as if they were plates, while Raven seemed surprised too. "D...d...do...do you mean?"

"Yes... I finally found you a good job" Celestia smiled as she broke the hug and using her magic she lifted the map of New Horseleans alongside a feather with ink. "Tell me, your mother's business was mostly focused on building ships for the guard, Am I right?"

"Y...yes... even today we still have all of the qualified personnel and equipment, we even have some machines we bought from Manehattan" He spoke while he looked at the map and his eyes widened upon noticing how the feather wrote something over an area on the eastern half of the town. "Could you, perhaps, be interested in working directly for the crown?"

He smiled widely as he saw the words in the paper and with a quick but full of respect and gratitude bow he answered up.

"Yes!, I will gladly help you on this project!"

He said as the looked at the map, the words "Albatross Royal Guard Shipyard" wrotten in a fairly big area on the east... a rather big project, and by Faust, he felt like a colt again...

Chapter 22: Visitors from overseas

Deep, deep in the middle of a rather nasty storm, stood a convoy, with several wooden ships, each one of them as big as a house or perhaps maybe even bigger, those majestic wooden ships travelled in the middle of the wrath of the sea, as waves clashed against them, their gigantic sails being quickly dealt with to protect them from the wrath of the winds as the skies seemed to become alive sending waves after waves of wind to clash against the wooden structures.

Several figures could be seen on each of those ships, as despite the strong nature of the background and the ocean, the biggest and sturdiest ships stood close to each other, connected with planks wich despite the brutal onslaught of nature, kept protected by a thick but beautiful white membrane wich aislated the group of eight great ships from nature's wrath.

"Excuse-moi, monsieur, encore, je ne suis pas sur que vous est pret pour le voyage" A mare, a unicorn Mare spoke out loud as her horn shone with bright light, she was currently walking over the plank wich connected the eight major ships, the plank was surrounded by the light like a tunnel, and she seemed to be concerned about a Younger-looking Hippogriff who walked behind her, the Hippogriff tilted his head before slowly giving a negative answer withouth the use of a single word, but alas sooner than later a bigger, clearly male Griffon lifted his claw behind him and caught him in a sort of forced shoulder to shoulder hug "Do not worry kind miss, I'll take care of this chick, go ahead and join the rest, we'll wait until you can cross the plank"

The unicorn did a soft bow wich both answered in kind, before the Smaller Hippogriff broke the contact with the bigger Griffon.

"Please, no matter how much you try to sweeten things up, I won't open that kind of negotiations here, this is a matter of Global security, we cannot allow the world's power balance to break, not in these trying times" Spoke the Hippogriff as he began to walk over the plank while the Griffon rolled his eyes. "Do not be fooled into thinking that the others are your friends, we both share the same origin, and that's enough for them to not trust us"

"As if being born male wasn't hard enough, we'll find a way to deal with these old mares and hens, but for now it is our upmost important duty to stablish contact with this new world, and make sure our homelands can survive whatever threat may come with the current situations" The hippogriff answered before he bumped against the butt of an outright gigantic Griffon, the female in question looked back at him before chuckling. "Oh my... I heard that new world males were daring... but I never expected to be in the receiving end of such... "affection".

The Hippogriff quickly took a few steps back before giving a polite bow.

"I'm sorry for the sudden impact, I wasn't paying attention, but alas, I can assure you this wasn't any bold act, merely a minor mistake from my part" The Hippogriff spoke as the male griffon walked next to him and stood tall and proud, lifting his wings in defiance towards the bigger female, she smiled at the by comparison tiny Hippogriff before getting closer ignoring the bigger Griffon.

"Ahem, señora, no crees que estas muy vieja para perseguir pollitos?" Questioned another hippogriff, this one female, easily towering over even the male griffon, just being slightly smaller than the female Griff, both of them shared glances before clashing heads as their eyes leered on each other, their foreheads bleeding from the sudden headbutt. "Oh?, Look who is talking, aren't you busy burning colts by the orders of those on Thracia?"

"Take care of what you say, perfidious hen, for there is a big difference bewteen a "brujo" and a colt who uses magic, one will not hesitate to sell your soul to any demon he can find, the other will always protect and cherish those he loves, for there is barely something more pure than the love of a father or a son".

Both took a few steps back as a big Bug-like horse separated them, its black chitin body and long silver mane contrasting to both avians mixes of white, red and blue, the creature was no other than a Changelling it seemed, for it suddenly turned its head in impossible angles ordering the two males to march inside the ship, as the marched a pair of Changelling guards bowed down in respect at both males, the griffon blushed and waved his claw in an almost flirty manner while the Hippogriff kept a more serious approach, saluting in a military way.

The changelling at the left who was waved at by the Griffon blushed but lifted her cap in response, while the one at the right did a serious salute with her hoof, leaving them to enter the ship.

"jetzt drinnen" Spoke the Changelling as both rolled their eyes and followed suit, entering the ship too.

Darkness covered everything and everywhere the only small glimpses of light came from the fire of the torches of those who were under the cover of the magical membrane, or those who were in the ships that were facing the storm headfirst, once every few seconds, a mighty thunder would soar the skies as blue light covered the horizon and the proximity alike.

However things were different inside the central ship, there was a room were a Pair of unicorns were sitting both of them using their magic, one unicorn was the tall white-coated mare from before, the other was a white and golden coated one who was sitting at a rectangular table hooves crossed while slowly massaging her temples.

"Another Clam-fest, I take?" Spoke the younger one who was currently sitting, wherein the older one was slowly taking seat, and with a single motion of her head denied what the younger one had said. "First of all, young one, you should be... less... vulgar, and stop thinking that just because of our noble blood we deserve to always be surrounded by colts, second, there do are two males, emmisaries of the two newest great powers who are taken accounted into the balance of power, i just met them."

"Heh, perhaps this meeting will be more interesting that what we expected, the balance of power is after all shifting ever since the last war twenty years ago, we finally got rid of those pesky Saqlaqui, no longer will they be considered a great power" The younger unicorn smiled widely as she lifted a cup of coffee with her hoof and gave a little sip to the scorching hot liquid, while the older one gave a little sip to a glass full of what may as well be the finest looking wine. "Affirmative, ever since the Colonial revolutions twenty years ago, the balance of power has slowly shifted, i'm glad my homeland is getting some of their invests back... how about yours? Last I heard you had problems with those Changellings after the partition of Tartaria".

"While the Changellings had got stronger after the partition of Tartaria, the truth is, unless something of the proportions of the lifetime of war happens, my homeland will remain as powerful as ever, no matter how hard they try, they won't become stronger than us, even if we have some... undesired races under our domain, at the end everypony has to deal with undesirables, as a colonial power I'm sure your nation has to deal with lots of them."

"For Queen and For country we had to do some... unsavory things, to keep balance, but alas, it is a worthy price to keep the balance of power in check..." Spoke the elder one before both unicorns felt something in the tip of their horns, looking towards the same direction...

Since they were inside the ship they only saw wood, but they both knew that something wasn't exactly right, standing up both went upstairs and met the two smaller representatives, both, Griffon and Hippogriffon gave an small bow in respect, unlike the meeting with previous representatives this group of four seemed to show genuine respect.

"Pardon moi monsieurs, encore, nous nous rencontrons à nouveau, Ont-ils déjà vu quelque chose d’étrange dans l’océan?" The older mare spoke in a quiet, respectful tone while both avians shook their heads, the bigger one being quick to speak. "Not in the ocean but we have news from the scouts up ahead, it seems that pirates had seized advantage and attacked the natives, but the natives managed to conduct a successful rescue operation, the fleets ahead captured as many pirates as possible but they are a mess of blabbing about an... "Apecubbus"? I think they called it like that, and an unicorn mare who thankfully saved the captured natives, the pirates are only admitting their crimes since they are truly afraid of whatever creature they called demon, they think they're going to tartarus unless they repent, and honestly i don't blame them.

Spoke the Griffon as he fooled around a bit with an small long object, getting a clearly anxious Hippogriff to his side a bit more anxious than before.

"Un demonio, 'el diablo carnívoro' que cuentan las leyendas de la isla de Filly" Said the Hippogriff while he clutched an strange necktale made of a tiny shield and a pair of swords, holding it deep against his chest. "That creature had terrified the island of Filliyi for a time, it hunted down the holy birds and many other great beasts of the creation, beasts wich were the base for the creation of all smart beings like us, it is a merciless demon whose body is made to tempt those who do as much as to glance at him, While at first many believed him to be a mere ape of sorts, when it began to make clothes out of the bodies of the creatures it hunted, and when it ate the boar huntress wich was sent to capture him... well you can pretend for only so long that the creature is not a demon..."

"A meat eating murderer... if it wasn't outright evil it wouldn't have ate the boar sent to kill it... let us hope it hasn't seduced any native leader, but if it had succeded at infiltrating the natives, I can only hope our nations civilizing mission won't get threatened by this... demon..." Spoke the unicorn as the group looked back and saw the rest of the emissaries, drawing nearer and nearer with each step. "Let's keep this low for now, if those two find out, they will either call for a civilizating mission or a crusade right now."

"My beak is shut".

With that, the group left towards the room again, followed suit by a the Big ones from before, however, not too far, there was another Mare who despite being even smaller than the unicorn came running towards the group, it also wore good quality clothing like them, but she seemed extremely... well, small by comparison to the others, the mare in question was a pegasus, but what she lacked in size she had it in wing lenght and muscle, she was small, yes, but truly she had enough muscle to if needed fight her way towards the group.

Once the eight representatives were inside the room, it got shut quickly, as guards of different races quickly went to protect the doors, once in a while a Zebra or a boar in a butler or maid outfit would draw near to bring refreshments or drinks into the room, and once in a while the guards outside swaped duties with others, for a time it was a changelling and a zebra, at the other a boar and a unicorn, at other a griff and a hipogriff.

And there seemed to be some sort of important discussion that they were having inside the room, discussion that no one could hear but the eight inside.

Out of the protective field that surrounded the major ships, however, the thunderstorm raged on, as in the distance some kind creature, half pony, half fish looked at the convoy with eyes full of worry, before quickly sinking back to the deeps of the ocean, the creature was heading southwards, the same direction the ships were heading right now...

But who could judge her haste to return home? after all it isn't every day when your home has visitors from overseas...

Chapter 23: Of Lords and Princes.

Author's Note

Welp, here goes a new cha~~llenger~~pter, hope you like it!

I went with a different approach with a certain character, because I for one felt that this one character despite having potential as someone pointed before, wouldn't exactly be capable of going all out from minute zero, plus I tried to give a little justification at some of their actions.

Hope you like it!

Chapter 23: Of Lords and Princes.

New Horseleans had better days, a few months ago it was a blooming town, today it was burning mess barely having a thousand souls left, most of them having left for safer places, some moved with their relatives on the other side of the trading route, back in manehattan and Fillydelphia, some others went for the other southerner towns, but a handful kept on the town.

While most saw only the chaos and destruction the pirate onslaught brought, some others saw a new oportunity, poor ponies from all over the South began to move towards the town, following the oportunity wich the crown was giving.

All over the town, there were mares and some hippogriff hens, working to rebuild what was destroyed, their husbands and sons tending to the cotton fields thankful that the enemy seemed to had ignored them, fillies and chicks alike played with some fishing rods under the watch of the royal guard.

The town was a shadow of its former self, and yet, it still was just as lively, if not more, as small groups came from all over the surroundings, escorted by royal guards, the small caravans mostly composed of ponies or hippogriffs, lots of them just carrying with them the bare minimum.

Somewhere a filly cried in pain after a fish bited her hoof, and two chicks laughed before helping her, somewhere else a colt found some tasty fruits and his father was quick to seize some seeds, not too far a mare brought down a burnt wall while her companions used a magical spell to blow up the foundations of what once was a shop, and just a second before the explosion, nothing but a pile of wood, stone and ash.

Most of the beings present were either guards or clearly people with very few possesions, and yet, they worked together with the small middle class minority, most of them being either survivors of the attack, or merchants from other parts of the south.

Amongst them however, there was an stallion, blonde and with a white fur, he stood tall and proud next to an smaller, shorter pegasus, the tall blonde unicorn kept an eye in everything, marching from one place to the other while the pegasus tried to read in a loud and clear voice a checklist.

"Fruit merchants?" The pegasus spoke and the unicorn answered loud and clear "Done"

"New Caravaneers?".

"Done"

"Fishing efforts?"

"In progress"

"Royal guard presence?"

"Around thirthy percent of the expected, more than half of the royal forces stationed here are guiding the caravans"

"Albatross Royal Guard Shipyard foundations?"

"Do not try to trick me, you will have to wait until the town is rebuilt enough"

The tall stallion gave an annoyed glance to the pegasus as the pegasus lowered the checklist, he was Lord Albatross, the blue maned stallion whom Celestia herself had sent to build a shipyard in the name of the crown.

"Honorable Prince Blueblood, you have to understand that I'm following the princess orders, she gave us instructions to start the construction efforts as early as possible" He spoke while Blueblood rolled his eyes and lifted his hoof in a polite manner, gesticulating while he spoke. "And I must warn you, fair Lord Albatross my dear Aunt, The Princess Celestia, is currently dealing with far too many conflicts right now to give the proper details for such an intrincate operation, that is the reason while I volunteered to help you, listen and learn Lord Albatross, for duty calls in these times and us, Fair Stallions are finally allowed to answer her call"

He spoke in a polite manner before landing his hoof and using his horn to lift a wood plank out of the reach of an earth pony, the pony flinched and quickly bowed down, clearly scared, compared to the two nobles, the clearly commoner was tiny.

"Excuse me good sir, for I only need to ilustrate fair Albatross about the dangers of being too hasty in the build up of such a delicate and complicated thing as a town" Blueblood smiled gently and the Pony kept bowed, while in the split of a second the plank broke in a thousand pieces scaring him and making Albatross take an step back. "You see, fair Albatross, while southern Equestria is clearly rich in natural resources, the truth is, most of the building materials around these parts are pretty weak when compared to the building resources used in the big Cities, a single house in Canterlot is way more expensive than half of this town, but, at the same time, way more enduring".

Blueblood said with an smile as he used his magic to lift an entire wagon full of building supplies, leaving it just on the reach of the stallion and the other builders.

"Excuse my... rather nasty approach, keep on the good work, fair colt" He spoke before hiding his face with a bow, hiding a face full of disgust at the townsfolk, something wich Albatross was rather quick to notice. "Say, Honorable prince, shall we discuss the situation over a cup of tea?

"Oh my, many thanks Fair Albatross, let us go to my personal tent, but alas, I do hope the royal guard has some capable mares ready to make sure nothing bad happens to us... " Blueblood said as his face went from disgust to happiness in the split of a second, as he instantly seized the chance to look anywhere but towards the townsfolk, leering straight into Albatross eyes, scaring the smaller pegasus. "Rest assured Prince Blueblood, I shall personally make sure no one even dares look into the direction of your tent"

Blueblood chuckled under his breath, almost letting out a tiny laugh, as the guardsmare captain answered his call, he turned torwards her and took her left hoof, giving it a soft kiss, leaving her speechless...

"Let us go, Fair Albatross, this brave guardsmare shall take care of any danger, let us discuss the current predicament"

It didn't took long for both of them to be alone, under the protection of a rather huge and cozy tent, more akin to some sort of travelling five stars hotel room than a simple tent, Albatross felt a bit scared after entering, feeling as if it was way bigger in the inside that it was in the outside.

"I take you are feeling... conflicted, as of why I chose to help you, specially since i'm not so fond of... the vulgar ambiance..."

"The common pony isn't 'Vulgar' this is simply an unlucky town wich got invaded by evil forces, your blatant classism is crystal clear, Prince Blueblood."

"Bold words coming from a ruined noble, Lord Albatross"

"Perhaps you need a little "ruin" to understand Prince Blueblood"

"Dropping all the polite talk... even after I agreed to help you and personally invest into the town wich my aunt decided to put under your care..."

"I don't remember asking for your financial support Prince Blueblood, let alone your presence"

"Oh, your words... they hurt like a dagger deep into my soul! What have I done to be backstabbed in such rabid manner by nothing else but a fellow noble? Let alone a fellow stallion in this world ruled by mares?"

"Drop the drama king act, we both know it won't work, last time you did it the Element of generosity herself stopped courting you, and you did act in a rude manner to the element of honesty even. Worse even I saw how she even broke her glass high heel to make sure you couldn't find her later..."

Blueblood fell face down to the wooden table, his horn sinking deep into the wood as he blushed so furiously he could as well boil an egg with his now pinkish cheeks, while Albatross kept with his legs crossed and a cute pout on his face, before taking a more conflicted look and drawing nearer to Blueblood.

"H...hey... Did I... go... overboard?"

"N...no, You just said the truth, I... I'm just a total mess despite being a prince"

Blueblood spoke as he kept face down to the table, his horn breaking free after tearing a hole in the wood, after a few seconds he rested his chin over the table and looked up at Albatross who seemed really concerned with him.

"Was... was I... rude to everypony here?"

"Not.... 'rude', but neither polite, you were rather... cold, it was clear you felt disgusted by the idea of getting dirty and extremely disgusted with the smell of the commoners, the guardsmares noticed how you were scowling at them constantly, and the colt at the shop felt horrible when you gave me the bread he baked for you.

"I... I know! I know i'm a mess! It is just that... well, you know" Blueblood spoke as he lifted a paper bag with his magic, letting it over the table, Blueblood took a long breath before opening the bag, taking a package wrapped in paper. "Really?, A Manehattan style hayburger?"

"Shining Armor told me it is a really popular dish bewteen commoners, soldiers and minor nobles, I tought it would be something healthy and soft, I didn't expect two slices of greasy bread, with a hooful of deep fried hay full of cheese and almost thirthy sticks of deep fried potatoes with four different sauces, each of them with more fat than the previous one!" Blueblood spoke with despair as Albatross took an step back, his ears folding back as he looked in horror at...

A perfectly normal hayburguer, in fact it was even good-looking, unlike the common hayburguer this one had an uniform shape, a really nice smell of soft cheddar cheese, two slices of a nice fat and plum bread, with some toast and a timid hint of garlic and sweet caramelized onion four sauces all over the set of thirthy fries, the burger had a rather nice ammount of greens, with tomatoes, lettuce, some other greens, and a tiny bit of olive oil.

However Albatross was shaking in fear as he looked at it, taking a few steps back before Blueblood lifted his hoof towards his mouth covering it and taking a few steps back too, fighting the urge to puke.

"So much fat..." Albatross said as he quickly galloped towards the hayburguer, quickly packing it again and running outside the tent, gifting it to a Guardsmare who straight up swallowed it in less than ten seconds, with such a visible glee even Albatross felt a bit scared. "Is your stomach allright?"

"Y...yes... I think I'll stick with sandwiches and soups for now..."

"Logic dictates such a method my friend, years of eating only the finest ingredients really hurted your stomach, I mean, fat aside I could obviously eat that thing... but you? You would be vomiting blood"

"I ruined my date with Rarity because of this... stupid condition..."

"Only because of that?"

"Drop the accusatory attitude Albatross!" Blueblood answered as Albatross Shrugged "I mean, Blueblood, stomaches aside, you really sabotaged your own date, think about it, you were just like that nasty old stallion we met at Fillydelphia, unless you start putting more effort into your studies and attitudes, you will end up as another crazy catlord"

"I know!, I didn't spent a whole year trying to understand economy for nothing!" Blueblood said as he took another paper bag, this one wih a different dish, a rather simple sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, a slice of cheese and nothing more, not even mayonnaise. "While the plan was for me to help you restart your family businnes in Vanhoover... I didn't expect aunt Celestia to send you here, i don't lie when I say we can't start the build up right now, this entire place lacks any significant infrastructure, and the wood here is... so... frail, compared to actual cement and marble."

"Then again, you did succed at your main objective, you managed to outmatch that nasty Hag of Sailing winds, were it not for your legal and financial studies I would have been forced to work with that mare, I'm sure the Princess Celestia was surprised when you brought your "Six weeks plan", I for one i'm still surprised you could write something so... useful.

"Was that an insult or a compliment?"

"That is up to you"

Chapter 24: A test?

Shining armor was a brave colt, a fighter who led entire Equestrian regiments in several campaigns, having his own fair share of encounters with Criminals both ponies and Changellings, while he lamented that he couldn't face enemies like the ones his mother fought in the past, he is, proud of his archievements, a proud son of Twilight Velvet, who quickly rose ranks from a mere grunt to the Captain of the royal guard and then Prince of the Crystal empire...

And yet, he was now on the floor, face down in the mud, as some sort of shaved ape wearing frilly clothing that Rarity made for him, stood with a ho....feet? over his back.

Everything was simply too fast, he was told to go all out and use magic too, and yet, this strange ape simply walked to him and in less than a blink now he was under him, completely neutralized and unable to fight back...

"You want me to do what?" Shining armor asked as he was sitting next to his wife, clearly surprised at the request that came from the mouth of his sister. "What you heard brother, we found him in the ship and he clearly was a powerful fighter, currently he has refused to partake in any coltish activity and keeps doing manual labour despite his injuries, he wants to feel useful, so... I think he could use your help a little bit.

"Twilight, think about it for a minute... the colt is wounded, and despite his strenght we don't know if he is a soldier, a guard, a mercenary or if his whole race is just that big and strong, don't you think that someone like a Psychologist would be a better pony to talk with him?" Shining armor asked, confused, and worried, at least with the little context he had, he was doubting if his sister judgement was right. "Well, we tried, but he simply won't talk back, the last psychologist Princess Celestia called, was seriously wondering if he was mute or something, because he simply refused to talk or to use any type of body language."

"If neither a psychologist nor you, the princess of Friendship could get him to talk, do you really think I could do it?" Shining questioned, not in a rude manner but in a doubtful one, he knew his sister had became better at making friends that him, but he was still confused and... a bit scared of failing if he accepted this task. "That... is the reason I'm asking for your help Shiny, as Cadence here knows, there is a certain compatibility bewteen ponies for certain things, Rainbow Dash and Applejack would be a perfect guardsmare duo, while being extremely bad bookeepers, while Rarity and Fluttershy would be unable to endure guardsmare training and yet would be a perfect Bookeeper duo, our guest keeps silent in presence of mares, and while I can get him to talk with me he usually speaks mere words rather than sentences. On the other hand, he seems quite interested in martial affairs, and while I know about certain things, the one who knows best about martial arts and sciences... is you.

"Twilight, while I am aware that compatibility is indeed a must when it comes to both, Friends and lovers, the truth is... we don't know anything about the creature you saved, it could very well be an spy who seeks to get us to tell him about Equestria's army... or well, lack of. or merely being Whimsy and seeking attention by pretending to not be interested". Both Shining and Twilight had to give Cadence a point, she had a really valid point on the whole spy theory, the creature was hostile with the pirates and apparently their goverments, but... what made it friendly to Equestrians? it could simply be waiting for its time to strike.

"Well, the thing is, he hasn't told a single lie, he doesn't talks much but when he does he is completely honest, and a bit cruel despite clearly being innocent" Twilight shuddered as Cadence tilted her head curiously. "I think I shouldn't ask..."

"Yes... Rainbow Dash is still recovering from what he said, then again she asked a question no one would have asked, and got an honest answer" Twilight scratched the back of her head using the border of her hoof, before looking down at the table and taking a hayburguer. "That aside, our guest is a rather nice pony, or well, ape, he is extremely gentle despite his strenght, and seems interested in magic, however he keeps silent most of the time".

"So you want me to talk with him about my life as a guardspony, Am I right?" Shining armor asked and Twilight nodded, Cadence seemed to ponder the idea for a while before smiling "Well... I don't see any reason to object, and you hubby?"

"Me neither, in fact, I think I've got a nice idea to talk with him withouth risking any of Equestria royal guard secrets" Shining armor smiled as his horn shone bright and he quickly dissapeared before reappering again this time with a magazine so bright and well taken care that the only reason it was clear it wasn't new was the date. "I think that I can talk with him about this beautiful series, Twilight did you read the book I told you?"

"Battlemace fourth key?" Twilight asked as Shining armor looked at her straight in the eye with blank eyes, before standing up and leaving withouth a word. "Twilight..."

Cadence looked at her and slapped her in the face with her hoof.

"How many times do I have to tell you Twilight? Shining armor hates fourth key, he prefers age of Faust" Cadence said clearly annoyed while Twilight smiled widely. "I know Cadence, I just wanted to tease Shiny a little bit, he owed me that after he left me all alone with Blueblood last year Gala"

"I heard that Blueblood was quite annoying, is it true that he mocked your friend Rarity?" Asked Cadence while Twilight nodded. "He kept pestering me about her, asking questions non-stop while saying some strange and weird things, a colt's rage is scary... I just hope rarity is smart enough to avoid him, he really hates her it seems"

Cadence shuddered as shining armor came back holding a gigantic cardboard box over his head, it was so big it was a wonder how something like that even could enter trought the door.

"Here, I have just enough pieces for a little skirmish game, I've got enough miniatures from all factions to pick from!" Shining armor spoke in a loud and proud voice before suddenly a door sprung open with a loud thud, as an sweat covered Applejack entered the room. "TWILIGHT WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"

Applejack stood tall but apparently tired, covered in mud and with a rather big bump on her head, it was honestly kind of funny.

"Wh...what happened?!" Twilight asked as she drew nearer to applejack inspecting her apparently hurt friend, however Applejack quickly went out of the room and came back dragging a clearly embarassed Rainbow Dash from the tail. "Tell 'em about what you did Dash"

"Ummm, Can't we just solve this?" Dash meekly asked while Applejack narrowed her eyes. "Dash..."

"Ummm, Well, Why am I here in first place? This isn't my problem!" Dash tried to fly away but fell face down in the floor before looking at her wing... she swallowed hard and bit her lip in an attempt to hold back the pain while applejack scowled. "This hay brain tought it was a good idea to mess with the alien colt while it was in Therapy, and it snapped back! despite his size that darn colt packed quite the kick and sent Dash flying face down in the mud, ruining my perfect apple pie when she splashed around all that darn mud!"

Dash smiled sheepishly while Twilight eyes widened.

"It... sna...snapped?" Twilight asked slowly before drawing nearer... looking down while gritting her teeth. "Why you..."

"H...hey... it...it wasn't my intention... I just wanted to help him! he had a rather nasty bruise on his back and I was told to deliver him some Ice, so i went and laid the bag on his back while he was doing an excercise... How was I supposed to know he would react with a claw hit?" Dash tried to defend herself while Twilight took a deep breath. "You are lucky he didn't broke your wings dash, he only snapped with a claw hit?"

"Yeah, but it scared everypony, a pair of guardsmares came to stop him but one idiot tought it would be funny to send one of the hippogriff volunteers" Applejack said while Twilight facehoofed. "I'm not the one to swear but... I think I should speak with whatever captain was in charge of the guards during the colt rehab..."

"Well..." Shining armor interjected as he walked near, Rainbow Dash took a few steps back, while Applejack bowed down, Cadence tilted her head and stood up walking to the side of her husband. "If you are afraid of hurting the Colt... do you think I could stop him?"

Shining armor asked, in a polite voice with just the tiniest of excitement behind, to be honest, this whole alien colt thing was something out of one of his favorite neighponese comics.

"Doki Doki, Super Taisen!"

An illogical title in both its original language and in translation, it was a classic shoujou neighponese comic with elements of fantasy, sci-fi and romance, it featured the tale of a hardworking colt who managed to rise to the top of his country army, marry into royalty and be overall the most respected male to have ever lived in his country.

That all changed with the arrival of an strange dragon from outer space, fell down during a battle bewteen the Colt sister and a band of evildoers, the strange dragon was powerful and mighty, and despite being a male, acted as rough as any mare would be, the dragon slowly became the colt best friend and helped him overcome several challenges, a conspiracy was discovered and a civil war started bewteen two factions, one of them led by an overspoiled cliché sexy prince and his right hand janefilly rich duke, and the other one led by the hero and his best friend.

But with this event... Shining armor finally remembered something, life isn't a neighponese comic, the fact that some alien colt was found and saved by Twilight, didn't meant it was friendly, for all they knew he could be a thraumatized male warrior, or merely be an idiot who kicks first and asks second.

"Emmm, B.B.B.F.F are you thinking what I think you are thinking...?" Twiligh tasked with a hint of worry while Shining armor smiled widely "Yeah..."

Shining armor left the room before standing silent for a few moments and turning to see his sister and her friends.

"If that colt wants a fight... I'll give him a fight!" He said as he stood tall and proud, before Cadence interjected. "And if he is just scared?"

"Then I'll help him understand that we mean him no harm" Shining answered with a pretty sheepish voice before teleporting out of sight. "By Celestia, I knew my B.B.B.F.F was a Janefilly but I really didn't expect him to be so eager to fight someone."

"Trust me Twilight, he has been pretty down due to his losing streak, first against Sombra, then Against Tirek, he has been itching for the chance to win in a fight against another Stallion, for a long.... looooooong while" Cadence said with a big smile before walking outside the room. "Are you coming too? I'm sure your alien friend won't hurt shiny, but I have to make sure he doesn't hurts him"

"A real Dogfight..." Rainbow Dash said before Applejack slapped her hoof annoyed. "Dash! Manners please!"

"Sorry, I have been spending too much time with Ponyville weather patrol" Dash said scratching the back of her head while Applejack scowled "Then I'll have a talk with those mares later... come on, let's make sure no stupid guardsmare ruins this"

"Great, I'll teleport us" Twilight said with a big smile as her horn began to glow.

Ah yes... that was the reason why he was under that alien feet by now... when he arrived he startled him and it didn't help that he arrived just in time for another hippogriff volunteer to arrive too... that ape really was scared of hippogriffs it seemed.

Despite clearly being a male, this ape was at the very least as heavy as a full grown minotauress, despite being a lot slimmer, and it clearly was smart enough to understand that allowing a magical user the time to cast any spell no matter how fast it was was a mistake.

Rather than "walk" the creature just leaped using his long legs like a pair of springs to propel itself like a pegasus, its bipedal figure being tricky, one would expect it to be slower or to switch to a more stable all fours to move as fast as it did, the again Shining armor was used to fighting mares, not colts.

This ape was a colt, maybe that is the reason why he didn't even felt any adrenaline pumping, no adrenaline means that your body takes more time to react, couple this with the ape wounds and that frilly dress and it is quite clear why no one would have expected it to leap in such a quick and agile manner.

"Please big brother, take him seriously! He fought off several pirates and hipogriff sailors, don't hold back!"

Twilight cheered, she was a nice mare, Shining armor was sure of that, always so eager to please and help her friends and loved ones, and right now she was in fact right...

Sub-optimal... Shining armor really came here with a rather sub-optimal mindset, thinking he would merely fight a wannabe guardsmare, not expecting to meet another colt who actually packed a kick or two, he was pleased with the pain in his back as the ape kept him under his... hoof? feet? foot?... under his boot.

This would be so much fun...

"I yield" Shining armor said, calmly and gentle, as always, and yet his stern and commanding voice conveyed a slight hint of severity, wich the ape seemed to acknowledge despite clearly having sub-par Equish speaking skills, rather resorting to a mere nod than answering in Equish.

With a grunt, the ape took a few steps back and stood on his original position, holding the umbrella and struggling to keep in balance with the giant frilly dress covering him, it was such a funny sight, a perfect mix of a colt and a mare look, with clearly irritated but small eyes, a slim but muscular frame and a gigantic set of clothes with an umbrella as the cherry on top, to be surprised, Shining didn't expect the ape to actually set him free, let alone do so in such a gentle and elegant manner"

Shining armor took a few steps back to his position, the original one, just as Cadence cheered on him, the ape noticed this as Shining smiled, telling him he yielded only a "round" not the whole fight...

The ape jumped again, this time with a shorter leap, landing just on the right of Shining and lifting its umbrella to use it like a club, Shining horn quickly lit and he quickly dissapeared in a flash of light avoiding an strike and appearing behind the other male, quickly giving him a really hard buck on the flank sending it to the ground with a loud and deep grunt.

Shining horn flashed again as he dissapeared and reappeared again, this time at a distance safe from the ape gigantic leaps, feeling his legs a bit sore, not the unpleasant one of a long day of training, but the pleasant one of a feat of strenght.

"By Celestia, are you made of steel or something?" Shining teased as he looked at how the ape stood up, and looked back at him, his size allowed him to just need to turn a bit to find him, honestly Shining would have been more intimidated were it not for the ridiculous frill all over his oponent. "Are you perhaps familiar with the name Tirek?"

"..." The ape shook his head as he lifted his umbrella, closing it before holding it like a baseball, bat, smirking in a rather predatory way, Shining armor fell the playful energy and answered with a little whinny, an invitation to play, wich the ape didn't hesitate to take. "My turn!"

Shining armor reared before dissapearing in a flash, however this time the ape quickly turned back and opened the umbrella, hitting the unicorn in the face with the soft fabric, before closing it and slamming the lenght against Shining front legs, getting him out of balance, despite this Shining managed to quickly leap outside of reach as the ape stomped the floor letting out a loud thud despite clearly lacking hooves.

Shining ducked away from another slam of the umbrella before jumping in the air, getting in an almost bipedal position while in the air, lifting his back legs and getting them as close to his chest as he could, before then letting out a powerful double leg kick against the ape, striking straight into his soft belly.

Shining hooves sank into the soft flesh as the ape had to take a few steps back, coughing as he lacked air, and yet, it managed to keep standing... when he was about to fall down it quickly slammed his claw against the floor using it like a third leg before springing back to two legs.

With an smile, Shining saw the ape smirk back as it lifted his right upper limb to the air, his fat claw pointed at the floor, a gesture wich apparently meant something negative, but in this case...

"One to one, you are doing wonderful Shiny!" Cadence cheered on him as he couldn't avoid blushing a little, as much of a hardened warrior as he liked to be, the truth is, he always held a soft spot for his wife cheers. "Ex...excuse..."

"Hmmm?" Shining tilted his head as the ape looked at him. "I... I was told I should be careful... because I would get tested if I could defend myself"

Shining eyes widened, and so did the eyes of everypony else, someone told the ape he should be ready to fight?, who did that?

"Did I pass the test? Did I hurt someone by mistake?" He asked tilting his head while Shining armor looked back at Twilight, who seemed as surprised as he was. "I...I..."

"He passed, in fact with flying colours" Everypony let out an startled cry as Luna appeared out of thin air sitting on a chair in the bewteen Cadence and Twilight, eating some popcorn with a big smile. "What? he asked for help to make sure that he could fight back if he was under danger, and I brought some volunteers to help him, he asked for help to make sure he could defend himself after all."

"When did you plan on telling me about your little... "test"?" Now it was the turn of Luna to turn pale as Celestia appeared just behind her, narrowing her eyes. "I tought I told you not to test the colt no matter how many times he asked that..."

"W...well... I .... jus....just wanted to make sure he would be comfortable... I mean, he really seemed scared during his rehab period, he wanted to make sure he was ready to defend himself and I merely helped him to make sure" Luna said while everyone tried to scrap any tiny bit of context out of her words... failing in the process. "And yet... I told you two that it was an stupid idea, just let the adrenaline come down a bit and you will find out why"

Just in time for that, the ape fell down holding his leg with an pained face, while Celestia facehoofed.

"I swear I don't know how you two became so close so fast... but if you told me it was to annoy me I would honestly believe it" Celestia said as she beckoned with her hoof allowing a pair of nurses to arrive with a rather huge stretcher. "You... don't think that just because you're a colt I won't scold you..." Celestia said as she made way towards the two fighters, not being clear about wich one she was talking to, but both felt a colt shudder as the Princess watched the nurses help the ape to rest over the stretcher.

"Playtime is over everypony, let's go for lunch!" Celestia spoke to everypony else returning to her usual gentle demeanor, leaving a few confused looks in the faces of Twilight and her friends. "Luna, come with us, you have a lot to explain"

"Y...yes..."

Chapter 25: Disembark

"Have we arrived?" The young voice of an hippogriff could be heard, as a fleet of majestic ships slowly drifted closer and closer to the soft sands of a beach. "Apparently, could this, perhaps be your first voyage?"

A tall, elderly white coated unicorn spoke, asking in a rather calm and gentle tone, while the smaller Hippogriff gave a little nod as an answer.

"My homeland, is usually more focused on its own gulf and coasts, we rarely get the chance to travel overseas, but I take your Queendom is pretty used to having such long travels." Spoke the younger one while the elderly mare gave a soft nod, offering her hoof to the male, as she took an step down the stairs. "Vous êtes prêt monsieur?"

With a soft smile the young hippogriff took the mare's hoof with his claw and accepted her help, coming down from the ship.

Not too far there was a rather large group of mixed races, hippogriffs, ponies, changellings, and griffons, most of them seemed to be preparing tents, some others were busy giving maintenance to their weapons, sharpening their sabres, while some others were cleaning their cannons, an smaller group was in the middle of a tent, where a group of nurses were tending to their wounds.

"Repeat soldier, what happened out there?" The tall Changelling, wich seemed to be at charge of the group, spoke in a rather scary voice, as her eyes focused on the wounded soldiers. "We were ambushed Miss, a group of Bat-ponies found us earlier than what we expected, they didn't engage at first, but once they noticed our muskets, they attacked, as we were ordered, we fell back and didn't kill anyone, but unless we can contact their leaders soon, I can only guess that bloodshed is..:"

"I asked what happened out there, not your opinion" The Changelling spoke before turning back and letting out an small but rather scary hiss, which seemed to be a signal, the two changellings at her sides quickly transformed into a pair of doves and began soaring the skies, quickly she turned to see the two other creatures wich seemed in charge, one a griffon the other an hippogriff "We must capture those Bats as fast as possible, unless you want us to deal with aggressive primitives who know not their place"

"Eager for conflict, as always" The Big griffon let out a laugh, after she heard the Changelling speak, quickly letting out a little whistle, sooner than later a group of four griffs took flight. "Your turn, while we rule the waves, you rule the mud and ponds"

"Jaja, mira como me río" The hippogriff answered as she looked back and with a single motion of her claw, ordered a group of four soldiers to follow suit. "Hey, it was a good joke!, Right?"

"Please keep your stupid jokes for yourself, we need to get rid of some savages before engaging in any diplomatic talk, and you are plenty of aware of that" The Changelling answered in a cold tone after the griffon gave her a little nudge. "Yeah, yeah, come on big one, my kind has ruled the world for a hundred years! Do you really think we don't know how to deal with some savages?"

"Bold of you to assume you rule the world or the waves, but I would honestly believe that last one, Griffon males and Griffon food is what made you, perfidious hens, quite the great sailors, I would also become one if had been born in that nasty place you call home" The Hippogriff held a little laugh while the Griffon chuckled "Really? Bold words coming from a loser from a fallen empire"

"Shut up, you two" The Changelling growled stepping bewteen them again, while not too far the young Hippogriff sat next to the elder mare, both of them drinking some hot coffee, while looking at a campfire. "Mademoiselle, les soldats sont préparés"

"Sent 'em on a quick scouting mission, I'm pretty sure those three over there are already dealing with the Bat pony problem" The elder spoke calmly as an unicorn did a salute and quickly left. "Aren't you going to send your Hen... I mean, your soldiers to do something? Little chick?"

"The emperor gave me some rather strict orders, our doctrine is to talk first and fight when there is no other option, I already sent a group to scout the area in search of any town, once we have that intel we can begin the talks" Spoke calmly the hippogriff while he took a sip from his coffee. "Thank you Madam, This Cofee tastes great"

"I'm glad you liked it, you know, we could strike a little deal here" Spoke the elderly mare with a big smile as she drew closer to the Hippogriff, not in a predatory manner but in a more... familiar one. "So... I've noticed your soldiers while great at defense, aren't exactly the best when it comes to engaging in offensive warfare... most great powers aim to get at least one port in this gigantic land, so... why don't we work together? Think about it, this could be the perfect chance to reassure that your nation is no longer a slave of those pesky old hens... what a better chance than allying with someone better?"

"While the idea may sound tempting, I have strict orders, The emperor is clear, he just wants to engage in diplomacy, not in warfare, he agreed to send soldiers and resources, not to engage in unequal treaties, we will negotiate with the locals, not demand from them" The hippogriff spoke clear and loud, before clutching his pendant, making the old mare snicker "Yeah, yeah, its quite obvious you still resent Griffoña, feel free to negotiate all you want, just be wary, I doubt the savages would actually engage in any negotiation"

The old mare let out a tiny laugh while taking another sip, not too far, there was another unicorn currently discussing something with a male griffon.

"I take our deal is still standing?" The griffon asked while the Unicorn nodded, offering him a glass of wine, he took a few sips with a big smile. "Great, I already sent a group to the south, I think we could work together here"

"Rest assured, you have my musket, in exchange I hope I have your cannons" The unicorn spoke calmly while both of them began to walk away...

The many passengers of the ships began to perform their respective duties, making sure that everything worked swiftly and in order, however there was a clear unease bewteen the many races.

Most of them seemed to be, only focused on interacting with those with similar uniforms, as if there was some sort of barrier wich made cooperation harder, even bewteen those of the same race, it was clear that there was a huge animosity.

There was a clear difference in how the groups worked, the hippogriffs with green and red uniforms were more focused in making their camp and tending to a few seasick creatures, uncaring of their allegiance, however, they seemed extremely wary, keeping silent most of the time, only whispering when they were sure no one else was hearing, they seemed to be ready to spring to defense, never leaving their weapons out of sight.

However there was a clear hate bewteen them and the light blue uniformed Griffons, while the hippogriffs uniforms and weapons had small but clearly noticeable differences, the ones of the griffons were more... similar, as if one was made by claw and the other was made by something wich followed a less clawcrafted pattern.

There was also a major difference, the Griffons stood tall and proud, not having the slight doubt or stutter when it came to discuss or stand up to other creatures, while the Hippogriffons were smaller and more soft spoken.

"It is... hard to believe my people were chosen for this... mission" The leader spoke, as he led a group of workers to discharge another batch of supplies into the camp, he, just like most of his peers seemed to be always at the edge, hiding his fear a bit better, but still having most of his sense focused on identifying any danger. "Oh, come on lad, being a Great power is something our peoples were destined to be!"

He almost dropped his musket when the Tall Griffon male saluted him from behind with a little nudge on his shoulder.

"DON'T DO THAT!" He shouted clearly angry, while the Griffon gave him a mischevous smile. "Oh?, Little chick got scared?"

"I wonder why" The Hippogriff answered before standing tall again. "What do you want now?, I already told you I can't sign any of your 'Friendship Treaties', that decision is up to El emperador, and only him"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm plenty of aware of that, but come on! Come on lad, this is the perfect chance for your nation to assert itself as one of the newest great powers! Our two countries managed to outmatch two old world powers, and take their prized seventh and Eighth places, shouldn't we start to cement our places as the new big birds in the playground?"

"Let's make something clear... my homeland has no intention of joining any colonial playground, we are a beacon of freedom, just like your homeland!" The hippogriff said while taking an step towards the Griffon poking him at the chest, he frowned a bit angry before looking him straight in the eyes "Listen up you little... I... am here for the same reason you are here... let's not forget our burden as civilizated birds..."

"Civilizated birds... I've heard that excuse many times, mostly used against my homeland..." The Hippogriff groaned as he turned and began to lead his underlings again. "Ahora... jodete republicano de mierda."

"Hope your country burns, stupid monarchist" Any facade was burnt by now, it was quite clear that the two countries shared an story, and while the green uniforms kept working in polite silence, it was clear that any single brawl bewteen them and the light blue's would quickly become an open battle, something wich was "solved" by the other groups making their camps in the space bewteen them, forcing them to be at extreme opposites.

"Those two going at it again?" Asked the younger unicorn as she walked closer to the elder, she nodded with a little chuckle. "Young countries always bicker and hate each other, specially if the latter lost a war to the first, such a shame really, if only the revolution had began a year or two later maybe... only maybe that juicy piece of land would have returned to the hands of my homeland"

The younger titled her head a bit confused while the older one held back a laugh.

"But... to be honest, losing a war would make anyone angry, at this rate maybe in a few years we may see another war bewteen the twins of the new world, what do you say?" The dark blue uniformed mare asked the clear yellow one who gave a little laugh "I doubt it, the two 'top bitches' are waiting their chance to retake their rebellious chicks"

"That would be a war worth to fight, with money of course, just like thirty years ago" The Mare turned and began walking. "Don't forget our deal, I take you brought 'that'"

"'That' is as ready as ever, we just need a good excuse, is the patrol ready to engage?" She asked before the tall Changelling from before appeared out of thin air with a green flash, just bewteen them. "Indeed... I hope our little science project works here... I'm tired of listening to those two stupid hens bickering over everything"

"The old or the young ones?" The three chuckled before the younger one answered "I take the ones who are actually hens, the two roosters are just eye candy"

The three quickly separated leaving for their respective campsites, hostility stopping once each camp had their respective leaders, and in the case of the green and light blues they were separated.

All of the leaders gathered together over a little hill on the coast, the unicorns using their magic to lift a gigantic piece of paper in the air, showcasing a huge map, wich was rather simple looking, with a single island up north, and a series of dotted lines heading for different directions in an apparently illogical manner, save for one who went south.

This one line passed nearby the islands of Fuba and Filliyi, not too far from the pepper island until it reached a cross, there the Changelling used her magic to draw a rather precise coast.

"Ladies and Gentlecolts... we've reached a second new world"

Chapter 26: Of Princes and Lords

Prince Blueblood never liked the concept of warfare and conflict, it was... so wasteful, all that money going only to weaponry wich was neither elegant nor useful outside of conflicts, when it could go to the beautiful buildings which made Canterlot such a beautiful city, all that money that was wasted in armies would be better in the hooves of artists and builders, not to the pockets of those old warmonger mares.

His aunt, the Princess Celestia wisely gave a limited budget to warmongers, something wich usually made them quite angry, but obedient, mostly because of the influence of Prince Shining armor... Not that such a minor noble could have done anything were it not for its marriage with Princess Cadence...

And now Blueblood was feeling extremely jealous again, how come that a minor noble rose ranks from zero to hero and became a prince while he who had lots of advantages got stuck so much... he wanted to be a hero too...

Sadly Blueblood couldn't exactly focus in his inner ramblings for much longer, mostly because of the news that his friend, Albatross had just delivered, currently he felt like an idiot for even allowing himself to get distracted with his jeaolousy towards his fellow prince.

Albatross went with a group of Lunar Guardsmares to explore a nearby uncharted region in hopes of finding any trace of a certain stone wich Blueblood had once told him about, a supposed stone which, after being processed in a rather arcane and really confusing way, would turn into some sort of steel wich could whistand even the scorching flames of the Princess Celestia herself, a material lost to time...

What he never expected was for his friend to run into his tent while he was talking with the Guardsmare in charge of the Cragadile hunting.

Albatross barged in suddenly, crying in fear and tackle-hugging him, behind him, a group of scared guardsmares trying to hold as firm as possible, clearly shaking for some reason.

Blueblood felt afraid to even ask about what was happening, until his eyes darted to one Guardsmare who looked oddly pale, walking closer, he saw something which instantly got his attention.

"NURSE!" He roared, not even bothering to hide his surprise or act with any hint of decorum, quicly lifting the mare with his magic and drawing closer to a tent. "NURSE!"

He commanded again, and out of the tent came a Earth pony, she had a green coat and a short pale mane, her yellow eyes focused instantly on the bat pony and she quickly took her inside the tent.

"PLEASE TELL ME I DIDN'T GOT ANY BLOOD SPILLED ON ME!" Blueblood shouted as he looked back at his still scared friend Albatross, he seemed to look at him for a few moments before giving him a nudge. "H...hey... w...what do we do now..."

"His majesty" One unicorn clad in golden armour spoke as it drew near Blueblood who was inspecting his coat in hopes of not finding any trace of blood. "Please, allow me to escort you out of this settlement, it has become quite clear that hostile forces desire this area, and as such, we cannot allow royalty to be endangered"

The unicorn spoke as she did a bow towards the prince, who looked just about to say yes...

But, Blueblood kept still for a moment, and looked towards his friend.

"Please... Albatross, could you tell me what happened?"

"A...again?!" Albatross wasn't exactly amused with Blueblood request, neither was the unicorn guardsmare, as she scowled, her helmet helping her hide that from the prince. "Y...yes... I... am a Prince... and as such I'm the closest thing to a leader that New Horseleans has right now, by royal decree it is my duty as the highest authority to lead the defense efforts.

"M...my prince there is no need to do that!" The unicorn quickly stood up and spoke in a less formal manner, taking a surprised look and even an step towards Blueblood. "Please milord, you have to leave this place, conflict is no place for colts, let alone princes!"

"Don't you have a defense to stage?" Blueblood asked and the Unicorn seemed surprised, taking an step back out of sheer shock, not only her, but also the bat ponies who were with Albatross. "M...milord b...but"

"Are you going to make me repeat myself?" The Prince said and the unicorn saluted before taking a shaky step back, and turned "R...r...ro...roger... S...sir"

"Report at the medical tent" Blueblood commanded the Bat ponies and they saluted before leaving him alone with Albatross. "T...TARTARUS!"

Blueblood cried out loud before slamming his head against his table, with a loud and painful sounding "thud". "Albatross, please, tell me again what happened, I really can't understand how or even why would a group of several races appear out of the blue and attack a group of guardsmares for no reason."

"W...well... i'm not sure about why they did that... but... I'm not even sure from where they came from!"

"Please, j--just tell me what happened, even if you aren't sure if that is how it happened" Blueblood asked Albatross.

Then Albatross reared for a second before slamming his hooves on the table, taking an angry look.

"IS THIS FUN TO YOU OR SOMETHING?!" Albatross said while tears streamed down his face. "I SAW SOMEPONY DIE! IS THAT TOO HARD TO UNDERSTAND!"

"NO, IT ISN'T HARD!, BUT I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!" Blueblood did the same gesture and looked at Albatross straight in the face, slamming his own face against him, both of them leering at each other, one crying and the other scowling. "OH, REALLY?! WHY DO YOU NEED ME TO REPEAT MYSELF?! TO LAUGH? TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SAY ONCE YOU GET BACK TO CANTERLOT!?"

Blueblood scowled before taking an step back and taking his hooves off the table, while Albatross looked at him with anger in his eyes.

"Why... I... really don't understand... why do you want me to repeat something that horrible?...I... the blood... the screams... I really don't want to speak about that again..." Albatross spoke as he sat on the floor, and let his face rest against his hooves, covering his eyes as tears streamed down his face. "And the things they said... what they would do to me..."

"I'm asking, because of an old law..." Blueblood said as pushed a crate, not using magic, only using his own strength, the crate was rather big and heavy-looking. "One which Aunt Celestia told me when I was just a foal, around the same time Lord Classy led his bat ponies against the Ursa major."

Blueblood spoke, before leaving the crate at the side of the table, soon he used his magic to lift another crate, this one was long and slim, elegant-looking even.

"I brought this because I felt it would be good for my image amongst the common folk, you know that most ponies dislike me" Blueblood shook as Albatross eyes focused on him.

Albatross own tears began to stop for a moment, as he looked at his friend, Blueblood was shaking, like a colt in cold water,his legs barely standing straight enough to hold his weight, his ears were down and his voice was as shaky as he was, and yet, he never shed a single tear.

Albatross could see, even feel the sheer fear in his friend, and yet he couldn't avoid noticing how he began to open the smaller crate.

Albatross eyes opened up, wide and round, as he took an step back, looking at the thing which was inside the crate, before quickly shaking his head, chanting a non-stop "no" as he did so, quickly lunging at Blueblood and holding him by the shoulder with his hooves.

"HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!" He asked, before quickly closing the crate with his wing, almost crushing Blueblood's hoof in the process, quickly shaking his friend with all of his strength using his hooves. "PLEASE, TELL ME YOU ARE JUST PULLING SOME SORT OF TRICK!"

"I AM NOT!" Blueblood roared back and quickly threw Albatross hooves down to the table, almost making his friend fall down face down to the table. "I am serious Albatross, I...know this may be sudden, but so was the attack, I need to know what happened, to know what to say to the people... and our guard....no... our soldiers"

"Blueblood, this is crazy, this is madness!" Albatross said before Blueblood in a fit of sudden rage kicked the table breaking it in half, the crate over it sent to the floor in that instant. "THIS IS MY DUTY!"

Blueblood panted as his friend looked at him in shock, then using his magic he lifted the content of the crate...

It was an staff, like that of the witches and wizards of old, long and slim, made of the upmost perfect crystal and bronze, it had an sphere with lunar symbols on the top and a crown with a sun symbol over it.

"I am a prince, the highest authority in this place, the law dictates that even if the pony in question is an Stallion, the highest authority must lead a defense effort were the settlement be attacked while having no proper military leadership." Blueblood spoke as he lifted the staff, while opening the other crate, revealing a set of purple and golden armor, it was both beautiful and elegant, and quite light considering how the prince could effortesly lift its pieces. "Care to help me put this on Albatross?"

"Blueblood..." Albatross looked at his friend before then stepping out of the tent for a second, coming back with a frightened gaze. "Are you sure you want to do this? with only a letter, Princess Twilight could arrive in mere seconds, she must have experience with these enemies"

"And force her to solve another problem? No, if I she was here it would be her duty, it falls upon me to fight today"

"Stop the whole Noble-Prince dialogue, this is real life blueblood, not Ogres and Oubilettes!" Albatross told Blueblood and he nodded "I am aware, I swear upon anything that I can swear upon that I'm serious, I will stand and fight alongside everypony!"

Albatross looked at his friend, and took an step back, once again in this exchange, before closing his eyes and kicking the floor in a mix of desperation and frustration.

"This is stupid... Blueblood... just think about it for a moment, I just told you how I saw someone get MURDERED in front of me, in cold blood with not a single trace of remorse from the ones who did it... and you intend to fight? Stand fight in the same town that was overrun once already." Albatross clicked his tongue in frustration before trying to slap his friend, who quickly blocked the strike with an small magic barrier. "This time we have almost five hundred guardsmares, and out of them almost thirty are skilled in magic, we can stand and fight"

"..." Albatross looked at the side before then turning to the side and sitting on a chair. "Go ahead then... get changed, I'll try to organize my memories to tell you exactly what happened"

Albatross looked down, a bit dejected even, as his frown quickly turned into a sad face, which quickly grew more and more scared, Blueblood tried to put on his armor by himself, but it became quite clear he lacked any actual knowledge about how to do so.

Quite the hard proof of that fact, was the helmet almost asphyxating him, due to some kind of bizarre mistake Blueblood had managed to do by somehow, clearly scared he took a few steps back before slipping on a piece of the armor and being sent flying back down to the floor with a loud noise as he landed over his armor set.

The loud noise quickly warned a pair of guards, who bolted into the tent with clear worry.

The scene that welcomed them was quite weird, albeit a bit amusing, on one side there was Albatross sitting on a chair while holding his face with his hooves, shaking with a mix of grief, fear and a sudden urge to laugh as Blueblood was lying over his armor which was spread all over the floor after his fall.

The guards were quite fast in trying to help the Prince get up, however Blueblood lifted his hoof halting them.

"Don't... touch me" He ordered as he rolled over his armor, getting his muzzle just a bit near the floor, in that exact instant his horn shone bright as he let out a high pitched scream, dissapearing in a flash and then reappearing over a nearby table, standing on his hind legs "D...dirty! The floor is dirty!"

Albatross lowered his hooves and looked at him with an scowl before scoffing with a short snort, quickly returning to whatever memory excercise he was doing moments before.

The surprised guards took a few steps towards the armor, as Blueblood's horn quickly shone again and he reappeared back in place, his magic lifting the whole armor set.

"I...need you two to help me get inside this thing" He told the two guards, both of them were rather old Stallions, whose eyes quickly shone as Blueblood asked them that. "A...are you going to fight alongside us? Prince Blueblood?"

"Do I really need to repeat myself non-stop?" Blueblood asked as both Stallions glanced at each other and drew near to him, both were unicorns so using their own magic they began to pick pieces of the armor, cleaning them of any dust or dirt and quickly started to help their prince to get ready.

Albatross rolled his eyes and began to fly towards the exit of the tent, quickly leaving but not before closing the tent something which made Blueblood feel the need to thank him later, however right now he couldn't talk much.

"S...soldiers" Blueblood spoke as both Stallions helped him. "Will... Will someone die? I believe the commander already told you about the enemies..."

"To die is just another part of being a Guard, the moment you take the oath, is upon yourself to not only protect your own life, but that of those who trust you, when there is a big fight, there is going to be some dead... however, with a prince leading the charge, I can assure you, that everypony will fight with tenfold strength, rest assured on that!"

"Yes indeed milord, everypony fights for a reason, most fight for Equestria, which means fighting for the royals, you are one of them, one of the two colts who sit at the top with the title of prince!, The honor to fight alongside you outweights that of any other battle!"

"THIS IS ABSURD!" The voice of a mare could be heard from outside the tent "I WON'T ALLOW THIS, IF PRINCESS TWILIGHT WAS HERE THIS WOULD BE A FAIR FIGHT, BUT WITH PRINCE BLUEBLOOD HERE THIS WILL JUST BE A FIGHT TO PROTECT HIM, NOT THE TOWN!"

Then came the loud sound of an smack as someone clearly had a hoof to the face for breakfast after that loud statement.

"Silence soldier, if you are so willing to complain, you may as well join the first line, those who speak withouth action don't believe to be even listened to." Another voice spoke, as Blueblood ears fell down, he clearly felt hurt upon hearing those words.

"My prince, don't be afraid, many ponies may dislike the idea of an Stallion fighting, but the truth is, a good leader will always be followed, be it Stallion, Mare or whatever there is in the middle, we will stand by you!" One of the Stallions reassured Blueblood as he let out an small sigh.

"I'll get out in a few minutes, I'll just need some time to get some air" He ordered them and with a salute, both excited stallions left him alone.

And he promptly fell face down to the broken table, refusing to even allow an inch of his body to touch the floor.

"Why... you... you and your... BUCKING MOUTH!" He said to himself, despite the sheer wrath in his tone, he was quite silent as he did so. "Now we've done it Blue, now everypony will see what you are in reality.."

Then he turned and covered his eyes with his hooves, the helmet making it a bit harder to do.

"A coward who hides behind guards and says stuff no one can truly believe..." He groaned before his horn began to shine again, lifting his staff.

Blueblood gazed at the beautiful mix of crystal and bronze, even looking at his own reflect for a second or two, focusing for a moment on his at this instant unkept blonde hair, and scared almost goofy-looking face.

He was an absolute mess, wasn't he? He didn't even got Albatross to tell him again what happened with the hostile forces.

Only thing he could recall right now, was that the enemies, a group of ten, two Changellings and four griffons plus four hippogriffs attacked an explorer party of bat ponies, then they engaged Albatross escorts before they could even notice them, and massacred them, with only the five ones who escaped with Albatross surviving after the first Bat died with a hole the size of a golf ball where there once was her brain.

He shuddered even thinking about the idea of witnessing something that horrible, and yet, couldn't do more but feel angry at Albatross for simply leaving withouth telling him more details, he was as good as blind when it came to deal with these enemies, specially since he lacked any actual idea about how to defend a town, let alone actually 'win' and not only 'not-lose'.

Even worse, he felt horrible for even thinking about forcing Albatross to tell him more, he was his only friend darn it! And now he may as well have lost him because of his lack of empathy towards him.

Blueblood rolled to his side, getting ready to stand up... however, he looked at the floor, his tent had an small magical fabric which mimicked the floor of his room, which meant he wouldn't get dirty even if he played around in the floor.

Hating himself for what he was about to do, he stood up and using his magic, took off the fabric, tucking it inside the crate where it was brought here.

The dirt felt... cool, despite the horrible heat in this area, it was such an strange, weird feeling on his hooves, with each step he left behind a little trail and some dirt clung to his hooves, he already had experienced dirt before, but he never actually bothered to feel it.

During his whole travel he was wearing shoes, and hated how small ammounts of dirt would still get inside his shoes, however right now, with his hooves on the dirt it didn't feel wrong....

Taking a few steps he felt the full weight of his armor, it made him sick, like if he was nothing but a commoner carrying something... or worse a donkey...

And yet, for the first time in his life, he actually felt wrong at the idea of thinking less of others, he was quite sure that were a donkey to be in his place, he would have already spoke to the gu.... no... the soldiers whose lives he was about to ask for him to gamble in a conflict.

Taking a few steps towards the exit, he took a deep breath, trying to remember how Shining armor always looked whenever he wore his own.

And so he made way.

"To the ponies whose lives were entrusted to him"

Chapter 27: A few days later...

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 28: Growing support

Prince Blueblood was currently trying to sleep a little bit, this day was... hectic to say the least, were it not for the fact he was a Prince, he was quite sure he wouldn't be even able to eat this rather simple and bland soup, if he wasn't a Prince he would be dead by now, specially since most of the guard leaders weren't exactly happy with him, save for the ones he had to pretty much force to take the lead.

The most experienced Guardsmares, the "old guard" who fought against Bat pony rebels, were the ones who absolutely despised him taking the lead, they simply didn't like the idea of someone who never had military training trying to lead such a huge force in the middle of a siege. Let alone a prince, he heard several rumours, constant tales about his... rather embarassing displays, his constant mistakes from before this day, and even those from today, all the way from how mean he was to commoners, to just how spoiled he was, using his rather sad display at the last gala as a banner to oppose him.

The younger guards and some of the ponies, on the other hand, saw him as a new but hopeful leader, specially the Hippogriffs, they were rather loyal to him, apparently, he was one of the few politicians to just consider them as another citizens and bestow upon them the same care that everypony else got, mostly, with the fishing missions and the constant employement of hippogriff laborers, he was a bit sad that they apparently believed in him so much, specially when he was just trying to employ all the resources he had, he didn't even remember that Hippogriffs, were in fact, not ponies.

That aside, he was currently trying to create a plan to make sure that the tiny support he currently had, wouldn't get overwhelmed by the angry officers and their political ally... New Horseleans mayor...

The Mayor... If there was a Mare blueblood absolutely loathed, besides whatever pony invented Hot sauce and Hayburgers, that mare was the one...

Ever since Blueblood took a single step inside New Horseleans, the Mayor was there, with a wide friendly smile, but ulterior motives, cosntantly ignoring him whenever he gave an order she didn't like, an actively taking anything that was useful, his idea to turn the ruins into a stronghold, was almost stealed by her, were it not for the support of the Bat pony guard.

Currently, the Bat ponies were the only ones who he could actually trust had no ulterior motives, not as trustworthy as Albatross, but rather firm in their duties.

Bat ponies had one order, protect him and protect the people of New Horseleans, mostly the second, which meant that if they had any reason to dislike him, they would rather keep silent and focus on finishing the job before actually trying something against him.

Sadly, out of the hundreds of Guards and Ablebodied ponies and the few Hippogriffs, he just had around a dozen or so Bat pony guards left, most of them had died during the assault.

That aside, he was trying to actually rest a bit, there was nothing else he could do right now, he had already sent the workers, and the fishers had came back, the Cragadiles were ready and eager to pick anything big enough to be an snack, and anything at least pony sized, which meant that if the reports were truth, at least one or two Griffins had already became food to the 'driles.

However Blueblood couldn't exactly rest right now, not when the HIppogriffs were doing several joint excercises with the guard, while they lacked any kind of training, truth to be told, Blueblood was impressed with the sheer strenght each Hippogriff had, he had once heard that a single griffon knight could take head on up to four guardsmares, and yet he saw how four guardsmares barely took down an Hippogriff Blacksmith, it could be that the bird was a brute, which, to be honest, she was, standing at the very least a head taller than most hippogriffs, she was an elegant and powerful looking hen who broke a few rocks during a battle excercise, her name was something like "Seagullia" or something.

As Blueblood decided to come out of his "room" he was welcomed with the sight of the training gu...no... Soldiers, his soldiers, they were giving their all into drilling a sense of discipline and courage into the volunteers, even if the word 'conscript' is constantly used by guards, the truth is, the concept itself is far too different from the Griffon one.

To be a Griffon Conscript is to leave your home an peace, and join the army, becoming a soldier and being trained as one, for as long as the nation needed you, to be an Equestrian Conscript, means that you are asked to become a soldier, and... nothing more, if you refuse you could be useful at home, working the fields or something...

"Good Morning, His majesty!" One of the Loyal guards spoke, bowing down to him, when he for a second tried to offer his hoof for the traditional kissing salute, he quickly remembered he was wearing a set of armor, and chose to give a military salute. "Good Morning Gu... Soldier, May I ask how are our forces doing?"

The Guard was taken by surprise, and after a few seconds of doubt, it spoke, standing tall and proud.

"The Royal Guard is currently ready to fight, we have three hundred troops at the ready, a hundred in training duties, thirty mages in fortification duty, and seventy guards in police duties, out of the close to thousand souls of New Horseleans, a hundred has offered for conscription, while close to all the Hippogriff migrants have joined the defensive duties sir.

"Close to all? What about their children? Or their colts?" Blueblood was taken aback and the Mare took a rather grim look "Most of the migrants are single adults or young couples, most of the families either didn't want to migrate or have one at least one or two of their adults joining to service sir".

The prince looked upon the training grounds, and noticed just how many trainees were there, by eye alone, he jugded at the very least a good sixty hippogriffs, and by celestia... there was an absolute unit among them.

Blueblood could swear he could actually ride on the back of that mare and she could easily carry him like one carries a backpack, she was an absolute giant of silver, black and white, with dark fur around her hooves and claws, as if they were part of an elegant suit, white stripes in perfect harmony with her silver fur, and a beautiful pair of white wings with silver patterns.

She was so gigantic she would easily tower over even a Cragadile, and considering how she was... in fact, eating a Cragadile with some chicks, cooking it the communal kitchen, she was perhaps the single most eye-catching being he had ever seen, only behind his aunts...

Damn, now he was feeling overwhelmed, maybe it had something to do with the fact she noticed him staring, and did a little respectful bow, before standing up and joining a group of ten or so Hippogriffs. The Guard to his side noticed how he looked at her in awe, and snickered a bit, in a friendly manner.

"That's one of the trainees, her name is something like Barracuda, she comes from a Fishing village, and came here with her friends, she is part of Seaguilla platoon, albeit, we could as well call it the Hippogriff volunteer platoon, all the Hippogriffs are ready to serve, but lack training in all the senses, just like most of the pony volunteers" The mare spoke as Blueblood questioned. "Can they fight?"

"Sadly, the pony volunteers can't, they lack any significant order or courage to take head on the enemy, however, we were thinking about having them focus on other duties, allowing us to employ our actual fight capable forces in battle"

"We need, at the very least a thousand soldiers if we even hope to win, considering how an enemy force, smaller in size took the whole of New Horseleans all by themselves, these forces on the other hand, are far more in numbers, tell me, do we really don't have anyone else who can fight?"

Blueblood felt sick with what he was about to order but he opened up his mouth to command...

"ATTENTION, EVERYPONY!" He gave a powerful order, trying to imitate his aunt's Canterlot voice, and even then, his voice came out as rather weak, making most of the guards answer not due to hearing him, but rather by seeing those closer follow the order. "I want you to form two groups, one of the volunteers, the other of the guards"

He ordered, while he gave a nod to the mare, she quickly joined her group, and sooner than later, a hundred well trained guards stood... against them... a hundred barely ordered group of a hundred volunteers, and a surprisingly well looking group of sixty hippogriffs.

"We don't know if your enemy outnumbers us or not, while I was under the impression we had around a thousand soldiers, now I see we don't have nearly as much... I would rather not risk the lives of those who can't fight properly, so, let us do a test, hostilities will most likely start tomorrow, and most of the fortifying efforts are close to done, so, today we shall see who can fight, and who will have to serve somewhere else!"

Blueblood wasn't even sure if he was saying what he wanted to say, let alone what he needed to say. But deep inside, he knew he had to do a selection, on one hoof those who could actually fight, on the other, those who would scramble at the first second...

"Do not show mercy, while this may be training, aim with your training spears and swords as if they were real" Blueblood said as he walked towards the front of the volunteer's, standing like a leader to them, on the other hoof, the Guard who was talking to him not too much ago, went to the front of the hundred guards. "Milord, this is a dangerous game, are you sure you want to play fighting?"

"If any of you goes easy on us... no... for each one of you who goes easy on us, is a hayburger shop i'm closing by whatever means necessary" That sudden threat instantly got most of those present at the time to swallow hard, a few out of worry that they would hurt someone, some out of fear they would get trampled over, and a few ones out of rage that this pampered prince even dared to suggest closing the commoner's most beloved shops... " M...Milord.. this is madness!"

"Madness is the idea that somepony wants to fight withouth knowing what pain feels like!" Blueblood countered what the colt next to him said, and he quickly used his magic to take his armor off, in a loud, powerful flash of magic and lighting. leaving him as exposed as any other pony would be, specially since most of the commoners in his side, lacked armor, even if the guard hoped to provide them with one when the moment came. "Be as rough as you want guardsmares! Our foe lacks honor or goodwill, and as such, we must get ready to properly fight against all kind of foes, even those who fight dirty, and since you will be our main force... I expect you, great and powerful Mares to be an example to us all!"

Blueblood cringed at his own words, unsure if what he said was actually a good motivation, or if he just told them the most stupid thing they have ever heard. however, when the leader used her whistle to signal a charge, a rather straightforward charge, with no strategy more than "Take down anything that isn't in your side"...

Well, he found out that he was... sadly in the right, most of the volunteers fled as fast as they could the second the Guardsmare stampede began... he was pretty damn sure he would have too, were it not for the sudden lunge of the hippogriffs who quite literally threw themselves at the guardsmares, in front of him, quickly enganging...

It was his time, he needed to lead his troops, this was a training, and he was plenty of aware he couldn't exactly lead the whole force... but still, he could start small... the hippogriffs were valiant and not exactly elite, despite being good...

He was sure he would try his best to lead the army in this siege... but if he ever had the chance or the need to guide a platoon, he would take this one... maybe that could help him with his many problems, after all, the best way to become a hardy pony, is to get along with hardy ponies... or well Hippogriffs in this case.

Author's Note

Sorry for the delay fellas! I had a rather horrible creative block. And worse even, i'm not sure if i gave a proper chapter.

That aside, hope you enjoyed it, I aim to develop Blueblood a bit more before the start of the skirmishes. And, if you are wondering why the human tag if the human hardly appears... just wait a bit more, i hope you enjoy what I have in mind.

Chapter 1:The second that changed history

Author's Note

Well... this is my first attempt at both, a pony fanfiction, and an english fanfiction, a little warning I must give, is that i'm quite the amateur at writing, so, clearly I will not be the best writer.

However, I do hope that this short intro can be entertaining, any feedback is welcome, and beforehand(hoof?) thanks in advance for clicking this story.

warnings: Reversed Gender Roles Equestria, Human in Equestria, Politics and other things.

Chapter 1:The second that changed history

It is said, that a mere second, is a paradox by itself...

Something so small, so short, in such a degree that very few things can be done in one, perhaps a blink, a glance, an smile, or even a mere thought, all of those, by themselves are small... short lived, just like a second.

In stark contrast, history is huge, in fact, it is so great, so magnificent, so beautiful and majestic, that a mere day, or a month, or even a year is but a blink... a mere unit of measure, for events that are the reason the world is like it is today!

And now, things were going like usual, in a beautiful and green land, one wich was blessed with beauty and lore alike, as its inhabitants lived their lives, like everyone does.

The sun on the sky shone bright, as its gorgeous golden rays, bathed the streets of what could only be said, was a city of gold and marble, and marvels too, since everything was so perfectly built, it was as if the very own heavens had come down to te mountains, to bestow them with a city made for a god to live in.

At least, that would be the description that many would use, to refer to that place, one wich was clearly just "home" to the many small equines wich were the inhabitants of the city of gold and marble.

Creatures who merely called this majestic place with a simple name.

"CANTERLOT TIMES!" The high pitched voice from an small equine could be heard, as it walked in the sidewalk of the city center, it was clearly a young one, with a gray mane and a pale fur, trotting with a basket floating by it's side, held by some kind of strange pale energy, wich seemed to come from the horn in the head of the little one " CANTERLOT TIMES, HARMONY IS RESTORED, MYSTERIOUS STRUCTURE RISES IN PONYVILLE!"

A papercolt it seemed, albeit, the word filly could be better used, due to the feminine aura it had, the small one, kept trotting, as many other ponies were walking, some of them a bit tired looking, while others seemed with pretty high spirits, whatever had happened, it was the talk of the day, as not only the paperfilly, but pretty much everyone was in one way or other, speaking about this event.

"I, if I am allowed to speak, had the honor to see how the youngest of the four alicorn princesses, managed to vanquish the magic-eater"

"I don't believe such a tale, there is no way you were at ponyville during the final confrontation bewteen the elements and the centaur"

"Oh really?, and why do you have such an negative view of my tale?"

"Because you were hiding under my bed like a little colt!"

Conversations as this one, were all over the city, called, Canterlot, as many mares spoke to each other, in many different places, some where resting on the clouds, other ones were standing near a construction site, another ones were at fancy cafe's, but the truth was, that everypony was minding their own business, while also telling this incredible tale, some of them speaking from experience, others speaking from the few they saw, but most having quite their share of empiric experience.

But, the truth is, that this place, Canterlot, is by itself the home of two beings, two who are currently silently looking over the city, at the top of one of the tallests towers in a building wich was the epitome of the city herself, a building with a regal aura, wich presides over the whole city, a beautiful castle.

On one of the towers, there laid the pair, silent, calm, peaceful, on a pair of rather simple, albeit comfy looking chairs.

"See?, told you the sunset was a beautiful scene Luna, perfect to prepare everypony for the moonrise" Spoke a tall Equine, with extremely long wings and horn alike, with a beautiful flowing mane wich seemed almost hypnotic "Yeah... it is quite the sight sister, albeit, I'm still recovering my strenght... do you think you can help me raise the moon tonight Celestia?"

"It will be a pleasure!" Answered up Celestia, as her horn was shining with quite the light, just as the Sun itself seemed to be slowly lowering itself, to make way for another light, one wich seemed to rise at a slow pace, just like the beautiful glow from Luna's horn " Oh, I almost forgot, Congratulations Luna!"

" Congratulations?" She couldn't avoid asking taken by surprise "Yes sister, you are speaking in a less formal way, It's a great step towards getting new friends!"

"Hehe, I guess that now that Twilight has her own duties as a Princess, you are taking me as a new student" Luna replied, to wich Celestia held quite the nostalgic smile "Maybe Lulu... maybe"

Luna tilted her head to the side a bit, watching her sister, empathy making her stand up and walk closer to her, gently giving her an small hug with her right wing, while the light from her horn slowly diminished.

"Feel free to open your heart sister, don't be an stupid mare like me a milennia ago" Luna said, a little self-conscious, however, Celestia was quick to speak "You weren't stupid, I was, just like in this milennium I'm still the greedy mare that thinks that everything revolves around her... even now, after Twilight has become something greater than even myself, i'm still adamant on keeping her pretty much tied to me, just like when she was a filly, and I refused to have her leave Canterlot"

"You aren't some greedy mare sister, It's just, that Twilight is by now, pretty much your daughter, I threw a Tantrum over myself, you are refusing to allow your little filly to leave the nest, It's normal, every single Mother and Father feels that way, but few can actually let their young ones grow... just like mom did for us"

Celestia chuckled a bit as she gave the hug back, but slowly but surely stood tall and proud again.

"I'm still amazed at your growth Luna, it took me a thousand years to learn from my mistakes... and yet, you are here teaching me things" She praised as Luna blushed a little "Well, ponies these days have this kind of problems way more than back in the days of yore, besides, I'm still in need to learn lots of things...

"Well... then I guess we can teach each other sister, and stop being such crying colts" Celestia joked a bit and Luna chuckled "Yeah... I need to throw less tantrums and you need to be less of a worried father, you do lack the filly pursuing legs still."

"What do you say lulu, want to brighten the mood with some old school jokes?" She asked, getting a little kick from Luna left hoof in answer "The likes of 'Mare, I hate my husband'?"

"Not that kind of old school jokes, those stopped being funny around a hundred years ago"

"Sure, why not?, Most stallions were almost offended by some little jokes i made after helping them with their nightmares... but the mares?, they told me that I needed more recent ones"

"Luna, you were telling old school jokes to stallions?" Celestia questioned and luna held a little nervous smile " Yes?"

"Lulu, I believe we are WAY overdue a little talk about modern day ways of living... and, another thing now that I remember, you need to hide your 'magazines' in a better place, the cleaning gentlecolt got scared once he found those"

"Ugh... now here you are again in 'mother Celestia' mode... guess another Scolding is on its way?" Luna couldn't avoid joking a bit, while Celestia rolled her eyes "Not exactly... but, We do have lots of things to talk about... you teached me something now, so I need to teach you something too"

Luna couldn't avoid snorting in a bit of reluctance, just as her horn finished glowing... however, the moon wasn't fully raised when that happened... it was barely half on it's way, almost as if the night was somewhat young.

The princesses had no way to know about that little detail, specially now that they were inside the tower, but, even if they weren't aware, the moon seemed to be static, but in fact, was moving in a slow manner, completely by itself.

That second, that very exact second where the Princess got distracted, would eventually fade to history, as the harbinger of great changes, but in this night, there wasn't any single one who noticed something strange.

Most slept over, others were busy, some others were throwing parties all around the nation, not a single soul noticing the moon slow pace, in contrast to it's normal rising, no one ever.

And it was to be expected, because, a second is small, such a change is pretty small too, everypony had sleep, business or parties to attend, and... sometimes I wish we could go back to those days, back when the powder for fireworks... wasn't attached to the word "Gun".

"Princess Luna dairy, year 1004 of Celestia Era/Year 0 of new world Era"

Not a chapter

Quick question for those who read this story, would you prefer a more Political oriented story?, or a more social/militar one?

Just a silly question I had because I couldn't write at all this week due to some things, Hope i'm not breaking any rule publishing this.