“Come on. Cooome ooon!”

Joseph impatiently stares at the screen of his red device, waiting eagerly for his pokeball to catch the lv 45 shiny Ponyta he so deeply wants for his collection. Suddenly with a loud crash, two huge doors open violently. The force nearly destroys the metal hinges which support the wooden doors. The human cringes and sighs as the pokemon escapes his pokeball. He puts his sacred Nitendo DS onto the armrest of his makeshift throne and yawns, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment. Joseph looks towards the creature standing at the entrance of his throne room, clearly looking angry for some reason. But it is hard to make out the facial expressions of said creature, since he is still a bit sleepy and hasn't had his morning coffee yet.

He grabs his cup of coffee and slowly empties it as the quadruped creature angrily storms into the room, her, he must admit quite majestic mane, flowing in a non-existent breeze. ’Cause magic. Something out of a bloody damn childrens-book, or freaking Harry Potter. After all these months, Joseph is still not sure whether this planet full of talking colourful marshmallow ponies is reality or whether he is in a deep coma, likely spasming around somewhere in an alley with foam dripping from his mouth. But he puts these thoughts aside and prepares his ears for the incoming verbal assault.

“King Joseph!”

Princes Celestia yells, whilst looking upwards to the human sitting on his makeshift throne consisting of a TV-chair and several boxes of cardboard. The bipedal creature on the throne yawns and stretches his arms and legs as he looks down towards the white alicorn. Her coat seems darker today and her facial expression is sour.

“Pray tell me WHY you did not respond to my letters, even though my kingdom is at war with two highly armed countries?!”

Her voice echos through the almost empty throne room and the human rubs his eyes while he can feel his migraine slowly creeping up towards his temples again. These ponies always find a way to make his head hurt. Especially this whole magic bullshit. Even though it helps his little 'kingdom' to thrive immensely, the fact that mini horses with horns and wings magic’ stuff around still rapes his brain on a daily basis. Joseph groans and rubs his temples as the impatient princess below him waits for an answer. Her coat and mane are unkempt, and her tail is not as shiny as it used to be. This day is clearly not one of her rare days off. He coughs, and gives her a smile as he stands up and walks down the cardboard throne towards her.

"Hello dear Princess. Why the sour face and tone? Do you have something on your mind?”

He tries to pull a serious face but as he gets no reaction from the now clearly pissed princess besides her left eye lid twitching slightly, he laughs and smacks his left knee.

“I’m sorry. I am merely jesting as how your sister would say. And I haven’t replied to your letters because I have no magical dragon to reply your letters like your purple-smart pony has, remember? So, pray tell me what’s going on and why you interrupt my morning routines? Is everything stable over there in Pony-land?”

As he looks down towards the princess he waits for an answer. She looks towards his cardboard throne with a stoic expression and then glances back towards the human.

“S-stable?” She almost whispers in disbelief. “Are you even serious for one second Joseph?! We are at war with the Griffon Empire and the Minotaurs. Their armies have invaded almost one fifth of our territory! Our troops are retreating more and more each day, and our military strength is at a crippling state! We need your assistance at once!"

Joseph stares at her for a while, blinking a few times. It seems like shit really is on fire...

“At once, huh?”

He eyes her for a while and then can’t help but yawn again after taking a sip from his now cold coffee.

“Assistance you say? But I already helped you with the changeling incident at Candencys wedding only two months ago.”

“Cadance. Her name is Cadance, Joseph”.

“Ah yes. Cadance. I’m sorry.” Joseph clears his throat.

“Anyways. As I said, our relationship with the Equestrian government is quite one-sided. You and your sister only come to me when you want something. I don’t even hear a: 'Hey Joseph, how are you on this fine day, mate?' Or 'Hey Joseph, you wanna go to the cinema and check out the new Spider-Mane movie?' Nothing like that.” Joseph sighs in sadness and looks away from her.

“The only thing I hear is 'Help me here, Joseph. Help me there, Joseph. My Kingdom is getting attacked… Yadda Yadda…' ” Joseph sighs again, shaking his head.

“Joseph…” She sighs in desperation. “I know I, my sister and our whole kingdom already owe you a lot. But we need just a little help for your military. M-Maybe just a dozen of your so-called P-90 weapons with a bit of ammunition. After we have dealt with this issue, we will repay you immediately. I promise!”

Celestia sweats a little and hopes for the goodwill of this strange new king. Six months ago, he was just a lost and confused soul after he suddenly appeared in this world so distant and different from his own. But now, after just half a year, the Sun Goddess stands there, in his throne room, asking for his help so her own kingdom will not perish under the influence of her foes.

“Celestia. I’m sorry but I must inform you that we have stopped the production of said weapon. It is simply old technology and not sufficient anymore. We decided to…”

“NOT SUFFICIENT?!!”

Joseph cringes again and rubs his temples. Celestia immediately lowers her volume as she noticed her mistake.

“But we were able to push back all changelings with just six of these weapons, King Joseph! Just six against 200 changelings. This weapon is nowhere close to insufficient.”

The human yawns again and then strolls around his unfurnished and improvised throne room while shaking his head slowly.

“Yes, that’s true. But as I said, I decided that it is not sufficient anymore. It is merely a crude toy by today’s standards, Celestia. I’m sorry. I really am.”

Celestia just stands there staring at the human in disbelief. She won't get any help. First Zebrica, then the dragons and now the only human known to this planet. Her legs shake slightly as she realizes that this might be the end and that she probably needs to consider surrender and accept whatever horrible terms of surrender the griffons and minotaurs put on her already heavily damaged country.

“I… I see…” Celestia sighs in sadness but with acceptance visible in her facial features.

“But…”, the human continues:” I can’t let down cute ponies princesses asking for my help,
now can I?”

The princess narrows her eyes but her slightly rosy cheeks reveal her embarrassment. Joseph smirks and then laughs while smacking his knee.

“Gosh, I'm jesting! You are quite something." He chuckles again and then turns his back towards her. "Now Celestia, please come here so I can show you something, okay?”

The human is now sitting on a couch. It is faced towards a big array of windows which allow observers to admire the vast distance of the Badlands in which the human’s little 'country' can be found in. The princess sits next to the human and waits patiently, trying to put on her best behaviour so her chances of getting help increases just oh so slightly. The human nods and smiles. He then takes a rectangular device from his pocket, presses a button on its screen and then speaks into it.

“Oppenhooves. I need you here in the throne room. I have a guest over and I want to show her what we came up with, okay? Mhmmm... Great! Thank you.”

The human puts the device back into his pocket, turns to his guest and then pulls out two cups and a steaming pot.

“Tea? Some birdy told me you like Earl-Grey with two sugar cubes.”

The Princess simply nods and waits patiently as he puts two sugar cubes into both cups and oh so slowly fills both cups to the top. Sweat pearls down the Princesses neck as she stares at the cups being filled. To her, it feels like hours until they are both full.

With a loud thud the doors open again and a brown coated earth pony stallion with a short grey mane and tail trots into the room. He has a bulky rectangular device in his left hoof.

“You requested my presence, king Joseph?”

“Ahh, you are alerady here, splendid. And yes, I simply wanted to show my guest our newest accomplishments. Do you have the goggles here, Oppenhooves?”

The princess eyes the human and his scientist curiously as the stallion hands two pairs of goggles towards her and his king. The human and Oppenhooves both put their goggles on and Oppenhooves hands the device in his hoof over towards his King. The device was black. It had a little LCD-Screen on the top and a big red button in the middle.

“Now, Princess. I want you to put up a shield right in front of my castle. About 30 meters high and 100 meters wide. Can you do that for me?”

“Why would I need to put up a shield there?”

“Do you want my assistance in your little crisis back in pony land now or not?”

The human eyes his guest sternly while stirring his tea with his spoon without making any sound. He waits a few seconds. When he gets no immediate answer, he simply sips on his tea and waits. A few more seconds pass.

“Very well. I will do so. However, I do not understand the need for such a shield in front of your castle.”

The Princesses horn shines in a golden hue and a golden but transparent magic shield appears in front of the castle. Joseph smiles and looks towards the earth pony next to him.

“Thank you, Princess. Now Oppenhooves, to which device are we connected right now? Our newest creation I assume?

“Yes. The remote is connected with our 15 Kiloton device called “dawn”, Sir. It is located 2 Kilometers away from the castle and suspended on a 50 meter tall tower, Sir. But once again, considering the yield the relative close distance we should reconsider…”

Joseph quickly interrupts him with a raised hand.

“Thanks for your service. You can remain here Oppenhooves.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ26vVOZQ64

(optional music)

Joseph's assistant and top scientist reluctantly nods and hands over the device towards Celestia’s right hoof. The princess curiously takes off the protective plastic cap over the button. After a friendly reminder, the princess puts on her googles and then, once again, eyes the red button with care. She looks up towards the shield she casted in front of the castle, protecting it from whatever might appear or happen once the red button is pressed.

“What is this “Kiloton” your scientist mentioned?”

The human's scientist and assistant quickly speaks up.

“The Kiloton is a unit that describes the yield in our devices, Mam'. I shall not bore you with any details on how we calculate it.” Celestia eyes Joseph and rasies her eyebrows, clearly not statisfied with the explanation.

Joseph nods after his assistant explained it vaguely and then takes another sip of his tea.

“Now, Celestia. How about you press our little red button right here?” His eyes almost sparkle with anticipation as he holds back an excited grin. She feels even more uneasy now.

Celestia slowly and gently puts her white hoof on the button and swallows empty. Several weeks of war with the griffons and minotaur’s flash by her eyes as she closes them. Everything just over a silly incident including her, accidently slipping on a freshly cleaned marble floor and smashing a cake right into the griffon emperor’s face in front all his advisors. The minotaur’s did not think about it for a second when the emperor promised them 100 tons of gold if they helped them invading Equestria. Everything just because of a damn cake. And Celestia could not even enjoy one single slice of said cake, or any other cake since that incident. Anger swells up inside her and she quickly glances towards the human on her right side who simply stares into the depths of the wastelands while sipping on his tea and munching a cracker. With determination she presses her hoof firmly against the button and turns her gaze towards the far distance in front of her.

Everything turned white. The most intense and blinding white she ever experienced in her long life.

It feels like the sun just tripled its intensity and shines with all its might into the pupils of her eyes. She closes her eyes in pain but opens them quickly again. A huge fireball instantly appeared about 2 kilometers down the wasteland. It quickly grows bigger and bigger. Distant palm trees instantly ignite from the thermal radiation and snap in half like tooth-picks as the shockwave reaches them. The princess gawks in awe at what this insane human and his scientist developed, while the huge burning mushroom cloud soars into the blue sky. The only sound heard in the throne room is the human sipping his tea while the shockwave travels closer and closer to the observers sitting behind the shield and the castle windows.

Celestia’s pulse increases and she is even able to hear her own heartbeat. A sound she heard only about a thousand years ago when she had to battle her own sister. This thought and the fact that the shockwave impacts her shield, cracking it heavily and ultimately destroying it while the shockwave fills the throne room with an ear-piercing thunder, sends chills down her spine. The human sitting next to her winces in pain and rubs his ears, while putting down his tea-cup on the saucer and taking off his googles. He has a huge grin on his face as he stares at the crippled magical barrier that took most of the shockwaves impact but in the end broke due to the immense forces. The huge plexiglass windows, behind which the observers sit, wobble back and forth heavily, almost breaking due to the sudden change in air pressure.

“Gosh! What a sound! I’m damn impressed, Oppenhooves! Hell Yeaa!”

Joseph starts to laugh very intensely. His laugh could be mistaken with a maniac’s, locked deep down in a psychic clinic, if he was not choking on his cracker and would not be getting pats on his back by his assistant, so he won’t choke to his death.

The princess gulps once again and stares down the now even more barren waste land. She could not imagine the harsh desert looking any more lifeless than it already was just a minute ago…

“So… Princess? Is it lit or not?" The human exclaims with pride in his low voice, anticipating her excitement after demonstrating his invention.

Celestia is in deep thought. Since these mystical anomalies decided to appear randomly all over Equestria about 6 months ago, her country had to face many hardships. First, there are many sightings of strange creatures the princess has never seen or heard about in her long life. And second, there is the fact that said anomalies somehow drain the magic out of the environment. Not at a fast pace, but her being an alicorn, she can sense it and it feels like her sun gets heavier and more immobile each day when she raises and lowers it.

These circumstances and the fact that her nation is at war, drives her usually always so calm and collected senses to a state of desperation.

"Quite a tough crowd huh? So… you think it’s not that impressive? I uuhhh... I could increase the yield if we raise our production in highly enriched uranium isotopes. But that is quite expensive and takes quite a while aaaand yeaa… I dunno..." The human states while scratching his head awkwardly, a bit disappointed since the white pony princess isn't sharing his enthusiasm about the demonstration.

Celestia quickly shakes her head. "N-No, it is not that! I am just a little pensive, excuse me."

She looks out through the plexiglass windows and sighs. "I have never seen something like this in all my long life. I could not even make out one single bit of magic energy... It just seems like it’s impossible, yet I saw it with my own eyes... However, I wonder why would you even develop such a destructive weapon in the first place?"

"Well princess. I just got bored and thought why not experiment a little and have some fun in this boring barren wasteland. No. Honestly, this weapon is merely reassurance for my mind. Because I tend to get jumpy when I get transported into a crazy-acid-trip-dimension, where cute mini horses with wings and horns control the fucking celestial bodies, Celestia!" Joseph needs a while to calm his breathing.

The human clears his throat again and lowers his volume after the sudden outburst. "Sorry, Princess."

She eyes his for a while and merely nods. Joseph quickly speaks up again, a mischievous smirk findig it's way towards his lips.

“But, in addition to that, it seems like the demand for such a device is quite high at the present time. It could turn out to be quite a business model." He wiggles his eyes, grinning like a madman. "Sooooo, I wonder what you could offer me, Sunny."

"What are your demands for one, human?" The princess spat, clearly annoyed by the way she is being addressed.

The human grabs a nearby scroll, opens it and clears his throat. He was clearly prepared for this moment.

“In exchange for one "Dawn Device" with a yield of approximately 10-15 Kilotons I, King Joseph W. Wecksel the first, set the following demands:

Demand number 1: The Princess of the Sun will, with her magic and sorcery, arrange monthly thunderstorms in my kingdom, so this utter boring wasteland turns into a garden or something.

Demand number 2: It is expected, that Princess Celestia herself, delivers one cake per week directly into my quarters in my castle.

Demand number 3: Cake delivery is to be executed on Saturday morning at 9 am. If the cake delivery is 10 minutes to late, a punishment shall be initiated."

Joseph puts the scroll onto the table, places a pen next to it and leans back, crossing his legs while taking another sip from his tea. The Princesses eye lid twitches again and she tries to hold her composure together. She actually tries her hardest not to cry or laugh at these demands. In all her life, she has never heard something as ridiculous and humiliating as this.

“King Joseph. Please be sincere with me. This is nothing we should joke about. The crown of Equestria could offer you a onetime payment of 500’000 Equestrian bits. When this issue has been dealt with, we will arrange a second payment of another 500’000 Equestrian bits. How does that sound?”

The human leans forward, eyeing his guest with a harsh glance, clearly not satisfied with such a response.

“Do you think my demands are a joke, Princess Celestia?” The way he said her name brought chills down her spine.

“I… uhm.” The princess stammers for the first time in a while and wipes a pearl of sweat from her forehead. “I didn’t mean to insult you King Joseph. I simply never heard such … let’s say unconventional demands.”

“Unconventional.” The human pauses for a while. "I see.”

“Since I am not being taken seriously in my own throne room, I think it’s for the best that you leave my castle at once. I expected better of you, Princess. Maybe the Griffons will be more understanding of my demands.”

With a saddened sigh the human puts his cup on the saucer and stands up, walking close to the plexiglass windows. He shakes his head and stares into his still burning wasteland while waiting for his guest to leave. After a while, he turns around and raises his eyebrows since the now unwelcome guest is still sitting on his couch, holding a hoof on her white chest right below her golden regalia.

“King Joseph, please accept my most sincere apologies. I never had the intent to insult you. I would be honoured to fulfil your demands in exchange for one of your “Dawn” devices. In these difficult times I tend to forget my manners, please forgive me.”

The princess lowers her hoof, which she held to her chest, onto the couch again while smiling towards the human in a friendly and sincere way. Joseph wants to be angry with her, but as she starts looking up towards him with those big, magenta and puppy-like eyes, he cringes as his heart aches. -I’m getting a call? Ah, cuteness-overload resulting in diabetes? I see… Thanks for letting me know, body.-

“Gosh. How could I not believe such a cute pony? I would be a monster, right?” The human declares, while the big mushroom cloud darkens the sky behind his back as he speaks towards her.

The quadruped princess springs into the air and smiles happily, a faint blush on her white cheeks.

“Splendid! I am so happy that we could strengthen our relationship with the human empire in these dark times. You really are a true friend Joseph. I look forward in our relationship and wish the best to you and your empire.”

The human blushes a bit, taken back by the sudden change in mood. “Yea yea, thanks. I’m just too generous, I know. Hehe.”

“So, Celestia. I sincerely hope, that with my help you can overcome your little crisis back in pony-land.” The human speaks while ponies, a few griffons and other mercenaries from all over the world load the nuke into the royal carriage with pulleys. “But don’t forget about our little agreements okay?”

“I would never do such a thing, Joseph. I am a mare of honor." The two look towards the carriage, the explosive payload now loaded and slowly being secured. "Speaking of honor, you are invited to the royal castle for dinner this evening. I would be delighted if you accept the invitation, Joseph.”

“Sure. It’s not like I have anything better to do. Oppenhooves can run this place so I’m good. And eating something else than potatoes and water would suit me well. Trust me, it’s a pain in the ass to grow shit here.”

“Splendid! Then let’s go.” The Princess exclaims happily, a bit too happily for the human’s taste, concerning the situation she is in…

The human lazily sits in the royal carriage, facing the solar princess while playing around with a toothpick in his mouth, completely ignoring the fact that the explosive payload in the carriages trunk is making noise after noise as it is not secured properly. Despite this casual behaviour, he firmly has one hand locked around a metal railing, trying his best to not look outside the carriage. He notices his companion staring at his hand and then looking into his eyes with a smirk.

“What? Can I not be afraid of heights?”

Celestia rolls her eyes, her mane waving behind her in the wind as the two so different creatures soar over the ponium mines using Celestia’s royal carriage. “Excuse me. I did not mean to stare or imply that you are 'not allowed to be afraid of heights'. It’s just wondered whether all humans are like you.”

“You mean as good-looking, humble and droll as I am?” The human winks and grins.

The princess eyes him for a while but then giggles and puts a hoof in front of her muzzle.

“I actually meant your serenity and the way you handle all this. Six months ago, you appeared here out of thin air. You were scared, confused and hurt. But now. Now you have your own castle, your own country and possess weapons any military officer would not even dare dreaming about. It is not an everyday sight to behold, you see.”

“Ah. It seems like I have made quite the impression on somepony, have I?” The human grins and chuckles as he sees the solar princess snorting and rolling her eyes. “But, to be honest, I am still unsure whether I’m still on Earth in a deep coma, or half dead in an alleyway, while dreaming all this crazy shit here. It’s the most plausible explanation in my opinion tho’. But instead of crying and bitching around about it, I am doing what I’m the best at.

“Like inventing horrible weapons of mass destruction?” Celestia retorts.

“Hey! You’re the one here who plans to drop a fucking nuke in the battlefield, you crazy horse! I merely have fun with explosives in my backyard, sheesh.”

“Joseph! It is not in in our intention to harm-”

With a sudden jolt the carriage loses altitude, quickly dropping below 2000 meters. Joseph gasps and clings tightly onto the railing as the carriage rumbles and violently shakes back and forth as it falls towards Equs. The human gulps in fear as he sees the trunk suddenly to be open, the 400 Kilogram bomb on the edge of falling out.

“THE fuck is going ooonn?! Are you insane? Fucking fix your bloody flying magic box!”

“The magic must be getting drained out of it somehow! It’s as if an anomaly is about to form right here!” The Princess shouts with worry written all over her face, her wings flared out wide.

Celestia tries to stabilize the carriage, but the ground is getting closer and closer. They both stare at the empty trunk and Josephs pupils shrink to the size of small needle heads. Celestia immediately lifts him onto her back with her magic.

“Hold on tight!”

With a strong kick she leaps out of the carriage and dives after the falling bomb with the human on her back who is clearly not happy about the situation. Tears form on the edge of his eyes, the strong winds clearly too much for him.

Joseph smacks the Princess repeatedly on her withers: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU CRAZY FUCKING HORSEEE!!!! USE YOUR HORN! USE YOUR FREEKKING’ HORN!!!”

As the nuclear warhead plummets down towards the rocky desert, the princess grabs hold onto the bomb with her magic, engulfing it in her golden hue. She shuts her eyes and clenches her teeth together while trying her best to slow its descent. With all of her might she manages to slow it down, but the ground is already closer than 500 meters, her magic, she thought not possible, almost fully drained. It felt like her life essence was being stolen from her own body by an unknown foe. The human on her back would likely be spasming around in fear, were it not for the fact that he needs to cling onto her neck for his dear life.

‘’YOU CRAZY MINATURE HORSEE! “TP” US OUTTA HERE IMMEDIATELY!! USE YOUR TELEPORT! USE YOUR TELEPORT RIGHT FUCKING NOWW!’’

The human yells into her ears and clings onto her neck and mane as if his life depends on it. Well it actually does in this situation. He hears the sound of teleportation magic and suddenly finds himself still on the princesses back, while hovering in place above the rocky desert.

“Don’t worry, my little human. I’m quite experienced in teleportation, so we should be quite far away from the danger zone.”

“Y..You sure?” Celestia feels the human on her back trembling in fear as he points into the Sky. About 300 Meters away the bomb is still falling, making a high-pitched noise as the air travels through its stabilizing fins.

-How is this possible? With the amount of magic I put into the spell we should have been teleported way further-

Celestia channels energy into her horn to initiate another teleport, but sparks fly from her horn and she finds herself unable to perform this most basic spell. With a worried expression she gallops away towards the direction of the nearby forest. With a powerful leap she soars into the air and pushes herself and her payload forward with powerful wing strokes. She feels her magic to strengthen again as she gets further away from the desert and quickly casts a bubble around her, lowering the air resistance somehow so she can gain more speed. Trees and boulders zip by as she doges and weaves trough the forest at an amazing speed. Joseph hears his own pulse beating rapidly in his ears and he can almost make out an even faster pounding pulse on the princesses neck as he clings onto her, fearing for his beloved life.

The bomb connects with the rocky desert ground and suddenly everything shines in a blinding light, as the forest gets illuminated from behind so unbelievingly intense, the "dawn device" clearly holding up to its name. Joseph digs his fingers into her fur and smacks her on her left side, while screaming in rage and fear.

“AAHHHHH!!! FLY FUCKING FASTER OR WE WILL BOTH BE TOAST! IM FUCKING 22 AND NOT READY TO DIE UNLIKE YOU OLD HAG!!!” Celestia ignores or didn't even hear him.

All trees in the forest are immediately engulfed in fire as the trees get bombarded with thermal radiation. The magic shield, protecting both from the immense heat, cracks and the temperature inside the bubble immediately raises to a very uncomfortable level while the shockwave creeps up towards the alicorn and the human. It's coming closer and closer, destroying all trees standing in its path as if they were mere drinking straws.

Joseph shuts his eyes and sees his life flashing by. He had plans. Simple plans but plans nonetheless. He only wanted a normal life on earth. Friends, a chill job at the local nuclear power plant, time for fun hobbies and maybe a girlfriend. But apparently, he was not allowed to. Some edgy anomaly decided to appear right inside his bloody fridge. He was not even allowed to enjoy a glass of milk in the morning as he was being sucked right inside the fridge, only to reappear in a weird forest, all contents of his beloved fridge falling onto his already battered body.

And now, six months later, he is riding a pony princesses back while trying not get toasted by 10 Kilotons of explosives going off behind him.

-We are fucked.-

The sound of teleportation magic and the fact that the incoming shockwave almost destroys his eardrums, ends his line of thought. Everything goes to black.

The griffon emperor grins as a female servant feeds him fresh grapes. Things are looking good for him, very good. The griffon army could take over several smaller villages and a few small cities without many casualties. And just yesterday, they were able to overwhelm the defensive military forces in Baltimare, making this the first big equestrian city in control of the Griffon empire. Things are almost going too well. On top of that, these weird anomalies seem to weaken the ponies magical abilities. His scout squads and spies informed him about that matter and since the griffons could invade Baltimare so easily, there surely must be some truth behind it. Because under no circumstances would the Equestrian princesses just hand over this important city without a proper fight.

One thing bugs the emperor though. His spies informed him about a weird bipedal creature. It was spotted in the Badlands, apparently living in a castle of his own. The worst part is, that Princess Celestia herself was spotted visiting said creature. Now, it is hard to believe for the emperor, but according to his spy’s, there was a blinding light spotted in the Badlands right when the princess was visiting this strange creature in his castle. It was brighter than the sun itself and wiped the desert clean of its vegetation. Albeit vegetation not really existing there to a bigger degree, said event was apparently still extremely powerful.

The emperor grabs another grape from his servant’s claw and swallows it without even considering chewing. He turns his gaze towards a big griffon standing next to the emperor’s side, wearing a stoic expression on his face. He has a big scar right under his left eye and his frame was very muscular and wide. The rough and strong look is completed with his sharp claws, looking like metal blades from the distance.

“Silverclaw.” The emperor addressed the bulky gryphon next to him.

“Yes, my lord?” The strong griffon answers immediately, loyalty embedded deep in his low voice.

“This ape-creature. You must deal with it. Under no circumstances can we allow that Celestia gains any military strength due to any potential alliances, is that understood?"

Silverclaw nods, a small grin forming as he looks down towards his sharp claws. He’s going have some fun with them soon. Something he’s going to look forward doing again. His grin grows wider.

“Of course. Consider it done by tomorrow, my lord.”

Silverclaw opens the balcony doors and leaps into the sky with his strong wings, his claws shining in the golden sunlight as he heads towards Equestria.

Joseph’s head feels like it went through a blender, hell and back as he opens his eyes and tries to get up. He is unable to move. A heavy but soft white object is pinning him against the forest ground.

“The fuck happened ughh…”

He rubs his eyes and notices the white alicorn directly on his chest, knocked out with a sore bulge on her head, right next where her horn starts. She snores silently and drools over the human’s face while muttering something in her sleep about a fiery bird stealing her precious slices of cake.

“Eww! Bloody disgusting! Why does shit like that always happen to me?”

The human struggles and tries to shove the mare off his body. Quite a task when one is simply too exhausted. The struggling mess below the princesses’ body finally wakes the mare up. Celestia holds a hoof onto her sore head and groans.

“By Luna’s moon... Where am I?”

Celestia opens her eyes and immediately gets greeted by a grumpy human face, covered in slimy saliva. Her saliva. Celestia’s eyes widen as she recalls what happened and she springs immediately to her hooves, an embarrassed and worried expression on her muzzle.

“Oh, dear! I’m so sorry Joseph.” Celestia looks to the left and right and notices the human’s backpack laying on the forest ground. Its contents sprayed all over the place. She sees a towel, which Joseph must have kept in his backpack, laying in the forest leaves. She quickly grabs hold of it and uses it to clean off the mess she produced on the human’s grumpy visage.

"Please excuse me. This should never had happened. I don’t know why but somehow my magic got drained and I couldn’t teleport properly. It m-must have been due to an anomaly nearby!" Celestia didn’t even notice herself stuttering a little and just trotted in place as she explained herself. Her cheeks were quite a bit red.

Finally looking down again, she offers a hoof towards the sore human laying on the leafy ground. He grasps it and pulls himself onto his feet, using his hands to dust off his now dirty and torn clothes. Joseph then wipes the remaining saliva from his chin with the back of his left hand.

“Let’s just not talk about it, okay?” Celestia nods and smiles a little sheepishly.

"Okay. Let’s evaluate our situation. We flew with your sorcery-carriage. Dropped the nuke. It exploded and almost roasted us alive. Aaaand we teleported right into a forest with no clue where we are. Great! Just Great!”

Joseph walks in a circle and groans in annoyance. “For fucks sake, I can feel my migraine creeping up on me again…” He then squats down and holds his head in his palms.

Celestia steps forward and holds a hoof on Josephs shoulder. He looks up to her, eying her now smudgy coat and dirty wings. Leaves and smaller twigs are tangled inside her now less wavy mane.

“Joseph, the worst thing we could do in this situation is panic. You should relax.” Celestia exclaims in a relaxed and gentle tone. "Besides, you should be thankful for this 'old hag' who saved your sorry flank."

Joseph, after swearing a little to himself, finally calms down and agrees. Celestia opens her dirty wings and flies into the air where she hovers in place and looks out for her castle. She spots it in the far distance and soars back towards the human, informing him about which direction they should hike towards. The pair walks through the forest, not talking much while Joseph plays around with a damaged compass, apparently not fully trusting his alicorn companion. Understandable, if we take into consideration what just happened with her magic carriage just an hour ago.

After a while the pair reaches a cobblestone path and the human's mood raises tremendously as he notices an inn in the far distance.

“I’m off. See ya’ Princess!”

He speeds towards the direction of said inn and smiles in content as he admires the western styled Saloon. He walks through the entrance doors without a care and strolls towards the bar, completely ignoring all the stares he gets from all ponies sitting inside. The country music abruptly stopped as he reached the bar and waits for someone to take in his order. He looks to the left and right and immediately notices that several ponies, especially mares, are staring at him.

A middle-aged female pony trots up to the counter and raises her eyebrows at the strange creature in front of her.

“Well, hello there. What can I get for ya’ exotic stallion?” She says with a western accent while leaning against the counter, rubbing a beer-glass with a white towel.

Joseph chokes a little on a bit of spit and narrows his eyes. It is true though. In this would he could be considered exotic. But hearing this from pink and winged pony is weird. Like really weird.

“Just a pint of beer please. I’m on transit and…”

The human feels a nudge on his side and notices a black pony with bat wings staring up towards him, while licking her fangs. The human raises his eyebrows high as his brain realizes a mix breed between a pony and a bat stares at him in a sultry way. He prays to all gods listening, hoping that he will get his beverage immediately, so he can leave this weird inn as soon as possible.

“Uhm. Yes?” The human asks, tilting his head slightly to show his annoyed state.

“How about we both take some drinks and rent one of these rooms over there? You seem like an exotic stallion and I’m in need for some fun. I won’t accept a no anyways, so you better behave.”

Joseph's brain feels like it got soaked in vodka and then was lit on fire. A pony-bat-creature, reaching half of his height, 'asks' him out to do weird, kinky and non-consensual bat-sex. He opens his mouth, but no words come out, clearly not able to think properly anymore. He just wanted to get a bloody pint of bear for fucks sake. But apparently, once again, he was not allowed to enjoy the simplest things in life.

“Leave him in peace at once!“ A familiar, feminine but strong voice halls trough the inn.

All eyes suddenly are turned towards the entrance. All but the bat pony’s. She just sighs and grins at the human in front of her who is still trying to supress the fact that this is just happening.

“And pray tell why I should even listen to you hmm?” the bat pony exclaims a little reluctant, still grinning at her prey in front of her.

Joseph turns towards the direction where the voice came from and sees an angry Celestia walking towards the bar. She has a fiery look in her eyes and her dirty wings are flared, almost knocking down some glasses as she walks past the tables, but no one dares saying anything about it. The bat pony finally looks at who dares challenging her. Her pupils shrink at an instant.

“Because If I were you, I would be more reconsidering of what escapes my muzzle. Because if you won’t, I will torch your house down to its mere foundations with you inside, is that understood?!” Celestia’s eyes seem like they could pierce trough metal and her waving mane and tail could be mistaken for a raging fire.

All muzzles in the inn hit the floor at what just happened while the bat pony whimpers in fear, her tail between her legs.

“I-I I’m sorry Princess! I-I-I It won’t happen again.”she whimpers some more, and her voice gets very quiet, filled with fear. “P-Please don’t send me to the moon…”

Celestia huffs and nods. “I’ll think about it. King Joseph, let’s go. I don’t want to be late for dinner at the palace.”

“Uhm, s-sure Princess. Whatever you say.”

Joseph grabs the pint, puts a few bits on the counter and throws an apologetic smile into the crowd of ponies. “Seems like I am needed somewhere else. See ya’ peeps!” He quickly exits the inn and sees Celestia in the distance walking away. Apparently, she did not see the need to wait for him, so he jogs after her.

“Celestia, wait!” He reaches her and tries to get her attention, which he fails to do as she just continues walking, her gaze locked forward into the distance.

“The fuck just happened back there. I mean I appreciate it and all, but seriously? That poor thing was terrified and probably shit her pants if she would wear any.”

Celestia stops walking and looks up to him, her facial expressions difficult to read since she trained her poker face over the last two millennials quite well.

“’Poor thing’ you say? Joseph, may you tell me how the gender roles exactly work where you are from?

“Uhm well. Nowadays, males and females are not superior to the other gender. At least that’s how it is where I am from. Why do you ask, Princess?”

Celestia sighs and runs a hoof through her flowy but still messy mane.

“Sadly, things aren’t always sunshine and rainbows in Equestria. Many societies on our small planet still believe in a gender role, which places the female above the male. Males still face many hardships and just recently got their proper rights. Stallions and mares are by law equal now, but not all mares see this law as a necessity. In addition to that, there is the 1 stallion to 3 mares birth ratio, which makes it even harder for stallions to step up for themselves.”

Joseph nods and stares towards Celestia while thinking for himself for a second.

“Wait. Are you saying that this creepy, barely one-meter tall bitch, wasn’t joking and actually wanted to fucking rape me?!” The human almost shouts in disbelief.

Celestia, ignoring his language, looks towards the cobblestone road under her hoofs and nods sadly.

“I can’t be one hundred percent sure of course, but it seems like that would have been the case.”

"Seeshh… That’s bloody fucked up!”

He looks over to Celestia and notices her shamefully looking at the ground. Joseph frowns at that and quickly tries to think of a way to cheer the princess up.

"Well, we should have shoved the nuke down her throat instead of dropping it over the desert, now shouldn’t we?"

The human grins and ruffles the princesses’ wavy mane while chuckling. Celestia tries to hide her smile and smacks Joseph's hand from her head with a quick whip of her horn, making him flinch a bit.

“Joseph! This is a most important matter and should not be joked about!"

Joseph quickly pulls his hand back and laughs. "Owww. Hey, that hurt! Watch out where you swing that pointy horn of yours!” Celestia just rolls her eyes and the two continue to walk along the path again. She should be annoyed. She actually is a bit, but she cannot help but smile for a very short second.

After a long trek and a train ride, the pair finally arrives at Canterlot Castle where Celestia gets greeted with a lovely verbal assault as the two enter the dining halls.

"Celestia! What took thee so long?! Our troops spotted an anormous explosion in the Badlands! We..."

Princess Luna immediately stops talking when she realizes what state her sister and the weird human king are in. Celestia’s coat is covered in brown smudges and the tip of her horn is scorched as if someone held a candle under it while she slept. King Joseph is looking even worse. His face and arms are bruised, and his clothes torn in a few places. The look is finished with exhausted expressions on her sisters’ muzzle and Joseph's face.

"What on Equs happened to thee, sister? Did the gryphons attack thou? Did thou slip on freshly wiped marble floor again?"

She eyes the two carefully. If the lunar princess is concerned about her sister’s companion, she is hiding it quite well.

"Language, Luna." Celestia ignores her questions, walks towards the couch and let's herself fall onto it, leaving no room for the human behind her. He mutters something about a certain alicorn having too much cake and then falls to his knees, where he embraces the feel of the soft and comfy carpet. It is the perfect substitution for a bed. Something he really needs right now.

The human rolls onto his back and stretches his arms and legs, laying there onto the floor like a half-butchered sea star.

"Princess Luna. I'll give you the short version."

The human sighs and then takes in a deep breath before answering quickly.

"Celestia asked for help. I demonstrated how my help would look like with a huge bloody bomb. She thought it was lit and bought one. Afterwards she accidentaly dropped it from her flying carriage and BOOOM. 10'000 Tons worth of TNT blow up on our asses, almost killing us. She teleported us out right before we could have been vaporized though. Cheers on that.”

The human underlines his story with a thumb up towards the lunar princess as he stares towards the castle ceiling.

Luna looks towards Celestia, not sure whether this is a bad joke or not. Reports informed her about the explosion in the Badlands near the Whitetail Woods. Apparently, the fireball was more than hundred meters in diameter. Simply impossible, the lunar Princess thought to herself. As if this weak and crude human could unleash the power of such magnitude. On top of that she tends not to trust strange creatures who appear out of nowhere and claim unassigned territory in the Badlands. He surely must be up to no good.

When Celestia looks up at her sister she can only give her a sheepish, halfway apologetic smile before she closes her eyes and collapses on the comfy couch.

“S-Sister!” Luna trots towards the couch and nearly treads on the human laying on the carpet in front of it. She grabs Celestia’s flank and shoulder and shakes her back and forth. “How can you fall asleep when Baltimare is in the claws of the griffon emperor! Have the senses taken leave of thee?!”

Celestia just groans and rubs her sore head. "Let me take a quick bath and then we will discuss our plans with some tea and cake. I really need some cake right now."

Princess Luna is in her sister’s personal meeting-room, walking in circles while blowing a few strains of her mane away from her face. Her sister sits on a big, velvet silk-sofa, a worried expression on her muzzle.

“Celestia, what has gotten into thou? How can we trust this monkey creature with these serious matters?”

“Luna, the griffons and minotaurs were able to overwhelm our defences in Baltimare. Our second most heavily armed City! And we barely have any alliances. Everyone except the Yak’s from Yak-Yakistan turned down their help. I had no other choice but to ask for his help, sister.”

“B-But he is merely a disrespectful fool. Do you really think this fireball in the Badlands was this creatures work? He has no magical abilities and is weak. Simply a burden in the battlefield. Besides, he could be a spy and traitor!”

Celestia just stares out the window of the balcony doors and sighs. Her coat and feathers are clean again and shine in a radiant white. Could she really trust this odd creature who just appeared out of thin air? What if he is indeed allied with the griffons and is just here to strike at the right moment. He would just need one of these ‘Dawn-devices’ inside Canterlot and he would be able to trigger it with one of those remote controls from a safe distance. Pictures of a destroyed Canterlot, burning and laying in ashes flash by inside her head. Her spine tingles and she shudders at this horrible thought.

Joseph is a weird and somehow funny creature indeed, but he could be considered quite rude and disrespectful. The nobles certainly would demand his head if they knew how he treated the royal princesses. But, if he really were a spy, could he be so cold hearted to kill thousands of innocent ponies?

A gentle knock is heard on the double doors. Celestia steps down from the sofa and trots towards the doors. She opens it with her magic and smiles at her important guest. Her genuine smile turns into a nervous one as sees the human looking towards her with a silly smile on his face.

“Hello King Joseph. Thanks for finally arriving. We have much to discuss.”

“Sure. And sorry for being a little late. I made a quick detour over to the royal cuisine. Their pastries are bloody great!” Celestia’s ears perk up a little as she heard that, reminding herself that she had no pastries in months. Months! She quickly turns around and heads towards the big marble table in the middle of the room. The princesses take seat on one side of the table while the human sits down on the other side, facing them. Luna simply nods, only briefly looking at Joseph.

“Princesses, good news! I just called my scientists and they informed me that they could produce another dawn device with the remaining enriched uranium. They were even able to increase the yield to about 15 Kilotons. According to Oppenhoove’s calculations that is.”

“Splendid!” Celestia replies. “But we have a problem, King Joseph. I and my sister do not intend to hurt innocent ponies and griffons.

Princess Luna immediately steps in. “We don’t care about those vile gryphons, sister!”

“Luna, we agreed that we merely use this weapon as a leverage, so they give up Baltimare and retreat. We want as few civilian deaths as possible. You agreed on that, remember?”

Luna huffs but finally gives in, nodding her head a bit reluctantly.

Joseph just stares at the pony princesses and smacks his forehead with a palm while cringing.

“So, let me get this straight. Imagine you are about to win an important war. Your weak opponent suddenly threatens you with a new, apparently ridiculously strong weapon no one has ever heard of. Would you actually believe them and simply let your troops retreat from the land they just fought over?” Joseph shoots a questioning glance towards the two alicorns.

Luna raises her eyelids as he realizes the ugly monkeys statement made sense and quickly speaks up. “I would not believe such a foul bluff and would push my enemy to the last corner.”

“Exactly. The griffons would never believe you. Therefore, we must detonate one over Gryphon territory. If the emperor sees the destruction it produces, he has no choice but to retreat.”

"Under no circumstances will I kill thousands of innocent griffons! Emperor Gryphanus is a horrible dictator and rules over his subjects with an iron claw! His poor subjects face enough hardships already.”

Joseph holds up a hand quickly “G-Gryphanus?” He tries not to laugh, but tears fill the edge of his eyes as he looks back and forth between the princesses who just stare at him. He tires his best not to laugh but a repressed, high pitched laughter escapes his mouth. He tries harder to stop, but his repressed laughter gets louder and higher pitched. He wheezes and finally calms down after almost half a minute. While wiping his wet eyes, he looks towards the princesses with a silly grin on his face.

They stare at him with unamused looks on their faces.

“W-What?” He chuckles. “His name is Gryph-anus, for crying out loud, a-and you are about to lose a war against him.” He stutters a little, his wheezing and giggling interrupting his ability to speak properly.

The princesses just stare at him for several more seconds. Luna’s left eye twitches and she tries her best to not jump over the table and tear this rude monkey into pieces.

After the muffled laughter finally quietens down, Celestia clears her throat loudly.

“Are you finished, King Joseph?” She asks, with an annoyed tone, glaring daggers towards him.

Joseph straightens his shirt and wipes his eyes again while chuckling a little. “Okay, I’m sorry. That was a little unprofessional, but I simply couldn’t help myself.” Celestia still stares towards Joseph with an annoyed and disappointed look while Luna continues glaring daggers at him, clearly clenching her teeth together hard behind her muzzle.

“Hmmmm... Quite a tough crowd once again.” He chuckles nervously and tries not to look towards the almost raging Lunar Princess. She can indeed be quite terrifying when she is angry. “Uhm.. W-Where were we again?”

“We agreed on, that we would not harm any civilians.” Celestia states, her voice calm and clear again.

“I see. That might be a difficult task. But I have an Idea.”

The Princesses ears perk up at that and Luna quickly replies, “Thou have?” Both Princesses look rather surprised.

“Uhm yes?” Joseph answers a little hurt. “Do you maybe have a map of the Griffon Empire, Princess Celestia?”

“Of course, King Joseph.” Celestia empathizes his title rather strong, then opens a drawer with her magic and pulls out a big map, which she places on top of the marble table. “Here you are.”

Celestia takes seat again and lets the human eye the map curiously. He stands up from his seat and walks to the left and right, analysing the map since it’s rather large. The Griffon Empire is a rather small Country, bordering Equestria, the Badlands and a vast ocean in the north. The scale showed that it was about 500 Kilometers long and 300 wide. Compared to Equestria, which was about four times as big, it seemed like a tiny little piece of land. After a while he points to a red spot near the sea and looks up towards the princesses.

“What exactly is this?”

“This is Gryphonia, the capital city with about 30’000 Gryphons living and working there. Next to the mountain is the Emperor’s Castle, from where he rules over his kingdom.”

Joseph holds his hands together and sits back onto his chair again while looking towards the celestial princesses with a pensive look on his face.

“Since you don’t want to drop our little bomb right into the middle of it, what if we detonate it riiiight there.” Joseph points to a forest nearby the capital city a few kilometres away from the city walls.

Joseph pointed to the Zenus-Woods. A simple oak forest nearby some cliffs which are bordered by the great Northern Sea. The Princesses look towards the map and could not come up with an argument to not use this area for the ‘demonstration’. The Princesses would have to accept the demise of many, many woodland creatures, but compromises must be made in desperate times. Celestia often told Joseph how she values every life deeply. But in the end, she must put her ponies and her Kingdom above everything else. What kind of ruler would she be if she wouldn’t?

After a while, Princess Luna narrows her eyes again and looks up from the map towards the human, who just raises his eyebrows in question.

“King Joseph. WE appreciate your effort and help, and we must admit this plan sounds quite thought trough. But thou see, we are sceptical of thee. Here you are, helping us, providing us with an apparently immensely powerful weapon. Something that, according to Celestia, could wipe out whole cities with just the blink of the eye. But I don’t see the reason behind it. What would thou gain in assisting us?

“Are you saying you don’t trust me, Princess Luna?” Joseph holds his fingers together, hiding a smirk.

Princess Luna honestly nods. “This is what we intended to say. I don’t trust strange bipedal creatures who fall out of the sky and want to assist us in a war said creature has nothing to do with.” Celestia sternly glares at her sister, trying to make her shut up. She knows that Luna had a point, but also doesnt want Joseph to leave them on their own.

Joseph gasps a little exaggerated and holds a hand to his chest. “Wow, I’m deeply offended, Princess Luna. But you are indeed right. Why should I, King Joseph the first, even consider helping you? Truly a great question.” He stands up and opens his back pack, from where he pulls out a scroll, which he hands over towards the lunar Princess.

"I present to you: 'My demands'." A tiny smirk already forms on his lips as he sits back and waits for her to open the scroll with her magic.

A quick glance over towards Celestia reveals her embarrassment as her sister goes through the scroll. She tries to hide it behind her princess mask, but Joseph knows that she is secretly cursing him. Joseph looks back towards Princess Luna. Her left eye twitches slightly as she reads trough the scroll. A few more seconds pass.

Suddenly, with a loud bang, Princess Luna smashes her hoofs onto the marble table.

“Cake-delivery?! Do thou think this is funny!? This is merely a disrespect against the crown. And for faking Princess Celestia’s signature, we could throw thee into the dungeons for eons, thou disrespectful fool!

Princess Celestia chuckles nervously and looks over towards her sister.

“Actually, King Joseph did not fake it. I signed the scroll with my own hoof.” Celestia smiles sheepishly and Princess Luna chokes a little, blinking rapidly as she stares at her sister.

Thou are jesting, right sister?” Luna laughs nervously and then looks over towards the human who just sat there with a serious expression on his face.

Joseph clears his throat. “Princess Luna, are you implying that irrigation and cake-delivery are a joke?”

Lunas eyes narrow again but before she could do anything she would later regret, Celestia steps in.

“Please, lets try to hold a civilized meeting. Remember, we are here to plan how we can intimidate the Griffon emperor, so he orders his troops to retreat.”

Celestia sighs in desperation. She notices her mind wandering off again. Cake. Her mouth waters at the mere thought of entering her favourite patisserie and demolishing one of her beloved treats right from the display window. The princess shakes her head quickly. She needs to concentrate now.

“Sure, drop it onto his forest and I’ll trigger it at the right time, no biggie. I think that should be sufficient and the Griffon armies and Minotaurs will retreat immediately, so relax.”

“I hope you are correct King Joseph.” Celestia states.

"We will see..." Says the blue princess carefully.

Joseph sits on his king-sized bed inside his guest suite. It was rather luxurious with chandeliers, marble floor and a bathroom that would be worth more than his own house he owned back when he was on earth.

“Earth… Seesh.” He gulps and looks down towards his sweaty hands which he rests on the bedsheets. They were trembling slightly. Joseph tends to get rather pensive and melancholic when he is not in his castle, doing silly and extremely dangerous things with his inventions.

“I guess that’s it huh?” He asks himself, realizing that he probably would never see his home planet anymore. All his friends. His family. His plans. Everything he liked or wanted to do. It’s Gone. Sure, he had his own little makeshift castle and the military power to achieve anything in this world. Quite something after just 6 months of work, but deep down he knew that he is just trying to repress his mind from the crushing reality with his activities in the Badlands. He was stranded in a fucked-up world, where talking ponies are the dominant species, alone with no friends. The only human on the entire planet. Heck, he is not even sure if this is the same dimension anymore. Deep down he hopes that he really is in a coma or on a intense acid trip, hopefully just dreaming this insanely vivid dream. The possibility is slim, but it still gives him hope. Joseph walks towards the big mirrors next to the entrance of his suite and stares at himself. His family and friends surely must think he is dead after being missed for so long. His eyes tear up and a sob escapes his mouth as he tries to wipe away his tears.

“S-Shit… I’m such a pussy...”

A knock is heard on the doors and he quickly wipes his eyes clear. “Y-Yes, who is it?” He asks with a raised voice.

“Its me, Celestia. Can I come inside?”

Josephs watery eyes spring open wide. “Wait! G-Gimme a second!” He storms towards the bathroom and quickly splashes some cold water onto his face and hair.

Celestia can not see him in this state.

Getting rid of his clothes, except his underwear, he splashes some water onto his chest and legs and grabs a big towel with which he covers himself.

“King Josep, is everything alright?” Celestia’s motherly voice, filled with worry, reaches his ears through the doors. She waits another few seconds.

As the doors are opened, Celestia blinks in surprise as she sees the human standing in front of her, a big blanked wrapped around his naked body while some droplets of water fall from his body onto the marble floor.

“I’m sorry that took me so long. I was about to exit the shower when you knocked, Princess.” Celestia merely nods and looks into his eyes, which were more reddish than usual.

Celestia nods. “Ah good to hear.” She then tilts her head slightly and looks deep into his blue eyes. “Are you sure that you are alright, King Joseph?”

Y-Yea. I’m just a bit cold.” He tightens his blanket and stares back into her eyes.
- Why is she acting like she’s concerned? -

“I see. I’m sorry that I have interrupted your bathing routine. I just wanted to inform you that dinner will be served in about an hour. The dining hall is right next to the day-court.”

“Sure, I’ll be there.”

Celestia smiles and nods her head. “Splendid. Take care and try to not get lost in the castle, Mister Wecksell.”

Joseph retorts. “I’ll try my best, Miss Sunny.” Celestia just rolls her eyes, but nonetheless smiles slightly.

Princess Celestia playfully but gently shoves the human away from the doorframe into his guest suite. “Go back and finish your bathing activities, King Joseph.”

“Will do Mam’” He holds his blanket with one hand and gives her a quick salute.

Celestia giggles at his antics and then closes the door. Her smile on her muzzle slowly drops. She knew that he wasn’t really taking a bath. He was hiding something behind his always so carefree and serene mask, and she was going to find out what it is…

After some well-deserved cake that is.

Princess Luna sits on her bed, while staring out of her balcony doors. Her thoughts were not at ease due to the alien creature occupying her mind. He must be hiding something, and tonight, she will find out what it is.

-Joseph, thou cannot hide thine intentions from us- Luna smirks and closes her eyes.

She channels her magic and enters the dream realm. In the black dream-void she flies past a few wooden doors which have unique markings on them. After a while, she stops in front of a new door with no mark on it and eyes it with curiosity. This must be his dream, she thought to herself. Putting a hoof onto the doorknob she raises her eyebrows at the missing magic energy. Each door was usually oozing with dream-magic, somehow his wasn’t. She narrows her eyes, opens the door slowly and peaks inside to see which dangers might wait for her in his magic deprived dream.

But she could see nothing. Just the black void of the dream realm.

After a few seconds she enters his ‘dream’ and with a loud thud, the door behind her violently closes and vanishes in thin air. Luna gulps and channels her magic, but nothing happens. She nervously tries again. Nothing. She, the watcher of the dream-realm, could not exit his dream.

“Horsefeathers!” Her pupils shrink as she panics and gallops into a random direction, hoping to quickly find a way out of this nightmare.

“Okay Luna, calm down. Thou can handle this crude monkey’s dream.” She reassures herself.

Luna quickly finds a door floating in mid-air. She extends her blue wings and quickly flies upwards towards the door with a few strong flaps. It wasn’t locked so she quickly enters it with the intend to get out of this dream as soon as possible. She sighs with closed eyes while closing the door shut. Something she regretted at an instant after she opened her eyes. Luna found herself in a random castle wing and Joseph was sprinting towards her, in one arm he held a cardboard box tightly against his upper body. Terror was written all over his face as he runs for his life from an unknown foe threatening his dream life.

“Princess Luna! Heeeeelpp!” He takes a quick glance behind his back and sprints down the castle wing. After he zipped by the lunar princess, out of nowhere Princess Celestia herself crashes against the marble wall. She could not get the tight corner and her golden slippers did not help at all to gain any traction on the shiny floor. After she ripped the silk curtains which got tangled up in her wings to shreds, she roars in rage.

“JOSEPHH W. WECKSELL! Give me the cake AT ONCE!”

Celestia shakes the debris and silk pieces off her coat like a wet dog and with powerful wing-flaps, she pursues the running human and flies past her gawking sister with immense speed. Hunger is all written over her face while she licks her lips in her pursuit.

“I will catch you and you are going to feed me that cake, human!”

In the distance Joseph's cries for mercy could be heard as Celestia was presumably gaining on him.

“What in the Moon was th…” With that the lunar Princess gets kicked out of the dream realm.

Princess Luna gasps as she wakes up in her quarters. After she calmed down a loud and ear-piercing noise, seemingly coming from the guest wing, fills the whole castle. She winces in pain and looks outside her balcony doors, her eyes narrowing. “Joseph thou vile creature. We are coming for thee!”

Princess Celestia stands in front of Josephs guest suite and stares at the wooden door, her face stoic.

With a quick glance behind her back, she reassures herself that no guards are present tonight. Celestia does not want not to be spotted so she informed her solar guards to not guard the guest wing for this night. But being herself, she wants to better be safe than sorry. Celestia gently opens the door. Not making any noise, she peeks her head inside and scans the room with her eyes. Joseph was sleeping on his bed, his chest rising and falling slightly. He looked quite peaceful like this. Celestia couldn’t help but smile softly as the human shifts and pulls the blanket closer to his presumably cold body.

Celestia nods to herself, enters his guest suite and closes the door carefully behind her. With slow and careful hoofsteps, she makes her way over to his drawers where he stored his belongings. She knew that this was wrong, but she had to be sure that Joseph is not in contact with the griffon emperor or any minotaur leaders. She somehow liked this strange being, but centuries of experience taught her to better be safe than sorry. The human mumbles something in his sleep and now shifts to the left and right slightly. Was he dreaming?

Celestia quickly finds Joseph’s backpack in a big drawer and quickly goes trough his belongings. Shirts, socks, underwear, the silly scroll with his demands. In a smaller compartment, she found a rectangular device. She remembered him using it to talk to his scientist. Celestia brushes her white feathers over the black device. There were almost no buttons and the only striking thing was a lettering on the back of the device with a constellation of letters she had never seen in her life.

-Samsung-

Celestia presses a button with a hoof and the device springs to life, blinding her eyesight for a moment. She closes her eyes quickly and opens them again after they adjusted to the light. On the screen, she could see a numpad with a few icons on the upper part of the device. The most intriguing thing however, was the picture in the background. There was Joseph with two older humans standing in front of a modern looking house. Joseph was wrapping his arms around each one of the creatures, a happy smile on his face. A genuine one. One human, apparently a female, held a cake in her arms. It had something written on its top with chocolate.

<<Cheers on your graduation, Joseph! Love, Mom & Dad>>

Celestia felt a little sting in her chest. She quickly blinks to get rid of the water, which quickly collected at the edge of her magenta eyes. Suddenly, her ears flick towards the direction of the door as her ears pick up a distant sound. Someone was approaching the door.

Celestia channels her horn to initiate a teleport, but quickly stops the channelling as she notices the possibility of hiding in the bathroom. Quickly but carefully, Celestia hops into the bathroom and casts a quick hiding spell over her body, so only her outline is visible with a transparent shimmering. She was practically invisible in the unilluminated room. She calms her breathing as she sees the doorhandle getting pushed down gently.

The door is slowly being opened and the light shimmer coming from the magic torches in the guest wing illuminates the room and Josephs face slightly as a cloaked and quadruped figure stares into the quest suite. The figure moves forward and Celestia’s ears perk up towards the direction of its footsteps, but she quickly realizes that the soft thuds she is hearing are not hoofs against the marble floor. The cloaked being takes off its hoodie and eyes the sleeping human who mumbles something about help before closing the door. Celestia could clearly make out the yellow beak which shimmered in the faint light of Luna’s moon which shines through the windows.

It’s a griffon.

Celestia’s heartrate increased immediately. Luna was right. He is indeed a traitor. They always are. How could she have been so blind. All the experience she gathered over the last centuries should have taught her that trusting others out of her immediate family circle is an idea which always leads to sadness, crimes, broken hearts and even deaths. Sometimes Celestia wonders why she is always so lenient, so nice, always trying to see the good in other creatures. She stopped counting how many times she was betrayed, how many times others tried to gain wealth and political strength trough her position as a leader in her country. Why would this human be different?

Behind her disguise spell, Celestia grits her teeth and narrows her eyes towards the sleeping but now presumably waking up human. The griffon steps closer to the bed and raises his sharp claw to tap the sleeping human gently onto his shoulders to wake him up. The human jerks his eyes open and wakes up with a gasp. He rubs his eyes quickly while wondering who woke him up: “Celestia? Is it you? What do you want...”

Celestia’s ears perk up at that. Did he not expect the griffon to wake him up? He surely has planned a meetup with this intruder, but then why was he so confused?

After Joseph finished rubbing his eyes he stares up into the eyes of the griffon and his eyes open wide.

“Who the fuck are you?!”

The Gryphon grins down at his target and raises his left claw above the marble floor. He opens his beak and whispers “Shhhhhh… Its rude to swear in a royal castle. Come with me and you are not harmed if you comply.”

Joseph quickly reaches under his pillow and grasps for a pistol which he stored under it. As he points the muzzle towards the direction of the intruder, his arm gets slashed across by the griffon's massive left claw. Before the weapon falls onto the bed, a loud and ear-piercing shot halls through the bedroom. Silverclaw yelps in pain as the bullet tears through his left talon, spraying quite a bit of blood over the griffons white chest feathers. Joseph winces due to the painful ringing in his ears and the immense pain as he looks at his torn lower-arm. Blood coated his bedsheets and his ears were ringing as he looked upwards to see the griffon raising his other claw towards the direction of the human’s throat.

“You filthy ape! Do you know who I am? If it were for me I would kill you right now!” Silverclaw growls in rage and readies himself to strike the already badly hurt human again.

Joseph just shields himself with his hands while shutting his eyes closed. He waits for the probably lethal strike when suddenly and with a loud crash, the bathroom doors spring open. Celestia gallops in with her horn charged. Joseph opens his eyes again and sees the griffon over him glancing over his back with concern over his scarred face.

“Step back from him at once!” Celestia’s strong voice halls through the guest-suite as she flares her long wings to make herself look bigger. Her horn points at the intruder and she narrows her eyes with a sour expression on her muzzle. “Have I not been clear, griffon?!" She spat at her enemy.

The griffon chuckles and turns around to meet his opponent. “Ahh Celestia. I see you don’t even have the manners to do a proper greeting. I am quite disappointed.”

Celestia steps forward and quickly glances towards Joseph who grits his teeth from the immense pain radiating from his throbbing arm. Nonetheless he seems to be eyeing his weapon laying on the marble floor as the griffon is distracted and not looking at him anymore.

Celestia stomps her front left hoof hard against the marble floor which cracks from the pressure. She charges her horn some more and grits her teeth in rage. "I give you three seconds, or you will be roasted by my suns might! Is this clear you vile creature!?”

Joseph just sits on his bed breathing heavily while staring at the angry alicorn who out of nowhere appeared in his room to save him. How did she arrive here so fast? How did she know? Seeing her in this state was quite intimidating but he was glad that she was here. Because without her intervention, he would surely be dead by now. Joseph stares at his torn-up arm which bleeds quite heavily, he feels a bit dizzy already but scoots silently and carefully to the edge of the bed. With a quick leap he might be able to reach the gun and shoot this son of a bitch down.

The griffon doesn’t react to Celestia’s warning and just grins at her while stepping closer towards the human.

“Three! two...”

With that the griffon turns around and grabs the bleeding human, pressing him firmly against his chest while holding one of his sharp claws against his throat. Silverclaw winces in pain as blood oozes from his damaged talon, but his willpower seems to be stronger than the immense pain he must be feeling.

Silverclaw laughs hysterically while pressing his claw tighter against Joseph’s throat, drawing a little blood. “Are you sure about that, my all mighty Celestia, huh? Bahahaha!”

Celestia’s sour and hate-filled expression quickly turned into one full of fear and caution as she looks into Joseph’s eyes who just breathes heavily and stares back at her with fear and pain clearly visible in his eyes.

“I thought so… One step closer and your little ape friend here will perish in my claws. So no funny business! Hehe!”

Joseph grunts and speaks with heavy breathing: ”R-Roast him Celestia. Fucking roast this flying piece of sh-.” He quickly gets silenced by a claw pressed against his bleeding and torn-up lower arm. He screams in pain and grits his teeth in anger.

“Silence, you filthy ape!”

What are your demands, griffon?!” Celestia spat, experiencing a slight deja-vu while doing so.

“It's simple. I am going to bring this specimen to my Emperor and you will not interfere, or I will drop him to his sure death, understood?”

“Don’t do it Cel-“

Again, Joseph is cut off by a talon choking his throat hard, so he can barely breath.

Celestia blinks a few tears away which collected at the corner of her eye and then grits her teeth again, almost growling at the intruder. She then collects her composure somewhat and looks sternly into Silverclaw's eyes.

“Very well. But inform Gryphanus that he will pay for what he did to Equestria. And to King Joseph...”

“Bahahaha. I see you haven’t lost your humour yet, Princess. I would love to see that happening. Now excuse me, Celestia. I've got a job to finish. And remember, no funny business or he'll plummet to his certain death." He told her in a sing-song voice as he scoots closer towards the blacony doors while still almost choking Joseph.

Celestia’s and Joseph’s eyes meet quickly and with that, the griffon holds the human in his claws while charging through the thin glass doors leading to the guest balcony. Silverclaw leaps over the railing and extends his powerful wings, carrying his human cargo towards his homeland. The bulky griffon grins. This quick expedition to the royal castle was quite a piece of cake with Gryphanus’ informant who infiltrated the solar guards.

Princess Luna gallops down the hallway towards the guest wing. Her eyes are narrowed and she is ready to take down the human at once. He surely must have been the cause of the explosion! Suddenly, teleportation magic forms in front of her path and her sister appears in front of her with a horrid expression on her face.

“Luna!”

Princess Luna gasps and slows herself down so she doesn’t crash into the white alicorn who just appeared in her path.

“Sister! Are thou alright? Where is the vile human? We are so going to smite Joseph after we…”

“S-Stop!” Celestia gasps for air and takes a deep breath “A griffon attacked and took him as a hostage! H-He is probably being captured under the Emperor’s command!” Celestia looks down at her sister with worry deep in her eyes as the lunar princess stares at her sister in disbelief.

“Celestia, are you sure? Then what was this explosion?” She exclaims, not really believing her sister.

“He used one of his weapons to defend himself, but he only injured the griffon’s claw. T-Then he took him as a hostage, saying he would kill him if I would hinder his exit. He took Joseph with him and I c-couldn’t…”

Celestia breathes heavily and stares down towards her sister while gulping. Her sister stares deep into her eyes wondering why she reacts so heavily. Sure, she wants his military help, but Celestia was faced with similar scenarios in the past. She never reacted in such a manner even when several high members of the royal palace were taken as hostages by a terroristic group a few centuries ago.

Luna narrows her eyes after she stared down the hallways.

“I wonder why no guards saw the intruder then. It’s highly unlikely that a griffon is simply able to stroll into our palace without being noticed!” Luan exclaims while ruffling her half-extended wings back to her sides.

Celestia stops breathing for a while and her pupils shrink.

-I gave the command to not guard the guest wing tonight… It’s my fault… Once again, more individuals have to suffer due to my actions-

“It’s my fault Luna. I gave the command to not guard the guest wing so that I could uhm… investigate on my own whether we can really trust Joseph or not. I am so sorry Luna. I should have informed you about this. Such an action is unacceptable as a princess, e-even worse so as a sister. I hope you can forgive me Luna...”

Princess Luna does not say anything as her sister hangs her head low, her wings, while partially extended also hang to the marble floor as Celestia stares at her sisters hooves, too ashamed to meet her eyes.

“Celestia…” She keeps staring at the floor. “Celestia, look at me.” Celestia feels her head being lifted by her sister’s primary feathers and looks into Luna’s eyes with her own watery eyes. Celestia opens her eyes some more and blinks a few times as she notices her sisters calm and understanding gaze.

"While I do not appreciate you not informing me about your planned actions, I do understand that you did them in good intend. I am mad, but I still love you Celestia. So, there is no need for forgiveness. Just inform me next time you plan such actions. You know that I will always watch your back dear sister.” Luna smiles genuinely and wipes a tear away from her sister’s left cheek.

“L-Luna… I am still so sorry. It’s all my fault. He got hurt and ponynapped because of me! In the end, I hurt everyone. I am not even capable of protecting our country. I am a horrible pony…” Celestia lowers her head again and sighs before a hoof slaps her left cheek hard. She winces a little in shock as she looks towards her sister.

“Celestia, stop this nonsense once! You are a wonderful pony, I and all subjects genuinely think that. Besides, I truly think you are wonderful leader and the best big sister I could ever hope for. So, stop these foul thoughts of yours, okay?”

Celestia just stares at her sister, her muzzle slightly open as tears form again at the corners of her eyes. She quickly pulls her sister into a hug and rubs her wet cheeks against Luna’s. “Thank you, Luna. I love you...”

Princess Luna smiles and wraps her hoofs around Celestia’s neck. “I love you too, sister.” Princess Luna rubs her cheek against Celestia’s. After a while they end the hug, and both look into each other’s eyes. Luna begins to smirk cheekily.

“And do not fret about the human. My night guards are capable of localizing and recovering your crush, Celly.”

Princess Celestia stands there, baffled with her muzzle open as she looks towards her sister with flushed cheeks. “ L-Luna! What are you talking about? King Joseph is merely our trump card to end this war!”

Luna simply giggles, a shit eating grin on her face. She likes teasing her sister too much. She usually is a way to easy tease for her.

Luna simply snickers while holding a wing tip in front of her lips and then walks past her sister, brushing her wing against her side. “Are you sure about that, Sister?”

“Y-Yes! You must have had too much salt Luna, you are clearly being silly now!”

“Hmmm. If you say so. You can find me in the lunar barracks. Joseph will be retrieved as soon as possible. You can count on that, Celestia.”

Celestia turns around to watch her sister walk away. “T-Thank you, Luna!” Celestia shakes her head after the lunar princess passes the corner. What on Equs got into her sister’s mind? As if she, the Princess of the Sun, Bringer of the Day, would be romantically interested in a weird and crude alien creature. She must admit he is quite an interesting and funny specimen. But Luna clearly had too much salt. Right?

Celestia catches the picture of her reflection in a mirror as the torches in the hallway faintly illuminate her still red cheeks.

-Gosh, Celestia! What is wrong with you? Why are you still blushing over this?-

She shakes her head like a dog to put away these thoughts quickly and trots off towards the direction her sister just left a few seconds ago.

Joseph sits in his dark cell since almost 24 hours now. His arm is still untended and throbbing with pain. At least the bleeding stopped thanks to an improvised bandage made from his shirt. He is exhausted. Mentally and physically. Not being able to eat and drink and the fact that he got kidnapped to a unknown location is quite a bummer for him.

“Shit. This Sucks… This fucking SUCKS!”

A loud banging is heard against the wooden door, which stands in front of the metal bars which hinder his escape.

“Silence in there! Or I will come inside and make you silent!” The angry voice and a following chuckle coming from behind said doors remind him that at least two beings, probably two griffons are guarding his cell.

He sighs and scoots back against the wooden wall. Not being able to do anything is horrible for him. It’s almost like a torment. On top of that he wonders what is going to happen with his little plan with the Zenus Woods and the nuke. Sure, Celestia has the nuke and Oppenhoves the detonator. But not the code. Only Joseph knows them. He grits his teeth in anger.

“Gryphanus… This son of a bitch,” He whispers to himself. “If I find this sucker, I will shove a nuke right down his cock-sucking throat.”

For now, Joseph does what is probably the best right now. Resting. Tomorrow he could come up with a plan to break out of this cell, and then find the fastest route to the Badlands. He lays onto the wooden floor and closes his eyes, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

….

“Shhhh…” A voice whispers with force.

Joseph groans and shifts closer to the wooden wall.

“Hey! Wake up.” The voice whisper with more force.

Joseph rubs his eyes and raises himself with his uninjured arm, so he is leaning against the wooden wall. In front of the metal bars stands a cloaked quadruped figure. Under the cloak he is able to see the claws of a griffon.

“Who are you. Are you here to hang me or something?”

“Shhhh! Be quiet, Joseph.” The Gyphon takes off his hood and reveals his face. Joseph raises his eyebrows in surprise.

“Yantho? Is that you? What the fuck are you doing here? Get the fuck back to the castle, it’s dangerous here!” Joseph almost shouts in his whispering.

Yantho was one of the many mercenaries back in Joseph’s castle. He rarely talked to him, but he seemed like a good guy. He had some issues with the Gryphon Empire, hence why he asked Joseph for asylum in his castle in the Badlands. He never asked him why he had to leave the Empire specifically. But he does remember he mentioned something about free speech and beheadings.

“Be quiet! I’m here to help you get out of this wicked place.” With that, he holds a bag in front of the iron bars and shoves it through so the human is able to grab it.

“How the fuck were you even able to get in here, Yantho?!” He whispers in disbelief while opening the bag with one hand.

“I do have my methods, Joseph. However, a nice Zebrican mare from the Everfree helped me with some, let’s say, sleep potions.”

Joseph doesn’t even listen as he stares into the bag. Yantho brought him a submachinegun. The one he called ‘P-90’ in front of the Princesses, even though it was a blatant and badly manufactured rip-off. The gun was shit compared to the real one, it really was. But in this moment, it was the most beautiful weapon he could ever wish for.

“Yantho, Holy shit! Holy baked shit on a cracker, you insane bird, haha!”

Yantho scratches his head with a claw and rolls his eyes at this weird language. “Well, I hope it is sufficient. Listen, I could not locate the keys to your cell, only to the wooden door. And more guards are about to come in a few minutes. So, I need to leave now.” The griffon covers his head with his hoodie once again and turns around. Before he opens the wooden door, he glances back towards the human in the cell. “By the way, you are in Gryphiz, a small military outpost near the southern border. Head down the nearby river, then you will find back to your castle. And be careful, the Griffons and Equestria need someone like you.”

Before Yantho is able open the door, he hears Joseph voice the last time. “Thank you Yantho. You can count on me mate. And you can expect a pay raise when I’m back.”

Yantho nods and quickly opens the door, leaving without making any noise. He left as quickly as he appeared. “Holy shit. If that guy were a deliveryman, I surely would rate 10 out of 10 for him. What a crazy bird, hehe.”

Joseph takes the P-90 into his injured arm, inserts the fully loaded magazine, pulls the charging handle with a satisfying click and sighs with a silly grin on his face. “Gryphanus, be prepared for my little present, hehe.” With that he takes aim for the metal lock and pulls the trigger. His ears ring once again and he winces in pain, his throbbing arm not helping any. But he doesn’t care. Right now, his utmost important goal is to get outta here as quickly as possible. And no one was going to stop him.

The Emperor’s left eye twitches slightly as he sets his glass of wine gently down onto the oak table in front of him. None of the injured soldiers in front of him dare to speak a word as their leader presumably is taking in the new-found information. Gryphanus blinks a few times, tilts his head in annoyance and clears his throat.

“What do you mean, he escaped?”

Silverclaw steps forward. “We already have a team on his heels we are about…” He quickly gets quietened by a loud banging as Gryphanus smashes his claws repeatedly against the oak table in front of him, damaging it severely as droplets of red wine spill onto his white chest feathers.

“GRAAAHHHHHHHH!”

Gryphanus takes a deep breath as the guards take a careful step backwards. “How? HOW?! You miserable pieces of trash were seriously not capable of guarding this stupid monkey’s cell?!”

A frightened guard opens his beak reluctantly. “H-He got assistance from a traitor, Sir! S-Someone delivered him an insanely powerful weapon! Also, he left this m-message in his cell.” The guard hands over a piece of paper towards his Emperor with shaking claws. Gryphanus growls in rage and snatches it out of the guard’s claws and reads through the paper.

Dear Gryphanus,

Thanks for showing me your glorious empire. I do admire the aesthetics of your medieval cells. However, this place seems a bit too emo for my taste, hence why I decided to leave this fucked up shithole.

However, I will be back, and I will coat your piece-of-shit-land in gasoline and torch every centimetre of it with raging fire. I will begin with the Zenus Woods. Enjoy the show mate.

Btw: Your name sucks ass!

Sincerely Joseph.

The guard steps back and gulps as the emperor’s facial features darken. His claws dig into the paper and gently tear it into pieces as he finished reading it. He growls in rage and smashes the glass of wine against the floor, coating it in a shiny and reflective red film.

“I want you to find this fuckers location at once! And I want you to get the traitors head on a spear! Most importantly, I want this monkey DEAD! I want his friends and allies DEAD! I want his castle burned to the GROUND! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and grind his damn head against the STILL SMOLDERING ASHES! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!”

Gryphanus pants slightly as he grinds his sharp claws into the wooden table in front of him, his eyes angrily gazing over his frightened guards. Now, silence. Despite a few feathers being shifted back and forth, nothing is heard in the throne room. Gryphanus grinds his beak together hard.

“I said. Is that fucking understood?”

“S-Sir! Yes Sir!” The guards reluctantly glance into the eyes of their comrades, clearly feeling a bit uneasy after this display of rage.

Gryphanus lets himself fall into his chair as he sighs. “Good. Send someone in to clean this mess. You are dismissed.”

Gryphanus shoves a few grapes into his beak and narrows his eyes as he stares out the big windows in his throne room. From here, he had a beautiful view over the Zenus Woods. He was going to get this monkeys head. Even if it costs him an entire battalion. He doesn’t care. For him this just turned into more than just military power, territory and wealth. He simply wants to see the monkey gargling on his own blood after what just happened today.

The first Lunar Scout Squad consisting of twelve highly trained lunar guards is marching through thick woodland in a simple double line formation. In front of it, Princess Luna is leading the way while slashing a few branches and twigs out of her squad’s way with a silvery sword which is being held in her blue magical aura. Four of the guards are armed with special long bows and quivers while the rest are equipped with a shield and either a spear or sword. The squad is quite hidden in the thick woodland and Luna’s night helps too. Only the clear-blue moonlight illuminates the scenery as only a few tiny clouds are visible in the sky.

As Luna slashes another branch hanging in her way, a white pony trots up to her side. Celestia has a worried expression on her muzzle. She frequently looks to the left and right, even up towards the sky.

“Uhm.. Luna why again couldn’t we simply use our royal carriages? We are already marching for thee hours. I worry for Jo-… for our plan with King Joseph and his ‘device’.” She chuckles a bit nervously and looks back into the thick forest again while scooting closer to her sister. She doesn’t like forests. Especially when enemies could lurk behind every tree.

Princess Luna sighs and stops walking for a while. The whole squad immediately halts.

“Celestia. I’ve told you already. We need this forest for cover. And your tracking spell would not work in the skies. I can already feel that we are near him, Tia.”

Celestia’s ears perk up at that. “We are? Good to hear…That’s reassuring.”

The squad follows the trail again after Princess Luna follows the lead again, determination written over her muzzle. She doesn’t care for Joseph. She simply wants him back, so she and her sister could execute that ridiculous plan with the ‘dawn device’. Hopefully she won’t see him again afterwards. Then again, her sister is apparently quite fond of him for some reason. Luna shudders at that thought. What’s wrong with her sister? Joseph has nothing a mare could long for.

She recalls handing him a sword over a few months ago when he appeared in the Everfree. He wasn’t even able to lift it properly to his waist. She just rolled her eyes as she recalled the event in her mind. He is like most stallions in Equestia. If only she could bring back the times where males were strong, chivalric and capable of protecting themselves. Yes, he was quite the inventor and his weapons drove away the changelings a few months ago. But still…

- Pha! As if the reported fireball were created by thee, Joseph! Thou weakling… Thou peasant! -

The Lunar Princess snorts and holds her muzzle high up in the air as she slashes another vine, clearing the path as they walk into an opening. In the far distance they could see a few buildings and a very small and wooden fortress. It was surrounded by a 3-meter-high stone wall.

“Here we art.” Luna speaks as she gazes over the surroundings. “Gryphiz.”

Out of nowhere, several loud sounds of explosions echo through the valley. All the guards form a circle around the princesses and raise their shields immediately. The squad worked like a well-oiled machine. While the four archers were inside the shield-circle together with the princesses, the spears were ready to strike while the swords ponies raised their weapons with magic or their muzzles.

Luna twitches her ears towards the still echoing sound and tilts her head. “Isn’t that one of these weapons your third Royal Battalion used to defend us from the changeling attack?

Princess Celestia’s eyes open wide and her pupils shrink. “You’re right! That’s exactly how the P-90 weapon sounds like!” Celestia trots in place as she speaks. She then looks towards her sister with determination. “We need to help him at once, Luna!”

“Shhhh. Tia! Quiet!” She shushes her sister. “We are in enemy territory, don’t talk so loud.”

Celestia nods and folds her ears against her head. Despite participating in various wars a few hundred years ago, her battlefield experience was rusting quite a bit.

Her sister quickly speaks up again. “Scout Squad, at ease. Princess Celestia will perform a translucent spell. Then we will use the forest as further protection while we follow the direction in which we heard the weapon.

The squad quickly goes back to the normal marching formation while Luna looks towards her sister, giving her a quick nod. Celestia quickly follows and sets up her hiding spell. Only the outline of their bodies shimmer slightly translucent as the squad marches towards the Outpost. More gunshots are heard as the scout squad with both Princesses marches forward.

Joseph is running for his life. After he broke out of his wooden cell with rather unstealthily means, he scribbled a quick note for the Emperor. Who the fuck knows if the intended recipient will ever see it, but it needed to be done. Joseph has manners, so a quick thank-you-letter for his host Gryphanus is the least he could do.

He can hear shouting and battle cries in the background as several griffons are on his heels. Joseph sprints towards a random direction, just away from the griffons he is hearing behind him. As he turned around a corner he gasps for air behind a small wooden shed, his P90 still in his injured arm, blood is coming through the improvised bandage over his arm and his general state isn’t too dandy. His hair is unkempt and sticks towards all directions. He is barefoot since he wasn’t allowed to get properly clothed before this son of a bitch griffon decided to almost destroy his arm and then kidnapped him. On top of that he had no water in over 24 hours. His mouth is dry and his heavy breathing sounds rather unhealthy. To any creature, he would appear like a filthy monster if it weren’t for the technologically advanced and modern looking weapon resting in his arm.

Suddenly, the shouting gets louder and as he turns his head around the corner, he sees two battle-armoured griffons who are clearly searching for an escaping prisoner. Unluckily, one griffon spots the human at the corner of his eye and quickly turns his head towards the shed, his eyes narrowed.

Joseph quickly pulls his head back while trying to contain his still heavy breathing under control.

“Here! I think I found him!” The griffon points towards the shed and the other nods, joining him as they quickly move towards the shed. Both griffons stop at once as they hear a voice behind the shed.

“Tell me where the nearest river is, and I will not harm you.” Joseph steps out of his cover and takes aim at the closer griffon.

The first griffon simply growls and goes on a full charge, his claws ready to strike. Joseph, knowing any reasoning would be impossible, immediately opens fire and hits the creature in his chest and shoulder. The griffon grunts in pain and his sprint gets slowed down but his goal of killing the human remains. His eyes are still fixated on the bipedal target in front of him despite just being hit with two usually lethal shots.

Josephs eyes widen, and his pupils shrink as the griffon is apparently not dying and quickly gaining on him. He closes his eyes in shock and pulls the trigger repeatedly. As he opens his eyes he sees the griffon on the ground, five bullet wounds inside his body. The griffon stares at the human just 2 meters in front of him with one eye, a weak growling escaping his beak as blood oozes from his mouth.

-Holy fucking shiittt! five freaking bullets and this piece of shit is still not dying properly?!-

The other griffon gasps at the display in disbelief. But instead of running away, he springs into the air and spreads his wings. With powerful flaps he propels himself towards Joseph only to be hit in the left wing and chest by his weapon. The griffon crashes into the ground and grunts in pain as he lies next to his fallen comrade.

Joseph aims for the griffon on the ground and wants to pull the trigger once again to be sure that the cat-bird in front of him is dying properly. But he decides not to as the poor creature collapses, his eyes closed and chest raising quickly. Spare bullets may come in handy later… Joseph scans his surroundings for more enemies and then sprints towards a wall in the distance, the magazines rattling in his bag which he tied around his mid-section. As he approached the wall he spots the exit. The small gate was guarded by four griffons and he is quickly being spotted by them. Two of them immediately charge towards his position, while the other two griffons in the background spring into the air while holding long bows in their claws. They both quickly take an arrow from their quivers, pull the bow-string and aim for the human who stands about 30 meters away from the gate.

Joseph takes aim for the two charging targets and eliminates the first one with a lucky headshot. He takes aim for the other and misses a few times. His arms are shaky, and his pulse is almost as high as when he was clinging onto Celestia’s back while the nuke was going off behind them. Joseph adjusts his aim and shoots two bullets into the griffon's chest, while two arrows fly towards his direction. He quickly takes cover behind an oak tree. One arrow zips by closely, the other impacts the tree which he is standing behind.

Taking a deep breath, he gets out of his cover and takes aim at the griffon who is still coming for him despite already suffering two hits to his chest. Joseph aims for the head and pulls the trigger.

-Clink-

Another pull.

-Clink-

For a moment, Joseph forgot that his self-proclaimed P90 only holds 19 Rounds, unlike the real gun which can fit up to 51 rounds…

“Fucking SHITT!” Joseph gasps as the heavily injured griffon limps quickly towards him, anger deep embedded in his eyes. “Who told you not TO DIE!?” Joseph swings his weapon towards the griffon and smashes it with all his might against the creature’s beak. He hears a crack and hopes that it was the cat-bird and not his shitty P-90 rip-off. As the griffon collapses on the ground he quickly throws the empty mag out of his gun, grabs a fresh one from his bag and inserts it with a satisfying click. As he pulls the charging handle back with his still good arm, he hears an arrow passing by. His heart stops for a second as he feels a stinging pain coming from his left upper leg. An arrow scraped a bit of flesh from his left leg. A few centimetres closer and it would have penetrated deep inside his limb.

He grits his teeth in pain, gets behind his wooden cover again and takes aim for the archers standing near the gate as he peeks to the side, only showing his upper body towards his enemies.

“You flying pieces of SHIT!”

More arrows zip by and impact the wooden cover, almost breaching trough. But they are quickly killed with several shots. The first griffon goes down with a shot to the neck while the other collapses after two shots into the chest. They weren’t as big and physically strong as the ones who charged him.

Joseph turns his head left and right to check for more enemies. The only thing he is hearing are several griffons coming closer in the far background. He seizes his chance and sprints towards the exit, ignoring all the pain radiating from his leg and arm. After he passed trough the exit he looks backwards. several griffons were on his heel. Some were readying their bows and shooting arrows towards his direction. Luckily none of them hit their target as the human sprints into the forest. His figure is quickly being hidden by the darkness and all the branches and leaves as he zips past them with his slender body frame.

As the griffons approach the forest, the archers take off into the sky and search for their target from above. The others follow him into the thick forest, their pace significantly slower due to their bigger frame.

Joseph was running for almost half an hour. He gasps for air as he hides behind a big oak tree. He lets himself fall onto the forest ground while the thick leaves on the ground cushion his fall. Joseph grunts in pain and breathes heavily while rubbing his forehead with one hand. He has no idea where he is. So far, he has found no river that could lead towards his castle in the Badlands. And he had no opportunity to drink one single drop of water. Some weak part of his mind played with the thought of laying down and giving up, but he quickly gets rid of such thoughts and slowly stands back up, so he could march further. His marching is more like a lifeless limping as he drags his battered and still bleeding body forward through the thick forest in hope of finding a way out or a river.

After a few minutes he hears leaves crumple and twigs crack in the distance. His heartbeat increases suddenly, and he scans his surroundings for a spot to hide. Luckily there was an indentation in a nearby slope which could be mistaken for a small cave. He quickly limps into the cave and carefully inserts his last magazine into his P-90.

As the noises get closer and clearer he aims the muzzle of his gun towards the cave entrance and hides behind a rock just in case someone spots him. Calming his breathing some more, he clearly hears a group coming closer and closer.

“Comon soldiers, keep the pace up or we will never bring the human back to the castle!”

He couldn’t see them, but now it was clear for him that there is a group of griffons nearby. And he would be fucked if they found out that he is in that little cave. But he still has a full magazine. Joseph carefully and very silently pulls the charging handle to load a round into the chamber of his P-90. He won’t go down without a proper fight.

“You little fuckers. Come here and get me” He whispers to himself while talking hiding behind the boulder, only his right eye and the gun peek out behind the cover.

After a while, he hears someone coming closer. This is it. Joseph stops breathing and gently lays a finger onto the trigger, waiting for the enemy to show up in his line of fire.

Princess Luna is leading her first scout squad through the Zyphis Woods in search for the ponynapped human. Her night and her sisters translucent spell hide the small military group while the bright moonlight illuminates the forest scenery faintly. After Luna made out the sounds of explosions as Joseph's P90 weapon, they spotted a few griffons from afar, entering the forest in a hurry. The whole military outpost was on high alert and the scout squad could make out several griffons inside the walls running back and forth in a hurry, while some took off into the air, flying towards deeper Griffon territory.

Princess Luna, her sister and the scout squad were now marching carefully through the forest for almost half an hour. Occasionally, they could hear shouts, presumably from griffons , as they were probably in a hurry to catch and recontain the human or do worse. It is rather unlikely that he had not escaped. The various small explosions and the fact that the griffons in Zyphis were on high alert and in quite a hurry to enter the forest was indication enough.

A hushed voice reaches Luna's ears. "Sister... Are you sure we should not initiate another scanning spell? We need to find him before they find him!"

Princess Luna doesn’t turn her head towards her sister’s direction and simply stares into the forest, looking for griffons or the human. After a while, she stops in her track and looks up towards her sister.

"Hmmm... That would be wise. Let’s stop by this slope. The narrow environment can provide further camouflage for us while we let the scout squad rest for a while.

Princess Luna informed one higher ranked stallion in the scout squad and he quickly addressed his comrades.

“Common soldiers, keep the pace up or we will never bring the human back to the castle!”

All soldiers nod and the Scout Squad marches towards the slope which was visible in the close distance between all the trees. The group reaches their destination in about a minute and after the area has been visually cleared, half of the stallions and mares lay down their shields and start eating field rations while the other half is still on high alert. They scan the sky and the forest for potential threats while their comrades rest and eat.

Princess Celestia channels her horn with power while she closes her eyes. The tracking spell needs utmost attention and patience. The longer she would channel the further it would reach out. However, she is exhausted and the last tracking spell she set up was quite taxing. On top of that she does feel the anomalies sucking away some magic. It is not nearly as intense as when her royal carriage failed, but it is still noticeable. The growling of her stomach lets a few ears perk up from the scout squad nearby. They quickly turn their heads into the direction from where they perceived the sound and some even raise their blades. Celestia blushes a bit at that and decides to join the scout squad for a little snack. It’s hard to perform high-level magic on an empty stomach.

Princess Luna silently trots towards the group and looks at her sister and speaks in a whisper. "Sister, nearby is a small cave entrance. I will quickly make sure it’s clear, so our squad can rest properly."

"Okay Luna." Celestia gets up on all her fours again but quickly gets stopped by a hoof holding her down. "Tia. You need to rest. It will be just a quick glance into the cave, nothing more."

Celestia reluctantly stays on the forest ground as her sisters hoof still rests on her lower back. "Okay, but be careful."

Princess Luna rolls her eyes at her sister’s antics. Of course, she was her little sister and it simply had to be in Celestia’s nature to be a bit overprotective of her. She appreciated it but sometimes she finds it rather annoying and in front of her scout squad rather embarrassing.

"Sister!" She raises her voice a tad bit "I appreciate your concerns, but I am not a filly."

"Of course, Luna. Sorry." Celestia smiles a bit sheepishly and continues eating one of the food rations. Carrots and potatoes. Nothing fancy, but it will do.

Luna nods at that and then walks towards the cave entrance. It was rather dark inside but that would not stop her since her night vision has developed quite a bit over her long life. She ruffles her wings and carefully walks into the cave with caution, her horn lowered in a slight angle and read to strike back if something might lurk inside the little cave. She continues walking further into the cave. Something was odd. No hoofsteps could be heard due to the thick blanket off dead leaves on the rocky ground.

Clearly the work of an animal or several. Luna just hopes that none would lurk inside, but her alicorn intuition could not make out any hostile life forms nearby. So, she decides to just pass around the corner to give a last peek into the cave and call it a night as she would say it. As she passes around a corner Luna feels her senses on high alert. Something behind a big boulder about three meters in front of her moved just so slightly. She charges her horn with a defensive spell but suddenly with a loud and eye-blinding explosion the magic energy shoots into all directions. Princess Luna stumbles out of shock and wants to extend her wings for balance, but an immense pain emerging from her right wing radiates through her nerves. She stumbles to the ground next to the boulder and quickly makes out the source of the attack.

“H-HUMAN? YOU!?” She yells out in disbelief and anger and growls almost as she gets to her hoofs again. Behind the boulder, Joseph was laying on the ground while coughing and groaning in pain. Next to him his P-90 was laying on the cave floor.

Joseph could not hear her shouting due to his still ringing ears. He quickly grabs the P-90 again, aims down the sights and suddenly all his adrenalin vanishes almost at once. He was aiming at Princess Luna. A very angry looking Princess Luna with a bleeding wound on her right wing. He had shot her. And not a griffon.

“L-L-LUNA?!”

Josephs pupils shrink at an instant as he realizes what he had done. He quickly finds himself pinned against the hard cave wall. His wounded arm and leg cry with radiating pain and he yelps as tears fill the corners of his eyes.

“Yes! PRINCESS Luna! And we want thine explanation on why you wanted to assassinate us AT ONCE!”

Joseph tries to speak but finds his throat being chocked by a hoof as he stares with fear and regret into the furious eyes of the Lunar Princess.

He speaks with his muffled and exhausted voice as her grip loosens just a tiny bit. “S-S-Sorry. I…” Joseph’s eyes quickly turn towards the cave entrance and Princess Luna quickly follows his line of sight to see what on Equs would make him take off his eyes of her right now.

Princess Celestia and several ponies of the scout squad storm inside the cave and as Celestia illuminates the cave with her horn, she stares in horror at the display in front of her. Celestia’s eyes open wide and her muzzle drops a bit as she stares at her sister’s threatening posture as she is holding the battered form Joseph forcefully against the rocky cave wall. Luna’s right wing was bleeding and her angry facial expression quickly turns into one of realization.

She quickly takes her hoofs off the human and gets on all fours again. Joseph collapses onto the cave floor, his sudden fall cushioned by a few thicker leaves. He coughs in pain and longs for air as fresh blood drips from his wounds on his arm and leg. His wound on his right forearm looked horrid. The wound was starting to fester. Dried and fresh blood mixed with dirt covered his entire arm and his left leg was also covered in dried up blood. Some of the weaker minded stallions gag and turn around in shock.

“J-Joseph!” Celestia immediately gallops towards the human on the ground and looks left and right over his battered body. “Joseph, speak to me!”

Joseph merely stares into Celestia’s eyes and grunts and coughs weakly. “P-Princess?” His head was spinning and pounding with all might possible as he simply perceives two worried and magenta eyes in his blurry vision.

Celestia immediately performs her healing magic on Joseph as he seems to be more unconscious than anything. She quickly turns her head towards her sister who reluctantly looks back into her eyes.

“What on Equs happened Sister!?” Celestia almost shouts in disbelief, her strong voice echoing inside the cave walls.

“We-We… I mean I was attacked by him! He damaged my right wing with his weapon! He should be thankful that I haven’t beheaded him at once!” Princess Luna simply starts healing her wound on her right wing with a spell and apparently shows no remorse or pity for the horrible state Joseph is in right now.

Celestia’s right eye twitches slightly and she grits her teeth as she gets rather angry with her sister. Taking a quick but deep breath, she calms down and looks back towards Joseph who rubs his head with his uninjured arm, his eyes closed, and his teeth clenched. He clearly was in a lot of pain despite her efforts with her healing spell. Apparently, his metabolism isn’t responding the same way towards a healing spell as pony metabolism is.

“Princess… I’m sorry for hurting your sister. I-I thought she was one of the griffons.”

Celestia simply nods “Of course Joseph.” She spots a mare hurrying into the cave with a first aid kit under her wing. As the pony holds it next to her princess, Celestia grabs it with her magic and quickly takes out everything necessary. Princess Luna, after staring at Joseph for a while simply walks out of the cave and gestures to the scout squad to follow her.

As Joseph and Celestia are left alone in the cave, He coughs a bit and wants to push himself up into a sitting position but is quickly being held down by a white wing and a stern glance.

“Joseph. You have to rest. You are horribly hurt!”

He merely nods, not even bothering to resist as he feels rather weak and tired. Celestia opens her saddlebag with her magic and pulls out a glass bottle filled with a clear liquid. She opens it and holds it towards Joseph. Without any questions he simply grabs it with his uninjured arm and gulps the contents down his dry throat. Sweet Yasmine flavoured cold tea fills his water depraved taste buds. Joseph almost forgets that he also needs oxygen as he gulps the last drop of the sweet liquid down.

He thanks his saviour with laboured breaths as Celestia puts a paste onto Joseph's horrid wound on his arm. He grits his teeth in pain but doesn’t move. She swiftly but carefully wraps his arm in a bandage and then treats his injured leg with the same treatment. Joseph coughs a bit, carefully raises his upper body and leans against a nearby boulder while looking into Celestia's eyes.

“Thank you, Celestia…”

Silence. Celestia stares at the cave wall while in deep thought, her pupils fixated at something what would be in the far distance. She ruffles her wings and then packs the medic-kit back into her saddle bag without saying anything or looking at Joseph. A few seconds pass with no one speaking.

“Princess, are you alright?” Joseph sits now upright, presumably feeling better. He looks towards the white alicorn with a questioning gaze.

“I’m sorry, Joseph. It’s all my fault.”

Joseph tilts his head slightly and narrows his brows in confusion. “What are you tal-“ Celestia immediately stops him.

“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be here Joseph! Can’t you see it? I dragged you into this. Because of me you were ponynapped. Because of me you… you nearly died!” She looks deep into his eyes and then sighs as she gets no response. “How can you thank me after what just happened to you?”

Joseph waits a few seconds and just stares at her, a blank and stoic expression on his face.

“Are you finished?”

Celestia ruffles her wings and closes them firmly against her side as she looks back towards Joseph again with her ears lowered, uncertain of how the human might react. She gives him a quick nod though.

“I’ve never heard so much crap exiting your mouth in such a short amount of time, Princess.”

Celestia’s eyes widen in confusion and slight anger and she opens her muzzle a bit. “W-Wha-“

“First of all. We made a deal, right? You would get a nuke and you would accept my demands. Then, one of Gryphanus’ lapdogs kidnaps me, and I nearly die during my escape.” Celestia winces as he mentioned his near demise.

“Was it you that kidnapped me?” Joseph asks with sarcasm in his voice. “No. You did not. Hence why it isn’t your f-“

He is quickly interrupted by her now stronger and more powerful voice.

“Of course it is my fault! Gryphanus probably has spies all over the planet, and somehow knew that you would assist his enemy with military aid! It was foolish and irresponsible of me. You don’t deserve something like this!”

Celestia gestures at the battered form of the human in front of her and Joseph quickly glances down at his bandaged leg and arm.

“Yes, I don’t.”

Celestia folds her fuzzy ears against her skull but nods.

“But you also do not deserve something like this. That’s why we have to find the one responsible for this and shove your nuke down his god-damn throat, understood?” Joseph gives her a friendly smirk while rubbing a bit of dirt off his left cheek.

Celestia looks back into Josephs eyes and after a while a silent giggle escapes her muzzle despite the morbid circumstances.

“That’s the spirit, Princess!”

He smiles cheekily at her and Celestia quickly leans forward. Joseph suddenly finds himself in a hug with the Princess. He is quite taken back by the sudden mood change and the fact that the Princess is HUGGING him. It feels quite odd, but also good. After all his time in Equestria, Joseph knows that most creatures and especially ponies tend to be more physical in various situations, hugging and nuzzling each other all over the place in the most normal social situations. So, Joseph shrugs it off and gently pats Celestia’s back with his uninjured hand. As sudden it started, as sudden the hug ends. Celestia gets on all fours again and looks everywhere except into the human’s eyes.

Joseph supports his weight with one arm and leg and shakily gets on both of his feet again. Celestia immediately supports him with a wing, which he gladly accepts.

“Are you okay? Can you walk?”

“Yes. The wound on my leg isn’t that deep. I think I can manage to walk.”

“Good. Let’s get out of this cave and rest for a while. We are close to the Badlands and after a quick rest we should be able to reach it in a few hours or so.”

“That’s Good to hear. I have something really important in my castle. I think its not safe there anymore after what just happened…”

The pair walks out of the cave while Celestia supports Joseph who at first reluctantly accepts the help, but a sting in his leg quickly puts some sense into his head and he holds his uninjured arm onto her back to support himself as the two join the scout squad nearby the cave entrance.

The smouldering heat of the vast desert burned trough the skulls of the Scout Squad, the princesses and the human. Sweat was pearling down their cheeks and fur. The manes and tails of the equines were quite a mess. Thankfully no further incidents with any enemies occurred as the small group left the Zyphis Woods towards the Badlands. Apparently, the griffons lost track of them or retreated.

Princess Luna blows a strain of her mane out of her face and sighs in exhaustion. “How long until we reach thine so called ‘country’, human?” Any child could have heard the irony in her voice.

Joseph walked through the desert with the aid of two battle mares who were so nice to relief the solar princess from her burden of supporting the rather heavy human. His general state was still quite bad, but he had recovered quite a bit over the last two hours. Celestia’s magic, her bandages and the Yasmine tea worked wonders.

“Just this last dune, Princess… Then we should be here.” Joseph exclaims with his exhausted voice. “In my castle we can rest for a while and then discuss our further plans in my throne room, k?”

The human glances towards Celestia who gives him an exhausted smile and a nod. After the group almost reached the top of the dune, Joseph looks towards the two mares who were supporting him.

“Thanks for the help, ladies. I really appreciate it but I think I can manage it from here.”

Both mares nod state that it was no problem. One of the mares even gave him a wink and quickly spoke in a shushed voice. “No problem, stud. If you ever need help again, just hit me up, ok dear?”

Joseph blushed at an instant and looked everywhere except into the eyes of the two mares who were both chuckling. Her voice was at a quite low volume, but Joseph could make out Princess Celestia’s ears turning towards his direction quickly. A coincidence probably. Equines always do weird things with their ears, right?

Joseph coughed uncomfortably. “Uhm, s-sure, If you say so.” He quickly increased his pace and closed the gap between himself and the top of the sandy hill. The pain in his left leg was almost gone by now. The paste Celestia used under his bandages worked wonders.

“King Joseph! Be careful, you are hurt, and you shouldn’t walk so fast.”

Joseph rolled his eyes while he climbed towards the top of the dune. He glanced quickly over his back to see Celestia trotting slowly towards him, but her hooves sink into the sandy ground quite deep with each step she takes.

“Oh, don’t worry Princess. I am f-". His voice gets a bit crooked. "I a-am... fine."

Joseph looks forward towards the small and rocky plateau he called home for the last six, now almost seven months. He falls towards his knees and stares towards his second home with his mouth half open. He tries to say something, but his brain couldn’t produce any meaningful words. Princess Luna’s voice reach his sunburnt ears as the whole Scout Squad was still climbing the last ten meters of the dune.

“Human! What’s wrong, are thee broken? Have thine thin hindlegs abandoned thee?”

Luna and a few mares and even some stallions chuckle at that, quite to the disliking of the solar Princess who just narrows her eyes at the sandy ground in front of her.

“W..Wha…” Joseph brabbles silently and doesn’t take his fixated gaze off the scene in front of him.

“come on now, human. We were merely jesting…”

The scout squad reaches the top as well and all fall to a dead stop at once. In front of them, the smouldering remains of Joseph’s castle is visible in the near distance. One could make out several bodies of ponies and griffons and other creatures from the distance. Some lay under the castle debris, clearly dead. Some were scattered all over the rocky ground around the destroyed castle. No eyes could make out any living creatures in this mess.

The only thing of the castle that was still somewhat standing was the main entrance hall due to it’s strong marble pillars. Smoke was coming from inside the building.

Celestia stares at the display in front of her with her muzzle open. Her heart feels like it’s falling through her belly as she switches her gaze between the destroyed castle, the dead bodies and Joseph.

He is just staring. Staring at his burning home. Everything he built in his time in this fucked up horse-land. His only home. His sanctuary… Gone. Destroyed. Ripped from him like he got ripped from his home planet. Joseph lets himself fall forward onto his knees and arms, ignoring the pain in his right arm while he forms his hands into fists in anger and pain.

A strong gust of sandy wind sweeps through the group. Noone dares to say anything.

Princess Luna glances towards the human, sympathy visible in her facial features. After a few seconds she leaps into the air and gestures her scout squad to follow her as the group gallops towards the remains of the ‘human empire’ with Luna leading it.

Princess Celestia gulps as she sees Joseph’s facial features darken from the side. A tear falls from his nose towards the sandy ground. It evaporates quickly.

“K-King Joseph…”

Nothing.

“Joseph I am so sorry.”

Joseph feels a hoof touching his shoulder and he instantly jerks away and turns his head towards the solar princess standing next to him. Celestia’s ears instantly fold towards her skull as she sees the psychological pain struck in Joseph’s facial features.

-I’ve destroyed everything he knew… Everything he knew in this to him unknown and strange land. How can I be a good pony, Luna…-

She lowers herself so she was level with him and stares deep into his eyes as hers fill with salty water.

“Joseph… I-I cannot express how-“ She is quickly silenced by a hand pressing against the side of her muzzle.

“P-Please. Don’t… Just get me to my castle…” Joseph sounded dead, as if his always so carefree and serene attitude vanished at an instant after he saw the remains of his work.

Celestia nods and rubs the tears out of her magenta eyes. Joseph quickly finds himself lifted onto her back with her magic. He usually doesn’t like being lifted up my magic, but he made no effort to move this time. He loosely holds onto her neck and shuts his eyes tight as she springs into the air and extends her wings so the pair glides towards the rocky ground in front of the destroyed castle. Celestia looks to her left and right as she flies. Dead griffons, ponies and even one minotaur were laying on the desert ground. As she sees Princess Luna and the Scout Squad exiting the castle entrance, Celestia quickly lands next to them.

Joseph dismounts Celestia’s back and walks towards his entrance. His walk is still somewhat accompanied by his limping as his left leg is still hurting a bit.

“Hu- King Joseph, we could not go far into thine castle. The ceilings breached and we could not locate any-“

Joseph doesn’t even listen as he walks past Luna and enters his castle. Only the main entrance hall was somewhat undamaged. From here, two hallways would lead to various bedrooms and testing chambers from where he conducted his experiments. One hallway usually led towards his throne room. But all three were blocked by huge piles of debris, mainly sandstone, marble and hardwood.

The princesses and the scout squad apparently followed him as he takes in their presence with a quick and lifeless glance over his left shoulder. They just stand there and say nothing as Joseph walks towards a wall. He pushed against a huge brick with his uninjured arm and it moved further into the wall. The sound of stone grinding against other stones fills the main hall. In front of Joseph, the floor opens itself and wooden stairs lead towards a dark and unilluminated cellar. Without looking back, he descends into his cellar while the group of ponies form a circle around the wooden stairs.

Celestia quickly speaks up. “I and Princess Luna will descend in case he needs any help. You look for any creatures who could be saved from a certain demise. If there still are any to save…”

The squad salutes in sync and quickly trots out of the castle in search for any still living beings. Luna looks towards her sister and gives her a quick nod. Both monarchs quickly descend the stairs and stand next to the human who is standing still at the base of the wooden stairs. With a quick flick of a light switch, a 20-meter-long tunnel gets illuminated by electrical lights. At the end, a massive metal door stands in the way. The usual clip-clop sound the princesses produce with their horseshoes fills the empty tunnel while Joseph opens his backpack and quickly takes out a metal key.

As the Princesses get closer to the door, they can make out a white and red lettering on the door. Both read it through carefully.

‘Danger! Any manipulation of the door, be it physical or magical, will result in the detonation of this tunnel. Unauthorized personnel who read this are to report immediately to King Joseph at once to explain themselves.

-Dr. R. Oppenhooves’

Luna nervously looks towards her sister who gives her a worried glance back. Without much of a thought, Joseph inserts the key into the keyhole and turns it three times, opening the door with his uninjured arm. He flips another light switch and a big room; approximately measuring 8 x 8 x 3 meters gets illuminated by more lights. There were several shelves and stands filled with various devices and unknown technologies. It came in quite handy to Joseph that the anomaly which sucked him into this universe was also not sparing his contents of his beloved home. After he reappeared in Equestria, some of his belongings were also sucked trough the fridge, only to ‘spawn’ above his head and fall onto his already sore head. Luckily, bigger things like his desks and couch could not make the journey trough his fridge.

On the shelves, the princesses cold see several intriguing devices. Some small, some big. Some rectangular, some with buttons. The most intriguing part however was the wall facing the metal door. Celestia could quickly make out a big metal chest and several cylindrical shapes which reminded her of the dawn device. Some were more like a big spheres while the others looked more like big torpedoes. The two sisters eye the devices carefully. There was a total of five devices. Four of them had markings engraved into their metal frame. All said, ‘Extreme danger – do not touch’. While two of the two nuclear warheads were marked with ’10 KT’, the other two were described with ’15 KT’. The last device was much bigger and longer. It wasn’t marked with any lettering. It was however supported by wooden beams which stood on a big, metal trolley cart which said ‘Experimental Payload. Do not touch!’

Celestia nervously looks over the nuclear bombs and then towards her sister who simply gazed over the contents of the room. Celestia speaks up with her soft voice.

“King Joseph. I thought you merely had one of these so called ‘Dawn devices’?”

Joseph sighs and sits on a chair which rested next to a small workbench nearby. “The dawn devices were our ‘last-gen’ version. These…” He gestures towards the nuclear bombs in front of them. “These are the more ‘refined products’. They are more efficient, lighter and have a bigger yield per volume… Stuff like that.”

Joseph stares towards his weapons of mass destruction with a cold gaze, his arms hanging lifeless next to his torso.

“We need to relocate all of this to a save storage unit and then execute our plan immediately… No! First, we execute the plan and then we relocate all this. The griffons didn’t notice this part of the castle anyways, so it should be safe for now.”

Joseph turns around and looks into the eyes of both princesses with a mixture of anger, sadness and determination written over his face. He turns around again and eyes his bombs. After a while in thought, he gently puts his left hand onto one 15-KT, device.

-15 Kilotons… Pha.. Gryphanus. You’re lucky that my ‘experimental payload’ isn’t quite ready yet… You deserve way more than mere 15’000 Tons of explosives shoved down your throat you fucking piece of flying shit-

Joseph clenches his teeth together while the princesses behind him simply look towards him with pity in their hearts. Both knew how hard it can be to be an entity of power. A leader. Especially in dire times when your kingdom is being attacked and your beloved citizens have to suffer due to outside forces you have no control over.

“Princesses, this is the device.” He pats the bomb gently to gain their attention. “I now kindly ask you to provide one of your magical carriages as fast as possible. Gryphanus’ actions will not get unpunished under my… No…. under our watch.”

Celestia stares deep into his eyes and nods before her sister steps forward to eye the five explosives in front of her. Luna was quite taken back by his little ‘speech’, not expecting such a chivalric behaviour from the usually so laughable creature.

“So, these are the devices you and my sister talked about?” She eyes each device with caution. They looked and felt harmless. She could not even detect the faintest glimpse of a magical aura. May it be normal or dark magic. To every creature it merely was a big metal tube with fins on it. The simplest swords looked more intimidating than these.

“I am quite sceptical, human. But I believe my sister…” She turns around towards her sister and Joseph “I will head back to Canterlot with the Scout Squad and return with a fitting carriage as fast as possible.”

She eyes the human for a while and then turns towards her sister.

“Sister, may I quickly speak with you about the mission. Merely details on which and how many carriages we are going to need.”

Princess Luna urges her sister to exit the room with her wings and gives the human an apologetic fake smile as the both quickly exit the secret underground room filled to the top with top notch alien technology.

Both princesses walk trough the short underground hallway and climb the stairs back up. As Luna is certain that the human couldn’t hear them she speaks up with a concerned look in her eyes.

“Sister, you are aware that he lied to you right? He said he only had one of these bombs ready while he has several in his secret basement, which is located right in his entrance hall! On top of that you said the smaller device could wipe out an entire city! Did you see the bigger one on the right, Celestia? I do not want to know what kind of destruction he is trying to achieve with this one.”

Luna speaks in a strong whisper and gestures back the unsecured area. Luna was here once and did not expect to walk above a secret cellar with weapons of mass destruction below her hoofs.

“Furthermore, no guards were guarding these highly advanced pieces of weaponry and technology. Any minotaur or griffon could have walked right into it if they had the proper key to the door. It wasn’t even magically shielded, sister! I don’t know how you can trust him…”

Princess Luna opens her damaged wing to emphasize her point. She had wrapped white bandage around it and a tiny peek of blood was visible on the white fabric.

Celestia sighs and looks towards the castle exit for a while and then looks back towards her sister with uncertainty in her eyes.

“I-“ She sighs again and shakes her head. “I don’t know how to put it… I simply feel somehow that he has a good soul sister.”

Luna rolls her eyes and sighs. “Sister. You always think highly of any creature, even of some villains…”

Celestia listens and simply nods without saying anything. It was one of her few weaknesses which led to many problems especially back in the days when she had to rule alone over her kingdom. Without her sister’s companionship, she was flawed, trusting others way too much. It would lead to her, or for her even worse, others being hurt.

As both Princesses exited the secret underground storage room, Joseph turns his back towards the metal door and walks towards the nuclear device. He wished he could use the experimental device. Joseph simply wanted to see Gryphanus’ castle burn and get torn apart by its immense force. He eyes his workbench to the right and grabs the nearby Allan key and quickly kneels down in front of his 15 Kiloton bomb to quickly dismantle it. After he took off the metal housing, various cables could be seen. He gently strokes them to the side, so the metal tube and the core of the bomb are visible. It was the simplest design possible. One cylindrical shaped block of Ponium-356 isotopes in one chamber with conventional explosives firmly placed behind it. In the ball shaped part, a massive sphere with a cylindrical hole also made from Ponium-356 fits the metal tube perfectly. He just needed to remotely detonate the explosive load behind the cylindrical shaped piece to form the critical mass. Any child could produce something like this if said child had the proper materials of course.

Joseph walks towards the metal chest next to the workbench and quickly released the heavy lock with one of his keys. Opening the chest, he could see two already assembled bomb cores. They were quite a bit bigger. One of Oppenhoves side-projects. Joseph hoped the stallion could escape and wasn’t killed or kidnapped by these flying pieces of shit as he sometimes calls them.

Grabbing the bigger bomb core, he makes his way towards the disassembled nuke in front of him. He kneels down again and exchanges the 15 Kiloton warhead with the bigger one. Oppenhoves informed him about his calculations. He exchanged the usual neutron-reflectors with a sphere of magic that would increase the rate of reflected neutrons by 50%. It could lead to an increase in efficiency of about 75%. This and the mere fact that he used more bomb-fuel could lead to an explosion beyond 70 kilotons.

Joseph inserts the new and more powerful core into his device. He felt his left eye twitch slightly as a grin formed on his lips. He quickly puts the metal casing back onto the nuke and stores the old core in Oppenhooves’ metal chest. He couldn’t hold back a grin as he stands back up and admires his just upgraded device.

After a while, he puts his tools aside and turns around to leave the room only to halt and return to exchange his empty P-90 magazines with new ones.

-Better be safe than sorry…-

Joseph stores them into his backpack he always carries and then leaves the room. After locking the metal door, he climbs back the stairs. Celestia was standing outside the castle entrance and stared into the depths of the Badlands. After walking towards her, he simply sits down on a piece of sandstone that collapsed when the griffons destroyed his castle. They must have been here with an entire battalion…

“Joseph, how are you feeling?” Celestia ends her fixated glare and turns her head down towards the human who is sitting nearby her. He holds his submachinegun firmly in his uninjured arm and sighs in exhaustion.

“I’ve been kidnapped, almost died during my escape, got saved by a Princess and finally returned ‘home’ only to see everything I ever knew and owned in this fucked up place to be torn apart and destroyed. I feel great.” He stands up and narrows his eyes as he stares at her. The longer he does the angrier he gets. “I’m feeling bloody great, Princess!” Joseph kicks angrily into a heap of sand next to him and quickly yelps in pain as his now throbbing leg reminded him of his injuries.

Celestia folds her ears back at the angry outburst, guilt written all over her face. She doesn’t respond.

A few seconds pass with no one speaking. The only sound heard is the harsh and dry wind blowing through the castle entrance. Celestia stands up and walks closer towards Joseph. She climbs onto the marble debris he is sitting on and then sits next to him without saying anything. He is staring at the yellow sand in front of him. His left hand is shaking and he turns his head towards Celestia. His eyes are red and watery.

“I’m sorry, Princess… I-I don’t know what to do. I am all alone in this world, the only human... Alone on the d-damn entire planet!" Christ, what am I even talking… I just wanna see everyone who did this to me burning in agony. Especially this piece of shit emperor...” He sniffles and takes a deep breath, looking away from Celestia's caring eyes.

Instead of talking, she simply wraps her right wing around Joseph's back. Sometimes, troubled minds need to simply let it all out. Joseph flinches slightly but relaxes as he feels her soft feathers brushing over his skin on his arm. He rubs his eyes dry and leans against her. She can feel his heartbeat slowing down.

The both sit there for a while and just stare into the lifeless desert. A few tumbleweeds could be seen in the distance as the constant gusts of wind urge them to carry on rolling.

“You may be the only human on this planet Joseph...”

Celestia turns her head towards Joseph and pulls her wing back to her side. He turns his head in her direction and blinks a few times.

“But you are not entirely alone. You have a friend sitting right next to you, even if said friend is a pony and on top of that merely an old hag.”

Celestia looks into his eyes and after a while Joseph’s corners of his mouth rise a bit.
He finds himself chuckling while rubbing his eyes again. He wasn’t sure if she was serious, after all she was a Princess. A leader. A godlike figure to her ponies. He still appreciated her efforts of cheering him up.

“Thank you, Celestia.”

Joseph gently puts his injured arm gently onto her back and genuinely smiles at her. She looks into his eyes and replies with a smile of her own. Despite the exhausted state she was in, she looked still quite beautiful. For a pony of course in Joseph’s opinion.

“Princess, you know... you’re actually my favourite kind of ‘old hag’.”

The Princess’ smile widens more, and she quickly brushes some moisture out of her eyes with her white wing while chuckling, giggling and then laughing genuinely. Joseph chuckles and almost laughs too, due to her contagious giggles. As the both calmed down, Celestia stands back up and looks down towards Joseph.

“Common let’s head inside to rest. Luna and the Scout Squad will be back with the carriage soon, then we will end this ridiculous war.”

Joseph nods and gets up onto his both feet and follows her back into his destroyed castle.

Joseph and Princess Celestia stand outside the demolished castle and stare towards the sky. Celestia has a smile on her lips while the human stares at the scene in front of him.

“Wow. I guess this is indeed a fitting ‘carriage’ for our ‘little mission’. Seesh!” He underlines his comment with imaginary quotation marks painted into the air with his fingers.

Celestia grins proudly and gives the human on her left a quick glance. He simply stares at the airship coming closer towards them.

“Impressive, right?”

It was a 40-meter-long and 10-meter-wide construction made of metal and various high-quality woods. Even from a distance, the craftsmanship and the detail in the design were easily visible. It could be mistaken for a piece of flying art were it not for the fact that three medieval cannons were stationed on each side of the wooden deck. Six engines consisting of large wooden propellers were presumably lifting the entire battleship making it hover over the desert as it reaches the destroyed castle. Despite the high rotational speed of the engines, the ship was remarkably quiet, and the gusts of wind produced by the strong propellers weren’t even as intense as those produced by a small helicopter. Nonetheless, he had to shield his face with a hand, so the sand wouldn’t get into his eyes.

Several ponies of the Lunar Scout Squad were visible on the deck. Some were polishing the deck and canons while some were observing the engines and scribbling down notes on a piece of paper. At the front of the airship on a small wooden podium, a large Equestrian flag was waving in the wind. Next to it, the Lunar Princess mightily stands with a proud smile on her face. She looks down towards the sandy desert as the airship lands next to the destroyed castle. The engines slow down and after a while a wooden bridge extends from the side and lands with a soft thud next to the human and the Solar Princess.

Celestia smiles at the human and gestures with a hoof towards the bridge.

“Gentlecolts first.”

Her smile only grew wider as she gets a long stare as a response.

The human rolls his eyes and then walks onto the narrow bridge. Everypony was eyeing him as he carefully ascended towards the airship while tightly gripping onto the railing despite the ship height only being at around eight meters. Most mares snicker at this sight and Princess Luna merely shakes her head at the display.

Joseph and Celestia finally step onto the deck and the two Princesses greet each other with a hug and a quick nuzzle.

Joseph clears his throat audibly and looks at the Lunar Princess.

“Uhm.. I must say I am quite impressed, Princess Luna. It isn’t the most advanced piece of technology, but it has rather nice… aesthetics.”

Luna steps forwards with an angry glance and points her blue horn rather close towards the human, much to his disliking.

“Nice Aesthetics? This is a warship! One of the most advanced one in Equestria!”

Joseph raises his eyebrows and holds his weapon in front of the blue Princess.

“This thing in my hand is more warship than an entire fleet of these flying pieces…mhffsp”

He quickly gets quietened by a white wing pressed firmly against his face. Probably for his safety since Luna’s left eye was twitching and she was wearing her usual facial expressions when she is in the presence of Joseph. Namely narrowed eyes, clenched teeth and an expression of anger salted with a big pinch of distrust.

Celestia takes her wing back and speaks in her soft tone.

“Now, King Joseph, I am sure your military back on Earth might be a bit more advanced, but there is no need to be disrespectful. Our bigger airships are defending our borders in the east. This one will do just fine.”

Joseph quickly nods and brushes his shirt clean and spits a small white feather out of his lips.

“Of course. Please excuse my rude behaviour, Princess Luna. I had a rough day.”

He looks into Lunas eyes with dull eyes and she mutters something incomprehensible to him. Celestia’s eyes flicker and she rolls her eyes in annoyance.

A lean stallion with a clip-board in his magical grasp trots towards the three.

“Your majesties, we just finished loading the cargo. We only need to recheck our magic crystal supply and then we should be ready for take-off again.

Luna steps forward. “Good work. I expect to be airborne in 3 minutes.

“Splendid. Thank you for your service my little pony.” Celestia adds with a genuine smile.

Joseph and Luna roll her eyes at her motherly tone.

“Battleship my ass…”

“Princess, may you explain to me how this airship is ‘actually’ able to fly? I mean these engines surely aren’t the only thing keeping it in the air, right?”

Celestia walks closer towards Joseph who looks at the silent engines working next to the wooden deck as the airship is being propelled towards deeper griffon territory.

“It is quite a marvellous technology. We use the force of the engines which are powered by magical crystals in combination with various permanent spells. Weight reduction. Noise reduction. Even a slight increase in agility. However, these magical crystals are quite new technology and the full possibilities aren’t quite researched yet.”

“Hmm. Quite handy. I wish we had magic back on earth. Would make things way easier.”

Celestia thinks about this to her still unknown concept. A world without a single quantity of magical energy. Earth. She had no idea how life might look like without magic.

“Is there really no magic where you are from, Joseph?”

He nods.

“There isn’t any. But we are coping quite well without. Have I ever told you about the technology we use on Earth?”

Celestia merely shakes her head. “I only know of the concept of your so called ‘smart-phones’. It lets you speak to others with the same device I assume.” She glances down towards his submachinegun. “And the weapons your kind uses of course.”

“The gun is quite basic technology, but the smartphone is indeed amazing. I can photograph things with it, browse the entire knowledge on earth trough the internet and even watch movies on it!
I would need a connection though. However, I think there are a few movies on my hard disk in my laptop. I could show you one after…”

He gestures towards the warship and the griffon territory in front of them.

“…after we have, let’s say, dealt with this whole fiasco.”

Celestia merely smiles and blinks a bit after the vague explanation of human technology. It seems quite advanced, but some words and explanations went over her head.

“I would be delighted to see this technology in action.”

Before Joseph can answer, a mare of the scout squad interrupts the conversation abruptly.

“Princess. I must inform you that we have reached the Zenus Woods. The life boat is ready, and the payload loaded.”

Celestia nods quickly.

“Understood. Joseph, let’s head under deck. We should lower our altitude and perform a stealth spell, so we won’t get noticed immediately.”

Joseph quickly follows the Solar Princess and looks towards her with concern in his eyes.

“Uhm… Life boat? Are you planning a suicide mission or what!?”

Joseph, Relax. We will place the dawn device into a life boat which is able to hover in place. We will then leave as fast as possible and then, you can simply trigger it from a safe distance. Piece of cake.”

“So, don’t fret, my little human. Nothing should go wrong.”

“Emperor Gryphanus. What are your commands?”

Gryphanus looks trough a big telescope on his massive balcony next to the throne room. After adjusting several lenses, he sees the small battleship flying over the Zenus Woods right above the treetops. He sees one white quadruped and one pinkish, clothed bipedal figure descending into the lower decks of the airship. After a while the ship vanishes at an instant. Gryphanus is no fool. He knows that it is still here behind a disguise spell.

Gryphanus looks towards Silver Claw standing next to him who waits for his commands.

“They are heading towards the centre of Zenus Woods. Destroy the ship. Kill everyone except the bipedal creature. I want it alive.”

Gryphanus doesn’t even look into Silver Claw’s eyes as he grasps the telescope again to zoom in further. Now the transparent outline of the battleship was visible. It shimmered slightly in the early daylight.

“Understood. Consider it done your majesty.”

Celestia, Luna and Joseph were now gazing trough the tick windows under deck as the battleship soars over the trees. So far, no enemies were spotted, nor did any enemies spot them.

“Can’t you like fly faster?” Joseph addressed to no one in particular.

Luna sighs in annoyance and one stallion behind the cockpit quickly speaks up.

“We are already travelling at 60 Kilometers per hour. It can do over one hundred, but we need to save the needed magic crystals for our way home.”

Joseph nods understanding and keeps gazing trough the window. In the far distance big city walls were visible. They were about twice as tall as the trees and made of stone. Behind the castle walls, a small mountain was visible with a castle on top of it. The emperor’s castle.

After a few more minutes, the airship carefully slows down and comes to a halt.

“Joseph, we are in position. We will detach the life boat with the dawn device and then remove ourselves as fast as possible.”

Joseph looks towards Celestia and nods. He then looks towards the city walls in the distance and ultimately at the castle behind it.

-Less than two kilometers distance. Perfect. -

Joseph’s lifeless expression slowly creeps into a soft smile as he looks towards Celestia and gives her a nod.

“Sounds good.”

Celestia addresses the scout squad behind her. “Let’s detach the life boat with the dawn device as fast as possible. Do remember that we aren’t completely invisible, especially when we move on the deck. So, be careful.”

Both Princesses and the human follow the Squad towards the deck. Suddenly they hear one stallion shout.

“Enemies starboard! Enemies starboard! Detach the life boat at once!”

Joseph and both Princesses storm onto the deck and quickly see another airship flying towards them. It was about the same size and a few hundred meters away. Several cannons were pointed towards the Equestrian airship.

“Uhm Celestia?!” Joseph exclaims. “I thought nothing should go fucking wrong?!”

She doesn’t respond.

Two cannons fire and two huge balls of metal zip by, only missing by a few meters.

“Holy fucking shit!”

Several ponies shout and gallop towards the cannons. Two ponies are needed to operate them. One aims and the other inserts some sort of crystal into the back of the cannon. With a loud bang they fire towards the griffon airship. Two cannon balls miss, and one impacts the wooden hull, leaving a big hole in the airship.

Several griffons jump off the airship and extend their wings. Not to retreat since their ship got hit, but to attack. Their ship wouldn’t matter anyways. Eight more battleships were visible in the further distance, coming closer and closer.

“Luna! I will focus on shielding us. You use your lunar beam, okay?”

“Understood, sister!”

As the entire crew of the damaged griffon airship flies towards them, Princess Luna opens fire at the many targets in the distant sky. She lowers her horn and suddenly, a powerful beam of blue magic soars trough the sky. It impacts one griffon and tears a hole right trough the creature. It immediately falls towards the forest.

Joseph gawks at that and looks flabbergasted towards the Lunar Princess.

“H-Holy SHIT!”

Joseph stares at the display of power in front of him again. Luna takes aim and shoots another beam of her magic but misses by a few meters. The flying griffons were now right in front of the ship. The archers of the scout squad shoot at them with their arrows and the others ready themselves in case one griffon would be brave enough to land and engage in face to face combat.

Joseph pulls the charging handle of his weapon back and then takes aim at the closest griffon.

A female griffon a few meters behind Luna was ready to shoot her bow. Luna turns around and gasps only to see the griffon’s body being sprayed with bullets. The lifeless body quickly falls onto the edge of a railing, leaving a pile of griffon blood behind, only to completely fall down the airship towards the trees below.

Luna and Joseph continue firing at the archers in the sky as some more well-built griffons land on the deck with a loud thud. They quickly engage the scout squad, clashing their sharp claws with their swords and shields. They were vastly more powerful than the ponies.

In the distance, several cannons fire. Almost a dozen of cannonballs come closer in a perfect trajectory. Joseph’s heartbeat grows faster and faster. He quickly glances towards Celestia. She closes her eyes and charges her horn.

“The fuck are you doing, Celestia! Take cover! Take fucking cover!”

She doesn’t listen. Her horn glows brighter and she opens her eyes again only to see six cannonballs impacting on a transparent shield which quickly formed two meters in front of the battleship.

Joseph gawks in amazement but quickly turns around to fire several bullets into a griffon which was fighting two ponies at once. They thank him with a quick glance and then quickly fight another griffon with lands next to them.

On the other side of the deck a bulky griffon lands in front of Joseph. He takes aim and shoots at him. Only one bullet tears through its shoulder. His magazine was empty. He quickly throws his empty mag towards the griffon and grabs a fresh one from his backpack. The now very annoyed griffon charges at him and Joseph desperately tries to insert the new magazine. But it was to late. He stumbles backwards and shields himself with his empty weapon. The griffon prances into the air with his claws ready to strike. Suddenly, Luna’s lunar beam tears trough the griffons left shoulder with a powerful high-pitched whine. It rips the griffon’s entire arm and left chest off with ease. The beam doesn’t stop. After tearing through the griffon, it destroys the metal railing and zooms into the distance, snapping several treetops with ease.

The almost lifeless body falls onto the deck next to Joseph. His heart was at full tilt now. Joseph quickly inserts the new mag and charges the handle again to finally end the half dead griffon lying next to him with a headshot.

Celestia’s powerful voice overpowers the scene of shouting, shooting and clashing swords.

“Scout Squad! Is the lifeboat detached?”

She glances towards the eight battleships in the distance with worry in her eyes. She could see their cannons being reloaded at a fast pace.

A stallion’s voice answers her quickly.

“Lifeboat and payload are detached! Let’s get o-“

The stallion is quickly shot down with an arrow to his chest. He stumbles for a while and then falls towards the wooden deck with his eyes closed.

Princess Luna and Joseph narrow their eyes and take aim for the griffon who shot down the stallion. After dodging one lunar beam, the griffon flies towards the battleships which are now only one hundred meters away. Joseph sprays several bullets towards the escaping griffon, damaging his hindlegs with two shots. He dodges a few arrows but finally, another blue magical beam soars trough the sky and rips one of the griffon’s wings off, making him tumble and crash into the trees below. The energy beam blasts into one of the eight ships, leaving a big hole in its wooden hull. Several griffons abandon the ship and spring into the air in hot pursuit for the equestrian airship. Princess Luna gasps for air and breathes heavily after the intense amount of magic she just used. She looks towards her sister who yells towards her over half the length of the airship.

“Luna! Go to the cockpit and start the engines! We have to get out of here!”

Dozens of cannons fire in the distance and Celestia immediately charges her horn again to initiate a new shield. She flares her wings for more stability and clenches her teeth hard. Sweat peals down her forehead as several cannonballs impact the shield. It cracks in a few places, but she manages to keep the invisible forcefield alive.

Luna immediately gallops down the deck and soon the six engines start, and the ship slowly begins to move. Acceleration wasn’t the airship’s trump card.

Gryphanus watches over his Zenus Woods with his telescope from a save distance. He already lost two airships, but it doesn’t matter. He will get his revenge. As his airships shoot their cannons at the Equestrian airship, he sees the cannonballs shatter against an invisible shield.

Gryphanus narrows his eyes. He couldn’t make out exactly who was on the equestrian ship. But nopony except alicorns are capable of such high-level magic. It must be the royal sisters. But why would they accompany such a useless suicide mission?

“Pha! Whatever. Stupid prissy pony princesses.”

He waves a claw dismissively and smirks. While his armies were invading several bigger cities, the alicorn princesses were on a field trip over Zenus Woods. A pathetic field trip in his opinion.

He looks trough the telescope again. He quickly snorts and chuckles.

“Silver Claw, watch! They even lost their life boat! Hahaha!”

Silver Claw next to him chuckles with his emperor and then speaks in his deep voice.

“War against ponies really is a piece of cake, your Majesty.”

“Celestia! They are coming closer!”

Joseph aims towards the closest airship and sprays his whole magazine into its wooden hull with anger written all over his face. Several griffons on the deck are peppered with bullets and the engines malfunction quickly as bullets tear trough them.

“What should we do?!”

He throws the empty mag out and inserts a new one into his weapon. Hot gases and fumes exit the now red-hot glowing barrel.

The ship is slowly accelerating but the griffon airships are almost as fast. Several cannons fire and impact Celestia’s shield with immense force. She grits her teeth in pain and gasps for air as the last cannonball impacts the magical forcefield.

“We need to... We need to stand strong!”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I only have two mags left!”

He aims towards a few griffons flying towards the Equestrian airship and shoots at them, taking two out of four griffons from the sky. The remaining two land on the deck. One slices a mare’s throat with ease but is quickly revenged by a bullet to the head. The other griffon fights two ponies but they manage to slice a deep gash into the griffons left hindleg. He yelps in pain and soars into the sky towards his comrades on the remaining five airships.

A female archer of the scout squad narrows her eyes in anger after one of her comrades got killed. “What are we even doing here! This turned out to be a mere suicide mission!” After many casualties, the once mighty Lunar Scout Squad was now merely consisting of only six frightened ponies.

The airship is now travelling at around 60 Kilometers per hour again. The strong wind blazes trough Josephs hair and Celestia’s mane. Because the griffon airships are in hot pursuit, they cannot shoot as accurately and on top of that only their front cannons are able to even point towards the Equestrian airship. But it wouldn’t matter. They cannot run away from them forever.

As the ship gets faster the flying griffons who are in hot pursuit for the equestrian airship cannot keep up on their own and fall back towards their airships. The engines of the remaining airships roar wildly, and they come closer and closer to the Equestrians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCLT0HNJLWw

“Joseph! Make sure you have the detonator ready! They are coming closer and closer!”

“Are you crazy! We are way to close Celestia!”

Meanwhile Princess Luna sticks her head outside from under deck to evaluate the situation.

“But we are already exiting Zenus Wood’s We should b-“

Celestia’s protest stops at once as she feels a sharp and stinging pain in her upper left hindleg. She groans in pain while looking towards her flank. A long arrow was deep inside her upper hindleg. Blood dripped from the wound as she takes in a deep breath to cope with the immense pain.

Joseph and Luna look at Celestia and Luna immediately gallops towards her.

“Sister! You’re terribly wounded! We need to stabilize the wound!”

“No! We have no time for that! We need more energy crystals for the engines! Go Luna!
Please!” She looks pleadingly into her sisters’ eyes as tears form at the corner of her eyes due to the immense pain.

Luna reluctantly accepts her protest and gallops away to get more crystals from under deck while Joseph looks towards Celestia with worry in his eyes. He girts his teeth and narrows his eyes. Joseph takes aim for the closest airship and sprays his magazine towards it.

“You flying pieces of shiiit!”

Celestia immediately looks towards the human. His expression is full of rage and fury as his bullets tear trough several griffons on the deck. They fall like flies. He breathes heavily and inserts his last magazine into his weapon as the bandage on his leg comes off and flutters violently in the wind.

While his smoldering hot gun is being reloaded, he glances towards Luna. She gallops towards each engine and slams a crystal into the backside of each engine housing. The increased acceleration and speed are felt each time a crystal gets injected.

Two of the pursuing airships fire their cannons.

“Joseph! Do it! Now!” Celestia calls to him.

Joseph glances towards the distant life boat with the nuclear warhead in the distance. It was merely a tiny dot in his vision right now.

Another cannon ball impacts the shimmering forcefield while another soars over their heads producing a high-pitched whining noise as it passes by.

“We are to close, Celestia!”

Luna screams at him. “Have tine senses taken leave of thee, human! We are far away enough! Use thine weapon at once!” She underlines her angry command with a lowered horn.

Joseph stares at Luna for a while and then slowly nods. He then takes the remote detonator out of his backpack and reluctantly opens the protective plastic cap over the red button.

“Are you also capable of producing a forcefield like your sister?”

Luna girths her teeth in anger. “What are thou talking about? Activate thine weapon! Now!”

“Please! Joseph…” Celestia adds with pain easily heard in her voice as she looks towards the human with pleading eyes.

The Equestrian airship just cleared Zenus Woods and soars with high speed away from the bomb with five airships still on pursuit, albeit at a slower pace.

-I hope you haven’t outdone yourself Oppenhooves…-

“Cover your eyes!”

The princesses comply, and Joseph firmly presses a thumb down against the red button.

Nothing happens.

Celestia looks towards Joseph with worry in her eyes. Her sister is as good as ready to lash out at the human next to her. “are thou joking human!? Are you even capable of understanding how much depends on this mission?!”

Joseph’s eyes widen at once and without listening to her, he presses the red button again, this time smashing it hard with his entire palm.

The entire visible scenery is being illuminated by intense light no creature on this planet ever witnessed before as the nuclear warhead detonates. At the blink of the eye a huge fireball several times bigger than the biggest dragons ever to life on Equs appears out of thin air. It is about 400 meters in diameter, capable of engulfing the whole Canterlot Castle including its vast gardens and parks were the warhead placed there.

The trees in the centre of Zenus Woods are immediately annihilated at an instant while the further trees ignite under the intense thermal radiation. In the far distance the two griffon airships who are closest to the fireball ignite as well. Several griffons in the distance try to dive off the ship only to find their coats and feathers being on fire as well as the powerful shockwave reaches their to the bomb closest ship. It immediately bursts open, the shockwave spraying the remains of the ship everywhere.

Both princesses stumble backwards out of shock as the air around them gets hotter and hotter. Celestia doesn’t even feel the arrow in her upper hindleg anymore as she stares at the huge explosion. Chills run down the princesses’ spines as their minds, especially the mind of the Lunar Princess, is trying to process the absurd happening in front of her wide opened eyes.

The remaining Scout Squad members just gawk at the sight. Some just scream in terror and run under deck to hide from the immense fireball.

Joseph stares towards the shockwave coming closer and closer and he feels like he is being put into an oven while the temperature around the Equestrian airship increases even more. The human holds his hands against his forehead and slowly runs his fingers trough his hair.

“I told you we were to close…”

Two more burning griffon airships are torn apart by the shockwave while the smouldering trees below them snap in half like toothpicks. Only the strongest trees manage to absorb the immense shockwave. They swing back and forth after the wave passed them and stripped them bare of all leaves and branches.

Joseph looks towards Celestia with a lifeless expression in his face. He then softly smiles at her while the unwrapped and bloody bandage on his injured leg unwraps even more. It finally flies away into the hot air due to the strong winds.

“It was nice knowing you, Princess.”

Tiny tears form in the corners of his eyes as he tries to hold them back while the gentle but hopeless smile is still visible on his lips.

Celestia stares into Joseph’s eyes while she is still lying on the wooden deck with her muzzle half open as she realizes what she and her sister had done.

She glances towards her Sister. Luna was covering on the wooden deck with her tail between her leg while staring at the rising and still burning mushroom cloud behind the still advancing shockwave, which is in hot pursuit for the two last griffon airships. Luna never imagined a power of this magnitude to be possible. She expected his weapon to be powerful. But not like this. For her this is madness, simply impossible! Luna wasn’t sure whether she was awake or simply dreaming a horrible dream. Tears run down Celestia’s cheeks as she looks deeper into her sister’s eyes. The blazing inferno in front of them is easily visible in Luna’s eyes as the bright light gets reflected in her pupils.

-This isn’t happening. More useless deaths under my command. This isn’t. I cannot… I..-

Celestia shuts her eyes tight to get rid of the tears in her eyes.

“No.” Celestia whispers to herself as she gets up, ignoring the radiating pain coming from her left hindleg.

“No!” She speaks with more confidence.

Celestia walks towards the wooden podium with determination written deep in her eyes.
With a powerful wing flap, she lands on the elevated position next to the Equestrian flag which waves in the wind as the airship desperately tries to get away from the expanding circle of destruction. Joseph and Princess Luna just stare at her with worry and sadness in their eyes as the shockwave obliterates the last two griffon airships behind Celestia with ease.

“I refuse!” The solar princess screams into the hot air and channels her white horn with energy. She opens her wings for more stabilization and grunts in pain as she draws all magic in the environment into her horn. Blood runs down her left hindleg while a tiny stream of red liquid flows slowly out of her left nostril. Her horn glows as bright as the fireball in the middle of the obliterated forest as she screams in rage to finally initiate the overloaded spell. A thick, golden shimmering shield forms tightly around the now last remaining airship.

Celestia fixates her gaze towards the shockwave. She closes her eyes and channels the last possible quantity of magical energy into the shield. As the shockwave finally slams into the shield, Luna and Joseph are violently smashed against the back side of the deck right at the base of the podium where Celestia is standing. Luna groans in pain, her body terribly bruised after the harsh slam agsinst the wooden podium. She looks at her sister as the shockwave passes by the immensely powerful shield while her ears ring painfully. The shield cracks heavily but Celestia stands strong, relocating more energy towards the damaged side of the shield so it won’t be destroyed.

Joseph’s eyes ring like they have never been ringing before as he slowly and shakily tries to get his battered body onto his knees and hands. He sees a puddle of blood below him but quickly realizes that it isn’t his. He raises his head and sees Princess Celestia on the podium gasping desperstely for air after the ridiculously powerful defencive spell she just performed. Her horn is still shimmering in a bright white, which gets dimmer and dimmer. Blood drips from her chin and her entire left hindleg is covered in her blood, coating her usual radiant white fur in a deep and dark red. Her blood drips down the wooden podium and forms a puddle right where Joseph slammed against the base of the podium.

Celestia gently sways to the left and right and then falls unconsciously onto the deck, hitting her head and horn hard against the wooden surface.

Ivory Blade grunted as he stands in front of the emperor’s throne room, guarding the mighty wooden double doors. Guarding them always seemed like an unnecessary thing to him. Even more so since they are easily winning this war.

“Pha! I should be at the front, killing these weak ponies instead of wasting my time here…”

The grumpy feeling griffon glances through two smaller glass doors leading towards the huge balcony which towers above the capital city. The Emperor and General Silver Claw were standing there. He could faintly hear their conversation through the transparent door.

“Silver Claw! Can you believe this? Apparently, the human wanted to, quote: “coat my entire country on fire, starting with Zenus Woods.” And this is his attack? Pathetic!”

He looks trough the telescope and sees the Equestrian airship bailing out as fast as possible while they get peppered with tons worth of cannon balls.

“What a joke! And there I thought we would finally get a real battle in this war…”

“Your majesty, he teamed up with ponies. I mean seriously, this was to be expected.”

Gryphanus laughs at his witty remark and his general joins him with a wholehearted laugh of his own.

The emperor then turns around and firmly slaps Silver Claw onto his right shoulder as he looks at him with a grin on his face.

“Common, General. We should celebrate our victory over Equestria with wine and a few of my royal prostitutes. What do you say?”

Silver Claw’s ears perk up at that and he finds himself grinning ear to ear as his powerful wings flutter a bit in excitement.

“It would be an honour, my majesty.”

The two turn their backs towards Zenus Woods and walk towards the glass doors as their backs suddenly feel like a fire got lit on their fur. Their immediately turn around and see an immensely huge and expanding fireball in the middle of Zenus Woods, obliterating all trees in an instant.

"W-What on E-Equs!?” Gryphanus stutters in disbelief while gazing towards his burning forest.

The two griffons stare and stare as they see the entire forest and their closest airships being lit on fire while their brains try to process the might of the nearby nuclear explosion.

“Your Majesty! We have to run!”

Gryphanus doesn’t listen and falls to his hindlegs while the powerful shockwave rushes towards the thick city walls. Hundreds of griffons nearby the wall flee or seek shelter in one of the various wooden buildings.

Gryphanus holds his claws together in fear and speaks towards the hot sky with fear deep in his stuttering voice.

“Rah, V-Volta! Oh d-dear gods of war! W-What have we done to deserve this?!”

Silver Claw folds his ears back in fear and urges his emperor to finally flee. The mighty city wall bursts open with ease on impact with the raging shockwave. Splinters of rock and huge boulders fly trough the air and damage several buildings severely. The ones which were lucky enough to get missed were blasted apart as the shockwave rages trough the city. Roofs collapse, walls breach and windows shatter immediately. The medieval buildings did not stand a chance against the intense destruction of the bomb.

“Gryphanus!, My Emperor! We have to-“

Silver Claw glances a last time towards the immense explosion in the Zenus Woods. The shockwave reaches the two observers on the balcony and they immediately get smashed against the castle wall with immense force. Their ears don’t even ring anymore. Siler Claw tries to lift his head but notices his muscles not responding. His wings and both hindlegs were broken several times. A pool of warm blood forms under his body. Silver Claw throws a last glance towards his emperor. His wings were broken as well but he was able to slowly limp towards the direction of his destroyed throne room. With his last breath, Silver Claw looks up into the sky. The castle towers had severe cracks in the walls. The cracks grow bigger and bigger and the structure finally gives in. The huge towers slowly but surely tip over. One falls towards the city and the other is about to smash into the emperor’s already severely damaged balcony.

-Avenge us, my king-

Silver Claw closes his eyes and exhales slowly as the remains of the once mighty castle towers crash onto the balcony, tearing the whole construction out of the castle. The immense pile of boulders and castle debris falls towards the already damaged griffon capital city, burying many buildings under the huge mass.

Princess Luna and Joseph lay on the wooden deck while both groan in pain. Joseph coughs and Luna still gasps for air after she got her air knocked out after the harsh slam against the wooden deck. Luna’s head is turning to the left and right as she slowly tries to get on her all fours.

“By my mother’s name… W-What have we done. “

Princess Luna glances towards Zenus Woods, her ears still ringing. The entire forest is destroyed. The strong and firm trees in the middle of the now annihilated forest are not even there anymore. It appeared as they got simply eradicated. Deleted. As if they haven’t been growing there since Luna’s childhood. The trees which were lucky to be farer from ground-zero are still standing. However, they are merely crude sticks of black and still smouldering wood. The vibrant green of the entire area turned into a mix of grey, black and burning orange.

“Princess Luna. We-“

Joseph coughs a few times and holds his injured leg in pain. Fresh blood was dripping from the wound.

“Luna! We need to help Celestia.” Joseph coughs even more and looks towards the unconscious and bleeding form of Celestia on the wooden podium

Luna doesn’t even hear him as she stares towards Gryphonia in the far distance. She gulps and widens her eyes even more. The mighty castle towers broke off and fell towards the city below. The huge and well-known walls, which were the pride of the city due to their apparent indestructability, were a crippling mess. Black smoke rises from the city district which faced the blast the most. Another smaller castle wing slowly breaks of the huge castle. It falls towards the city, sending more ash and debris into the still warm air.

As Joseph waits for an answer on how to proceed with the injured alicorn, Luna merely blinks a few times while whispering. “T-This is insane. How did thou make this possible?”

“Fucking nuclear science, Princess! Now get your bloody ass up and running! Someone who saved our sorry asses is bleeding to death right in front of us, for Christ’s sake!”

Never in her life has someone spoken to her in such a manner and lived to experience the following night, but Princess Luna merely turns her head towards the podium again and sees her dear sister laying there unconsciously on a pool of her own blood. She was still breathing. Luna slowly opens her eyes wide as her mind is still processing the happening around her. The world around her felt like as it was played back in slow motion. It was a completely new and overwhelming feeling for her.

After she collected her senses again, Luna sees Joseph limping towards the podium with a first aid kit in his hands. Luna shakes her head quickly and then climbs onto the podium to immediately perform a healing spell on her sister while the human opens the medic kit with shaking arms. He is a nuclear physicist, not a doctor. He looks towards Luna with uncertainty in his eyes.

“Shit… What do we do?”

As Luna finished her spell, Celestia’s breathing calmed quite a bit and the bleeding on her nostrils and leg slowed down fast. Even her messy and unkempt mane appears a bit more vibrant after the procedure.

“We need the anaesthetic potion. T-The blue one! Pour it over her wound.” Her voice was quiet and rather shaky.

Joseph nods and grabs a blue but transparent glass bottle from the medic kit with shaking hands. After opening it he pours the liquid onto Celestia’s upper hindleg. Instead of the liquid dripping down her leg, it somehow got absorbed into her skin.

“Did it work?”

“Yes. Now we need to remove the arrow.” Luna kept looking at her sisters wound.

“What! Are you crazy?! I’m not a doctor! Look at my freaking hands.” They were shaking hard he held his hand in front of her muzzle.

“You merely need to spread the wound a bit, so I can remove the arrow with my magic. I will coat the barbs with my magic, so they won’t cause further damage when I pull the arrow out.”

Joseph reluctantly rests one hand on Celestia’s blood coated flank and shakily but gently spreads the arrow-wound. The distress on his face was easily visible as he tries his best to not look away as more blood oozes over his fingers. With one gentle but firm tug with Luna’s magic, the arrow quickly came out. Celestia only flinched a bit, the blue magic potion apparently working well. Joseph exhales a deep breath he has been holding during the quick medical procedure.

“Mare-up, human…” Luna quickly performs her healing magic again on the now exposed wound while Joseph glares daggers towards her, anger rising inside him.

“Mare-fucking-up?! You better be careful what you say now, or I’ll nuke the shit outta your moon, moon horse!…”

Luna ignores the harsh response. A few hours ago, she would have instantly lashed out at the human after such a disrespectful behaviour. But after the to her insane happenings in Zenus Woods, she decides to better not anger the human further. He seems psychologically instable enough to her. What if he got really angry and decided to test his ‘experimental payload’? Luna puts these thoughts away with a shake of her head.

Joseph, after feeling content about the little outburst, grabs a pressure bandage and the paste Celestia used on his wounds. After a quick nod form Luna, he gently spreads the magical paste over her wound and puts the bandage firmly onto her hindleg while resting her leg against his knee, so he can work his hands around her.

After the medical procedure, Joseph grabs one of his rain coats from his backpack and gently covers Celestia with the coat. It got a bit cold and it would be irresponsible of him to let her catch a cold. After he sees her sore head resting on the hard podium, he gently raises her head and slides his backpack with the comfy side upwards under her head. Joseph didn’t mind the bloody mess on his belongings. He nods to himself and then looks back towards Luna. Apparently, she had been staring at him for a while now.

“What?” Joseph glares back at her. He then mumbles a few swear words to himself and leans down to sit onto the podium next to Celestia.

“N-Nothing.” Luna sighs and rests on the other side of Celestia. She stares over her airship while it magically continues to fly towards the direction of Canterlot. No one speaks a word. The only sound is the wind flowing over the still waving but slightly torched Equestrian flag. Luna then breaks the silence.

“How many of these ‘dawn’ devices dost thou possess?”

Joseph rubs his temples. “Of this yield? Only one more. And about four smaller ones. Back on earth, several countries had countless of these bombs. Some countries have over a thousand. And most are more powerful than what we just exploded…”

“But how is this even possible? Without any magic?!”

“Princess. I think I’ve told you already that humans cannot use magic. We use science.”

He waves his smartphone in front of her for clarification and puts it back into his pocket.

“We see… The Element of Magic often says she is a mare of science. I bet she would be thrilled to meet thou, Joseph.”

Joseph flinches. He quickly stares towards Luna with a baffled expression.

“What you just call me?”

Luna uncomfortably rubs her left hoof against her neck. “We have called thou by thine name.”

Joseph rises his eyebrows in confusion. “That’s weird… What happened to my nickname ‘human’? Is somepony suddenly scared of someone’s power?”

“N-Nay! We… I merely think my actions around thee have been a little... harsh. Despite your sometimes-disrespectful tongue that is.”

“Seesh. It seems like I’ve just levelled up, I guess. Hopefully I will not get bombarded with affectionate hugs like I got by a pink pony when I was found in the Everfree.

“Do not fret, Joseph. There is no such danger coming from us. And, we think thou should spare potential hugs for somepony else.”

Joseph tilts his head in confusion. “Uhm. What are you trying to imply there?”

Luna merely smirks softly and gives a quick glance towards her sister. She looked quite a bit better now, and Luna feels her sister’s energy coming back slowly. As Luna looks towards her sister, Celestia snuggles a bit into Joseph’s ‘blanket’.

Joseph glares towards Luna. Was she implying a potential romantical interest of his side towards this sun horse? Impossible.

“Uhm what? Am I not allowed to use my rain coat as a blanket for a wounded pony who just saved me?”

“Calm down. This was merely a jest. We simply thought of thine kind actions as… cute.” Luna smiles sheepishly towards the human.

Joseph grumbles with a blush after he gave Celestia next to him a quick glance. She was nuzzling her head against his backpack in her recovery slumber. Hopefully she would wake up soon. Being in Luna’s presence for too long without anyone else is quite taxing for Joseph. Especially since shes acting rather weird now.

“You better be jesting, Moon-horse…”

Celestia shifts to her left a bit as she feels a weird but soft feeling claw on her flank. Her entire left hindleg felt numb. She does feel that someone is tending her wound, luckily only barely since her wound got coated with the anaesthetic fluid. She just stays calm, eyes closed while resting. Magic exhaustion feels terrible. She feels cold and weak. Simply vulnerable. A few days of resting in a comfy bed, is the only treatment for such a condition.

Luckily for her, she feels some sort of blanket being put on her cold body while a weird but comfy feeling claw holds her head up to put a weirdly shaped pillow under her head. She didn’t recall having stallions with claws in her infirmary. But she didn’t care. She only wished for those soft claws to give her a head massage now since her head still hurts a lot. She hears two familiar voices talk next to her. Celestia decides to slowly open her eyes. She realizes that she is still on the airship, but now outside enemy territory. She looks down towards her body and sees Joseph’s rain coat over her body. Did he really cover her with his own clothing? A quick glance towards her ‘pillow’ confirmed her thoughts. She blushed a bit and then glances towards her left hindleg. The blood on her leg is now dry. It felt numb and a bandage was firmly wrapped around the wound. With her head still sore, she tries to get up put is being gently pressed back against the floor by a hand. Joseph looked down towards her with concern in his eyes. On the other side Luna gave her a relieved smile.

“Joseph? Luna? W-What happened?”

Quickly, it flashes trough her mind. The dawn device. The destruction. The instant death. And they were too close to the blast. How was their ship then still intact? She couldn’t remember.

“Thou saved us sister! And our mission was successful! Maybe a bit much but successfull nonetheless.” She reminds her sister with relief in her voice. Luna then gestured towards Zenus Woods, or what was remaining of it.

-‘Saved us?’ That explains the magic exhaustion. -

Celestia raises her head and looks towards Zenus Woods. Well, the remains of it. The once mighty forest was a pile of ash and burning wood. Every form of life in a 3 Kilometre radius got eradicated by the bomb. In the vast distance she could see the Griffon Capital. The Emperor’s castle was heavily damaged, and the mighty walls were crippled beyond a possible repair. Smoke rises from the once so mighty griffon city.

Celestia looks down towards her bandaged hindleg. “What happened to the arrow?”

“We both removed it and treated thine wound, Sister.”

Joseph nods and gestures towards his blood coated hands. He stares into her eyes for a while.

“I’m sorry, Princess. I should have waited with the detonation until we would have reached a save distance. And it seems like the bombs yield was slightly undercalculated…”

Joseph nervously looks towards his hands and prays to all gods listening, hoping that Celestia isn’t good at reading lies. He glances back towards Celestia and she seems to be eyeing him carefully with her magenta eyes, as if she would be analysing his facial expressions.

-Well shit-

Thankfully, he got saved by Luna. “Nonsense, Joseph. We have pressured thou into using the weapon too early.” Luna nervously looks towards her Sister with a fake smile. “We should apologize to Joseph, right sister?”

Celestia looks towards Luna with a perplexed look.

-Okay. What’s going on there? Since when is Luna so nice to him? I guess she is actually scared. –

It was a weird sight to behold for Celestia. Not even in the presence of the most intimidating dragons would she act in such a fake-friendly way. She looks towards Joseph who nervously looks towards Luna with a fake smile of his own.

Celestia sits upright and brushes her wings over her sides. She knows that Joseph is hiding something. But Luna is right. An apology would be necessary. He helped them. She would not want to imagine what they could have done without his help.

“Joseph. I’m truly sorry. We should not have pressured you into detonating your device too early. It was irresponsible. And on top of that, I feel like I have pressured you into this mission. You helped us and Equestria so much after the last few days. I cannot express how much this means to me and my sister.” She gets a nod and a quick smile from Luna. “And once again, I have to mention that I feel like we have put a huge burden onto your shoulders while we have given nothing to you in return.”

She sighs in genuine sadness and looks into his eyes, her ears a bit lowered in guilt.

“In the end, I’m simply glad that you are alright after what all we have put you through…”

Celestia uncomfortably rubs her front hoofs against each other and shifts once again a bit closer towards the human. Luna watches the scene with curiosity as Joseph looks towards Celestia. He sighs and gently pats Celestia’s back with an understanding expression on his face.

“It’s okay. You’re a leader. You had to do what you had to, Princess. Though, it was still better than rotting in self pity in my castle. Speaking of which…”

He groans ins exhaustion and hopelessness as he realized he had no place to stay after Gryphanus’ lapdogs decided to beat up his place.

Celestia immediately seizes her opportunity to give something back to him. Even if it may be laughable in comparison what he did for Equestria.

“Joseph! You can of course stay in our castle. I have a wonderful suite, simply waiting for you to move in. You are always welcome there as long as you wish to stay.”

Joseph’s mood brightens just so slightly after hearing this. “Yes, are you sure?”

“Of course! And concerning your diet. I will send a few scrolls and try to hire a cook who can satisfy your… ‘omnivore needs’.”

Now Joseph’s mood just improved tenfold.

He grins wide and takes the white alicorn next to him into his arms. “Christ, you’re the best sun-horse I’ve ever met in this weird place. Thanks Princess.”

Celestia, while perplexed because she is being called a 'sun-horse', giggles as she hugs him back with a relieved smile. She was glad that she would not have to further damage his already crushed life since the mission was successful. Hopefully things would calm down for everyone from now on. Celestia nuzzles Joseph’s chest and notices the sly smirk Luna gives her.

Celestia blushes instantly and magically grasps Luna and drags her into the hug. She yelps at first but then rolls her eyes and wraps her hooves around Celestia and the human, albeit a bit reluctantly.

Joseph tries to breathe in as he is engulfed in warm and fuzzy pony fur.

“I need air! Pleshhs-” His voice gets muffled as Celestia’s wavy mane gets into his face as Luna presses the white alicorn tighter towards the human.

Joseph sighs as he sits in his comfy hospital bed. While Luna and even Celestia were both up and running again, he was still busy healing his battered body. Alicorns apparently heal way faster than any other creatures.

-Bloody unfair. I hope they get nerfed in the next patch-

Joseph chuckles to himself and stares towards the ceiling. It’s a Saturday morning and he has to rest in this boring place for 24 more hours now.

“Sheesh, chilling in hospital all alone is really fun.” While groaning in boredom, he stares towards his phone. His usually fun and interesting smartphone is also pretty much boring since he gets no internet connection here. He would be content if he had at least a TV in his room. But apparently, pony technology wasn’t there yet.

“Well shit, let’s play angry birds for the hundredth time then. Yaay…” He groans as he starts the bloody app once again. As Joseph starts the first level, he tries to aim with one finger and charges the slingshot.

Suddenly, the door to his single bedroom opens with a rather loud thud. He flinches, and his flying bird misses completely. Shit. Now he had to restart the level once again. Joseph looks towards the door with a groan, where a smiling Celestia is standing. Her upper left hindleg is still wrapped in a bandage. The smiling alicorn looks at Joseph as she holds a big cake in her magical aura.

Joseph puts away his phone and rolls her eyes at her. “What is it, Sunny?”

“Well, how about I let you guess, my little human.” She smirks as he groans again. She likes to tease him with the little nickname.

Celestia walks towards his hospital bed and smiles down towards him with a happy smile on her muzzle. Her coat shined in her usually radiant white and Joseph, while trying to wear his usual grim expression, cannot help but smile a bit at the sight.

“Uhm… Is it another ‘Congratulations, you survived another nuke-cake?’”

Celestia chuckles and rolls her eyes. She gently puts the cake on the bed stand and then sits on a chair nearby his bed.

“Joseph, you already forgot? I’m a mare of honour, remember?”

Gears start to spin inside Josephs head. He looks towards Celestia, then towards the cake and ultimately towards a clock on a wall. 9 AM. It seems like Celestia has not forgotten about his 'demands' despite all the shit that happened over the last few weeks.

“You’re bloody serious, Princess?” Asks joseph in disbelief.

Joseph then chuckles and looks towards the cake. It was a black forest cake with cherries on top. They were arranged into a smiley face. It was very, very cheesy. But it looked very, very delicious.

“Well, I’m not bloody anymore, but I take signed documents very seriously.” She stares towards him with a stern glance. "Now, eat."

Celestia giggles and nudges the human with a hoof while loading one of the slices onto a plate. She firmly presses a fork into his hand with her magic and eyes him with anticipation. He slowly and carefully takes a bite. It tastes amazing. He soon finds himself demolishing the slice and soon loads the next slice onto his plate. He raises his fork towards his mouth again but stops at once as he glances back towards Celestia again.

Her genuine smile wasn’t so genuine anymore. Now, her smile was rather fake and her facial expressions matched those of a crack addict when said addict had to watch someone snort a line while being strapped to a chair.

Joseph sighs and rolls his eyes, shaking his head.

“Get a plate…”

Celestia immediately teleports away and Joseph sighs into the silence but cannot help so chuckle slightly. She is quite weird for a Princess, but Joseph cannot deny that he likes her presence quite a bit. After a few seconds, a grinning Celestia appears with a fresh plate and a fork of her own.

“You are the nicest human I’ve ever met, Joseph.” She coos at him as she loads a big slice onto her plate.

“I know… I’m becoming too soft.”

The both silently eat their cakes and soon the entire thing got demolished by the two. Joseph only had a third of the entire thing though.

“Soooo Celestia,” her ears perk up as she finishes the last slice. “How are things going? The war and stuff.”

Celestia puts both plates and forks to the side and shifts closer towards his bed.

“Well, I can’t complain. The Griffon armies retreated to presumably rebuild the destroyed part of Gryphonia like you predicted. And Baltimare and almost all big cities are in our control again. I-” She uncomfortably looks towards her hoofs, “I don’t know what we would have done without your help. You even came to our aid with our mission after your castle…”

Celestia stops and sighs, looking into his blue eyes with guilt in her eyes. He returns the gaze with a pensive and almost stoic look on his face.

“I just wanted to thank you again, Joseph, I will be in your dept for a very long time.”

“It had to be done…” Joseph responds. Celestia seems to feel like it’s getting harder and harder for him to keep his serene mask on. She does what she wished everypony would do to her if she felt down.

She pulls him into a tight hug and closes her eyes while enjoying the moment as Joseph wraps his arms around her. He even brushed his fingers over her neck! Celestia hums happily and nuzzles the human’s cheek. He chuckles and even laughs while hugging her back. After a while, he shoves the affectionate alicorn gently away.

“H-Hey! That’s enough.” He chuckles to himself and rubs his blushing cheeks with his palms.

“Don’t rub your cake covered face against mine, you little pig.” Joseph laughs and Celestia giggles and then flutters her wings a bit in embarrassment.

She would have been deeply offended over such a comment if somepony else had made it. But not with her alien friend. She chuckles a bit and wipes a bit of cake from her muzzle with a napkin in her magical aura.

Princess Luna strolls towards the royal dining hall with her usual tired fatigue at this time of the day. It was morning and her usual uneventful night court got spammed with questions about the ‘little mission’ that got executed the day before. She didn’t want to spread the news that it was mostly Joseph’s work. Knowing that a creature, capable of destroying an entire city with a push of a button resides in the royal castle, would surely initiate a mass panic.

Luna yawns, enters the big dining room and gives everyone at the table a tired nod. “Morning everypony…”, she mumbles. Joseph nods back at her while Celestia and Cadence smile and greet her a good morning as well. Luna sits down next to Cadence and fills a bowl with some Luna Puffs ^TM while her tired eyes slowly shift towards the newspaper her sister is reading.

Celestia is somewhat turning her back towards Joseph as her eyes scan the paper with great care. He doesn’t notice though, since he is too excited to see a servant bringing a plate towards his place. He grins with glee as he stares towards his breakfast with watering mouth. Eggs, bacon, tomatoes and toast. His inner Brit is screaming due to the happiness he is experiencing right now. No one at the table seems to mind his omnivore diet. Only the youngest princess eyes the human for a while, her spine shuddering a bit since she is not used to seeing others eating meat.

Luna makes various crunching and slurping sounds as she devours her cereals and Celestia’s fuzzy ears twitch in annoyance as her sister shifts closer towards her while chewing and gazing towards the newspaper she is reading.

Luna continues munching her cereals and boringly scans the headline. Her gaze slowly shifts towards the bottom of the page. She opens her eyes more, smirks and then tries to swallow her cereals so she won’t splutter it all over the table due to her held back laughter.

She giggles and snickers behind her blue hoof while getting angry and embarrassed stares from her sister.

“Luna! Shhhh!” Celestia shushes her with a strong whisper, hoping that Joseph will not get too interested in the newspaper. Under no circumstances should he see this silly and stupid article.

Cadence’s ears perk up and the looks towards Luna with a curious smile. “Since when is ‘Canterlot Daily’ so funny, Luna?” Celestia turns her gaze towards her niece with her left eye twitching in annoyance. Cadences ears flatten, and she gives her aunt an uncertain fake smile.

“It’s simply glorious! They think Jos-fdsojgn.” Luna immediately gets a white hoof stuffed into her mouth.

Celestia blushes and chuckles nervously while she presses her hoof tighter against Lunas face to quieten her more as she tries to overcome the royal censorship.

“It… It’s nothing, dear Cadence. Simply a crude and uncivilized joke. You know how Luna’s humour can be sometimes, right?” Celestia chuckles and tries to look at her niece with an apologetic smile while Luna spits out her sister’s hoof, glaring daggers towards Celestia. Did she just call her crude and uncivilized?

Joseph swallows a mouthful of egg and bacon and finally looks towards the princesses who act like silly kids in front of him. He wasn’t listening too much. Being able to eat such a heavenly breakfast after over half a year is something he would not get distracted from. Nonetheless, the weird behaviour, especially Celestia’s, makes him a bit curious.

“What’s going on? Did they write about how their princesses turned around the war with the help of the only human on this planet?” Joseph grins with a proud smile and quickly stuffs more beans into his mouth, a smug smile on his statisfied face.

Celestia puts on a fake smile and nods enthusiastically. “Yes, exactly! they are really grateful that King Joseph helped Equestria to turn the war around.” Celestia’s lie wasn’t a quite convincing one. While Celestia is spot-on in telling whether someone is lying or not, she is also a very, very bad liar. Joseph frowns and looks towards Celestia with a questioning gaze.

“Well, that’s great. Can you hand me over the newspaper then?”

“Uhm… No.” Celestia smiles nervously while ignoring the shit eating grin her sister is wearing behind her.

Joseph stares at her for a while, and gives the ponies around her, especially her grinning sister, a quick but uneasy glance. “I wanna read it myself, please…”

“There is also a very childish and offensive joke written by a childish noble, Joseph. You wouldn’t want to see that.”

“I like childish and offensive jokes, and by the way, I wanna learn more about pony culture, so hand me over the newspaper, please.”

Celestia pretends to smile once again and tries to dismiss the topic while stuffing some pancakes into her muzzle. Joseph sighs in annoyance and stands up from his for him too small chair. He walks towards Celestia, who still tries her best at ignoring him. Joseph then reaches for the newspaper but as soon as he takes hold of it, Celestia grabs the newspaper with her magic as well and tries to pull it from the human’s grasp.

“Princess!” He tugs harder on the newspaper. “What the hell has gotten into you!”

“Nothing! I’m simply trying to protect you!” She gets up from her chair as well and tugs harder on the newspaper while trying not to hurt him with her powerful magic.

“Bullshit! How old am I? five? Now gimme that freaking newspaper!”

The Solar Monarch and Joseph, fight for the newspaper while the later utters several swears. Luna giggles and stuffs more cereals into her muzzle while Cadence eyes the two with great interest. Never has she seen her aunt act in such a manner.

Celestia lifts the newspaper into the air and trotts around the big table with Joseph in pursuit while thinking of a way to calm the situation down without Joseph reading this horrid article. As Celestia’s left wing brushes against the table, Joseph’s cup of coffee tips over and coats the floor and table with its content. She didn’t even notice the cup tipping over.

-I could summon the element bearers and initiate a time travel spell and then simply redirect one of the smaller asteroids for a trajectory towards the Canterlot Daily press! -

Celestia’s eyes grow wide and she grins after coming up with such a genius plan.

-Yes! Once again great thinking Celes - “TIAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

Her line of thought immediately stops as Joseph grabs hold of Celestia’s white horn and squeezes it hard. She freezes in place and her spell immediately ceases, the newspaper falling towards the floor.

All ponies in the room stare with open eyes and hanging mouths towards Celestia and Joseph. Celestia is blushing furiously and stumbles backwards while rushes of embarrassment, slight pain, shock and pleasure radiate through her body. Joseph stares at Celestia and scratches his head, unaware of why she acts like that.

-She is exaggerating right? Silly pony…-

Joseph rolls his eyes and reaches for the newspaper on the floor next to the still bamboozled solar princess and scans the front page. His gaze meets the lower part of the page and his left eyelid slowly starts to twitch uncontrollably while his cheeks turn a bit red. Celestia, still trying to recover, steps a hoof on the puddle of coffee next to the table and slips, suddenly loosing her balance. She flares her wings to stabilize herself but fails to do so in her still overwhelmed state. Celestia falls with a gasp right towards Joseph, unwillingly tackling him to the ground while knocking his breakfast plate from the table with her still flared wing. The still half full plate falls right onto Celestia’s back and then slowly slithers down onto Joseph’s face, coating it in greasy bacon, eggs and salad.

Cadence and Luna both stare with wide eyes towards the pile of pony, human, feathers and breakfast while a stallion with a tray full of tea and pastries enters the royal dinner room. He stops his gait at once as he sees the scene in front of him.

“Uhm… A-Am I interrupting something?” The stallion looks towards Cadence and Luna with an apologetic and confused smile and the later bursts out in loud and unladylike laughter.

“Bahahahaha! By our mothers’ beard!” She smashes a hoof against the table while snorting and laughing even more. Even Cadence chuckles and giggles as well while wiping a tear from her left eye.

Luna gasps for air and holds a hoof onto Cadence’s shoulder for support. Celestia quickly gets up and looks embarrassed towards her sister and niece. She glances uncomfortably towards her wings extended and blushes even more as she couldn’t fold her wings back properly.

Luna is a mess now, halfway laying on the table and crying from laughter as she begs for air. Cadence is now blushing as well and giggles behind her hoof, trying her best not to laugh at her dear aunt.

Joseph is still trying to understand why it was so funny. Sure, Celestia slipped and fell right onto him. Not even in kindergarten would something like that elicit such uncontrollable laughter.

“I- uhm… I g-gottagotodaycourt!”Celestia stutters rapidly and takes a deep breath. She then lights up her horn and teleports away, leaving the human alone with two princesses and a slightly disturbed servant.

Luna’s laughter slowly dies down and she then sighs with a silly smile. “Oh my… This surely made my night!”

She then yawns with a silly grin and nods towards Cadence who wishes her a good sleep with a slight chuckle.

Joseph cleans some grease from his face with a towel and then calls for Luna before she could make her exit. “Princess, can you please tell me why your sister acted like that? I mean I barely touched her, right?” He sounds way more insecure now.

Luna yawns with a chuckle and then glances towards Cadence who, in response, narrows her eyes and shakes her head from the left to the right. “Joseph, I’m very tired. Why don’t you ask Princess Cadence, okay?” She then leaves the room and closes the door behind her with her magic.

Joseph, still confused, now turns towards Cadence and looks towards her with expecting eyes. She opens her eyes wide in realization.

“Bucking Luna…” She mumbles and then sighs softly. It seems like she has to do one of those talks once again. But this time with an adult. Weird. She wasn’t too angry at Luna though. Someone needs to teach him proper pony anatomy and culture if he is going to stay in Equestria for a longer time. How many more misunderstandings could occur if a creature, especially a quirky one like Joseph who doesn’t understand general equine culture and anatomy, carelessly strolls through pony society. It’s a wonder that such a thing hasn’t happened earlier.

She takes a deeper breath and looks into Joseph’s confused eyes. -Just imagine he’s a foal! Stallions are foals most of the time anyways, right? -

Cadence then gives the human a friendly smile and pats the chair next to her with a hoof.

“Sit down next to me, King Joseph. I need to explain something to you.”

“…and that is why you should not touch the wing of a pegasus without their consent, especially the primary feathers. You might end up proposing to him or her if you know what I mean.” Cadence leans back and takes a sip from her coffee while looking into Joseph’s eyes. They seem fixated towards something in the far distance and Cadence can almost hear the gears turning inside his head. She cringes a bit.

“Do you have any other questions, Joseph?” She carefully glances deeper into his still confused eyes. He seemed a bit overwhelmed and Cadence hoped that she would not have to answer any more embarrassing questions. She genuinely wants to help him but explaining such things to an adult alien in proper detail can be a bit difficult sometimes.

“I… I think that’s enough for now.” Josephs voice is filled with uncertainty as he looks down into his now cold coffee, which stands on the saucer in front of him. Silence fills the big dining room as Joseph recalls the huge amount of information he just received. For him, very weird and difficult to understand information. Apparently touching a unicorn’s horn is a no-go. A big no-go. Cadence told him it is basically sexual assault. Touching a unicorn’s horn, especially one from a stallion, could lead to big problems including huge fines or even a few nights in the local dungeon. It depends on the case, according to Cadence.

She blinks a few times and gives him a friendly and understanding smile. “Are you sure?”

Joseph grabs his cold coffee and drinks the liquid quickly before answering her. “Yes. Thank you, Cadence. I think I’m fine for now.” His voice is unusually quiet for him and he has a look of uncertainty on his face. He stands up and gives her a quick nod. “Thanks for explaining me all this. I think I need a moment for myself… and I should apologize to someone.”

Cadence exhales and sighs silently but gives him a genuine smile. “Don’t mention it. It must be difficult for you to adjust to this world.” He nods with a weak smile and then walks towards the exit. As he opens the golden double doors, Cadence calls out for him again.

“Joseph, always listen to your heart… And don’t hesitate if you need and further advice, okay?” He looks towards her and waits a few seconds. With a quick nod he leaves and closes the door gently. Joseph simply strolls towards the castle entrance hall and leaves towards Canterlot through the beautiful Canterlot Garden while the sun slowly raises further into the blue sky.

He strolls trough the ancient city and tries to think of a way to apologize to a certain alicorn without getting roasted by several solar beams or being sent to a dark cell in the basement. Or both…

He sighs and reads the several store signs as the density of ponies and other creatures increases more and more. There were all types of ponies, a few deer’s, and even minotaur’s. He is glad that this world features such a big diversity in creatures. Here, unlike on earth, an alien would not have to fear being dissected by authorities.

Joseph steps closer to a certain store with decorated window displays and many bouquets of colourful flowers. The sign read “Cakes ‘n Flowers”

“Bingo!” Joseph’s mood increases, and he steps into the almost empty store. Only a green unicorn mare with white-green mane and tail was looking at the flowers and cakes. He gives her a nod and gets a smile in return from her as he walks towards the empty counter.

“W-wait!”

Joseph turns around and eyes the mint-green mare in front of him.

“Uhm…Yes?” His spine shivers as he gets a dejà vu from the inn.

She eyes him with a critical, almost analytic gaze and he takes a tiny step backwards. Her gaze slowly drifts towards his empty hands and her eyes open wide. “Are those h…hands?” Her horn slowly starts to shimmer, and Joseph feels more and more uneasy as he remembers not bringing his P90 with him.

“I will be with you in a minute” An elderly sounding sing-song voice from behind the counter fills the room.

After a while, a yellow coated unicorn mare who presumably runs the store, walks behind the counter with a cake on her back. She looks towards the bipedal creature, who takes another uneasy step backwards. The mint green unicorn’s look is still fixated on his upper appendages, her tongue twitching and her eyes full of excitement. The storekeeper pony sets the cake quickly onto the counter and arms herself with a broom.

“Hey! What’s going on here?!”

The mint green unicorn snaps out of her trance and blinks for a while and then looks with an uneasy smile towards the yellow unicorn. She even gets quite a bit scared as the shopkeeper angrily steps forwards with the broom in her magical aura.

“I uhm. I can expla-“ She gets a smack onto her horn with said broom.

“Out! Out of my store!” She swats the mint green unicorn out of her property like a fly. She yelps and decided to gallop away after getting a few hits, much to the pleasure of the small crowd who gathered in front of the shop.

Joseph shakes his head and looks trough the big windows and sees the shopkeeper swaying her broom angrily in the air while shouting towards her. “You filth! Mares who harass stallions are not welcome here!”

Joseph groans in annoyance and sighs. As the shopkeeper pony comes back he wants to apologize, but she wouldn’t let him speak.

“Oh, dear. I cannot believe that something like this could happen in my store! I am deeply sorry…” Joseph wants to protest but she shudders in disgust, holds a hoof off the floor and quickly speaks again. “Are you okay? I hope I wasn’t too late with my intervention.”

Joseph blushes a bit and scratches his head due to the awkwardness of the situation. “I’m fine, really. She was pretty creepy to be honest, but that’s nothing I cannot handle”

The shop mare looks towards the floor, a bit ashamed.

“Anyways, I’m here to get a present. An apology present to be precise. For uhm… a friend.”

Her ears perk up and her eyes widen. “Ahh I see. Then you’re in the right place. I have the best cakes and flowers in Canterlot! And since you had to experience such a rude and filthy mare in my store, I’ll give you a 50% discount, how does that sound, dear?”

Joseph would usually cringe when someone calls him ‘dear’, especially when a tiny and cute horse would. But these thoughts get pushed aside quickly as he draws his wallet and nods enthusiastically.

“Hell yea!”

Joseph, while carrying a heavy bag and two flower bouquets, walks through the solar wing, trying to find a room belonging to a certain sun princess. He gulps as he reminds himself of the ‘little’ misunderstanding this morning in the royal dining hall. That and the fact that she is able to control the sun doesn’t help at all. Well, so far, he was not thrown into a dungeon and the warm sun outside did not decide to initiate a solar beam towards his direction. So far, so good.

Still, he isn’t sure if an apology would even work considering what he did. Back on earth, he would most likely be eating shitty prison food and trying not to drop the soap in the shower. He shudders and walks towards the yellow and white double doors at the end of the hallway. A golden sun emblem was engraved into the high-quality wood. To female guards stand in front of the door and hold gold spears next to them.

As he gets closer, they both cross their spears to deny him access to the double doors. They do not say anything but narrow their eyes and look sternly towards the human. He narrows his eyes as well and stares towards both guardsponies.

He sets the bag down and clears his throat. “Ahm, I’m in search for a ‘Sun Princess’. Is a door bell here somewhere?” He steps closer and eyes the marble wall for some sort of button.

One of the mares looks at him and states harshly: “Stand back at once! The Princess made it clear that she wants to be alone.”

Joseph tilts his head as if he did not understand what the pony in front of him was saying. He looks to the side and then gives the guardspony an annoyed smile. “Look, I know you both are really keen on doing a good job at this… guard thingy. But I have baked goods in here that will go bad if a certain Princess will not eat them.” He wiggles his eyes and gestures towards the bag filled with several smaller boxes.

As Joseph takes a step closer once again he gets two spears pointed towards his direction. “Have you not heard me, ape? I command you to stand back!”

Joseph looks cross eyed towards the two pointy spears right in front of his chin. He narrows his eyes at the mares and chuckles, clearly annoyed.

“And since when am I under your asses command? I think I can decide for myself whether I want to check up on a friend of mine or not, sheesh.

Both ponies look quite angry now. The other guardspony quickly speaks up. “Remove yourself or we will remove you with force!”

Joseph sets the flowers down onto the marble floor and, despite not having any weaponry on him, stands behind his presents in a defensive Kung-Fu pose. He grins at both guardsponies and gestures towards them with his fingers to challenge him.

“Bring it on, fuckers.”

The left guard only chuckles and then starts to laugh uncontrollably while the other shakes her head in disbelief. She leans the spear against the wall and steps forward, her eyes narrowing more and more as she readies herself to charge at the rude alien.

Suddenly, the big double doors open, an unamused white alicorn standing under the huge doorframe. Her stoic facial expression turns into one of annoyance and disappointment as she looks towards her unprofessional solar guards.

“Do you mind if one of you explains the reasoning behind this?”

Joseph immediately stops with his silly Kung-Fu poses, quickly picking up the flowers and the bag again. He looks towards the angry princess and grins innocently, his head poking through the beautiful flowers he is holding. His innocent grin turns slowly into a slightly scared frown as Celestia glares daggers at him for a few seconds.

She turns her gaze towards her personal guards, clearly expecting an answer from the one who holds a threatening posture in front of Joseph. Said guard slowly turns around and all colour drains from her face. She stutters and brabbles something before returning to her place next to the double doors. Celestia doesn’t avert her eyes off her.

“Y-You ordered us to not let anyone come into your chambers, y-your Majesty.”

Celestia nods. “I did. And I value your loyalty. While I appreciate your efforts, you should have merely informed me that Joseph wants to see me…”

Josephs smile gets a bit less insecure and Celestia looks towards him again.

“…Because Joseph has not seen our lovely dungeons yet, now has he? A quick visit there would suit him well in my opinion.”

She turns her gaze quickly towards the human whose eyes slowly open wide. He takes a mini step backwards, cursing at himself for not taking the next train to the Badlands after the ‘little misunderstanding’ during today’s breakfast.

“However, I feel that his intentions, despite disturbing me, are at least somewhat well-meant. You can let him in.”

With that, she turns around and slams the double doors shut, leaving the two guards and Joseph alone. The guards shuffle a bit uncomfortably and look towards each other, clearly a bit intimidated by the usually so gentle and nice princess.

A long moment passes without anyone speaking. Joseph gulps and nervously smiles towards the two guards.

-Quick, Seize your chance Joseph! Run for your life, search an anomaly and then jump into a dimension where this fucked up horse cannot strike you with deadly solar beams! Or better, nuke the shit outta this place!-

Joseph clears his throat and brushes his hair back with his fingers while taking a deep breath. He steps forward and wishes he could get several blessings by the pope before stepping through this door.

-That’s not how running away works, you dumb piece of sh-

Joseph shakes his head. “Well, here goes nothing, heh…” He presses the door handle down with a free finger and opens the door towards the smaller entrance hall, slowly stepping inside as the door falls back and closes itself magically.

-You fucking moron-

Joseph gulps and looks around in the small hallway separating him from the solar monarch and a potential ‘visit’ to the royal dungeon. He rubs his chin and swallows empty.

-She wouldn’t throw me into a dungeon, right? Naahh.-

He hesitates for a moment and pats his left hip, checking for his pistol concealed under his jeans and shirt. He would not need it for sure, but when she is able to shoot freaking lasers out of her horn, then he certainly can bring his gun with him, right?

-Heck, considering her abilities, I should carry a nuke on a trolley cart with me al all times.-

Joseph sighs and then knocks on the double doors. Waiting for a while, he raises his eyebrows in confusion as he hears no response. He knocks again. As no one answers, he opens the heavy double doors and investigates the huge and luxurious room.

The entire floor is made from white marble and several soft carpets covered the rather cold floor. The ceiling was quite high and many candles on the old but well-crafted furnishing illuminated the big room faintly. A big king-sized bed stands on an elevated platform. Next to a big fireplace two smaller double doors lead the way towards her personal balcony from where the evening sun shines faintly trough the clouds and ultimately into the luxurious but cosy room.

“Uhm Princess?”, Joseph asks with uncertainty in his voice.

No answer. After hesitating a little, he walks forward and places the flowers and the big cake box on a small table.

Joseph looks around and walks towards a big and white drawer next to the double doors. He looks at several colourful crystals. Some are blue, some red and a few white and yellow. He picks up one of the red ones and investigates it, looking at it from all sides. He even sticks out his tongue, planning to taste the crystal.

“If I were you I wouldn’t do that.”

Joseph, with his tongue almost touching the red crystal, slowly turns around and quickly pulls his tongue back, giving Celestia a sheepish smile. “Do what?”

“Those are magma crystals, Joseph.” She slowly walks towards his direction, giving him a warm smile. She does not look mad and actually seems like her old self again. Her coat shines in her usual bright white, while her mane is well kempt and even sparkles gently in the evening sun which shines through the balcony doors. Joseph scratches his head in confusion and looks deep into her magenta yes. Is she really wearing a little bit of eye-liner?

“If you swallow this crystal, your insides will ignite which is followed by the oxidation of your entire body.”

She gently pulls the red crystal from his hands with her magical aura and sets it back on the drawer.

“Right… hehe.” Joseph gulps sheepishly and gestures towards the blue crystal in his other hand.

“What about this one, will it freeze me to death if I lick it?”

“No, the blue ones are wonderful mint bonbons”, She replies smugly.

Joseph eyes the crystal carefully and gives it a quick lick. His tongue suddenly becomes numb and he feels himself getting dizzier. Celestia chuckles and giggles, while supporting the human with a wing.

“Those gems teleport you to a specific location once they break, but they taste horrible. Got ya.” She mischievously looks into his eyes and gets a flat and annoyed look back. His annoyed facial expressions drag her smile even wider.

Joseph coughs and shakes his head to get rid of the horrible taste on his tongue. “Y-You little mischievous horse. You should-“. Joseph blinks for a few times and then sees her eyes glaring daggers towards him. Her friendly smile was replaced by an annoyed and slightly angry glare.

“I should show you the insides of our lovely dungeon cells. Yes, that is exactly what I should do with you, Mister Wecksel!”

Joseph stares at Celestia for a while. Reading her isn’t as easy as he thought. Her mood can change quite quickly and right now is isn’t sure if she is merely messing with him or not. This of course, would not intimidate his witty nature too much.

“Oh Princess. I did not know you were that kinky!” He wiggles his eyebrows and tries his best not to giggle.

He regrets his actions at once as the now sour looking alicorn narrows her eyes, her pupils not a soft magenta as usual, but a strong, fire-like red. Joseph chuckles nervously and tries to calm her down.

“Wow, wow okay. I’m sorry. I should not have said that. It was very stupid of me. Actually, I came here to apologize for uhm… the little misunderstanding this morning.” Joseph quickly and carefully hops towards the table and picks the beautiful flower bouquet up, presenting it for her. “I’m truly sorry. I did not know that touching horns, is inappropriate in this pony society.

Celestia gazes into his eyes, logic tells her to send him to the sun as fast as possible after what happened today, but here he is, apparently apologizing to her in a sincere way. When someone apologizes to her it is usually due to her position. They fear what she could do to them, so they apologize. Not because they feel sorry, but because they want to feel more secure. This hurts her a lot, because Celestia would never do something to her subjects. She blinks and continues looking at him for a while.

-It really seems like he is indeed sorry…-

Celestia sighs and briefly looks towards her hoofs. “It’s okay Joseph, you didn't know.”

“So, do you forgive me?” Joseph places his fingers together, forming a little tent while anticipating her answer with a shy smile.

Celestia rolls her eyes at this sight. “How could I not forgive such a gentlestallion”, she answers with irony in her voice.

“Splendid! Then our marriage is settled!” Joseph pulls her into a friendly hug and scratches her neck affectionately, eliciting a soft cooing noise from her as she leans into the hug.

She blushes and quickly but gently shoves him away with a wing. “Joseph! can you be serious for once?”

Joseph put his hands into his trousers and gives her a witty smile. “What can I say, I like teasing shy princesses.”

Celestia looks perplexedly towards him. “S-Shy? You do know how much older I am than you, right?”

“Pha, a few dozen centuries I guess. Besides, age is merely a number indicating how many times you have orbited the sun.”

Celestia sits onto a cushion next to the table and stares towards Joseph. She isn’t sure what surprises her more. His casual behaviour despite her age or the fact that his home planet orbits a star. Celestia watches Joseph sit on a chair. It was clearly not intended to be used by humans.

“Your home planet really orbits a star?”

Joseph nods. “Yes. Unlike here, every planet in my system does.”

“I see. That is indeed a rather interesting concept.” Celestia nods and fills two cups with warm tea. She levitates one cup towards Joseph and then sips on her own.

“I feel like we have had no chance to get to know each other more. Maybe you could tell me a bit about your planet, Joseph.”

He nods with a smile and then leans back in his little chair while sipping his tea. “Well, it’s a rock planet of course, but we have a lot of water. About 70% of the surface are oceans or big lakes. It’s about 12’000 kilometers in diameter and actually quite similar to your planet, without magic of course.”

Celestia listens carefully, trying to picture the celestial body in her head as he describes it.

“Twelve thousand kilometers. That’s very big. Equs’ diameter is only about 5000 Kilometers.”

“That’s barely bigger than our moon”, Joseph chuckles.

“So, how many humans are living on Earth?”, Celestia asks before taking a sip from her tea.

Joseph casually and cross-legged leans back while stirring his tea in a manner which would have filled Queen Elizabeth with unimaginable delight. “about 7.5 billion by now I guess.”

Celestia chokes on her tea and even spurts some over the table towards Joseph’s direction. He chuckles and leans over to the coughing alicorn, patting her back while looking into the corner of her eye with a smirk.

“I guess there aren’t as many ponies on your planet?”

Celestia, after regaining her composure, is still in disbelief. She is picturing huge armies of humans walking in perfect order while nuclear explosions go off behind them in the far distance. No one would stand a chance against such a foe. Luckily for her, the Equestrian government technically has the only human on Equs as an ally.

Celestia rubs her rosy cheeks with a hoof and gently brushes the human away with her left wing. “Yes. Barely 6 million ponies live in Equestria. And the whole population of Equs is merely a half-hearted guess. About 85 million sentient creatures according to our councils.”

“That is quite a difference indeed. But our planet is suffering from overpopulation already, so don’t envy us on that aspect.”

Celestia chuckles. “I certainly don’t. But tell me, how is life on Earth? I simply cannot imagine a whole planet devoid of any magical properties. Isn’t it really dull?”

Certainly not, Celestia. I mean how can you prefer magic over wonderful technologies like computers, TV’s and the whole internet? Some countries even declared the internet a fundamental human right. Technically, your country is violating said right by not providing me with a proper internet connection”, Joseph chuckles and looks into her eyes with a silly smirk.

Celestia eyes the human with a sceptical eye. “So, what is this Internet you seem to talk about so often? Maybe if you describe it to me in detail, I could provide you with such a ‘connection’”.

“Oh, It’s the best invention after electricity. Imagine it as a cloud full of data, managed by and for humans. Everyone can access the data with various devices. Basically, it lets us talk to someone on the other side of the globe, gives us access to unlimited knowledge, and provides us with millions of cat videos! If I had a connection here, I could show it all to you on my phone”, he gently waves his smart phone in one hand to underline his statement.

Celestia opens her eyes more, clearly interested in the technical device and his vague description of the internet. It was quite an alien concept to her, so her hopes of providing him with a ‘proper connection’ vanished quickly.

“I see you are quite fond of your so called ‘smart phone’. Does every human own such a device?” She scoots over closer towards Joseph and eyes the device carefully.

“Nowadays, most people own some sort of a smart phone. They differ in quality and technology levels, but the basic functions are the same for all devices. I’ll show you what it can do, Princess.”

Joseph unlocks the device with a quick press of his index finger against the back of the phone. He quickly adjusts the brightness and opens the camera app while Celestia watches his fingers tap the display wildly with wide eyes. After a while, Joseph holds the back of the device towards Celestia and presses the display once. Celestia yelps and recoils a bit as a bright flash blinds her for a fraction of a second.

“What did you do?” Celestia asks, slight annoyance and uncertainty in her voice.

Joseph taps the screen again and chuckles while looking at the picture he just took.

“I simply took a picture of an oversized cat, so my lads at home will believe me and not throw me into a padded room when I tell them where I have been all this time”, he casually responds while turning the device around to show the picture to the princess.

Celestia blinks a few times in confusion and glares towards the screen where a picture of herself, displaying her from an awkward angle, her facial expressions weirdly frozen in time. It seemed like he just took a picture of her with this tiny device and instantly printed it somehow onto the display of the device. Celestia blushes as she realizes her goofy expression on the screen and almost swats the phone from Josephs hand with a wing.

“Oversized cat?! Since when do cats have wings and horns?”, Celestia huffs and looks away while emptying her tea in her magical grasp.

“I think the similarities between ponies and cats are remarkable, Celestia! Especially your fuzzy ears remind me of my friend’s house cat, gosh she loved her ears being scratched so much!”, Joseph exclaims as he leans back and daydreams while looking into his tea cup with a soft smile.

Celestia usually white cheeks are now as red as a tomato. She doesn’t know what makes her head feel hotter. The fact that Joseph compares her, the solar monarch, to a house cat, or the fact that she is imagining him using his dexterous fingers to scratch her behind her ears. She groans and shakes her head as she realizes what she is even thinking about right now.

“Joseph! You know the nobles would storm into the palace, demanding your head on a spear if they could hear how you talk about me. And I would lead the angry mob towards your guest suite without hesitation.”

“Ouch. You just pierced my heart with a spear, Princess”, Joseph holds his hand towards his heart in a mocking manner and chuckles. “Anyways Princess, I will show you the other features later. Don’t you think its time to open the box? It’s my main apology present and I put quite a bit of effort into it, heh.”

“Joseph, you shouldn’t spoil me too much. The flowers would have been enough already, but if you insist”, Celestia speaks as she leans over the table, loosing herself in his tiny blue eyes as she opens the box with her magic. Joseph smiles nervously and quickly looks towards the big cake, his lower lips tremble a bit and he tries his best to supress his laughter.

Celestia stops smiling and looks at him, confused why out of a sudden he is acting so strangely.

-Do I have something in my mane or between my teeth?-

Celestia sees him quickly glancing towards the cake and she redirects her own gaze towards her favourite pastry. It was a double layered banana cake. Her favourite. It looked gorgeous and Celestia can already feel the mouth-watering taste in her mouth. On top of the cake was something written with a thin and pink coloured chocolate font.

-He even wrote a message for me on the cake! Ohmygosh!-

Celestia feels a warm and fuzzy feeling inside her belly and quickly scoots closer towards the cake so she can read the message. Her excited facial expressions freeze in time, only her left eye starts to twitch slightly. She looks towards Joseph who is still trying to hold in his laughter, his face already beet red. Celestia looks back towards the cake and feels her joyfulness being replaced by plain anger.

Joseph bursts out in laughter and smacks his knee as he starts to wheeze. Celestia stars at him, her eyes narrowing more and more while Josephs silly giggling and wheezing feeds her rage like gasoline a bushfire. His laughter slowly dies down as he looks up towards the, very angry looking alicorn. Her magenta pupils were replayed by a raging fire and her mighty wings are flared as she slowly steps even closer towards the now rather intimidated human. Her horseshoes clack violently against the hard marble floor as she closes the distance between herself and her target.

Joseph leans further back in his tiny chair and looks with a fearful expression into her burning eyes. “I-It’s just a prank bro?”, He laughs awkwardly and begins to scream as the furious alicorn puffs hot air against his face and starts to channel its pointy horn.

“Run, you hairless ape! RUN!” Celestia’s angry yelling reverberates through her room and fills her prey’s bone marrow with fear as she chases after Joseph.

“Run, you hairless ape! RUN!”

Joseph yelps in between his swearing while he runs from one corner to another as Celestia angrily gallops after him. Her angry state makes him slightly regret his actions today. Just slightly. In his chaotic sprint trough Celestia’s chambers, he knocks off a few books and chairs while thinking of a way out of this room of hell. The Balcony? Bad Idea. His feet already feel wobbly when he only thinks about the fact that this room is over 50 meters above the ground. Hide under her bed? Celestia is too fat to fit under there! True, but she can lift the entire thing without breaking a sweat.

Joseph, running out of ideas, finds himself next to the well-crafted drawers and pants while slightly squatting and placing his hands on his knees.

“N-Now, Celestia. Let’s talk about this, ok? I am really sorry”, Joseph genuinely states while out of breath.

Celestia just snorts with a wicked smile on her muzzle. Her usually radiant mane is quite a mess; a strain of her mane hangs in front of her face. She quickly puts it behind her left ear with a whip of her head.

“You are sorry? Sorry, but your apologies do not sound sincere to me anymore, Mister Wecksel.” Celestia chuckles as she lifts a few books on the floor into the air. She narrows her eyes with a wicked grin and starts tossing the books towards the human with great speed.

He yelps in fear and pain as the bocks smack against the wall behind him, the insane velocity destroying the books, some even tear in half as they impact the hard wall behind him.

“Ahh y-you’re fucking crazy!!” Joseph ducks and seeks cover behind the table he and Celestia used for a friendly conversation just seconds before. As Celestia ran out of books, he hops next to the drawers and picks a handful of blue crystals up. He puts one crystal into his other hand and looks towards Celestia. Joseph’s neutral expression turns into a grin as Celestia finally realizes what his plan is.

“Joseph Wecksel! Don’t you dare!” He doesn’t listen and raises his hand with one of the blue crystals over his head, his smile widening.

“You don’t know where you will end up, so put the crystal back or or…”

He just giggles and quickly retorts: “No risk no fun.” With that, he smashes the crystal against the hard marble floor and his form instantly vanishes, leaving a puff of blue smoke behind.

Celestia’s angry mask quickly falls and she giggles while trotting in place for a short moment. She catches her breath quickly and charges her horn to initiate her own teleport.

Joseph gasps for air and coughs in the blue cloud while shaking his head. Crystal teleportation surely isn’t as smooth as when Celestia teleported him. Nevertheless, it is convenient way of escaping a usually cute and friendly alicorn who somehow turned into a cold and bloodhungry monster.

He gets onto his feet and brushes some non-existent dust off his shirt while looking around. He finds himself in a similar room like Celestia’s, but the general theme was darker, and an almost mystical aura radiates from the old furnishing and paintings. In front of a table Luna looks towards Joseph with an irritated and confused look. She sets a quill which she is holding in her magical aura down and clears her throat.

“Joseph- Thou know that thou art invading our-“

A distant growl and crazy laughter fills Luna’s quarters. Joseph’s pupils shrink, his hair standing up as he runs towards Luna, shaking her back and forth. “L-Luna! She’s coming for me!”

Princess Luna looks baffled towards the insane human. She is not sure whether she is dreaming or not. She thinks about smashing him against a wall but the fact that his nuclear devices were relocated in a secret cellar deep in the castle’s basement makes her rethink her strategy. She decides to slap the brabbling human onto his cheek with a hoof. Twice.

“Now, tell me human. Who is coming for you?”

“Y-Your sister…” He trembles while rubbing his sore cheeks. “She went insane because I made a cake for her!” he whispers to her and then turns his head towards the door in paranoia. “I need your help, Princess!”

Luna groans, rubs her temples and then looks into Joseph’s eyes. “Promise me to never again annoy me with such a matter”.

He nods quickly “I Promise!”

Luna rolls her eyes and levitates a small bottle into Josephs hands. “Drink this, this is a new creation of mine. It will make thou invisible for a short while, but-“

Suddenly, Lunas doors burst open and Celestia slithers into the room due to her hooves finding no traction on the slippery floor. Her mane and tail are all messy and her soft smile quickly turns into an angry frown again as she fixates her gaze on the human standing next to her sister with the small bottle.

“Ah, dear sister! I see you are helping my prey, aren’t you, you little traitor?” She flicks her tail and lowers her horn as she walks towards Joseph who looks at his remaining crystals, his hand trembling a little. He chooses a triangle shaped one and raises his hands only to feel his arm being lifted as the blue crystals are shimmering with the same glow as Celestia’s horn.

“Celestia, let my crystals go!” He wiggles and struggles as he is being lifted into the air, Celestia not breaking a sweat as she gives a quick apologetic look towards her sister who just rubs her temples with her hoofs.

Joseph let’s go of the crystals and falls to the ground with a groan. He rubs his back as Celestia slowly walks towards him with a content smile on her face. “I’ve got you finally. Now let’s-“

“You will never get me!” He opens the cap of the small bottle and empties the liquid with a big gulp.

-Did it work?-

Joseph raises his arm and sees nothing. It did work perfectly. As Joseph popped out of existence, Celestia’s wicked smile slowly turns into one of confusion and even slight worry. “Uhm, Sister? Where did he go?” Celestia walks towards the place where Joseph just vanished and waves a hoof through the now empty air. “Joseph?”, She asks twice with a concerned tone. As she gets no response, Celestia turns towards her sister and narrows her eyes a bit.

“Where is he?! What kind of potion did you give him, Luna?”

Luna recoils a bit, quite taken back by her aggressive tone. She questions whether Celestia is serious or not. Nevertheless, Luna thinks about the appropriate thing to do in such scenarios. Tease her.

“Sister!”, Luna gasps comically, “Why so possessive? Are you scared that your stallion vanished into another existence?” Luna leans forward while grinning, her horn almost touching the one of her sister.

Celestia doesn’t know if it’s her imagination but she could have been sure that she heard someone choke on something for a moment. She turns her head towards the direction where the sound came form but quickly looks back towards her sister with a blush on her white cheeks.

“W-W-What are you talking about?! He is not my stallion. We are friends! He isn't even a stallion to begin with, Luna!”

Luna grins and giggles silently. "I could turn him into one with the help of a few potions. Wouldn’t you like that, Celly?", she replies with a smug grin, wiggling her eyebrows in a wave-like pattern.

Celestia blushes even more as she daydreams for a short second, only to feel something smack hard against her left flank. She immediately turns around, trying to make out the aggressor. She does not see anything but only hears something wheeze and giggle while running away. The running didn't sound like galloping at all.

Celestia instantly flares her wings and propels herself towards Luna's double doors which were opened by an invisible force.

"JOSEPH WECKSEL!" She propels herself with immense strength towards Joseph's now only somewhat invisible form, the potion slowly wearing off.

His with glee and excitement filled giggles and laughs echo trough the hallways as the human runs through the castle, weaving through several guardsponies and maids. Even a few commoners wave their hoofs at the human in anger only to be pushed to the side with great force as the bulkier form of their princess gallops after the bipedal creature, an angry look in her eyes but a slight blush on her cheeks.

Captain Black Blade slowly strolls through the royal halls, his gaze stoic as he looks over the timid scene in front of him. The many servants and guards in the castle walk with lowered heads trough the halls of their still destroyed castle. The reparations are in full action, but the castle and the entire city still looked like a war scene. He sighs as he continues walking towards the throne room, his gait a bit uneasy due to the bandages on his left hindleg.

Now, it is unacceptable for a griffon to feel intimidated by something, even if the foe is a full matured dragon. According to the king, a griffon must fight without fear even if the odds are in favour of the enemy. Bailing out isn’t an option, hence why the first king signed a law allowing the king to hang all traitors and bailers without the blink of an eye.

This was and still is a harsh and cruel method. But it led the Griffon Empire to what is had become. The strongest military power. A nation which others respected and even feared. A nation that can demand whatever it wants and get whatever it wants.

Not all Griffons thought and still think that this is the right way, but no one can deny that these means propelled the Griffon Empire further in strength than any other country ever before.

Because of this, the Griffon Empire is not used to defeat. And Gryphanus said they will not get used to it under all circumstances. Their hearth might be broken, but a real griffon can fix it and continue to fight even when it looks hopeless. His speech and the fact that King Gryphanus stood up like a phoenix from the ashes after the Zenus Incident fills Black Blade’s chest with hope. Maybe he really was the god given leader his country needed.

He takes a deep breath and enters the throne room. It was still a mess and more construction site than a throne room. The entire balcony was still missing, vines and dirt hanging from the unsecured edges. Someone can only wonder how long its going to take to rebuild this place to the former glory it once was.

“King Gryphanus,” He bows in the middle of the throne room. “You have requested my presence?” Black Blade looks towards his king, bandages on both hindlegs, several scars on his face, chest and back. His left claw was gruesomely misshaped, and his left foreleg had a big, artificial scar, indicating he had a major surgery to save his left foreleg. Gryphanus gazes through the throne room, not looking at his new Captain as he speaks.

“Hello, Black Blade. Thanks for coming.” Gryphanus gets off his throne and limps down as he walks towards the rebuilt array of widows. He stares into the distance where once Zenus Woods was while Black Blade uneasily stands in the middle of the throne room.

Gryphanus clears his throat and ruffles his bandaged wings while continuing to stare into the distance. “Black Blade, I heard you have important information for me concerning the origin of the Zenus incident? Is that really true?”

Black blade quickly nods and opens a wing under which he stored a thick envelope. “Yes, your majesty. As you know, I led the battalion towards the human’s castle. After we finished our mission we retreated. But on the way back we encountered a brown coated earth pony stallion who ran away as we attacked the human’s castle.”

“I assume you killed him as swiftly as possible?” Gryphanus quickly interrupts him.

“No, your majesty.” The king continues to look trough the window as he lets his captain speak. “Said stallion was not a mercenary. We assume he is a scientist. He carried several documents with him which he only hoofed over after a good beating.” Black Blade looks through the documents and then hands it over to his king who curiously reads over the head page.

“It seems to be some sort of weapon. They apparently call it ‘Project Dawn’.” The Captain nervously ruffles his wings and clears his throat as his king silently goes through the papers.

“Pretty much everything in this paper is beyond my understanding. Many calculations and theories include formulas even our brightest soldiers did not grasp properly.”

Gryphanus walks towards an oak table and sets the research papers down while pouring himself a glass of whisky, his captain awkwardly standing behind him. He empties the entire glass and turns towards Black Blade. “Where is this pony scientist?”

“W-We have him in custody. How shall we proceed?”

Gryphanus starts to smile. “Claw over the keys for his cell. I think we should prompt this scientist a friendly visit.” His genuine smile slowly drifts into a wicked grin as he stares towards the research papers on the table.

“And Black Blade,” His Captain instantly perks his ears up, “Gather our brightest scientists. I don’t care where they are or what they are doing. I want them here, in my castle. This war isn’t over, Black Blade… This isn’t over.”

Black Blade’s heart jumps with excitement as he hears these words, a tear of pride forming in his left eye as he salutes for his king. “Of course! C-Consider it done my king!”

“Good…Very Good.” Gryphanus pours himself another glass and then limps back towards his throne, drowning his pain with more alcohol as a devilishly smile forms around his beak.

Black Blade nods and then quickly runs out of the throne room, weaving trough the depressed souls in the hallways, eager to fulfil his mission for his empire.

Things seemed to calm down after the attack towards the Griffon Empire. The Equestrian army managed to reclaim almost all their lost territory with ease. The moral was getting better and the economy was flourishing. Canterlot and the Canterlot Castle seemed like a new place. Ponies were smiling, chatting, doing their jobs and enjoying their day’s off. It seemed like the struggles of the war and the sadness it brought are slowly drifting further away from all minds. Here and there a few armed guards could be seen but nothing that should alarm the average citizen.

Even Celestia was feeling quite well. She knew the anomalies were still out there, but she knows that her scientists are doing their best to evaluate the situation. She even called Princess Sparkle for a deeper investigation. Her former protégée already made great progress concerning the origin and nature of the anomalies during her studies in Ponyville and now she was on her way to Canterlot. This eases Celestia’s mind. She even finds herself relaxing and enjoying the days more and more. Joseph’s daily company was also something she enjoyed. A lot.

When she first met this weird creature. She would not have imagined in her wildest dreams that she would get so fond of him in just a matter of several weeks. He was a stranger. An alien. Figuratively and literally. But Celestia can’t help to simply see a friend in him, a quite good friend. She does mourn for his losses in the Badlands. She really did. But something inside made her feel glad that it happened. If id hadn't happened, would she ever have gotten such a close friend out of him? Celestia does know that such thoughts are wrong, but she decides to focus on the present. The past happened and Joseph seemed healthier and happier than ever. It just seemed wrong to dwell on the past. She simply wants to see him happy.

Simply enjoying the conversations with him and his presence while drinking tea, strolling trough the gardens or eating cake together was something she grew close to fast. It wasn’t like with other ponies. Don’t be wrong, she likes every of her friends and subjects. But there was always a certain aura she felt when being around them. An aura of happiness, relaxation but also one of deep respect. Respect is good. A Princess should be respected, shouldn’t she?

Now, Celestia also felt that Joseph respects her. But not for her title. The various pranks, comments and teases surely indicate that. However, she felt that he did respect her in another way. Simple respect for being a good friend. A feeling she never experienced out of her family. A feeling that she did not grasp properly. It made her head and scalp and horn feel all tingly and at first, she was a bit worried that some sort of spell was put on her. After a while of research and a few precautionary measures, this theory turned out to be a feint.

Celestia decided not to further investigate this matter. Even if it would not be a feint, the weekly cake deliveries simply are too relaxing and delicious…

She giggles and shakes her head with a smile as she gets up from her king-sized bed while ruffling her wings. It was time to welcome Twilight and introduce her to Joseph. Hopefully her further research will put an end to those anomalies. Or at least contain them. Maybe Joseph and Twilight will become friends. That would be nice, right? Celestia yawns with a smile and then happily trots into her big bathroom, ready to tackle her morning routines.

As Twilight Sparkle exits the train and trots towards the huge castle she is filled with anticipation. Finally will she see Celestia, Luna and maybe even her best friend Cadence. And she is going to meet a human. The only human in Equestria! So exciting!

“Gosh! This is so amazing!” Twilight giggles with glee as she arrived in front of the castle’s main entrance. The guards who bow to her makes her feel a bit uneasy. Twilight is still new to this Princess stuff and having other ponies bow to her isn’t something she enjoys seeing.

As Twilight walks through the halls a feeling of nostalgia fills her mind. She walked trough these halls countless times during her childhood. She never imagined walking trough those halls as a princess. She smiles at the various ponies and greets them as she continues walking towards the royal dining hall. She quickly arrived there, greeted the two guards ponies, knocked on the door and walked into the big dining room where Luna, Celestia were chatting while drinking tea. They look towards the door and both smile as Twilight greets them a bit shily.

“Twilight! How are you?!” Celestia quickly stands up and trots towards Twilight, greeting her and exchanging a hug and a few nuzzles with her. “I hope your journey went without any problems.”

Twilight blushes a bit and happily smiles at her friend while nodding. “Yes, it was quite comfortable. Thank you for inviting me, Celestia.”

Celestia thanks her for coming and Twilight and Luna hug and greet each other’s as well and the trio sits on the table again where Celestia loads a big piece of cake onto a table and sets it in front of Twilight. She gulps a bit at the size and Luna can’t help but roll her eyes. “So, my dear Twilight, how have you and your friends been? I hope everypony is doing alright in Ponyville.”

Twilight swallows a bit of cake and takes a sip from her tea and then answers: “We are doing quite well. Everyone is well and up, and luckily the trade and tourism branches are doing better again.”

“This is good to hear”, Luna retorts while Celestia nods with a content smile.

“Also, I made good progress concerning the anomalies.” Twilight smiles proudly and both princesses lean a bit forwards as the conversation turns into a more serious topic.

“Yes? What did you find out? Those anomalies concern me quite a bit indeed”, Celestia admits before taking another fork full of cake.

“After a few sleepless nights and many theories and experiments I came up with a solution to at least somewhat absorb the effects of the anomalies. It is rather interesting how the anomalies are emitting magic waves which are composed like our real magic but in reverse. It seems like-“, her train of thought ends as someone enters the dining room in a rather unroyal manner, almost smacking the door open.

Under the doorframe a certain human gazes into the room. He holds a coffee cup in his left hand and yawns before taking a quick sip. His hair is unkempt and he looks a bit like as if he did not attend to his morning routines properly. With another yawn he walks towards the table and gives a nod towards Luna and Celestia. He sits next to Luna while rubbing his eyes. It seemed like he did not even notice the purple pony sitting next to Celestia.

Twilight looks with a questioning gaze up to Celestia who just looks back at her with a sheepishly apologetic look. She then looks back to Joseph and clears her throat. “Good Morning, Joseph. Did you sleep well?”

Joseph, still unaware of the purple guest, stretches his arms and retorts: “It would have been better if the sun would not bombard my eyes with electromagnetic waves at six in the morning.” Twilight’s eyes open a bit more at his scientific vocabulary while Luna quickly swallows her cereals and snickers silently. Celestia smiles softly and gently swats his head with her left wing. Celestia’s soft giggle makes Joseph smile and he finally sees a purple pony sitting next to her while he shields his eyes from Celestia’s pointy feathers. He chuckles softly and then looks towards the purple alicorn with a friendly but questioning look.

“Joseph, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle. She arrived here today to do further research on the anomalies, just like I informed you yesterday…” She narrows her eyes a bit, clearly not liking what kind of first impression her alien friend is making right now with his appearance.

Joseph blinks a few times and looks between the purple and white princesses. “Ooooh... Yes, now I remember, heh…” He quickly looks towards Celestia and immediately looks back as he notices her looking at him with scolding eyes.

“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, from Ponyville. It is wonderful that we finally meet. Princess Celestia told me so much about you, Mister Wecksel.” Twilight is beaming with glee, ignoring the bad morning state he is in.

Joseph smiles sheepishly while brushing his hair a bit with his fingers. “She did?” He looks towards Celestia who smiles at him and then takes a quick sip from her tea to hide her cheeks behind the cup.

“Yes Indeed. Everything from how you appeared here and helped Equestria with your amazing inventions. It is wonderful to meet a fellow scientist. And even more so a scientist from another world!” Twilight was practically leaning into the table and smiling with glee as she speaks to Joseph. He awkwardly rubs his neck and smiles due to her excitement.

“I would not say that I am a scientist per se. I used to be a nuclear physicist back on earth and just left the university with my degree. And while I do have general knowledge about chemistry physics and biology, the things I do know could be considered general knowledge where I am from. However, I did keep myself up to date with the newest scientific discoveries and theories trough the internet and many books.”

“You read scientific books!?” Twilight was now leaning against the table while almost squealing in delight while Luna rolls her eyes and fills her bowl with more cereals, her ears folded towards her skull. “You have to tell me EVERYTHING you know!”, Twilight exclaims with a happy grin.

Twilight chuckles nervously as she realizes that she almost shouted. She quickly sits onto her chair again and blushes. “I am sorry, I mean I would be delighted if you showed me the one or other thing you know”, she said in a more silent and soft voice.

Celestia rolls her eyes with a smile as she looks down to her former student. “I am sure you two will have enough time to chat while you do your experiments.”

The Princess of the Sun smiles as she listens to the last petitioner during her day court. She feels tired and a bit bored, but she would never let her petitioners know that. After many hundreds’ years of practice her princess mask is just too good. A soft smile and a few nods and ‘hmms’ here and there should be enough to satisfy this last petitioner. Something about funds for a restaurant for omnivores. That reminds her of someone…

Joseph has been working with Twilight all day. He did not even eat lunch with Celestia like they usually do. She wonders why. Did the experiments go well? Did he even eat something? Maybe she should check up on him and bring a few healthy snacks, so he won’t starve. He needs to eat after what he has all been trough.

-No, he is a grown stallion, err man, right? I’m sure he is doing alright, and they are just working hard. I should give them and especially him some space…-

“Princess, Are you alright?” Asked the petitioner in his prench accent.

Celestia blinks a few times and chuckles nervously. “Y-Yes! I am. And I think your case is valid and an important addition for our omnivorous citizens. The royal treasury will grant you a loan of 1000 bits without interest.”

“We thank you so much, Princess Celestia.” With a smile the petitioner bows quickly and then leaves the day court. Celestia sighs and rubs her temples. Maybe a little slice of cake will relax her mind a bit.

As she walks through the mostly empty halls, Celestia wonders whether Twilight and Joseph have made any progress so far. A quick visit wouldn’t hurt right? She nods to herself and quickly forgets about the cake. Her mood improves as she turns direction and then gently trots towards the laboratories with a soft smile on her muzzle.

As she arrived in front of the laboratory the plexiglass windows indicated that it was dark inside. It seemed like everypony has already left. Maybe they were already eating dinner together? She decides to walk towards the dining hall with a pensive look on her face.

Twilight and Joseph have been doing experiments all day in the laboratories. All without any major progress. Saliva samples were taken, Joseph’s phone was used in many test and theories and Twilight tried many spells. Nothing seemed to work, and Twilight got more and more frustrated due to the lack of progress. They decided to call it a day and continue with the studies tomorrow. As both exited the laboratories, Joseph asked her a few Questions to distract her a bit from all the failed experiments and tests because she seemed to be a bit down.

“So how many Princesses are there? Have I met all or are there still a few left?” Joseph speaks while both walk along an empty hallway. The castle is rather silent since most staff already went home. They really were in the laboratories a long time.

“I think you met all. It’s just me, Cadance, Luna and Celestia.” Joseph nods.

“Do you also somehow move a celestial body like Celestia or Luna?”

Twilight shakes her head. “I don’t. Only Luna or Celestia can do that. Who does move the sun and moon where you are from?”

“No one does.” Twilight stops her walk and Joseph walks into her flank and almost falls. She reaches for his hand to help his balance and then blushes heavily, her ears flat against her head. “G-Gosh, I’m sorry.” Joseph just chuckles. He didn’t mind. He thought of it to be too darn cute. “It’s okay.”

“How can no one move the sun and moon? How does that even work?” She was still blushing a bit as both continue walking towards the guest wing where Joseph lived since his castle got raided. Apparently, Twilight is also staying in a guest suite for a few days.

“Well we don’t have any magic. And when I heard about how Celestia and Luna do their stuff, I thought it was sorcery or a silly joke. Or magnets! I still think it is magnets.”

“I see. It must be difficult do adjust to such a new concept.” They both stop as they reach his guest-suite. Joseph just nods with a pensive look on his face. He clearly was thinking about his home.

“This world where no magic exists sounds rather interesting. Would you want to talk about it? I have so many questions and I would be honoured if… B-But I also don’t want to impose on you, Mister Wecksel.” She rubs her forelegs together and smiles up to him.

“Don’t be silly Princess. I would love to talk about my home. I do miss it and talking about it eases my mind a bit. But… Please don’t call me Mister.”

Twilight beams up at him with glee. “Wonderful. But I will only comply if you stop calling me Princess, deal?”

“We have a deal, Sparky.” Twilight giggles and blushes at the sudden nickname and Joseph joins her laughter with a chuckle of his own. He really liked hearing ponies giggle. They were just too darn cute. As Twilight rubs her still rosy cheek with a hoof, her ear twitches towards a random direction and she turns her head to the side a bit.

“Everything alright?” He asked while looking into the empty hallway they just came from.

“Yes. I just thought I heard something.”

Joseph shrugs and walks into her guest suite. “You wanna hear about how our planetary movement works or how we use binary computers to calculate millions of calculations per second?” He had a proud smile on his face.

Twilight’s eyes open wide and she gasps with an excited smile, her forehooves held together in anticipation. “J-Just explain both things to me!” With that Twilight follows him into her guest suite and closes the door behind her.

Celstia is still on her way towards the guest-wing. In the distance she could hear some hoofsteps and something else walking. She only knows one creature who makes such sounds when walking.

Celestia walks towards the corner where she heard the sound and looks into the guest wing. There she sees Twilight and Joseph standing rather close together. The corner where Celestia was standing in was rather dimply lit but she could clearly see that Twilight was blushing and rubbing her forelegs together with a shy smile on her face.

Celestia raises her eyebrows in confusion and turns her ears towards them. She cannot hear them properly but that’s nothing a spell can’t fix. She quickly charges her horn and her figure vanishes. The now almost perfectly invisible form of Celestia silently and carefully walks towards Joseph and Twilight, her ears fixated towards them. She hears her former student talking in a soft tone.

“Wonderful. But I will only comply if you stop calling me Princess, deal?”

Celestia carefully walks a bit closer to hear them better.

“We have a deal, Sparky.” Their soft laughter fills the hallways and Celestia looks back towards Twilight. She was practically beaming and leaning towards him, her cheeks deep red while wearing a dorky smile on her face. Celestia’s right eye twitches uncontrollably.

-They know each other for a few hours and they already use nicknames!?-

Celestia bumps into a small table with a flower pot on it. The tulips slowly tip over. She almost panics but then quickly saves the flower pot from its demise with her magic. She just stands there, not breathing, nor moving a muscle and hopes they did not hear or see anything.

“Everything alright?” Joseph asks and looks right towards Celestia’s direction.

“Yes. I just thought I heard something.”

Celestia carefully exhales a breath she did not know she was holding and her muscles relax as they turn around.

“You wanna hear about how our planetary movement works or how we use binary computers to calculate millions of calculations per second?”

Celestia only hears the sounds of delight and excitement Twilight is producing. She doesn’t even realize that she is grinding her teeth together as she channels her horn and pops out of existence.

Princess Cadance is working through some scrolls in her office. It wasn’t an office per se. Simply a secluded and rarely used room in the Castle. It was simply perfect for her. She could set up and arrange it to her liking. The soft carpet, the chandelier, the warm fireplace and the cosy sofa makes the room appear more like a living room than a real office. But that’s how she likes it. Even during holiday stays in Canterlot, she must do some sort of paper work. It’s tedious but sacrifices had to be made for being a princess, that’s just how it is. She yawns and blinks a few times as she hears someone approaching the door. Probably a servant or a maid. Not many ponies visit her here in her little holiday office.

The hoof steps stop in front of the door and Cadance’s ears perk up as she hears noting but the gentle crackling of the fire. After a while she hears someone knocking on the door rather slowly. She nervously gulps and looks to her left and right.

“Y-Yes? You can come in.” She answers, a little careful.

The door is slowly being opened and Cadence’s heartbeat increases even more. She opens her eyes as she sees the pony standing under her doorframe. Her figure and facial features could not be seen properly due to the weak interior lighting in the little room, but the figures height was unique to ponykind.

“Celestia?” Cadance exhales a breath she did not know she was holding in and looks at her with a questioning look, her head tilted to the side slightly.

Celestia sheepishly smiles at her and rubs her fore hoofs gently against each other. “Hello Cadance. How are you doing today?”

Cadance blinks a few times, a bit perplexed as she did not expect her aunt to visit her in this secluded ‘office’. She gets up from her chair and greets Celestia under the doorframe with a quick hug. “Hello Celestia, come in!” Celestia returns the hug quickly, smiles at Cadance and then follows her to the comfy-looking sofa.

“So, how are you this evening, I hope everything is going alright?” Asks Cadance while looking at her with a friendly but questioning look.

Celestia smiles at her and climbs onto the sofa next to her while ruffling her wings a bit and looking around the room awkwardly. Cadance raises her eyebrows as she gets no answer. “Celestia?”

Celestia blinks a few times, presumably snapping back to reality and then gives her an embarrassed smile. “Oh, yes I am feeling quite well. I mean we are winning the war and our industries are flourishing again and day court is going really well. I mean it could not be better, right?”

Cadance just stares at her for a while and ruffles her wings, her eyebrows still raised. “Riiiight…”, She answers with an awkward fake laugh. A few more seconds pass in silence.

“Are you really sure that you are okay, Celestia?” Celestia quickly nods eagerly while humming. A little too eagerly.

“Heh... good. That’s really good.” Cadance coughs, rubs her left foreleg against her neck and looks towards the ceiling, not knowing what to say. The little chandelier hanging from the ceiling was quite shiny and sparkled in the dimly illuminated room.

Silence falls over the both alicorns. This was weird. Really weird. Never, ever would an awkward silence fall over them. That has never happened before because they know each other since forever. Now, they haven’t talked as much these days due to Princess Cadance’s responsibilities in the Crystal Empire but that could not be the reason for Celestia’s weird behaviour.

Cadance pours herself and her guest a cup of Yasmine tea and they both grasp their cups with their magic, levitating them in front of their chests. A few more moments pass without anyone talking.

“Cadance?” Cadance looks at Celestia and blinks a few times, showing her that she has her full attention before taking a sip from her cup. Something is clearly bothering her aunt.

“Am I an old hag?” Celestia turns her head towards Cadence and looks her straight in the eyes with a serious look on her face. Cadence almost spurts out her tea but manages to swallow the warm liquid before taking a careful breath. She looks at her with a perplexed look. “W-What?”

Celestia repeats her question with all seriousness. “Be honest. Am I old and ugly, Cadance?”

Cadance stares at her, her mouth a bit open, as she is still figuring out whether her aunt is pulling a stunt on her or not. Cadance keeps staring into her eyes and she merely sees her aunt’s serious eyes looking right into her soul. It was her serious princess face she only uses when something rather serious is being discussed in day court.

“A-A-Ahm. No?! What has gotten into you, Celestia? You may be old, but you are a beautiful mare, inside and outside.” Cadance scoots closer to Celestia and puts her hoof on her own heart. “Why would you even ask such a silly question, Celestia?”

Celestia looks uncomfortably at her cup in front of her hoofs, not answering as various thoughts fly around inside her head. She knows that Joseph joked about it. He does not see more in her as a friend, which is more than she could ever ask for. But she is curious. There must be some truth behind his joke, right? Celestia’s last relationship was centuries ago. Back in the old days, stallions would ask for her hoof several times a year. Albeit most were just interested in her for wealth and power, sometimes a stallion’s interest in her was genuine. It boosted her confidence quite a bit and everypony needs someone close to their hearth, right?

But lately, her love life was pretty dull these days. She barely can remember when she last shared a bed with someone else. That was a long time ago. Something has clearly changed. Did society change? Or did Celestia? She was over 2100 years old now. Converted into normal pony years she would be over 40. Alicorns don’t age the same as normal ponies, physically and mentally. She knows that obviously. But she also knows that even she, the bringer of day, is a slave under Time’s harsh rules.

Cadance sets her cup onto the saucer and looks back at her with a questioning gaze. “Wait! Hold on … Are you asking me this because you are interested in somepony?” She holds her hoofs together in anticipation as she stares at her aunt with big eyes, clearly hoping that this is the reason why she acts so off.

Celestia just ruffles her wings awkwardly and tries to hide her slight blush behind her multicoloured mane. She nods eventually though. “Y.Yes I’ uhm… might be interested in a… uh, stallion”. She shily rubs her fore hoofs together.

Cadance squees in delight and flaps her wings excitedly. She hoped that Celestia would finally see somepony again. And it even made her feel more excited that she came to her to talk about it despite her shy nature when it comes to dating.

“Dawwwww, Celestiaa! That is sooo exciting! Tell me about him, how does he look, what is his profession. Does he have any interesting hobbies?” She gasps as realization struck her:” Or is it a she?” She smiles innocently and giggles as her aunt hides her face with an awkward blush on her white cheeks.

“Cadance, N-No! It’s a he. And he is just an average… pony. Yes.” She nods and looks around the room while trying to get her head straight. “ I met him first a few months ago but we see each other a bit more just recently. He only sees me as a friend, w-which is okay.” She nods and smiles at Cadance.

“Are you sure about that? You are a beautiful mare and I am sure a lot of stallions in Equestria would surely love to have you as a marefriend, Celestia.” Celestia blushes a bit at her compliment.

“Thank you… And yes, I am pretty sure, Cadance.”

Cadance tilts her head forward and looks at her with a 'really' expression on her face.

“Did you ask him, Celestia?”

Celestia takes another sup from her tea and then replies rather silently. “Hnnn..no…”

Cadance leans in some more. Apparently she could not hear her quiet mumbling. “I cant hear you, Celestia” She replies with a sing-song voice.

Celestia just rolls her eyes and sighs while putting her cup on the stand in front of her. “I have not asked him yet and I dont think I will anytime soon, Cadance…”

“But why won't you ask him? What’s the worst that c-“

Celestia’s ears perk up and she qickly gets closer to her niece, interrupting her with open wide eyes.

“Whats the worst that could happen?! He could say no. Our relationship could become awkward. He would want to spend less time around me! A-And he could laugh at me, thinking it was a joke!.” She takes a deep breath.

“We get along so well and I don’t want to put that at stake. I don’t have many friends outside my family and, oh dear, why am I even feeling this way!? It would be better if I would not feel that way. This is a disaster, I'm cursed! “She takes a deeper breath and realizes that she held her niece rather firmly during her rambling. Cadance has a worried and weirded out look on her muzzle.

Celestia exhales and takes her hoofs off her niece and leans back against the couch, letting out a tired and desperate sigh.

Cadance just smiles softly and nuzzles her aunt’s cheek affectionately. “Celestia, you worry way too much.”

Celestia let's her niece nuzzle her cheek. She then looks back into her purple eyes “Do you really think so?”

“I do! I am pretty certain that this 'friend' of yours is having the same feelings about you!”

Celestia sits a bit more upright and raises her neck, clearly liking what she is hearing. “Really?”

Of course, Celestia! I’m sure that this stallion would say yes. I mean what pony would not say yes, right?”

Celestia stares into the distance. “Heh, pony. Right...” She smiles a bit awkwardly.

“And if you are too shy or think it’s to early, there are other tactics you could try.” Cadence gives her a cheeky smile.

Celestia, clearly intrigued, ruffles her wings and looks back into her eyes. “Tell me about those tactics.” Cadance's smile widens at her raising enthusiasm.

“Well, those are just subtle messages but… You know, some hugs, kisses on the cheeks, a self-cooked dinner, maybe a present. Stallions love such things. If they know that somepony cares for them then they are happy. And that’s the key to their heart. And Celestia, some subtle make up and a well-chosen dress could also do the trick.”

Cadance smiles with delight as she sees the hope and dreamy look on Celestia’s face. She giggles and gives her aunt a hug. “Don’t worry too much, Celestia. Take it slow and remember the tactics.”

Celestia leans into the hug with a smile while blushing. She needed a little help. Now she feels more confident and optimistic about this situation. “Thank you, Cadance. I really needed a talk like this…”

They end the hug and Cadance gives her a sly smile. “Keep me updated, okay? I want to know when something is happening” She nudges her hips against Celestia’s and giggles.

She blushes a bit and nods. “I don’t think anything is happening anytime soon…” Her voice gets a bit quieter, “but I will, if something does happen.”

"Wonderful, now go out and get him, you white tiger, rawwrrr!!" Celestia blushes furiously and her young niece giggles and laughs while wiping some tears from her eyes as she leans agianst Celestia's side.

Above the destroyed city of Gryphonia, the flying griffons could still smell the aftermath of the destructive incident. The usual smell of the fresh air and the various cooked and grilled goods and spices from the markets were eradicated and replaced by a hot, dry and musty atmosphere. The once huge trees from the nearby forest and the vast green plains provided the capital city with wonderful and fresh air. Today however, it is usual to see the population walking through the demolished city with cloths and scarfs around their beaks, especially while flying.

The proud population of Gryphonia never expected something like that to happen. Their powerful and massive capital city in ruins! While many believe that this was a punishment from the gods, most of the griffons start to realize, that this must have been some sort of weapon. An insanely powerful and devastating weapon. Rumors say that the ponies used their amulets of harmony or developed some sort of dark magic weapon.

After what happened, the griffons started to question the war and their superiority, but their king survived. Barely, but he did. And their king promised them retribution. But how? How would they triumph over a foe which possesses such a powerful weapon? It was simply not believable for most. Continuing such a war would be surely pointless. A suicide mission for the entire species.

While more and more protests emerged in the general public, a few griffons who worked for the inner circle of the palace heard other rumors. Rumors about the king’s enlightenment. Rumors that the gods spared him, so he himself could bear the power of our gods of war, Rah and Volta. King Gryphanus would rise from the ashes like a phoenix and with his god’s powers he and all griffons would ascend. In the far north he would find it. In the cold north he would create it. With the help of the best and brightest griffons, he would unlock it. The elementary power of the griffon empire. The key to ascension. War would not be lost…

Oppenhooves can’t remember much of his journey after he was captured in the badlands by the griffons. Everything happened so quickly. He can still remember how everyone started screaming and running around. Gunshots and shouting could be heard though the thick doors. He immediately stopped all his work on his desk, hastily stashing his calculations, drawings and illustrations in his slim briefcase in fear they could be discovered.

There was no doubt about it. Their castle was under attack and the explosions and the sound of the walls cracking indicated that the enemy was heavily armed. Acting quickly, Oppenhooves locked the metal door with the pin code and pressed a concealed button next to his desk. A small door opened between the stone walls. Before he left trough the emergency exit, he opened a drawer and grabbed his modified pistol and stashed it in his suitcase in hope of defending himself.

He quickly abandoned that hope after a large group of griffons found him in the desert, exhausted and water deprived. Clutching his suitcase close to his side, he tried to scare the griffons away with his pistol. However, as he got swarmed from all sides, there was no hope. He can only remember getting decked in the face after he refused to show the contents of his suitcase. And decked in the face he got. Hard.

After he woke up, he found himself in a dark and cold cell. Still weak, he quickly fell asleep again, only to be woken up again by a shivering cold which creeped up into his bones. The sound of a raging storm outside and metal wheels rolling on metal tracks indicated that he must have been transported on a train.

Oppenhooves shakily stands onto his hoofs and shivers as he looks around. The splintery wooden floor and the rusty metal walls were poof enough that he is on a prisoner transport train. But where? He raises his forehoofs against the wall and peeks trough the small view hole which provided the mobile cell with a dim light.

He shuts his sensitive eyes for a while and then opens them again. Everything stays white. Snow and Ice everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Suddenly darkness. They must have entered a tunnel.

After a few minutes the train comes to a stand and in the distance, doors being opened can be heard. A few cries and yelling could be heard nearby, but they are quickly being quietened by presumable beatings.

Oppenhooves shivers even more and steps back in fear as his door is violently opened. He shields his eyes again as light floods his cold cell.

“Common! Get out! You filthy pony swine!”, yells a bulky and angry looking griffon. Oppenhooves gulps and slowly moves his cold body out of the cell. He yelps in pain as the griffon smacks his flank with his sharp claws. “Faster! Or I will beat the shit out of you!”

With shaking hooves, he leaps away from the griffon and immediately finds himself at the end of a long line. Hundreds of prisoners, mostly ponies, were queuing while being guarded by many griffons.

Oppenhooves looks around and gasps at the size of this underground structure. The ceiling was about 25 meters high and above him, he could see several tracks and metal bridges. They were ascended from the ceiling or supported by metal pillars. griffon troops, workers and even some scientists were walking on those bridges. In the far distance, several banners with the Griffon flag were hanging from the ceiling. Between those banners a huge portrait of the griffon emperor could be seen. His cold eyes stared fiercely into the enormous underground hall, almost in an all-observing way.

Electrical lights on the ceiling illuminate everything in a gloomy light, while the sound of heavy machinery fills Oppenhooves ears. As the queue gets shorter and shorter, the stallion could see further down the train tracks. It seemed to be endless. Was this the great griffon industrial revolution his scientist colleagues sometimes talked about? The effort and machinery which were used to create this place must have been astonishing. He could only imagine what purpose all this must have. It surely is well known that the griffon military and their machines are quite developed.

His attention shifts back to the queue. At the end, each prisoner is marked with a tight neck band which had a number on it. Next, they each are sent down one of several narrow hallways with guards accompanying them. It seemed like everyone is being used as prison workers. Maybe if he is lucky, he could face the same fate.

He steps forward, not trying to stand out as he waits for his number tag. After waiting a while, nothing happens. He looks back over his shoulders and realizes that he is now alone, next to many griffons.

“Now now, vhat do ve have here, hmm?”

Oppenhooves looks to his left and sees a older griffon in uniform walking right in front of him. He has a blond mane and dark green eyes. Several scars adorn his grim looking but smiling face.

“What is ze name of yours?”

Oppenhooves answers quickly but cannot help but shudder a bit in this griffon’s presence.

”My name is G-Gleaming Shield, sir”

“Gleaming Shield, hmm? My name iz Manfred, but my friends here call me Manny, hihehe.” Manfred’s voice cracks a bit as he laughs.

“What iz your profession, Gleamy? Are you simply anozer worker I prezume, hmm?”

Oppenhooves blinks for a while and looks straight ahead again and speaks carefully “Yes, I-I am a worker.”

The griffon’s narrows his eyes and steps in front of the stallion. “Is this ze truth?”

“Yes, sir!”

The griffon lower himself to his level and smirks a bit. His smirk turns into a chuckle. His voice cracks up again and his chuckle turns into a squawky laughter. With a powerful swing of his talon, he smacks the stallion in front of him into his chest. Oppenhooves immediately sacks to the floor and clutches his upper chest in pain as his eyes water a bit.

“Ahahi! Ahaihahahhihhi!” Manfred wipes his wet eyes and calms his genuine happily laughter. Suddenly his laughter is replaced by an angry look on his face, his green eyes narrowed.

Oppenhooves groans in pain while trying to get to his hoofs while carefully looking upwards into Manfred’s green eyes.

“You? A worker? Zis is ze worst joke ever!”

“I-It’s t-the truth!”, He replies with labored breaths.

Oppenhooves closes in eyes, anticipating another blow which never comes. Instead he sees the griffon walking away to a pony nearby who is working with a pickaxe. The pony immediately stands still, and Manfred grabs his pickaxe and makes his way back to Oppenhooves. The griffon casually throws the pickaxe towards him and it smacks against his side as he is unable to catch it. All guards nearby laugh and Manfred grins.

“If you are a worker zen show me how hard you can work!”

Oppenhooves awkwardly picks up the pickaxe, not having an idea how to hold it properly. He shakily raises the pickaxe in one hoof and cringes as Manfred screams at him.

“Have you not heard me!? Show me how you can work!”

Oppenhooves yelps and staggers towards the nearby stone wall where ponies are working on a tunnel. He desperately looks around and starts hitting the stone wall with his pickaxe. His weak swings have no effect on the hard stone, but he tries again.

“Is zhis what you call work? I said work, verdammt nochmal!

Oppenhooves yelps as he notices him and the other guards throwing stones at him. He shuts his eyes and hits the stone wall over and over again, slowly creating an indentation in the hard stone.

“Faster, hihahahahii!”

Oppenhooves shuts his eyes in desperation and pain as he smacks the wall with all his might. More stones fly towards his direction and a few hit his back and head. He cries in pain and keeps working. Maybe there is a slight hope that they would let him pass as another worker. He knows the chance is slim, but he keeps on hitting the wall over and over again while gritting his teeth in pain as more stones rain down onto his battered body. Sometimes the pickaxe slips out of his hoofs much to the bystanders laughter, but he picks it up again and again, hitting the damn wall over and over.

A bigger rock hits his left hindleg, throwing him off balance. He falls towards the cold floor and longs for air as blood drips from his hindleg. He only hears Manfred’s vicious laughter in the background while shielding his head from stones, which stopped raining onto him. In the far background, he could hear a new voice. A voice which every griffon knows.

“Manfred! Where is he?”

Emperor Gryphanus, wearing his military uniform, walks towards Manfred who is still busy laughing and wiping his eyes from the enjoyment he is getting. The guards recoil a bit as they see their Emperor walking towards them, his gait impeded by his many injuries. Nonetheless, his posture and facial expression were as intimidating than ever. Maybe even more so now, due to the many bandages and scars he is wearing all over his body and face.

“Manfred! What is the meaning of this?”

The laughing griffon yelps and his pupils shrink a bit as he turns around only to see the angry eyes of his Emperor looking straight into his. He stands still and straight while giving his superior a salute.

“M-My Emperor! We just unloaded ze prisoners from ze train!”

Gryphanus grumbles and looks towards the poor stallion next to the wall. He was breathing hard with a pickaxe laying next to him. Blood drips from his left hindleg and his body is bruised.

“Stop playing around Manfred! We have important business to attend! My empire has no time for your games, understood?”

Manfred nods eagerly and sticks his chest out. “Yes, Understood!”

“Get him out of there. I want him in my office in an hour. And stop beating him too much, he needs to be somewhat in shape.”, Gryphanus speaks silently towards him.

Manfred nods and Gryphanus shakes his head. He stares towards the battered form of Oppenhooves in disgust and then walks away into a tunnel.

The scientist looks towards Gryphanus as he walks away. Trying to get on his hoofs, he wobbles a bit and finally collapses as his strength leaves his body.

With a loud banging against a metal door, Oppenhooves wakes up from a dreamless sleep. He seems to be in a cell, and he notices bandages on his left hindleg as the metal door is being opened. He shields himself with a hoof from the blinding light behind the door and turns his head a bit as his eyes adjust to the light.

“Wake up, prisoner. It’s time.”

He staggers onto his hooves and a griffon in uniform escorts the scientist out of the cell. As he looks around, he has no sense of orientation nor any sense of time. It could be day or night and he could be anywhere on Equs. He doesn’t even know which day or week it is.

As the soldier escorts him down a long tunnel, he wonders what might lurk behind the metal door at the end the tunnel. As they arrive, the soldier bangs his talon a few times against the door and waits. After almost a minute the hinges begin to creak and the door is now open.

A grinning Emperor stands in front of Oppenhooves and looks down into his eyes. As our scientist turns his head around, the soldier has already left. The only sound perceivable are the distant heavy machinery and the breaths of the big griffon in front of him. Gryphanus stares into his eyes for what seems to be hours.

“Hello, Hello! I see you arrived on time, Doctor! Come inside and make yourself comfortable!”

Hesitating a bit, the stallion carefully enters the room. It was a luxurious office with red carpet which coats the entire floor. Several paintings and high-quality furniture decorate the room. A big wooden desk with beautiful carvings stands in front of a massive array of windows from which one could observe the construction work going on behind them.

Oppenhooves walks further into the room and Gryphanus grins a bit as he sees the scientists muzzle slowly opens, clearly amazed.

“Impressive, right?”

Oppenhooves stands still, almost petrified as he gazes trough the windows. Gryphanus huffs and laughs while taking a sip from a glass of wine which he picked up from his desk.

“Don’t be shy, Doctor. Step closer and admire it. I know its nowhere near to be finished… But I can already see it in front of my eyes.”

He steps closer, right in front of the desk. Behind the big window he sees a tremendously huge hall which dwarfs the hall from before when he exited the train. Massive metal pillars support the high stone ceiling and huge lights flood the area with light. The room was almost as long and wide as the entire Canterlot gardens, spanning over 150 meters in width and length. Hundreds, no, thousands of griffons were working all over the place. Some still excavating the massive hall with modern looking machines, some constructing scaffolding and some carrying massive amounts of wood and metal pipes to the center of the construction site.

As he glances towards the desk in front of him, he stops breathing for a moment. His biggest fears seem to be reality. Everything he worked for so hard was right here, on the Emperor’s desk. The calculations, his theories and worst of all, the detailed sketches.

He swallows empty and slowly turns his head towards Gryphanus as he feels his spine tingling. He shudders and closes his eyes while taking a slow but deep breath.

“The beauty of the New Griffon Empire, my friend. And you and many other scientists from all over Equs will help me to build her. Isn’t that wonderful, Doctor Ronston K. Oppenhooves?”

Oppenhooves merely looks back towards the windows, his gaze looking trough the distant walls. He slowly staggers towards a chair nearby and sits down in shock, his hooves slowly running through his mane.

Gryphanus exhales happily and smiles after sipping on his wine while his workers behind him slowly but surely collect his precious ore.

Joseph is still unsure whether he is dreaming or in a coma while still spasming around in a dark back alley. He chuckles to himself as the bulky and bad-ass actor on the wide cinema screen looks towards his falling opponent. The pony, which resembles a well-known actor from the human world, puts on his glasses and presses a button. “Hasta la vista baby.” With that he jumps from the exploding tower towards a nearby airship and gracefully lands on its hull.

The bad guy screams as he falls from the tower towards his certain demise while cursing his opponent.

Joseph is a bit startled as a blue hoof grabs some nachos from his tray. He looks over to his left and sees Luna happily munching on his nachos while enjoying the movie with glistering eyes and excitement written in her facial features.

It is still a weird concept. Lots of things in this world are similar like things on Earth. City names, brand names, a few songs... Even a few his favourite sci-fi movies make an appearance in this world. Albeit different due to the world’s nature, but still with a remarkably similar plot and lookalike actors.

He leans back and holds his nacho tray in front of the pony next to him without paying too much attention to the movie since he already knows the plot anyways. Celestia smiles and glances into the edge of his eyes before taking a nacho from the tray with her magic. She thanks him with a quick nuzzle against his shoulder. Joseph smile happily and leans into her nuzzling while enjoying another nacho, giving a soft sigh. Maybe Equestria wasn’t that bad after all.

Thank you for accompanying us this evening, Joseph. This has been a fun idea indeed!”, Luna exclaims as the three stroll along the streets of outer Canterlot-City.

Celestia nods happily while looking towards her sister and Joseph. “It really was a relaxing evening, thank you indeed, Joseph.”

“Aww, it was just a cinema evening, Princesses, nothing too fancy.” He says while scratching his neck a bit.

“And that’s exactly why we liked it”, Celestia gives him a wink and he replies with a soft chuckle.

“You two have to get out more. Live offers more than just the castle.”

Celestia rolls her eyes knowingly and Luna interjects: “We would if we could, Joseph. If thou were a ruler of a country, then you would surely know.”

Joseph’s gait cracks a little and his genuine smile fades slightly as he looks towards the castle in the near distance, not saying anything.

Luna quickly realizes her mistake as she holds a hoof in front of her muzzle. “We are sorry Joseph. We-I didn’t mean to-“

“It’s okay, Luna…”

Luna holds his shoulder to make him stop “I-I mean it, I shouldn’t have said something like that. That was uncalled for and I want to-“

“It’s okay!”, Joseph interjects with his voice raised and looking back towards her.

Luna looks towards Celestia who simply looks towards Joseph with a worried glance, her wings hanging a bit.

“I’m over it… Really. So, let’s just enjoy this evening, okay?”

Luna nods as she looks into his eyes. “Okay. As you wish.”

The trio walks down the street with no one saying anything. There was obvious tension in the air and Luna was looking at the street in front of her eyes while walking. After a while, Celestia decided to cut the tension. A low growl coming from her belly elicits a blush from her. Despite the circumstances, Luna can’t help to let out a silent giggle as she sees her sister’s rosy cheeks. Even Joseph shakes his head a bit while smiling a bit.

“After destroying all my nacho’s, you are still hungry?!”

"Joseph! I did not ‘destroy’ your nachos," She pauses a bit and thinks about it." I merely picked a few out here and there."

“Yes, yes of course, you little bottomless pit you.” Joseph grins and looks out for any restaurant while Celestia looks with a shocked expression towards Joseph and Luna. Her sister only holds a hoof in front of her lips, cheeks puffed and eyes wide open as she tries not to laugh.

“Im joking Celestia, you should stop worrying about your figure, you look great.”

She merely blushes a bit and nods as the trio continues walking, Joseph leading and heading towards a particular establishment nearby. Luna walks into Celestia’s field of view and wiggles her eyebrows mockingly, but quickly gets swatted away by Celestia’s wings.

“Joseph, I must say that I am quite surprised. How did you know I like this new trendy food?” Says Celestia as her mouth starts to water.

In front of them several sandwiches, hay-fries, burgers, and sodas were furnishing the table. For the princesses, fast food was still a new occurrence as it pretty much got famous ‘just’ half a century ago. However, they rarely eat it since it is not considered proper food for princesses. Not rarely would she find an article in a boulevard paper the day after she would enjoy herself in a local fast-food restaurant. Celestia didn’t understand the fuss about it. The food was convenient, fast, tasty…

And it made her feel like a normal pony. A feeling she has been longing for since ascending to the throne in her distant past. Sometimes She would pay the guards to order some burgers and hay-fries and deliver them into her quarters in an unsuspicious box to avoid any new annoying newspaper incidents. It’s her dirty little secret.

“What are you talking about? Everyone likes Burgers and fries, right?”. He rolls his eyes and demolishes a handful of fries. “And you were hungry, so waiting for hours for our food in a fancy restaurant would certainly not do.”

“Agreed,” Luna interjects as she sips her soda, two hay-burgers floating in front of her.

Joseph nods and grabs more fries. They were even so nice to cook normal potato fries for him. Heaven.

Celestia blinks a few times and looks down towards her hooves, a soft smile on her lips. “Thank you.” She starts eating again.

“Uhr-Wulcm”

…

It isn’t until 5 minutes later that someone enters the fast-food restaurant in a hurry. Said individual quickly trots towards the counter. “Waiter, waiter!”

Joseph Celestia and Luna stop eating and perk their ears.

“Y-Yes, one moment… I’m here.”

“Good I am a royal guard and I need to talk to the princesses at once. We know that they have been in the area here. Do you know where I can find them? It is urgent.”

The waiter just blinks quickly. He opens and closes his muzzle a few times before pointing towards a distant table in a corner where. Even from the counter, one could see Celestia’s annoyed face as she closes her eyes. Celestia drops her sandwich and sighs while Luna just tries to hide a bit behind her shoulders and wings as she shoves the remaining hay-fries into her mouth.

“Joseph, I’m sorry but it seems like duty calls…” Says Celestia, looking towards him with an apologetic smile.

“Is something wrong?” Asks Joseph before sipping more soda from his straw.

“We don’t think so, maybe more geese in the castle just like last time…,” Luna rolls her eyes as she and her sister get up and straighten their manes with a quick spell. “Do you want to come back to the castle as well?” asks Celestia.

“Nah, I’m fine. See you two later then.”

“Goodbye Joseph.” Says Luna as she walks towards the impatient guard.

“Bye, Joseph, see you later.” Says Celestia. Before she leaves the table, she gives him a quick nuzzle and a quick wing hug.

The faint smile on Joseph’s face warms her belly as she glances back towards his table. After a few seconds, Joseph finds himself alone in the restaurant. It’s oddly quiet now.

“Fuck, I need some friends who aren’t princesses...”

“Thou have what in the infirmary?!” Luna asks/yells with wide-open eyes.

“A g-griffon, Princess Luna.” Replies the guard who just collected the princesses from the restaurant. They quickly teleported to the castle afterwards.

“Yes, we know! B-but how? How did the Griffon get here? And did she or he hurt anyone?” Asks Luna while her sister looks towards the infirmary with a pensive look.

“The griffon is male, and we don’t know how he arrived here.” The guard gestures the two rulers to follow him into the infirmary. “We found him in a secluded area of the royal gardens, unconscious.”

“Unconscious?” Asks Celestia with interest.

“Yes, Princess. Probably due to exhaustion, but he is also injured, but you should look for yourselves.”

The guard opens a door at the end of the medical wing and lets the princesses’ step inside. Inside the room two nurses were monitoring the medical equipment around the bed on which a big and bulky griffon was resting.

“Don’t worry princesses, we have him lightly sedated and he is exhausted. He will not move too much.”

Luna rolls her eyes as she steps closer and observes the bulky griffon. He was about in his fifties, clearly not the youngest anymore. His white feathers were a bit dirty and a taint of grey was clearly visible in his chest area. His left ear revealed a big scar. Furthermore, he had what seemed to be a fresh gash on his forehead and one on his left cheek. His beak was also a bit scratched. His left hindleg looked worse tough. A deep wound was visible, and a nurse was busy disinfecting the area and applying bandages.

“Now, what should we do with him, Princesses?”

Celestia steps closer towards the bed, observing the sleeping griffon. “Make sure to keep tending his wounds and inform us immediately once he is awake. We need to know how he got here and why he is here.”

Luna steps in: “And if he doesn’t talk, bring him to the dungeons and make him talk”

Celestia looks a bit uncomfortable but nods, nonetheless.

“Understood!” The guard salutes and both princesses make their exit, slowly walking trough the empty halls of Canterlot Castle.

“What do you think, sister?”

Celestia simply shrugs and shakes her head a bit. “I don’t know Luna, but we shouldn’t worry too much. The war is won and maybe the griffon is just a traveller.” Celestia knows that formally the war isn't over. She just wants to get over with this horrible last few months.

“Pretty unlikely, if you ask us… But tomorrow we will know more.

As they walk past the castle entrance hall, they spot Joseph walking alone towards the guest wing, his gait a bit impeded. Celestia’s eyes perk up and she trots towards him. “Joseph, hello!” Celestia smiles as she greets him. “Thank you again for the wonderful evening. We should repeat that soon.”

Joseph sways a bit and turns around. He opens his eyes wide and grins as he sees Celestia and her Sister behind her.

“Ohhh Heyyy, Ceelly!” He wobbles a bit and laughs as he stretches his arms out and gives her a hug, leaning a bit into her. “No worries, Ceeelery. Glad you enjoyed it, heh.”

Celestia blinks few times and looks with perplexed eyes into his face after leaning into his hug. “Celery?... Have you been drinking, Joseph?”

He shakes his head eagerly. “Noo! I-I would never do that! I am a citizen of Cantaloot and therefore a f-functioning member of this p-pony society.*hic* If you don’t believe me then just look at me.”

He steps away from her and stands on one foot. After wobbling a bit, he catches himself.

“Tadaaa! Now, watch this, Officer.”

Luna steps forward and looks with a ‘what-the-fuck-expression’ towards Joseph as he carefully walks across a straight line in the marble floor, presenting his highly developed motor skills.

“What in Tartarus are thou doing, Joseph?”

“Shhh, Luna! I'm convincing her that im sober." He looks back to Celestia. "See, I *hic* am sober!”

Celestia shakes her head in disbelief. “Oh dear… Joseph, let’s go to your room. It’s late and we should both sleep after this long day.” Celestia steps next to him and supports him with a wing while shoving him gently towards the guest wing.

Joseph giggles and snickers as he gets showed past Luna. “ Luna, s-she wants to sleep with me, c-can you believe that Luna? Gnhihihihi.”

He giggles more and wheezes a bit as Luna, while trying to not laugh, giggles silently.

“I-I am not!- ugh whatever, let’s just go Joseph, It’ has been a long day.” Celestia sighs with red cheeks as she leads the way towards the guest wing with Joseph in tow.

“O-Okay, Officer Celestia. Let’s go then.”

Celestia rolls her eyes and sighs again. While she enjoys Joseph’s form leaning into her side as he walks, she wishes that he would be somewhat sober. It’s hard to know whether he is doing it because he likes her or because he is just wasted as fuck.

“Okay, we are here. Now get some rest, understood?”

“As you wish. But, can you tell me why you two had to go? The evening was so nice, and it was only like 10pm? We could have gone to the nearby fair! I was all alone there...” He looked genuinely a bit hurt.

“I am truly sorry that we had to leave on such a short notice. We had an intruder in our gardens…”

Joseph raises his eyebrows. “And for that they need to call you both?”

She sighs and helps opening his door as he struggles a bit with the keys. He thanks her under his breath.

“It was a griffon, but don’t worry. He is unconscious and secured in the medical wing. Tomorrow, we will ask him why and how he got here.”

“A griffon huh?” Joseph walks into his room and Celestia follows a few steps, just to make sure that he gets into his bed in one piece.

“Yes, A griffon. Now try to sleep, Joseph.”

He was laying on his bed, arms and legs stretched out like a sea star.

“A griffon…” he pauses a for a while and Celestia just stands there, not sure if she should just leave and let him be.

“Can you tell what he looked like?” He keeps staring towards the ceiling.

“Uhm, well he was about in his fifties. Quite bulky, white feathers and grey chest feathers. Oh, and he had a scar on his left ear.”

“Joseph groans and runs his fingers trough his hair. “Fuuckk mee…”

“P-Pardon me?” Celestia asks, cheeks blushing and her facial features quite perplexed as she tries her best to keep her wings from unfolding just a tiny bit.

“bloody fucking hell…” Joseph groans and gets up as he walks into his big wardrobe, throwing out a few pieces of clothing as he searches for something.

“Joseph, can you please tell me what you are doing?”

“Getting the booze, Celestia.”

“WHAT? You are certainly not getting more to drink, Mister! I’m serious!” She catches him with her magic and quickly pulls him out of the closet as he curses a bit. She is too late tough. He already has a white bottle in his right hand.

“Lemme go! It’s not for me!”

She lets him go in confusion. “Joseph, I am not drinking anything, what has gotten into you!?” He shakes his head and then quickly walks out of his room with the bottle in his hand. “Common Celestia, we need to go to the infimarry.”

Celestia just stands there, scratching her head for a few seconds, wondering what on Equs has gotten into his thick skull. “Joseph wait!” She quickly trots after him as he jogs towards the medical wing.

As the two arrive in the medical wing, Celestia walks towards the door where the griffon is in. “Joseph, I don’t know what you want to do but I will not let you in there. Not at night and not when you are drunk and certainly not at one in the morning.”

“Celestia, relax. I simply need to give him a quick glimpse, nothing more. Then I’ll go to bed, I promise.”

“You will be the death of me.” She sighs and opens the door, quickly switching on the lights in the room. Joseph follows her and walks towards the bed before looking back towards Celestia. “It’s Yanto… I knew it”. Joseph grabs a nearby chair and sits on it, his elbow on his knee and head supported on his palm. “Fuck…”

“You know this griffon?” Celestia asks in surprise.

Joseph sighs and nods.” Yea… He was one of the mercenaries back in my castle. And because of him I could break out of the prison in Gryphiz after they kidnapped me.”

“Oh dear, I see. But then why did we find him unconscious in our royal gardens?”

“To be honest I don’t want to know, but then... I need to know, or I will not be able to sleep tonight.” He grabs the bottle of liquor and opens the cap as he walks next to the sleeping form of Yanto.

“What on Equs are you doing Joseph? He is hurt and needs to rest!”

Joseph just shushes her as he holds the opening of the bottle in front of Yanto’s beak, gently waving it to the left and right. Celestia steps closer and looks over Joseph’s shoulder while the griffon twitches a bit. “By my mother’s beard…”

With a long yelp and a deep breath, Yanto wakes up and takes a deep breath, the heartrate monitors beeping wildly. “Ahh, N-Noo. Let me go!” Yanto screams in shock as he cowers against the wall behind his pillow.

Joseph smacks his cheek “Yanto its fucking me! Relax!”

The griffon takes another breath and looks around himself, his breathing still heavy. “King Joseph? It’s you?” He looks around and relaxes a bit. “Where am I?”

Joseph sighs and sits onto the bed next to Yanto as he sets the bottle of liquor on the floor. “You are in Canterlot, Yanto. You’re safe don’t worry.”

Yanto leans back into his pillow and relaxes a bit. “Oh god… Joseph they captured me, and many others. I am so sorry. I-“

“Shhhhh… You did well. And if we could go back to our country, then I would certainly give you a hefty promotion including a pay rise.” Yanto smiles softly and then catches a glimpse of the alicorn standing behind Joseph. He gives her a friendly nod and says thanks as she hovers over a glass of water into his talons. He quickly empties it. A few seconds pass as no one says anything.

“You are probably wondering why I am here, right?”

Both Joseph and Celestia nod.

“While I always appreciate meeting a friend of Joseph, I do indeed wonder why we found you unconscious in our gardens.

Yanto shifts a bit uncomfortably and sets the glass onto his bed stand. “I..uhm got teleported…d-down from the Northern Screech Mountains.”

Celestia shoves Joseph to the side. “You got what? How did you do that? And such long distance. You could have been killed!

“That’s not important!” Yanto shakes his head, slowly feeling more awake. “We! We need to go!” He shoves his bedsheets off his body and tries to get up, but Joseph hinders him with an arm. He struggles more and gets another palm decked onto his beak. (Poor bird...)

“Yanto! For fucks sake calm down and tell us what’s going on.”

“They have it, Joseph! They have everything! The Plans! T-T-hey have even more...” Yanto freezes a bit and stares into an empty distance.

Joseph, quite perplexed, looks towards Yanto for a while, blinking a few times while doing so. “What?”

“What do you exactly mean, Yanto?” Asks Celestia with her calm and soothing voice.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Here... Take a look for yourself.” Yanto spreads his left wing and reaches with a talon between his feathers, quickly pulling out a few wrinkled and damaged pieces of paper. He hands them over towards Joseph and he quickly unfolds them. Celestia leans closer towards Joseph and he can almost feel her heartbeat on his shoulder as they both skim the pages. They were blueprints for many things. Weird machinery, engines, crude designs of single-shot guns and a detailed explosion drawing of a basic 9mm ammunition type.

Joseph groans and runs a few fingers trough his hair while continuing to read. “Oh fuck no…”

“I…I tried to find more but they almost caught me again. I didn’t want to go back into their horrible labour camps, King Joseph. I-I fled and, on my way out, I got lost and found myself in some sort of research area. T-They had weird looking machines there and even something incredibly huge. It looked like a huge machine that could influence the anomalies. Oh god they had one inside their mountain-base! They had an anomaly inside their base Joseph!”

Celestia’s pupils shrink and Joseph can see the terror written on her face. “Joseph, I’m waking up Luna, stay here and don’t move!” Celestia gallops out of the room and then the buzz of teleportation magic is heard.

Joseph turns to the last page. It’s one of Oppenhooves earliest calculations from the first test device. Although his calculations were quite a bit off, they needed only a few corrections here and there to get the bomb to explode properly.

Joseph takes a deep breath and gently sets the sheets next to him onto the bed with shaking arms. He closes his eyes and does nothing. Only the monotone heartbeat beeps are heard in the room as silence falls over the human and griffon. Several seconds pass.

“Fucking Hell!” Joseph slams his fist against the wall and then throws the papers away while rubbing his temples. After a while, he grabs the open bottle on the floor and takes a swig before offering it to Yanto. “Drink, my friend. We are gonna need it to get trough this shit.

Three days. It took them only three days to gather all necessary resources, airships and personnel to prepare this this mission. All undamaged airships in the whole nation were relocated to Canterlot. The damaged ones were hastily repaired and equipped with all magic crystals in the entire reserve. Factories in the entire nation worked on full tilt to repair enough airships and gather enough magic crystals since lots were destroyed and used during the war.

The Plan was simple. Get enough airships and weaponry. Fly towards the Northern Screech Mountains. Locate their base. Infiltrate it and annihilate the shit out of Team Gryphanus while trying to save all prisoners.

It was tempting to just send all remaining nukes down there to scorch the whole area. But it was risky since they do not know where their base exactly is. And it being underground could mean that it would have no affect at all. Joseph is no fool though. It is always a good idea to carry a nuke or two. You never know when one could come in handy. And with Luna’s help, he could even convince the reluctant Celestia about that matter.

Joseph was feeling good. Yes, he had quite a few restless nights and almost a little mental breakdown after Yanto broke the news with the plans and Oppenhooves. That sucked. A lot. But Joseph is an optimistic guy. The plans were the old and flawed ones. And even if they are going to correct it with Oppenhooves involuntary help, they surely can’t build one within such a short amount of time. That’s just really unlikely.

Furthermore, they won the war. Since Gryphanus bailed out of his country, the Griffon population are rebuilding their country with aid from the Equestrians. They are even trying out a new Political System with votes and whatnot. Incredible.

So basically, they simply got to chase the bailing form of Gryphanus and send a few bullets after him. They came so far. How hard could it be. It surely can't be that bad.

He took a glimpse trough the deck windows and scanned the area of any potential threats sine they were in deep Griffon territory. You could always find yourself in an ambush. But even the last Gryphanus supporters weren’t so stupid to initiate an attack against this big fleet consisting of 18 highly armed and modern air ships.

As expected, everything was peaceful. From the deck he could see into all directions. They flew through flat and sometimes hilly valley. They are covered in beautiful and thick forests. Some of the leaves are yellow, some red, some orange. It looked like a beautiful Bob Ross painting. Happy little trees and clouds everywhere with a fissured, white mountain range sitting in the far distance.

He lifts one arm and points towards the distant mountains. “Are those the Northern Screech Mountains?”

“Yes, we are getting quite close.” Answers Celestia’s calm voice.

“They look quite beautiful. I don’t get why they have such a rough sounding name.”

“Griffons tend to name things… differently than we ponies do.” She chuckled a bit and walked closer next to Joseph, joining him as they both look towards the horizon. The entire area is illuminated by a soft orange as the sun slowly sets behind them.

Joseph turns his head and looks towards Celestia. “You know… once we have dealt with this shit, we could do a lil’ hiking trip there. Hell, with your teleporting we could even go skiing!” Exclaims Joseph with enthusiasm.

She giggled and rolled her eyes while smiling, holding one of her hooves in front of her muzzle. “I am a terrible skier…. But we could always try. And a hike there sounds lovely.”

“Awesome. It’s a date then.”

She looks into his eyes and smiles, her cheeks feeling warm as he mentioned it to be a date. She knows that it’s simply a way of saying that a specific date to do something is set. Just the idea of it being one sounds quite nice to her.

She nods and looks back towards the mountains. They grow bigger and bigger. “I’ll be looking forward to that then.”

“Me too! Can’t wait to lose you white fluffball in all that snow.” He replies with a grin while giving her back some gentle pats.

Celestia giggles louder and then then blushes as she noticed the ships pilot glaring towards them. All his live, the pilot referred to her as ‘Princess’ or ‘Her Majesty’. And now… ‘White Fluffball’? Alright…

Joseph laughs softly with her and then moves his hand up to her neck, gently scratching her there as she liked it a lot. She hummed softly and leaned into his hand, cheeks quite a bit rosy as the human ran his fingers through her fur.

The Pilot raised his eyes even more with a slightly tilted head. His facial features a mix of surprise and mild disgust. He quickly turned his head away and looked out the window in the other direction. From here he could see the next airship in the air. Princess Luna was standing on its deck and her eyes met the pilots. She too had an expression of sight disgust on her face and even made a gagging motion. Princess Celestia’s sister apparently also has do endure such scenes.

Weird times lately…

While Joseph and the Princesses are already busy with their mission to find Gryphanus’ mountain bunker, Yanto was still in Canterlot. He endured quite a lot during the war and during his time as Gryhpanus’ prisoner. Therefore, some relaxation time was certainly needed.

However, he was not merely resting and laying around in the castle all day. Celestia wanted him to meet Twilight Sparkle. Apparently, his information regarding anomalies are important and are to be researched. If she found out anything important, she could inform her immediately with a magic scroll.

Twilight sets down her research papers and books onto the table with a rather loud thump. Yanto who is sitting on the other side cringes a bit. He seemed to be a bit tired since it was still morning.

“Do not worry, Yanto. I simply have a few questions regarding what you saw… Uh, when you were in this mountain base.” He nods and she then places cups and saucers onto the table, filling up both cups with some tea.

“Alright, sounds good.” He grasped the tiny cup with his claws and with a little sip he almost empties it. His beak clinks against the china and he notices her staring a bit at him. Is she intimidated?

He chuckles a bit nervously and then gives her his version of a soft and friendly smile. “Everything alright? Do I have something on my beak?”

She blushes a bit. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. Everything’s alright. I’ve just never been much around Griffons. I-… Excuse me. Where have I left my professionalism. L-Let’s just start with the questionnaire.”

She laughs sheepishly as she feels her cheeks blushing, clearly a bit embarrassed.

Yanto chuckles softly and nods. “Very well. I’m ready. And no worries, it’s alright.”

Twilight clears her throat and nods. She then goes trough her material, picking up a black clipboard with her hooves while levitating a pencil with her magic.

“During your time as a prisoner there, what exactly were you made to do?”

Yanto thinks for a few seconds and then quickly answers: “We all were working in the mines. Mining the green ore for him. Sometimes we just had to lay down tracks for the rail system or simply pull them carts.”

She nods and scribbles a few notes down. “A green ore? Do you mean rubies?”

He shakes his head. “No. It’s the fuel for the bomb. He is trying to build one as we know.”

Twilight is constantly scribbling onto her clipboard. Presumably noting everything Yanto is saying.

“Is Gryphanus close to achieving his goal?”

Yanto tilts his head a bit and then answers. “He lacks any understanding concerning the nature of the bomb, neither do any of his scientists. Probably only one in his mountain could manage to build one and that is Joseph’s top scientist Oppenhooves.”

Twilight eagerly scribbles everything down. “Alright, I understand.”

She goes though her papers and then looks back to Yanto. “Celestia mentioned that you were found in the royal gardens, unconscious. How did you escape? And how did you get here?”

Yanto’s facial features darken a bit as he rather quietly answers: “I-I don’t know. The memory is still a bit fuzzy but…” He shakes his head a bit and sighs, rubbing his temples with his claws.

“Take your time, It’s okay.” She smiles softly and fills his cup again with some tea and then proceeds to slowly sip on her own cup.

“I… I was spotted as I tried to make my escape in the tunnels. I was just running and running and…” Twilight ears perk up as he started talking about his escape. She folds her forehooves together in front of her chin and carefully listens.

Yanto was panting, longing for air as he arrived at yet another tunnel-intersection. He had no idea where he was and where he was going. Getting away from the guards was number one priority though. He had been running for almost full 10 minutes now. The tunnels seem to be endless. Every muscle in his battered body screamed but he had to continue.

He quickly chose a random tunnel and dashed into it. After running for several minutes, he noticed the tiny tunnel slowly getting bigger and bigger. It opened into a room which had railway tracks inside. Behind the tracks two guards were standing in front of two doors. All doors in this underground complex were the same plain wood or metal doors. These were different though. They were massive. Yanto could only imagine what was behind them. Maybe this could be the exit?

His eyes sparkled in hope as he hid behind a rail cart, trying to come up with a plan. He stood there for a while and looked back into the tunnel he came from. He couldn’t hear anyone following him. Apparently, they took the wrong tunnel. At least he hopes so.

After taking a deep breath he stepped out into the open. With a casual gait he closed the distance between him and the guards in front of the door. They turned their heads towards the new griffon who just appeared out of nowhere. The guards quickly grabbed their spears but did not attacking him yet.

“Woha, easy there, boys! Heh…” Yanto laughed casually and gestured them to calm down, raising his claws into the air while hovering. “I’m just looking for the nearest toilet. I guess I got lost.”

The show looked quite unconvincing. Even to the untrained eye. One of the guard’s steps forward, quite a bit aggressively.

“What are you doing here!? This tunnel is closed for any untrained personnel. There are no toilets here, Idiot! And where is your badge?”

Yanto was sweating bullets now. “I uhm… I forgot it in the barracks.”

He quickly walked a tiny bit closer to them, holding his hindlegs a bit closer together now as he looked towards the guard with somewhat pleading eyes. “Are here really no toilets? I… I need one like really really bad…”

The guard in the back chuckled and set his spear aside. “Haha! No wonder we lost the war with such pussies, right!?” The other guard just facepalmed, sighing in annoyance while the other guard behind him broke out in laughter.

Yanto seized this opportunity immediately. With a swift and powerful jab, he knocked the first guard out. A wonderful uppercut. Mike Tyson would be proud. The still chuckling second guard quickly shifts his attention back to Yanto as his friend collapses onto the ground in front of him.

He managed to grab his nearby spear with a claw but Yanto was faster. Having already grabbed the downed guard’s spear, he smacks it against the guard’s head. The guard wobbled a bit on his feet. Yanto could have waited until the guard finally fell, but he wasn’t in his most patient moments. A second hit against the guard’s head finished the job.

“Parry this, fucking twats!” He spat at them.

Yanto looked around and dusted himself off. After carrying the guards into an empty rail cart, he proceeded towards the big metal doors. He carefully placed his claws onto the big metal lever and carefully applied some pressure. It slowly and seamlessly opens. Yanto peaked his head inside after opening the door a tiny bit.

There was some movement, but not much. It certainly didn’t look like that this could be an exit. But it was definitely something important. He wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. However, this strange room was interesting. It certainly was important. And he needed to know what it was.

After peeping some more into the room and listening for a while, he decides to get inside. It didn’t seem like many guards were inside, he only heard some silent talking a bit farer away.

There was a lot in this room. Lots of boxes, machinery, storage units, train carts. He carefully and silently maneuvered around them and kept looking around while being wary of any potential guards. In the middle of the room, there was a big… thing. Maybe a new machine? Since Yanto is a griffon, he knows how griffon technology looks like. This certainly wasn’t anything like he had ever seen. It looked like a metallic hemisphere suspended about 2 meters into the air. It looked quite alien to him.

Around the sphere, various ladders were set up. Apparently, there was still construction going on around that thing. On the hemisphere, Yanto could see perfectly smooth indentations. There were four of those indentations and in one he could see something.

Inside one of the indentations was a black sphere. It shimmered slightly and produced a faint glow while giving off tiny black particles. Instead of falling, the particles slowly swirled upwards until they hit the high ceiling. Yanto slowly looked up towards the ceiling. It was completely black, as if someone held hundreds of candles against the ceiling.

Yanto managed to get closer to the hemisphere, observing the black stone in one of the indentations. The stone was about as big as a watermelon and it had some faint black and white markings on it. He had never seen something like that in his entire life. It was certainly a bizarre stone.

Yanto stared some more and then quickly huddled back behind a crate as he noticed someone approaching from the other side of his crate. It was a griffon scientist. The scientist was carefully rolling a metal cart towards the weird hemisphere apparatus in the middle of the room. On the small metal cart was a crate. The scientist opened it after he stopped next to one of the ladders. Before grabbing the contents of the box, the scientists looked over his shoulder and then opened his beak:

“I’m going to install the second artefact now. Okay, Zachary?”

The scientist waited a bit and then got a response from the direction he was looking to. Apparently a second scientist was nearby.

“Alright, Markus. But do not drop it again. We can not afford to lose another one. Emperor Gryphanus said that these artefacts are incredibly hard to-“

“YES!! I know, Zachary!” Interrupted the first scientist after taking a deep breath. “Don’t lecture me again! Okay? Not now!” He was clearly annoyed. Stressed out.

The tension in the air was thick. There were a few seconds of complete silence. Yanto knew he stumbled onto something major. He had no idea what was going on, but someone had to know. King Joseph, maybe Princess Celestia, just someone. Sweat dripped from his beak as he tried to be as silent as possible. After calming down a bit Yanto managed to carefully peek around the crate again.

The scientist was now standing in front of the open crate with his claws inside. He carefully lifted the contents out of the crate. It was another one of those weird looking spheres. It glowed faintly like the other one, emitting black particles which slowly float towards the ceiling. It also had black and white markings on it, but they seemed to be slightly different.

The scientist carefully climbed the ladder while holding the black sphere. He wasn’t hurrying in the slightest. Carefully planning each step as he ascended towards the hemisphere suspended from the ceiling. As he reached the top, the scientist carefully placed the black sphere onto the smooth indentation on the metal hemisphere.

It fit perfectly and both inserted spheres started to glow a little bit more. Yanto leaned even more forward as the two stones start to sync up, pulsating together and emitting more black material. Above the hemisphere something flashed up. It was a faint light that slowly grew bigger. The black material emitted by the black spheres now starts to swirl around the light. It seems like they were feeding their power to it. Yanto rubbed his eyes. The light grew a bit bigger and started pulsating rhythmically. It almost looked like an anomaly.

Now, Yanto never saw an anomaly from up close. But once he glimsed at one from far away. They were way bigger than this small light. However, the pulsating and the black swirling particles around it gave it away. It had to be an anomaly. This couldn't be a coincidence, right? But... But how? How was this possible?

....

“Did it fit?” Asked one of the scientists who was walking towards the hemisphere while holding a clipboard.

“Yes. Just as predicted. It should theoretically work now, but let’s do the other two artefacts as well.” Replied the scientist on the ladder. After he climbed down the ladder, the other scientist joined him as both admired their work.

“We are getting close Markus! Emperor Gryphanus will love this.” Praised Zachary, holding the clipboard into the air while Markus wiped some sweat from his forehead while smiling proudly. Their eyes sparkle as they admire the pulsating light above them.

Yanto tried to make himself even smaller behind his crate as he tried to make sense of the situation. As he pulled his tail closer to his body, he nudged a nearby box oh so slightly. It was enough though. A screw fell onto the concrete floor exactly next to him. It made a clinking sound which was easily heard in the whole room. Yanto’s heart rate spiked immediately as he held his beak shut, praying that they would ignore it.

...

“Did you hear that, Zachary?” The scientist tilted his head and looked towards the box where Yanto was hinding behind.

“Yes, I didn’t drop anything. Did you?”

Markus shook his head and started investigating the area where the sound came from.

‘Fuck’ thought Yanto as he carefully and silently moved closer to the big doors so he could vanish. Maybe they wouldn’t spot him if he’s fast enough. He had seen enough anyways.

“Intruder! We have an Intruder!” Yelled the scientist as he spotted Yanto carefully sneaking towards the exit. As Yanto got spotted he immediately switched gears, now running with full speed towards the double doors. An alarm started howling and red lights in the room flashed in sync with the alarm.

“Halt! Stop at once!” “Stop! You are under arrest!”

Yanto ignored them and quickly reached the door and tried to open it. Nothing happened. It was clearly locked. The whole area was probably under lockdown. He turned his head around and saw how one of the scientists was running to one of the research desks, pulling a weirdly shaped gun out of a drawer. It looked like one of Joseph’s but with a bulkier grip so a griffon could use it.

In panic, Yanto dashed across the room, body checking the unarmed guard while running towards the other side of the room in desperate hope to find an exit there. He was in the process of running trough the ladders under the metal hemisphere.

Yanto heard the downed scientist scream in horror. “Noooo! Stop! Stop! Stay away from the-“

Yanto didn't listen. He dashed trough between the ladders, fixated on the other side of the room where he saw a smaller door. A loud bang silenced everything. Yanto only saw white as a blinding light filled his entire vision. He felt like his entire body was on fire for a short moment.

Then.... Darkness.

“That was the last thing I remember.” Yanto shrugs and ruffles his feathers uncomfortably while looking onto his claws which rest on the table. “The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital bed here in Canterlot Castle.”

Twilight was on the edge of her seat as she listened to his story. Hey eyes wide open and mouth slightly open in disbelief and slight horror. Her brain worked on full tilt, trying to put the pieces together. One thing was certain. She needs to know what kind of artefacts Yanto saw there. And the Princesses need to know as fast as possible.

“I think that’s good enough for now… Thank you, Yanto.” She smiled at him softly and he looked back into her eyes, giving her a soft smile and nod back.

It is a rather chilly morning in the base camp. The sun behind the horizon paints the still early morning in an orange hue while gusts from the Northern Screech Mountains bring a chilly breeze into the green valley. The base camp is aligned into a small sphere, so the insides are a bit shielded by the rather harsh winds. All cargo ships form the outer layer while in the insides various tents and structures were hastily built. Various workers are still busy unloading the cargo ships and setting up tents and other facilities. Most of the battleships are silently hovering in the air, unaffected by the winds. If they their hulls weren’t made of wood, one could mistake them as some ships from Star Wars.

Behind the cargo ships more equipment is stored in boxes nearby the now empty cargo ships. Firewood, food, water, energy crystals, bows and arrows, swords. There was definitely enough to sustain this base camp for a few days if now weeks.

Joseph steps out of his personal tent. He yawns and then scans the basecamp with his tired eyes scratching his stubble with a finger. He clearly had some trouble sleeping this night. He grumbles a bit to himself and then starts walking towards the food station. All ponies in the camp are always wearing their uniform, only Joseph is seen in his pyjamas consisting of baggy pants a hoodie.

Instead of boots, he is wearing his beloved slippers. They are blue and totally fluffy, way better than any other type of shoes. His silly attire is only complete with his pistol which he has secured under his waistband. Celestia always scolded him when he wore any of his weapons inside the Castle, always saying that it is too dangerous. Well, now he was outside.

He rolls his eyes and then smiled to himself. I guess ruling for so long in peace brings out such personal traits. She sure acted like a mother sometimes. He wonders how his mother was doing. Did she miss him? He quickly shakes his head and dismisses these thoughts, snapping out of his little daydream. He had things to do.

All ponies stop what they are doing as Joseph’s tired and somewhat unkept form appears at the food station. Some ponies even salute as he briefly looks at them.

“J-King Joseph!” - “G-Good morning, King Joseph!” - “ S-Sire, Wecksel!”

The mares and even a few stallions who greeted him were stuttering a bit, clearly a bit overwhelmed by his presence.

Joseph cringes a bit but felt some pride nonetheless. Technically, he isn’t a king anymore, but it seems as his actions concerning war are swiftly being recognized in the Equestrian military. Fame was never something he wanted. He always thought it would be awkward and he must agree it quite is. However, he couldn’t help to feel a bit flattered by it.

Joseph raises his hand to gesture them to feel at ease. “Good morning, ponies.” He yawns again, holding one hand in front of his mouth. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to get some coffee.” He gives them a friendly nod. The unicorn stallion behind the makeshift counter acted at once. Brewing a coffee with one of their magical devices. The stallion quickly grasped the freshly brewed cup with his magic and held the cup in front of Joseph who took it with a friendly nod.

To anypony outside the military, Joseph seems like a weird chap. Definitely a bit lazy but friendly nonetheless. Not quite physically strong, just as most stallions these days. However, he is an exotic species and therefore interesting indeed, but nothing special by any means.

However, the ponies in the castle know about his abilities. Some are still in disbelief, but most feel a certain unknown strength coming from him. It is weird but also exciting since he is an ally of Equestria, basically one of Celestia’s best friends. They can’t see his power, but they can definitely feel it. A strange vibe of strength and mystery always surrounded the human. Some of the mares in the palace liked that. It was welcome change to the oh so boring colts in Canterlot.

Joseph takes a sip from his coffee and thanks the stallion behind the counter. He then turns around and walks off. The ponies keep looking as he walks away, some of the mares biting their lower lip.

He keeps walking to the centre of the base camp. Here, the mission critical resupply stocks are stored. They are inside a heavy metal storage-cage, secured behind a hefty physical lock. Through the bars one can see the modern looking equipment. A few battle scarred P-90 weapons but mostly huge metal crates with ammunition inside. A total of seven guardsponies stand around the metal cage, making sure no unauthorized personnel get access to the dangerous but important equipment.

Two pegasi with spears, Two earth ponies with swords and thee unicorns with shields. One of the bigger unicorns wears her uniform with strong pride. The dark-red furred mare has several ribbons and medals on her chest. She turns towards Joseph as he strolls by.

“S-Sir Wecksel! G-good morning!” She hastily greets him, her pupils shrinking. Quite so suddenly she is not standing as strong and proud anymore. There is clearly something on her mind, she looked terrified. Joseph rubs his tired eyes and looks at her more clearly. She is a blue unicorn with short black hair. Her wine-red fur and mane are well kempt. She looked familiar…

Joseph takes a long sip from his coffee, slowly swallowing the savoury liquid.

“Good morning… Miss…” He tilts his head, thinking of her name. He had definitely seen her in the castle somewhere. But where…

“General H-Heartsworth, sir!” Her tongue stumbles over her own words.

“Good morning… General Heartsworth...” He looks at her with a careful eye, scanning her entire body. She tries to smile a bit but it looked quite fake. Her muzzle elicits a nervous chuckle as she tries to hide behind her short blue mane. Joseph rubs his chin in thought and then snaps his fingers as a lightbulb goes off above his head.

“Wait. Now I remember. I know you”, exclaims Joseph happily. An excited smile finds its way on his face. She is almost trembling now. The other guards look at her curiously. Never had they seen their boss in such a manner.

“You are one of the solar guards who is deployed in front of Celestia’s chambers, guarding her from any unwanted guests or dangerous foes, right?” He got a bit closer to her face, looking down into her eyes with a sour expression.

She shakes her head and takes a tiny step backwards. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Hmm…”, grunts Joseph in response. “Then I guess you don’t remember the cake delivery guy who just wanted to cheer the poor Sun Princess up?” He asks while tapping his chin with a finger. “Uhh.. the ordinary two legged bloke you called ‘monkey’, If I recall correctly?” Joseph blinks a few times as he waits for her answer.

She shakes her head again, not looking into his eyes. Her tail firmly pressed against her between her legs. She then reluctantly looks back up into his eyes. He is sipping on his coffee again.

“N-No. You are right.” She sighs in defeat. “L-Look I-“ She looks around a bit, lots of ponies were looking at the scene now.

She felt so embarrassed. Never, ever in her life had she to do something like this. And now even in front of the guards she is supposed to train! She should just have let him pass that day, she thought. He was bringing her pastries for Celestia’s sake. Literally! She slapped herself mentally.

“S-Sir Joseph, I am truly sorry for what happened. I-I was following orders and…and.” She tries to find the proper words and then just sighs. “I just hope you accept my genuine a-apology, Sir Wecksel.”

Joseph keeps looking at her for a while his facial features stoic.

“I don’t,” he casually replies and then finishes his coffee.

The ponies around gasp and the mare in front of Joseph tries to stay calm, but one could clearly see the high ranked mare grinding her teeth together in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

“Because you don’t need to apologize, silly!” He leans a bit down, ruffles her mane and then pets her head two times. The crowd gawks in surprise. Some mares laugh silently and some stallions giggle with a blush.

“You, miss Hearthsworth, kept following your orders like a true soldier should! I mean cake delivery, seriously? I was mad. M-A-D. What If I were a changeling? Or what if I hid a weapon inside one of those delicious cakes?”

Heartsworth’s muzzle is hanging open slightly as she looks at him in disbelief and slight confusion, her cheeks a bit red as she just realized he just petted her head.

“Any ordinary guard would have let me through, potentially putting the princess in danger. However, you defended the royal chambers like a true guard. Like a friggin’ champ! I’m glad you’re training these guys over here. They can definitely learn a lot from you.” The crowd was silent now, not having expecting such a turn in events.

The mare was flabbergasted, opening her muzzle and closing it a few times as she wanted to say something. “T-Thanks?” She is confused. She did definitely not want to insult him once again.

Joseph tilts his head a bit. “Huh? Did you say something?” He gestures towards his ears. Apparently, he hasn’t heard her.

The mare shakes her head quickly and adjusts her posture, sticking out her chest in pride.

“I uhh... I said, Thank you, Sir Wecksel!” She was still confused but happy that this embarrassing situation turned around so quickly.

He nods at her and then offers her his hand which he turns into a first.

“Call me Joseph.” He gives her a genuine smile

Was he trying to act all marely or is this how his species actually acted? It was definitely interesting though. Not often would a stallion offer a mare a hoof bump. She gives him her first genuine smile back.

“Call me Azure.”

“Nice to meet you Azure, I hope this time we meet on better terms, eh?”

She chuckles a bit nervously and nods. “I sure hope so, heh.”

Joseph just stands there now knowing what to say now. Neither does Azure. It’s a bit awkward. The crowd slowly disperses, the ponies returning to their duties.

“Sooo, I see you and your squad are guarding my stuff, huh?” He looks towards the metal cage.

Azure turns back into guard mode. So do the other guards, all standing in order in front of the metal crate. “Yes! Celestia ordered us to protect it and let no one near it without her, her sisters or your permission.”

Joseph nodded to himself, at least somewhat statisfied. “Splendid.”

“But, how do you intend to defend it? I hope Celestia equipped your lil’ squad properly?”

Azure answered quickly. “Sir, I am one of the most experienced solar guard. Those ponies are my personal trainees, clearly worth to be trained to become the best what a guardspony can be. I hoof picked them personally. They are swift, strong, heroic and relentless in the battlefield. I can assure you, If it would ever come to this, we will guard this most important equipment with all our might. So, we are properly equipped.”

The seven ponies stand in front of Joseph, like true soldiers, in perfect order. Their trained bodies held stiff, as they looked straight ahead with stoic expression, holding their weapons or shields firmly and close to their bodies.

“Riiiight….”

Joseph blinks a few times as he looked at the display. He then looked back into azures eyes and couldn’t help but yawn. He then shook his head in disbelief. Was Celestia really responsible for this? "Celestia can't be serious, right?" He muttered to himself.

Joseph sighs in defeat. He simply walks past the guardsponies and strolls towards the metal storage cage while fiddling around with something in his pockets. He pulls out a key and swiftly unlocks the lock with it. Azure, still a bit perplexed, wanted to say something but decided not to as the human walks into the cage, casually going trough the stuff in there. It looks like someone is going trough their wardrobe. Azure and a few other guards cringe.

Joseph picks up a big metal box, sets it onto the ground in front of the cage and then closes the lock again after exiting the cage. He picks the box up again, carries it next to Azure and opens it, not saying anything. Azure looks down towards the open box. There was a futuristic looking blocky metal thing inside with some smaller and thinner metal capsules.

“Pick it up. Don’t be shy” Joseph says, mocking her a bit.

Azure picks it up with her magic and admires the beauty of the device. She had seen something like this before. Celestia herself and Shining Armor used a similar device when they fended off the changeling invasion at Princess Cadance’s and Shining Armor’s wedding. They were apparently insanely powerful weapons. A marvel of technology.

While the device she remembers looked rather crude and makeshift, this one was clearly different. It had the same basic shape but was built solidly, made from the hardest metal only the best weaponsmith use. The thing was quite heavy.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Joseph grins with pride and Azure nods. The guards have already abandoned their professionalism and are now gawking at the futuristic, alien but pristine looking weapon which floats General Hearthsworth’s magic.

"I guess you have seen one of those already huh? But don’t be fooled, dear. This isn’t the piece of shit version I built back then. It’s the real deal.” He gestured towards the body of the weapon with pride. “High quality stainless steel. Improved inner barrel. 50 round magazines with high velocity ammunition... Oh and listen to that charging handle!”

Joseph excitedly grips the weapon out of her magic and pulls the charging bolt back, quickly releasing it. The heavy bolt instantly snapped forward, producing a loud clanking sound as it closes into the weapons body. It was a sound of high-quality machinery.

Joseph’s face is one of pure bliss as he listenes to the sound of the weapon's charging handle. He then chuckles a bit and puts the weapon back into Azure’s magic. She seems to be a bit overwhelmed, mostly due to Joseph's... alien behaviour.

“I-It surely sounds… quite metallic.” She replied with an unsure voice.

“Yep, Metal as fuck.” He grinned.

No pony laughed.

Joseph clears his throat. “Anyways, now you are properly equipped. Just, grab one of those magazines and-“ He is cut off by a tune that seemingly is coming from his pants.

He pulls a fancy looking slab of glass out of his pocket and glances at it, tapping his fingers against the device. “Oh shit. I’m late for tea and cake with the Princesses. Sorry, I gotta go Azure. Don’t do anything stupid with my gun alright? There are only like five of those!”

With that he jogged away, leaving Azure alone with a mix of emotions, a new seemingly powerful weapon and a box of ammunition. She closed her muzzle and then shook her head in disbelief.

“What in tartarus just happened…”

Joseph keeps walking towards one of the landed battleships which is secured to the ground with thick ropes. The wooden hatch is guarded by two solar guardsponies. The mares stand still, faces stoic as Joseph walks past them with a friendly nod. After entering the interior of the ship, he turns his head in search for the meeting room. There were two narrow hallways, constructed of the strongest and most pristine woods. A black and red carpet covered the floor while various paintings and carvings can be found on the wall. As he looked towards the ceiling, he expected to see fancy chandeliers. However, he merely sees some simple but convenient magic lamps.

The ship looked like a fancy old yacht, nonetheless. Joseph snorted. Our best battleships are furnished like the best suites in Canterlot Castle. Joseph keeps walking down one hallway until he reaches a wooden door with another guard in front of it. She looks up to Joseph.

“State your business.”

Joseph blinks a few times. “I’m the royal nuclear physicist and new director of defences.”

The guard tilts her head.

“Uhh… I explode shit for the Princesses.”

The mare suddenly remembers. Her superiors mentioned to her that the Princesses now had a new director of defences. A stallion named Wecksel, she heard. Not a pony but ‘hooman’. Apparently, a rare species. This definitely had to be him!

The guard then quickly nods and then steps aside giving the human in his pyjamas a salute. “It’s an honour to be under your command, Sir Wecksel! Step inside.”

-“Looks like Sunny told her guards about my newfound position, huh.”- Thinks Joseph.

“Thank you, dear.” Joseph opens the door and steps inside the meeting room. Celestia and Luna greet him, both were in a similar state like him. Not wearing pyjamas but manes not kempt and eyes somewhat tired as well.

“Good morning Joseph.” Speaks Celestia in her soft voice, gesturing him with her wing to sit down. “We need to discuss how we finally proceed with the mission this evening.”

He nods and lets himself fall onto the chair, yawning and stretching after that. The meeting could finally begin now.

It was a beautiful evening on the Battleship. The cold but fresh winds flow trough Josephs hair as he stands on the bow of the ship, tightly holding onto the railing. He felt at ease. They were technically still deep in enemy territory, but he didn’t care. Hey had a plan. And the plan was simple:

After setting up the base camp three heavily guarded and stocked up battle ships would fly towards the northern parts of the Screech Mountains. One Ship is led by Celestia and Joseph, one by Luna and on the third one by General Heartsworth. Every ship takes a different path so their chances of finding Gryphanus’ base faster was higher. If one ship located the base, the other two and the base camp would be informed immediately, therefore initiating phase ‘Dusk’.

An insertion team lead by Celestia, Luna, Azure and Joseph would infiltrate the entrance to the mountain base, carrying the three remaining nuclear payloads as deep into the structure as possible. After a quick retreat the devices are simultaneously triggered by a remote control, hopefully destroying the entire underground bunker. Of course, they would try to free any prisoners, especially Oppenhooves. If he is still alive…

Furthermore, each ship would carry one nuke, spreading the payload onto all vessels. With all that heavy equipment it would be surely quite easy. They’re not fighting armies anymore. Merely a crazy ex-king and some of his most loyal followers. One press of a button and they’re all ‘pooof’. Piece of cake.

It’s basically a holiday in the mountains including some additional fun with explosives.

Joseph chuckles and shakes his head thinking how crazy his live has become the last few months. The first months here were hard, and he almost snapped into insanity. He managed to rebuild his life. Get some sort of daily structure into his days. It worked but a vast emptiness would remain embedded deep inside him. Just recently had he a felt something that he had not felt in a long time. Purpose. And this feeling slowly started to sprout after this insane but wonderful alicorn burst into his throne room, asking for ‘assistance’. He smiles softly as he remembers this moment. Was he still the same person back then?

The consequences were great though. He lost his entire castle. Most of his inventions and all of his mercenaries. Some of those he genuinely liked lost their lives. And he nearly got killed as well. Not just once…

He should be a raging mess but somehow... Somehow, he feels like it is fine. But it shouldn’t be, right?

Joseph holds his head and groans, rubbing his temples. He hears a familiar clip clop noise nearby, indicating that somepony was walking towards him. A wing touches his back and Joseph turns his head to the left.

“Are you alright, Joseph?” Celestia looks into his eyes while her wing brushes over Joseph’s back. The wind blows through her multi-coloured mane, making it appear like a faint rainbow. Her white coat shines in a warm light as the last sun rays from the setting sun brush over her soft fur.

Joseph just stands there looking at her for a while, not saying anything. After a short moment she simply gives him a soft smile, stepping right next to him. She joins him, looking towards the mountain range in front of them, gently brushing her side against him. He doesn’t scoot away at the touch.

“Y-Yea… I’ve just been… thinking.”

She nods.

The two different beings just stand there, enjoying the scenery and each other’s company. The valley was so peaceful and beautiful. If it weren’t for the wind blowing over their ears, they could hear gentle rivers and birds chirping in the distance as they sung their lullabies.

“Joseph, you know that you can always talk with me, right? About anything.” She averts her gaze from the mountains and looks back towards him. Joseph keeps looking forward, his hands firmly locked around the railing.

“Yea… I-“ He sighs and looks towards his hands on the railing, thinking. Celestia waits patiently.

“I’ve been… quite… I don’t know. I’m doing… well, you know?” Joseph cringes a bit, clearly not happy with his own word choice. Celestia blinks twice, not sure how to understand that.

Joseph chuckles and shakes his head slightly.

“Sorry, I’m making not any sense right now I guess, heh.”

“It’s alright. It surely must have been a stressful time for you. I’m truly sorry for-”

Joseph tenses up a bit and interrupts her: “No! that’s exactly it! I’m… I’m feeling happy. And… I don’t understand why.”

The alicorn tilts her head, not expecting such an answer from him. “You feel happy.” She states, a soft smile creeping on her lips.

“Yes! And I don’t know why. I’ve lost everything! My family, my life on Earth, my castle in the badlands… Yet, somehow it… it doesn’t bother me anymore.”

Celestia merely nods, unfurling her left wing and brushing his back gently with her strong feathers. Joseph raises his eyebrows at her, expecting an answer. “That's clearly not normal, right? I make no sense!”

Celestia brushes a feather over his lips to stop him. “Joseph, honestly, I do not know what is normal anymore nor what makes sense. But I know that your past here has been quite troubled, so a positive change in your state of mind should not be questioned by yourself.” She looks at him sternly, albeit a soft smile is still visible on her lips. “You deserve to be happy.”

The pair remains quiet for a while. A few of the brighter stars manage to shine through the still dimly lit atmosphere while the moon slowly starts to rise behind the distant mountains, giving the snow in the distance a bright glow. Celestia breaks the silence after a while.

“Maybe you feel happy because something deep inside you knows that you’ve found your place in this world, Joseph.” Her voice was softer than usual. Joseph blinks a few times, looking down past the railing. They were quite high in the air. He unfurls his fingers and slowly let’s go of the railing, fingers shaking a bit. After closing his eyes and inhaling a deeper breath of air, he puts his hand on Celestia’s withers. She pulls him closer with her wing, gently brushing her cheek over his neck, nuzzling him softly. He nuzzles her back.

“Maybe you’re right...”

Dear Princess Celestia,

What I’ve found out will not please you.

I talked with Yanto. He described to me in further detail what he saw in Gryphanus’ underground facility. I immediately went to research these findings and it led me to the forbidden Canterlot archives. I had to access the dark magic sections as more and more clues indicated that Gryphanus might be somehow accessing an ancient and forbidden power called ‘thestral darkness’. Maybe you are familiar with such a term.

Apparently, it was a power used by ancient creatures called windigos. The power enables them to feast on stray magic. It fuels and excites them on a primal level, making them stronger.

I do not know if my findings indeed are connected to what Yanto saw during his imprisonment. He seems to be mentally stable, but he could have been hallucinating. However, there also was an ancient drawing of a so called ‘thestral rune’. Presumably a rune similar to a magical one as it stores thestral darkness. Yanto told me that the last thing he saw was an apparatus with such runes attached to it.

As I write this letter, I am calling the remaining elements and preparing further reinforcements.

Maybe this is bigger than we assumed.

-Twilight Sparkle

The letter is slowly crumbled into a ball and tossed towards the nearby fireplace. A deep and disturbing sounding chuckling slowly fills the room. A grey and battle-scarred looking griffon smirks as he starts to fill his glass with some rum. His arm was shaking, a long scar showed that he must have had intensive surgery. His wings were crippled but he wouldn’t show this weakness to anyone. A blue and yellow king’s robe covered his back.

“K-King Gryphanus. What are your orders?” Asked a clearly intimidated but loyal griffon. Despite his young age, he was one of Grypanus’ most loyal followers.

“Simply thank our allies for intercepting this little message, hehe.” Grypanus plays around with a L- shaped device in his right claw, eyeing it with a smirk. The young soldier looks at the modern looking device. He heard that the scientists are comping up with more and more deadly weapons lately. This might be one of those. Another reason why Gryphanus’s leadership is god given, thought the soldier as he turned around and walked towards the door.

“Oh, send our new allies a present. Hmmm… I guess a dozen prisoners will do. And do include some unicorns, I heard they enjoy those the most.” Gryphanus looks towards his loyal soldier with a dark and sinister grin, eyes bloodshot as he starts to chuckle and giggle in excitement.

The soldier nods, happy to execute his order. “Of course, my king.”

Celestia smiles happily. She leans against her friend, enjoying the beautiful scenery in front of them as they sit on the bulk of their battleship. She never managed to stay this close with him for such a long amount of time. Normally she would get a few hugs and cuddles from him, but nothing close like this. Yes, he would blush and giggle, clearly enjoying her presence... However, after a few seconds, he would quickly shove the affectionate alicorn away. But now this time...

They have been cuddling like that for almost five minutes now. She wonders if she is dreaming. Luna might be pulling a prank on her…

Celestia feels Joseph’s hand on her back slowly moving up her slender neck, his digits gently brushing her short and soft fur while pulling her a bit closer against his frame.

Celestia was now happily squeeing on the inside. Also, his fingers just feel so wonderful. She rolls her eyes upwards in pleasure.

Joseph quickly looks into her eyes as he notices her emitting a soft purring noise. Their gazes meet for a second and both notice the other blushing. They quickly look towards the horizon again. Celestia mentally prepares herself to be shoved away. He does that when he feels too flustered. That’s normal.

This time however, Joseph merely hums softly, his fingers slowly reaching the back of Celestia’s head. His digits brush trough her silky-smooth mane.

Celestia shudders at his touch and rubs her side against his shoulder.

“Are you alright? Should I sto-“

“No! I-I… I’m fine!” Almost yells Celestia.

“Riiight….”

…..

The pair remains silent for a while as Joseph’s gentle neck caressing stopped. Celestia’s cheeks are beet red and she curses herself, looking away to hide her face.

-Stupid Celestia! Why do you have to be so awkward?! By your mother’s beard why can’t you simply...-

Her train of thought derails as she feels Joseph leaning his head against her right shoulder. His fingers on her neck start digging into her fur again, moving his entire hand up and down her neck whilst doing so.

The tense alicorn slowly relaxes and leans back into him. She huffs silently and closes her eyes, her throat emitting a soft purring noise. They stay like this for a while.

Joseph smiles. “You sound like a cat.”

Celestia giggles and looks back into his eyes. Seeing his friendly smile with his cheeks red makes her smile even more.

“Is that a good thing?” Coos Celestia with her softest voice.

He waits for a few seconds and then nods. Joseph lays his head onto her cheek, his short beard rubs against her fur, making the princess purr louder.

“Yea. It’s a really relaxing sound.”

Celestia purrs and humms, rubbing her cheek back against his. Joseph feels her hoof brushing over his side while her soft wing rubs against his back. She’s so warm, he thinks.

“You know, I used to have a cat. His purring was so relaxing it put me to sleep withing minutes.”

Celestia looks into his eyes, a mischievous smile on her lips. Joseph blushes a bit as he realized what he just said.

“You can always hop in my bed if you need someone to purr you to sleep. It’s certainly big enough for two.” She grins and gives him a wink, giggling cheekily.

…

Joseph’s body freezes and he blushes even more as he wipes some blood from his nose.

“O-Okay. That’s it! Enough c-cuddling for today...” Joseph stutters a little and looks away in embarrassment as he tries to shove the naughty alicorn. She wraps one wing around him and giggles, nuzzling his cheek.

“I’m just teasing you.” Laughs a happy Celestia.

Joseph untangles himself from her wing and pushes Celestia away. She yelps as she falls over, quickly giggling again as she looks up towards Joseph with a silly smile on her face. “But does that mean I’m getting some more cuddles, tomorrow?”

Joseph’s cheeks are still a bit rosy. He grumbles and looks away. ”M-Maybe…” He mutters silently, just enough that she could hear it.

Celestia gets up again and walks towards Joseph with a happy smile on her face, but something puts her off balance.

With a loud crash the entire battleship rumbles and comes to an abrupt stop. Joseph and Celestia turn around towards the deck. Several ponies run around, trying to understand what happened. Smoke rises from the six magical engines. The battleship is slowly losing altitude.

Celestia gallops towards one of the smoking engines. “What is happening?” She demands.

An engineer who opened the engine compartment pulls out the remains of the energy crystal. Instead of a colourful crystal, he pulls out grey looking crystal. It slowly turns to grey ash in his hoofs. He looks towards the Princess with confusion in his eyes. “P-Princes, I… I don’t know what happened!”

Celestia looks back up, her facial expression stoic. “Land the ship immediately and stay alert. I want all soldiers armed and ready to defend ourselves and our payload at all cost!”

“Yes Princess!” Shout the nearby stallions and mares. A few soldiers run below deck to arm themselves.

“Celestia? What’s happening?” Joseph puts a hand on her withers to get her attention. She jerks a bit as she looks over her shoulder towards him. He eyes her for a while, she seems uncomfortably tense. Quite uncommon for her.

“Are you alright?”

Celestia just looks at him for a while, thinking.

“Joseph, I can’t contact Luna. O-Our magic link… It seems not to be working.”

“What? does that mean your magic not working?!” He almost yells, some fear audible in his voice.

Celestia lifts a nearby box up with her magic and sets it down again. “My normal magic seems to be unaffected. But the engines and the mind link with my sister are alicorn magic.” She gulps and stares into the dark distance.

The treeline slowly starts to appear as the ship starts to land. A loud, eerie sounding scream appears to be coming from the nearby ground where the ship will soon land.

“What the FUCK was that?!” Yells Joseph to no one in particular as he looks around the ship. All ponies stare at each other in confusion and fear. Their fright only increases as they notice the state which their ruler is in.

Princess Celestia’s pupils are mere pinpricks and her hindlegs are shaking. She looks towards Joseph and starts to whisper slowly and silently. “T-They are back… The windigos… After so many centuries.”

Two more screeches are heard. They are getting louder. The ponies on the ship arm themselves with spears, swords, shields and bows. A few look over the edge of the ship, their facial features full of horror.

Joseph grabs Celestia her by her neck. “What is a windigo?! What the fuck are you talking about!” He yells and shakes her some more in desperation as she remains motionless. The ship shakes and rumbles as it softly crash-lands on the grassy glade.

“We should run. Without the elements this is hopeless.” She turns towards the engineer next to the engine. He is shaking in fear. “Get the remaining magic crystals and restart the engines. NOW!” The engineer nods and quickly gallops under deck to get new crystals.

Joseph grabs his P90 and racks the bolt back, loading a round. “We are definitely NOT retreating now, okay?!” He then angrily stomps towards the edge of the ship, looking down towards the grassy plains to look out for the eerily sounding enemies.

What he sees makes him stop at once. “Jesus Christ…”

On the dimly lit glade, he could see two creatures standing, one on two legs and the other on all fours. From afar, they looked like tall and slim bipedal creatures with their skin devoid of any pigmentation. However, their extremities were heavily out of proportion. The arms are skinny and almost two meters in length. Dark red blood coats their lower arms and claw like appendages. They also appear to be malnourished, their white skin hugging all bones on their naked body firmly.

One of the creatures looks up towards the battleship, its tiny and black eyes are recessed into the skull. It opens its blood coated maw, dislodging the jaw in the process while drooling a mixture of blood and saliva. Then it screams again. It sounds like high pitched roar, making everyone on the ship cringe in pain.

“W-What the fuck?!” Joseph recoils in shock and disgust.

“What in hells name is this inbred piece of shit!”

He aims down his sights and sends three shots towards the abomination of a creature. The first shot misses, but the other two hit its left shoulder and right chest. The windigo jerks and spits out some blood, staggering a bit.

After shaking its head, the creature suddenly jumps into the air, easily jumping over three meters. It clings onto the ships hull and quickly climbs onto the deck of the ship. The abomination glares at Joseph, almost intrigued by him as it tilts its small head slightly. Its eyes are pitch black, a slimey substance runs down its eyes as if crying.

Joseph’s body shakes in fear. With a click, however, he sets his weapon to full auto.

Some ponies scream, some shout while raising their blades. The rest aim their bows towards the creature. The windigo simply bolts towards the nearest pony, grabbing the stallion with immense speed and strength by his throat to lift him up high into the air. The sound of broken neck bones sends chills down everyponys spine as the stallion’s lifeless body dangles from the windigos thin arm.

All archers shoot their arrows towards the creature, it screams in agony. The creatures screaming is quickly silenced as Joseph pulls the trigger of his weapon for a full second, spraying a quick salve into the abomination.

The windigo jerks back and falls to its knees, supporting itself with its long arms as it vomits some thick blood. After that, it stands back up and starts limping towards Joseph, emitting a horrifying screeching sound.

Joseph yelps and walks backwards while spraying his entire magazine into the windigo. The bullets pepper its abdomen, opening it up like a chainsaw would. The recoil pulls his bullets upwards, shooting several bullets trough it’s chest and even a few through the head.

The destroyed windigo slacks down into a messy and twitchy piece of gore.

Everyone on the ship gawks at the mess in front of Joseph as he shakily reloads his powerful weapon. The engineer who was inspecting the second engine looks back over his shoulders, he immediately vomits onto the deck but then quickly proceeds to repair the engine with shaky forelegs.

The second windigo jumps at the hull of the ship, digging its claws into the wooden frame as it climbs up like a spider. Two nearby soldiers swing their swords at the creature, one manages to cut off its left arm.

The windigo screeches in pain and swings its other arm at the two ponies, sending them across the deck with great force. Two mares throw their spears. One misses and one tears into the windigos thin leg. It screeches again but shatters the wooden spear with a hit, the tip however still sticking in its skinny leg.

Joseph pulls the charging handle back on his still smoking weapon. The creature readies itself for a jump but is quickly torn apart by an entire magazine on full auto. He screams in hatred as he squeezes the trigger of his weapon as hard as possible. The rapid gunshots light up the surrounding area like a strobe light. As the magazine is empty, he angrily squeezes the trigger a few times, the smocking gun only emitting a clicking noise.

The butchered windigo slowly collapses on the edge of the deck. The gory mess slips under the wooden railing, falling towards the grassy ground.

Then silence…

The only sound heard is the echo of Joseph’s weapon. A few seconds ago, everything was going according to plan. Now the ship looks like hell, blood, guts and vomit coat the wooden deck. The dead stallion is already being carried under deck by two mares.

Joseph slowly staggers towards Celestia. She just stands there, petrified.

“What- What are these things?!” Demands Joseph with a shaky voice.

“W-we used to call them windigos…” She replies, with a cold voice.

“What do you mean with ‘we’ ? Are you insane? Those inbred motherfuckers are batshit crazy!” Joseph runs his fingers trough his hair as he looks towards the dead windigos. Their bodies seem to boil, giving off a disgusting smell.

“Fuck! That is bloody disgusting… I thought we are gonna nuke a mountain! Not go to Silent Hill or whatever this shit here is!”

Everyone on the deck is silent. Only the engineer closes the engine bay of the second engine with a smack and then walks towards the next one with a shaky gait.

“They are ancient creatures from Tartarus. Only alive to kill. But that’s not the only thing that makes them dangerous….”

Joseph tilts his head and the other ponies listen carefully, full of fear. Normally their Princess is a voice of hope and inspiration. Not anymore. Not on this mission.

“They are immune to various types of magic. Especially alicorn magic. They feed on it, making them stronger.” The ponies on the deck gasp and especially the unicorns look horrified. “Two thousand years ago Princess Eternal locked them away in Tartarus with a incredibly dangerous form of magic. I don’t know how they could have escaped after all those years…”

A scared mare speaks up: “S-So you can’t fight them, Princess?”

Celestia shakes her head. “No, not with spells. But I am certain that with the Elements of Harmony I can. We need to restart the engines with the remaining crystals and fly back to the base camp as fast as possible!”

Joseph groans and runs his free hand trough his hair again. They came so far.

“Celestia, we killed them! I’m pretty sure we are safe as soon as we are airborne again. And I can contact Luna and General Heartsworth with a radio. They have one on their ships as well!”

“Joseph! Our magic crystals in the engines turned to dust! We are definitely not safe. These are ancient creatures with immense power. You do not know what you are dealing with!” Celestia shivers and looks into the distance as if she could see something. It was getting quite dark, only the outline of the mountains and their white peaks glow faintly.

“There are more. I can sense them.” Says Celestia with a cold voice. “A lot more…”

The engineer closes up the third engine. “Three engines to go, Princess! We should be airbone within two minutes!”

Several windigo screams and screeches are heard in the distance. Now they could be seen as they are getting closer towards the ship. Each one uses its own alien looking way of walking, some even limping. It appears to be an entire horde.

Celestia swallows empty and walks towards the spot where the poor stallion was killed by the creature. She picks up his bloody sword from the ground and raises it into the air with her magic.

“Ponies! We need to defend our ship at all cost. Ready your weapons! This is for Equestria!”

Joseph, realizing he only has one remaining magazine, panics and hurries under deck. He throws his P90 away while running towards the cargo bay where the weapons and the nuke is stored. He quickly opens the heavy door and pushes away several boxes of P90 ammunition until he found it. One of his little projects.

He never imagined he would have to use it during this mission as it was still an experimental design. It came with some flaws, the biggest one being its weight. The bulky and heavy looking device stands proud on a wooden workbench table, a huge backpack full of ammunition sits next to it. The bulky weapon and the backpack are connected with a thick belt of ammunition.

Joseph turns around and slips his arms trough the big backpack, lifting it up. The backpack was incredibly heavy. He then grabs the grip of the weapon with one hand and puts the other under the barrel’s heat shield.

From outside, yelling and screaming ponies could be heard, but the windigos screams are several times louder as they infiltrate the deck of the ship. Their claws cloud be heard digging into the ships hull as they climb up.

“Motherfuckers!...”

Joseph picks up the gun and groans, clenching his teeth from all the weight on his body as he makes his way back towards the battlefield with slow and heavy steps. He ascends the stairs towards the deck like a juggernaut and then pulls back the bolt of his prototype machine gun.

He lets go of the bolt. It picks up a round from the belt and emits a loud hammering noise as the bolt smacks forward, locking the ammunition into place.

Joseph whispers to himself. “Prepare to taste some human technology, you inbred pieces of shit...”

On the deck all ponies were fighting against the incoming windigo horde. eerily sounding screeches and screaming ponies fill the cold air as the moon in the background climbs over the mountain range. It gently illuminates the horrid battlefield. The intense fight only started about 20 seconds ago, but already three ponies were on the deck, bleeding. Hopefully just unconscious for now…

Celestia panted as she thrust her battle sword forward once again, slicing the windigo a hole into its left eye. The creature gurgled some blood and collapsed in front of her.

She couldn’t even have one second to take a breath. Two more windigos crawled onto the deck and screeched right at her. Several arrows zip by her, they hit the windigos, but they merely flinch as the arrowheads enter their pale white bodies. The two abominations limp towards her, their screeching almost sounding like laughter now.

Celestia quickly looks to the left. Three mares with spears were surrounded by a group of windigos. Horror is written on their faces as they walk backwards towards each other, holding their bloody spears with shaky hooves to fend off the creatures.

She looks to the right. Two stallions were on top of a wounded windigo, one banging his left hindleg against the screeching creature’s skull until it cracked under the pressure while the other stabs the windigos chest with his sword repeatedly. However, another windigo limps towards them. It reaches for the unarmed stallion, lifting him up by his neck, strangling him. Luckily, he is saved as the windigos arm is sliced off by his friends sword.

The entire ship vibrates and rumbles as more of those horrendous abominations climb up the ships hull. Celestia couldn’t even hear the cries of pain of her little ponies anymore. The horrifying noises the windigos make are just too loud.

Time flies so fast. Things change so quickly. A few minutes ago, she experienced the best few minutes this year. And now this… Why...

She wonders if Joseph was safe. She noticed him running under deck after everything started. She couldn't blame him the slightest. Joseph had always helped her, over and over again. Not even asking for something in return. Besides his silly demands when everything began that is... She chuckles as a tear rolls down her cheek, the windigo now only two meters in front of her.

But at some point, it surely must be enough. Even Joseph has his limits. She would never think ill of him for running away to save himself. Especially in such a scenario. It looked quite hopeless; she hadn’t fought a windigo in over a millenia. She never imagined she would have to face these spawns of tartarus once again.

Then, Celestia opens her eyes wide. He ran under deck with determination written all over his face. Was he trying to activate the dawn device? No, he wouldn’t do that. At least not without saying goodbye, right? Celestia’s pupils shrink and shudders in fear, her entire body feeling like ice.

The alicorn shakes her head and rams her sword with anger into the incoming wendigo, impaling it on its chest. The creature screeches and uses its long arms to grab her left foreleg, claws digging into her skin. She shuts her eyes in pain and bucks her hinlegs into the windigo, freeing herself from its deadly grip. Her foreleg is bleeding badly now but she keeps going, raising her blade to finish the atrocity of a creature in front of her.

Celestia screams and whimpers in pain as something coming from her left flank sends immense pain trough her entire body. She looks towards her back and sees another one. It apparently threw one of its sharp claws at her, slicing deep into her left flank right where her cutie mark is. Blood oozes from the wound, coating the yellow sun on her rump in a dark red.

The wendigo opens its maw wide, dislodging its jaw to give its blood coated claw a taste with its black tongue. It screeches, a wicked and disturbed grin on its horrid face, clearly enjoying the taste and the alicorns visible disgust. It then starts to slash its other arm towards the princess. She quickly leaps away, the claw barely missing her neck this time.

Her landing sends more pain through her body as her left hindleg collapses. She grunts and pants as she lays on the blood coated deck, looking up towards the windigo who towers above her. It looks back into her eyes with a sinister grin on its small face, taking it's time to end the alicorn, clearly enjoying it to the fullest.

“EVERYPONY GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!!!”

“W-Wha…?”

A continuous and extremely painful sound of uncountable explosions rapidly firing after another overpowers the windigos screams. Celestia sees the abomination right above her being torn apart by an incredible amount of bullets. The windigos chest explodes in gore, coating her fur even more red as the creature collapses, clearly beyond dead.

She looks towards the middle of the deck where the stairs lead to the interior of the ship. There he was. Joseph. In his hands an over one meter long and bulky tube made from metal, on his back a huge rucksack. The rucksacks contents connected to the massive weapon in his hands. The heavy tube spits of so many round per second that her ringing ears couldn’t even distinguish the individual shots. It merely sounded like a continuous blast of high energy… An incredibly high-density energy bream of death.

Joseph girths his teeth in pain and anger as he controls his machine gun. He couldn’t see where he is aiming, but he didn’t need to since the beam of lead glows brightly in the darkness. He merely needed to adjust its path of destruction and compensate for the recoil while trying not to hit any ponies as it tears trough everything with ease.

He adjusts his machine gun slightly. The glowing beam travels towards a group of windigos which encircled a few mares. He holds the gun in this position for a few seconds, swaying it back and forth a few times. The windigos, being way taller than the ponies get hit over and over again. Their small heads getting peppered with bullets quickly. The abominations couldn’t even cry in misery as their skulls got destroyed, their lifeless bodies falling towards the deck immediately, some still twitching though.

“FUCKING DIE YOU INBRED BRAINLETS! Raaahhhhh!!!” Joseph screams some more. The strobing light coming from the weapons muzzle is illuminating his angry face brighter than the sun could.

More and more windigos collapse on the deck and soon the entire deck was cleaned from them, only a few were still climbing onto the ship, only to be completely obliterated by long and intense salves of his weapon. After shooting some more rounds into a few already dead windigo corpses, he releases the trigger. The intense sound echoes trough the valley for a few seconds.

Joseph is breathing like a maniac, his left eye twitching and his arms shaking after holding the gun for so long plus compensating for the immense recoil. The impressive weapon was smouldering hot. In the dimly lit moonlight, one could see the barrel glowing red faintly.

All ponies on the deck were cowering on the deck, looking towards the human, a mixture of awe and fear on their muzzles. Joseph walks towards the bow of the ship, avoiding the gory splatter on the deck as much as possible. His back felt considerably lighter now since he spent over half of his ammunition.

On the glade, he could see the remaining horde slowly retreating, some almost dead windigos merely using their long arms do crawl away from the battleship, their impressive screams now sounding like pitiful whimpering.

Joseph sets a foot on the bow of the ship, right next where he cuddled with the princess only minutes ago. He then aims towards the retreating windigo horde.

“YOU NASTY PIECES OF SHIT!!! COME BACK AT ONCE!!!”

He takes a deep breath and squeezes the trigger, the weapon once again emitting a deadly beam of hot lead. The strobing light from the muzzle allowed him to see the entire glade. There were more than hundred wendigos left as they limped back towards the forest, only to be annihilated by the humans machine gun.

Celestia and her ponies looked over the ships railing to witness this incredible display of power. Joseph just kept pressing the trigger, sending hundreds of bullets down range. Windigos are supposed to be one of the most powerful ancient beings. Their strength, their massiv numbers and their ravenous hatred towards magic, made them Celestia's most fearsome enemy.

And here they were, falling like flies to one human. Her friend…

Within just a few weeks, they had built such a strong bond together. Now, seeing him easily wiping out her most feared enemies.... It just sends down chills of excitement trough entire body. She didn’t even feel the deep wound on her left flank anymore as she just stared at Joseph who was still holding down the trigger. The glowing beam soaring trough the sky reflects in her big irises.

On the glade all wendigos were either dead or managed to hide in the forest about 100 meters in front of the ship. Joseph simply keeps squeezing the trigger of hit red glowing weapon, aiming to the left and right until his backpack was empty. Hopefully, he would still catch a few of those creatures as they limped into the forest.

-Click-

...

-Click- -Click- -Click-

He just stands there, panting as the glowing barrel smokes heavily. Joseph grunts in pain and drops the smouldering hot weapon. The impact on the deck bends the weapons hot barrel away as it sizzles in a pool of wendigo blood. It was beyond repair anyways…

Next to Joseph, the pony engineer closes the bay of the last engine with shaky fore- and hindlegs. The propellers on the ship slowly spin up as the engineer looks towards Joseph and then to his princess with wide eyes.

“E-Engines a-are up again! P-princess…”

The mighty Equestrian battleship is once again soaring trough the night sky. Its direction however back towards home. After that windigo incident, the whole team was mentally and physically shaken. Due to Joseph’s intervention, casualties were low. The battle resulted in two dead ponies and seven wounded, including the princess. They are being tended by the ships nurses and seem to be recovering quite well.

The ship is functionally undamaged, but the fight still left marks all over the exterior and on the deck. The hull is scratched and damaged all around, the windigo claws easily tore into it as they climbed upwards the wooden hull. The deck is still far from clean. After they swept the boiling mess of dead windigo corpses trough under the railing, they tried to clean the deck from all the blood. The brave ponies did well, but the deck is still coated with some blood and gore in some areas.

Inside the ship, Joseph is carrying several boxes of ammunition into his cabin. He stacks all his empty magazines onto his bed and begins loading them with shaky hands. While loading the ammunition one by one into the empty magazines, he replays the scene which just happened an hour ago in his head.

- That was bonkers…. crazy batshit levels of insanity. -

“Fucking Hell, was that insane…” he mutters to himself while staring at his shaking hands, filling round after round into his magazines. He keeps loading and loading as if his live and sanity depends on it. After a few minutes, a gentle knocking is heard on the wooden door of his cabin. He already knows who is behind the door.

“Come in.” Says Joseph with a tired voice.

The door slowly opens and Celestia is standing there, looking towards Joseph with a stoic expression.

“Hey, Joseph.”

…

Celestia’s left foreleg is bandaged and her left flank wrapped in some thicker bandages as well. One of the stallions in the ship’s infirmary apparently stitched her up. She looks a bit better, but still quite beaten up, bruises on her body and her eyes looking rather tired.

“Hey, Celestia…”

She slowly walks into the small cabin, limping slightly in her gait as she looks towards Joseph who is a total mess. His right hand which he uses to load his magazines is shaking heavily. His other hand is quite red, his palm showing burn marks which continue up to his finger tips.

- Maybe the weapon he used got so hot, it literally burned his hand. -

Celestia frowns and steps closer to the human, gently brushing a hoof over the wrist of his burnt hand.

“Joseph, your hand…”

He stops for a second and looks at his burned hand. It didn’t look so good indeed, in some places even blistering badly. The pain radiating from his hand is quite intense. Suddenly he finds his hand engulfed in Celestia’s golden magic. Joseph looks up towards Celestia, looking deep into her magenta eyes. She looks back into his with worry and care, her warm magic slowly but carefully healing his hand. He gives her a nod and a short smile.

“T-Thanks.”

Joseph grabs some more ammunition with his hand and continues loading, now shaking a little less. “W-We need more weapons Celestia, if those pieces of shit come back, we are fucked. We need more guns and ammunition.”

He stops for a second and looks back into her eyes, his eyelids twitching slightly.

“I mean seriously…W-What just happened out there. What the fuck was that?”

He sighs and runs his hand through his hair while Celestia looks at him with worry in her eyes.

“I’ve been here for quite a while now and everything so far was rather ‘normal’.” He uses his fingers to draw quotation marks into the air. “I thought most things here are sunshine and rainbows. But this? This feels like some horror shit. Seriously, Celestia. That’s wicked insane.”

He keeps loading the magazines, his eyes fixated onto the ammunition in his hands. Celestia carefully sits next to him onto his bed, her forelegs tucked between her hindlegs. She levitates an empty P90 magazine into the air and starts loading rounds into it. Her magic proved quite effective, as she loaded it fully in under 30 seconds.

“There are dark powers in this world, Joseph, Some even worse than those we just faced today. Most are magically sealed away in Tartarus until eternity. How the windigos escaped from there is a difficult question. I am deeply sorry that you had to see this side of our world.”

Joseph sits up from his bed, grabs a new box of ammunition and then sits back on the bed. This time, he scoots closer towards Celestia, but not too close to brush against her wounded flank.

“Tartarus… I have heard about that a few times now. What is that place?”

Celestia sighs and grabs a new magazine with her magic. “It is a barren wasteland, which inhabits the most vile and dangerous creatures known to this world. It is far away and basically unreachable without a deep understanding of ancient and even dark magic.”

“So, they are basically creatures from a literal hell… Jesus I suddenly feel like the doom slayer now, heh…”

She looks at him in confusion, but nods after a while, clearly not getting the reference. The two just keep sitting on the bed. The only noise the occasional creaking of the bed and the sound of metal against metal as they finish loading the remaining magazines.

“Your world is wonderful, but it is also batshit crazy, Princess.”

Celestia flinches slightly but nods. “I know… It took us many centuries to get us to where we are today.”

She puts a hoof on her friends’ leg, catching his attention. As he looks towards her, he notices her hurt state. “Joseph, can you please stop calling me that? I am not your princess, I am your friend…”

“Yea, sorry…” Joseph sighs and rubs his eyes. It is almost 2 am and both are certainly tired by now.

“What…. What If I called you ‘Celly’?” Joseph chuckles softly, looking into her eyes with a smirk. Celestia ruffles her wings quickly and blushes heavily, stammering a bit as she got quite embarrassed.

“I’m joking, Celestia.” He looks at her with a smile, nudging her side playfully. She just looks back shyly, nodding at him. He then wraps an arm around her back and brushes his fingers through her soft fur.

…

“Cel…”

Joseph looks at her, a bit confused. “If you want… you could call me Cel.” Celestia is speaking rather quietly now, her voice sounding tired but soothing at the same time.

“Alright.” He gives her a warm smile and keeps brushing his fingers up and down her spine right below her wings. “That’s quite a lovely nickname, Cel.”

Suddenly, Celestia wraps her forelegs around Joseph and pulls him into a soft and warm hug. He noticed a tear rolling down her cheeks as she closed her eyes in the embrace. Joseph brushed his hands over her back and neck, gently squeezing the alicorn.

“Thanks for being such an amazing friend.” She whispered, rubbing her cheek against his while holding onto his neck tightly. “It means a lot to me.” Another tear rolls down her cheeks and it gets caught by his shirt. After a while, she then loosens the embrace, putting her forelegs on the bed again while looking into his tired eyes. A tear was rolling down his cheek.

She looks at him with worry and content while wiping her big eyes dry with a wing.

“Y-You are crying… Are you alright?”

He just nods and looks away, hiding his face from her for a while. She just chose to be quiet, leaning gently into his side to show that she is here for him. After a while he looks back at her and speaks up again.

“Honestly, I don’t know where I would be If it weren’t for you.” He gently leans into her while staring at his burnt hand. It looked way better already.

“All this shit here started out with me going crazy in the Badlands. Then you came, urgently needing my help. I simply thought it was a good opportunity blow some shit up while getting as far away from that depressing hellhole of a ‘country’.” He chuckled weakly, rubbing his eyes dry with the back of his hand.

“But… you were so nice… Sure, you needed my help so of course you would be nice to me, but… But it felt so genuine and it still does…” he sniffles a bit and looks away.

Celestia just holds him close, wrapping a wing around his back to make him know she isn’t going anywhere.

“T-then you and I became kinda close, my only real friend here and…” He hiccups, his voice slowly getting shakier. “and you pretty much were and still are the only thing in this world which keeps me from going insane.

Celestia brushes a wing over Josephs cheek, drying off a tear while moving his head so his eyes met hers again.

“Hell… I once thought about ending everything…” He shakes his head in disbelief. “I-I was standing on my test site next to one of my first nuclear bombs, contemplating whether the incredibly intense blast would s-somehow transport me back to E-Earth.” He hiccups again and wipes some more tears away. “I was seriously believing this was just a crazy dream. I actually almost pressed the button in hope it would work, I was so batshit crazy y-you wouldn’t believe it.” He pauses for a while and then looks down onto the bed between his legs. “I-I just don’t want to be alone after we’ve dealt with this war, Celestia.”

Celestia just looks deep into his eyes, blinking rapidly in hope she can stop her tears from forming. “Joseph…” She pulls him closer, nuzzling his cheeks gently while placing a hoof on one of his hands.

…

He hiccups and wipes his eyes again, trying to move his head away so he wouldn’t coat her pristine fur with his salty tears. She clearly didn’t like that.

“Joseph! Look into my eyes!” She demanded with a strong and almost scolding voice.

He slowly raises his head and gazes into her big and beautiful magenta irises, almost seeing himself in the reflection.

“I want you to know that you are the most wonderful person I’ve ever met during my long life. Yes, we met due to my kingdom’s necessity. We needed your help… But did you seriously think I would just pretend to like you so you would keep helping us?”

He just stares at her, not saying anything as she looked clearly hurt. It made his hearth ache. Celestia could feel his arm trembling as he found no words to her question.

“I like you, Joseph. A lot! I really do!" Celestia nuzzles him again and then kisses his cheek softly, which elicits a soft but happy smile from the human. “I won't go anywhere after we have dealt with this mission, and I will stay at your side until the end of my days, understood?”

He nods, a happy smile on his teary face as he gently nuzzles her back. “Y-Yes understood.”

She purrs softly and rubs her teary cheek against his moist face. He hugs her close and she pulls him carefully onto her lap with her magic, wrapping her forelegs around his belly so he could rest his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a few minutes, enjoying each other’s warmth.

“Joseph?” Asks Celestia softly.

“Hmm?”

“You know, that fight out there was quite intense and gruesome but…” He lifts his head and looks towards her. “having seen you completely obliterate those vile creatures with such ease was one of the most exciting and even sexiest things I’ve witnessed during the last few decades.” She blushes a bit but then giggles after seeing her friend’s cheeks getting a bit red.

“S-Sorry. That was uncalled for.” She lowers her head slightly and looks away, wondering why she would ruin this wonderful moment.

“W-Well I’m glad you liked it. But I gotta admit, seeing you fight with that heavy battle sword was quite a wonderful sight to behold as well.” He whispers to her in a teasing way.

Now it was Joseph’s turn to chuckle and snicker as Celestia starts to blush heavily, a soft smile remaining on her muzzle.

“I-I am also happy that you liked that.”

The two so different beings keep enjoying each other’s company, cuddling each other for a few more minutes. Celestia yawns and so does Joseph.

“We should sleep, we might have a long day tomorrow in the base camp.” Says Celestia. Joseph nods and climbs off her, trying not to put too much pressure on her wounded flank. “I also managed to contact Luna and General Hearthsworth with the radio. They had no incidents but are retreating as well so we can regroup. Apparently, Luna might have spotted Gryphanus’ mountain base.”

Joseph gives her a nod. “Alright, sounds good. Then we can finally put an end to that scabby bastard of a bird.”

She smiles at him and leans towards him to give his cheek a kiss again. “Don’t hesitate to knock on my door if you need anything, alright?”

He smiles and leans his cheek against her lips, humming softly and clearly enjoying it. She then gets up from the bed and carefully walks towards the door, opening it with her magic. She steps out of the room and starts to close the door.

“H-hey…”

She stops and opens the door again, looking towards the human who is still sitting on his bed. He fiddles with his thumbs and awkwardly looks towards her. She tilts her head slightly.

“Could you… uh.. maybe stay here?” He looks towards his hands, unsure if he should keep talking. “J-Just for this night…”

Celestia’s heart skips a beat and she quickly nods. “Y-Yea of course. Honestly, I do not know If I could sleep alone after what happened today.” She walks back towards the bed, Joseph looking at her with a relieved smile.

Celestia starts to remove her golden horseshoes and regalia, putting them onto the floor next to the bed. Joseph blushes as he mentally compared her to a woman who would undress herself. He mentally slapped his brain. However, his brain had a point. Seeing her without her regalia is uncommon, as if she were naked. Which is weird because ponies are naked all the time...

He shakes his head quickly as Celestia made herself comfortable on the bed. He quickly removes his pants, keeping his boxers and shirt on. Celestia flips the light switch with her magic and waits for Joseph to join her. As he does so, she pulls the blanket over them and leans against his side, sighing happily.

“Are you alright? You heart is beating quite rapidly.”

“Y-Yes. Of course. I-It must be all the stress from this day.” She nods, happy with her answer but also happy that he couldn’t see her rosy cheeks in the darkness.

“Yea this day was pretty insane…”

Joseph sighs softly and lays one arm across her neck, scooting closer to her and enjoying her warmth. He starts to dig his fingers into her neck, massaging her in hope to calm her down. She starts to purr silently, enjoying being so close with him. She never thought she could get this far, but she was too tired and happy to question it.

She continues to enjoy the quick massage, her brain feeling all warm and fuzzy as his flexible fingers work their magic on her sore neck.

“Hmmm… T-This feels amazing.” She purrs happily while brushing a foreleg up and down his side.

“Your fur is really soft…” He continues to brush his fingers trough her short fur and then slowly ends the massage, keeping one hand under her neck while the other brushes down her body until it rests on her side.

Celestia merely lays her head next to his and pulls him closer, brushing her legs gently against his. She smiles in content as she feels his chest rising and his heart beating rather quickly as well. They stay like this for a few minutes, only listening to each other’s breathing.

“I will never leave your side…” She gently whispers with her eyes closed. He merely replies with a soft snore, pulling her even closer to him as he interlocks his legs with her hindlegs in his sleep. She blushes with a happy smile, giving him a soft kiss on his lips.

“Sweet dreams, my dear.” With that, the silently purring alicorn slowly drifts into a peaceful slumber.

Celestia felt wonderful as she woke up after just a few hours of sleep. Her being the alicorn of the day means that her internal clock wakes her up rather early so she could raise the sun and wake her little ponies up.

Normally she would wake up within a few seconds and get to the task as quickly as possible. She usually found it quite easy to get up. Not this morning though. The bed just felt too good and she hadn’t slept this good in decades.

Usually she could get a bit cold when sleeping but having Joseph snuggle into her side and one arm draped over her body made her feel quite warm and fuzzy.

-I definitely could get used to such a lovely bed warmer. -

She giggled silently and then tries to get up to raise the sun. However, she immediately heard the sleeping human grunt in his sleep, clearly not happy. She felt one of his hands brush over her back and onto her sides, gently pulling her back towards him. She tried to resist; she really did, but hearing his relaxed snore while brushing his silky smooth fingers over her belly fur quickly made her forget anything important.

Celestia just sighs softly and lets the sleeping form of joseph have his way. He needs enough sleep anyways, denying him his rest would be rather rude.

The alicorn gently purrs, rubbing the back of her head against Josephs as she looks upwards, her horn gently brushing against his forehead. Now what did she just want to do? Probably something unimportant anyways. She hasn’t felt this happy in a long time.

Normally, her mind would be occupied with various things she needed to do to bring Equestria to peace and prosperity. However, in this moment, she merely enjoyed someone’s company. It is the only thought the white alicorn is thinking right now. It is as if all stress and worries slowly drifted away.

She purrs and smiles some more as she feels his fingers brush over her sensitive belly once more. Is he awake and doing it on purpose? He surely must know that ponies love belly rubs and scritches!

Also something she wouldn’t need to know. The only thing that matters is what’s happening now. And for the alicorn it was pure bliss.

She closes her eyes once again and sighs, pulling Joseph a bit closer towards her, draping a wing back over his body. A few more minute later she joined his slumber, firmly leaning against him.

Joseph felt wonderful after these few hours of sleep. He definitely isn’t a morning person and usually rather grumpy when having to wake up early. This time however, he didn’t feel like that. He feels rather comfy, brushing his fingers through the fuzzy and incredibly warm blanket. At least that’s what he thought what he is doing before he pried his eyes open a bit.

His vision is met with a sleeping alicorn. The white and slender pony is purring and snoring peacefully. Celestia brushes her legs against his in her slumber and he is still brushing his fingers through her fur without even thinking about it. He blinked a few times, realizing that he is giving the princess of the sun a belly rub while she is sleeping and purring in content.

…

Joseph stares at her for a while. Just taking the scene in. He never thought a pony could be that cute and… even beautiful… Also that purring is quite relaxing. It made him realize how he misses his cat from back home.

Then, she jerks a bit. He didn’t realize that he stopped moving his hand on her belly.

Celestia stops snoring and lazily turns her head over towards him, slowly opening her big eyes, giving him a sleepy but happy smile. Joseph moves his hand away from her belly and answers her with a smile of his own, his cheeks getting rosier and rosier.

“Good morning, Joseph.” She says softly after hiding a yawn behind a hoof.

“M-Morning, Cel.”

The two remain silent for a while as they both realize they were still blushing. Celestia looks away and remains silent.

….

Celestia shakes her head internally, wondering why she is so timid and shy. “I am the sun princess for mother’s sake!” She thinks. “I can share a bed with a stallion, cuddle with said stallion without blushing!”

She gathers all her courage and quickly puts a hoof onto Josephs side to get his attention.

“Huh” he looks hat her with a questioning gaze.

She then pulls him into a hug, draping a wing over his side as she licks his cheek and then nuzzles him affectionately.

“J-Jesus, ah- haha ewww!” He laughs wholeheartedly and giggles as the playful alicorn smooches his cheek.”

He didn’t even try to act disgusted by her licking and simply nuzzles her back, brushing his fingers through her neck and smiling genuinely as the both look into each other eyes. They remain like this for a few seconds, just looking at each other.

Joseph is the first to break the silence as he glances to the right. “Hmm that’s weird…”

“What do you mean?”

He looks trough the small window into the darkness and then grabs his phone which was on the nightstand. He then draws a pattern on the screen, unlocking the device quickly. “It’s almost 8 AM…. and it’s pitch black outside…”

“What do you-“ She glances through the windows into the darkness. Her pupils immediately shrink. She freezes in place, remaining motionless like a statue.

“Cel? What’s wrong?” He puts a hand on her shoulders and moves her a bit, trying to wake her up from that weird trance she seems to be in.

“I FORGOT TO RAISE THE SUN!”

She screams in panic and immediately propels herself out of the bed with her wings. The pillows fly everywhere and the blanket falls onto Josephs head. Even a few feathers were dancing around in the room.

Celestia takes a few deep breaths to collect herself. She then immediately turned herself instinctively towards the horizon where the sun usually would rise and then closes her eyes. Joseph sits on the edge of the bed, observing the scene as the messy form of Celestia charges her horn, her body at utmost focus. As he peeks through the windows it gradually gets brighter and brighter. The hair on his neck stands upright.

After living for several months in this world, he knew that she controlled the sun. It was insane so he never gave it too much thought since he had his mind occupied with other things. But now… seeing it happening is incredible… beautiful… even scary.

It reminded him that she practically was a goddess. Christ, she controlled a huge fusion reactor floating in space millions of kilometres away. Thinking about how he gave her belly rubs while cuddling in bed makes his spine tingle in slight fear but also excitement.

“Bloody Hell…”

Celestia, after performing her intense and complex spell, opens her eyes and rather slowly looks towards Joseph. He was now standing next to the window, looking towards the sunrise.

“That’s insane and beautiful at the same time.”

Celestia walks next to him. “Thank you.”

After a while Celestia carefully walks towards the bed and puts on her royal regalia and golden slippers.

“So, if you wanted to sleep in you could simply just delay the sunrise a bit?” Jokes chuckles at the thought.

Celestia snorts. “I wish… Last time I forgot to rise the sun was 196 years and 34 days ago. I was late by 27 minutes and I even had to deal with the consequences 2 weeks after that incident.”

“And why is that? 27 minutes surely can’t be that bad, right?

“Many of my ponies were confused and some just plain angry. Which resulted mainly in paperwork. Lots of paperwork.”

“And today, is was not 27 minutes but probably...”

“Exactly one hour and 23 minutes.” Immediately answers Celestia.

Joseph chuckles. “So, you’re royally fucked?”

Celestia sighs and rolls her eyes. “I suppose you could say that.”

“What worries me thought is that Luna didn’t contact me. It feels like as if our magic connection isn’t working properly.”

Joseph walks next to her and gives her neck a pat. “I might have a solution to that magic connection thing once we are back in the base camp. And don’t worry, I’ll help you with the sun-paperwork.” He teases her and grins.

“Is that so? And how would you do that, mister Wecksel?” She gives him a look as if she is mocking him.

“I would pretty much just tear all letters in half and call it a day. Or tell them that they should be grateful that their princess didn’t drop the sun right onto their house.”

Celestia giggles with a hoof in front of her muzzle. She then walks next to him and rubs her cheeks against his while purring softly. “Thank you for doing this. I haven’t shared a bed with somepony in a long time and I really needed this.”

Joseph makes ‘dawww’ face and nuzzles her back. “Awww…. Don’t mention it. Actually it is me who asked you to stay here, heh.”

She nods at him, smiling softly. “Yes, you are right, but still.”

“Next time however, I will set up an alarm clock on my phone. And the alarm will be named ‘silly princess needs to move sun’. Or just hold a cake in front of your muzzle, that would do the job.” He winks at her and she giggles while swatting him a bit with her wing.

Both chuckle and laugh together. Joseph, while smiling genuinely, starts to dress himself for the day.

“So…” He hears Celestia with an unsure voice. “Does that mean there is a next time?”

Joseph pulls his head trough his shirt and looks towards Celestia who gives him a hopeful look, fiddling with her hoofs while sitting on the edge of the bed, her forelegs tucked between her hindlegs.

“Uhm… Sure.” He rubs his neck a bit and looks away slightly. “Why not, I mean it was quite relaxing, right?”

“YES!” The alicorn almost yells and excitedly trots in place. She immediately stops in mid motion and gives Joseph a sheepish smile as he looks at her with a ‘really’ expression. He then rolls his eyes with a soft smile on his lips and chuckles a bit.

“I-Uhm. I will leave you to your own devices then. We should arrive at the base camp at any minute.

“Alright.” He nods and walks towards her, giving her a quick hug only to ruffle her mane a bit. ”Have a nurse take a look on your bandages. They should be replaced.”

She nods and ruffles his hair back with a wing. “And you have some more rest. We need all the energy we can get.”

As the alicorn left, Joseph rubs his side. He then sits back on his bed, wondering how he could upgrade the ship to better handle any further wendigo ‘incidents’.

Something was sure. They needed more firepower. And more ammo. A lot of ammo. Possibly the entire stockpile at the base camp. Maybe even more. He wonders and hopes that they brought enough to the base camp.

Twilight and her friends were already on the way towards the base camp. After not receiving a reply from Celestia, Twilight sent another scroll in hope this time she would get an answer. Normally, Celestia replies within minutes. Now it was 24 hours later, and she got no answer at all. It made her nervous. Like really nervous.

She knows about the operations in the griffin empire. It was clear that they had to find Gryphanus and put an end to his regime. Only then would peace be restored, and the New Griffin Empire could flourish without a wicked and gruesome king.

The war was pretty much over. Celestia told her that this operation would be a piece of cake. They simply had to set up a base camp near the Northern Screech Mountains, find his hiding place in the mountains and put an end to his regime.

But then why did she not reply to her letters? She couldn’t even contact Princess Luna. This must be bad….

Twilight’s eye twitches. She feels a hoof on her withers and jerks a bit and quickly looks towards her side.

“Twi, don’t worry. Am sure everything’s gonna be alright.”

Applejack looks at her with worried but comforting eyes. Behind Applejack, her friends give her some hopeful smiles. Rainbow Dash flies towards Twilights other side and lands next to her.

“Yea Twilight! As if the Princesses couldn’t handle anything. They’re probably just super busy fighting this Gryphanus dude. And if we arrive on time, we can help them beat that wannabe king and his gang up!” She makes some boxing and kicking moves into the air.

Fluttershy and Pinkie giggle while Rarity rolls her eyes with a smile of her own.

“Rainbow is right. You need to worry less, darling.”

“Yes! And they even got help from a trans-dimensional alien friend! And we are finally going meet him! Ohhh thisissuperexciting!” Yells Pinkie excitedly while bouncing up and down.

“B-But then why did the sun raise late by exactly 83 minutes and 12 s-seconds?! H-How on Equestria can you explain that?” Retorts a worried and stuttering Twilight.

Everypony was quiet now and they looked at each other, trying to come up with something to ease Twilights nerves. It was indeed weird. Celestia NEVER was off schedule when it came to things concerning the sun.

“Uhm… It is indeed a bit worrying, but…uh… The sun is up now so I am pretty sure Celestia is alright. And I am sure she has a good explanation, Twilight.” Reassured Fluttershy. The soft and gentle Pegasus then gives her a friend a soft nuzzling.

Twilight nuzzles her back and then sighs. Her tensed up muscles finally relax a bit. “I guess you are right, Girls. Let’s just hope for the best.”

“Yea and a lot of opportunities to kick some flank!” Retorts Rainbow with a grin on her face.

The six friends smile at each other, nodding. They then keep looking towards the distance as their airship flies over the thick forest. After a few minutes Pinkie springs into the air and points her left foreleg towards the distance.

“Look, We’re here!” Yells Pinkie excitedly.

After flying past a nearby mountain base, the base camp could be seen in the near distance. A huge glade got turned into a massive military base. A big makeshift wall made from wood and stone is being guarded by lots of armed ponies.

Several billows of smoke are rising from the many chimneys inside the camp. It smelled and looked like an industrial complex. One could easily hear the sound of metal against metal in the foundries, presumably producing weaponry and other important gear. The sound overpowered everything in the valley as it echoes between the mountains.

Twilight and her friends immediately trot toward the railing, their happy expressions slowly fading as they got nearer towards the base camp. It was incredibly big. Lot’s ponies were bustling inside the camp, clearly in stress. It certainly didn’t look like a base camp for a ‘piece of cake’. This was serious business.

On each corner of the wall, there is a small tower with a long device made from metal. It looks quite modern and futuristic. Ponies seem to be operating said device and slowly pointing their ends towards Twilight’s airship in the distance.

Twilight gulps.

“What in Equestria are those?” Exclaims Rarity.

“They look like my party cannons!” retorts Pinky with a laughter and her carefree attitude. “But those look rather grim and dangerous though, heh.” She chuckles nervously.

Twilight steps closer towards the railing and the guardsponies operating the ‘party cannons’ quickly realize who’s standing on the deck of this airship. They immediately move their cannons away and gesture the airship to fly inside.

Twilight and her friends quickly went under deck to manually steer the ship towards a landing spot right in the middle of the base camp. It seemed like almost all remining militarily strength of the Equestrian Empire got relocated to this little presumably insignificant spot.

There are several battle and cargo ships. Even furnaces, small makeshift factories producing various things and a lot of workers. Even Twilight stopped counting as the girls look through the underdeck windows, their faces full of awe but also worry.

Applejack then quickly presses down a lever and opens the wooden bridge that connects the ship to the ground. The six friends slowly and carefully walk down the bridge towards the landing area of the base camp. Their eyes are darting all over the place before they all look towards the nearby battleship right in front of their eyes.

It is heavily damaged. The hull is torn apart, scratched all around and several railings are missing. Even the flagpole is gone, simply torn away by god knows what. The most disturbing thing however was the remaining blood and gore. Between the railing, the ship’s deck is still coated in a dark red and rusty colour.

The hull looks disgusting. In an attempt to get rid of the mess, the ponies simply swept all the wendigo gore trough under the railing. As a result, the underside of the ship looks like as if it underwent a red-rusty amateur paintjob.

“O-Oh dear…” whimpers Fluttershy while Rarity gags at the sight.

Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack and Pinkie just stare at the ship in a mixture of fear, disgust and awe. Twilight then spots a taller white pony a in the crowd walking towards Twilight and her friends. It is a plain white alicorn just like her former mentor. Her coat isn’t as radiant however, and she is wearing a white bandage around her rump, covering her cutie mark.

“P-Princess Celestia?” Stutters twilight in disbelief.

“Twilight!”

The two gallop towards each other and do that horse-neck hug thingy while nuzzling each other.

Twilight then ends the hug and looks baffled towards her former mentor. It’s a new experience for Twilight to see her in such a rough state. Normally, alicorns heal within a few hours. Even major damage can be healed in less than a week. So, seeing an alicorn in bandages isn’t a normal occurrence at all.

“Princess, you are hurt! Are you okay?”

Celestia looks at her hindleg and nods. “Yes, I got hurt a bit, but I’m fine. Don’t worry, Twilight.” She gives her a warm motherly smile at which Twilight relaxes.

The rest of Twilights gang walk up towards them and greet their Princess with a quick bow. They have hundreds of questions and concerns but let the two have their moment.

“What are you doing here my dear Twilight? I thought you would stay at Canterlot castle and study Yantos findings.”

Twilight takes a step back and looks at her in disbelief “Yea of course. I did! And I wrote you several letters about that! Did you not receive them?”

Celestia’s facial expression turn a bit more worried one. “I didn’t. It seems like even dragon magic is affected then…”

“Even dragon magic? What do you mean with that?” Asks Twilight, her face slowly going a bit pale.

“Yea, something is going on here, right Princess?” States an impatient Rainbow. Her friends look worried too and nod as well.

“Let’s go inside our ship to discuss this. Princess Luna and our new Director of Defences, Joseph Wecksel, are already inside and are discussing."

“Joseph is your new Director of Defences?” Asks Twilight surprised.

“WaitWaitWait! We have an alien with alien technology as our director of defences? Awww Yeaa!” Dash grins excitedly and Pinkie giggles, also supped excited.

“Indeed. If it weren’t for his inventions and actions, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to you. I would probably be fighting for our lives on the front line against Gryphanus’ armies.”

Rainbow gulps and slowly lands on the ground, her excitement deflating a little “Heh. r-right…”

Celestia notices the scared state Twilight and her friends are in. “That was uncalled for, sorry girls. And Rainbow Dash is right, his alien technology is certainly exciting. We can and must learn a lot from him.”

The alicorn gives the blue pegasus a friendly smile at which Rainbow relaxes and gives her a friendly nod in return.

“Alright, let’s go inside.”

Celestia leads the pack and walks towards her airship. All ponies have wide eyes as she walks towards the one which is heavily damaged and even in some spots coated in blood and gore. It reeks and certainly needs an intensive wash.

“T-That’s your airship, Princess? What in tarnation happened to it?” Asks Applejack, clearly surprised.

“Let’s talk about it inside. We will tell you everything and then discuss how we proceed from there.”

The six ponies agree and walk up the wooden bridge into the ship. Pinkie wanted to hold onto the railing but quickly took her hoof away as she realized that even those railings are coated with still sticky and red residue.

In the ships dining room, Joseph and Luna are sitting next to each other. However, between them is an empty chair. It’s Celestia’s chair. Just a few moments ago she left to find Azure. Something about managing the resupplies or whatever.

It has been rather quiet in the room after Celestia left. The only sound is the noise all the workers and machines make outside the battleship. Luna reluctantly looks towards Joseph, he’s playing around with his rectangular glass device. He looks back at her with a questioning gaze, but Luna quickly averts her eyes. She looks back at her forehoof’s which rest on the wooden table.

“We heard what happened on sisters ship last night…”

“Yea… That was pretty fucked up.”

Another short pause. Another awkward look.

“We… I wanted to thank thee for helping us.” Joseph puts his phone down and looks towards the blue alicorn. She looks to be quite a bit distressed.

“Last time we had to fight wendigos… it didn’t end well. They nearly killed us but Celestia managed to save us. It was one of the worst fights we have ever experienced.”

Joseph nods slowly.

“It was pretty bad last night as well… But don’t mention it, it was nothing. I had to do it.”

“N-Nothing!? Thou saved mine sister!” She is almost shouting now, her blue eyes wide open.

“She also saved mine. It’s only fair.” Joseph shrugs and rubs his burnt fingers against the wooden table.

“Still… She means everything to us.” She fiddles around a bit with her forehoofs, then stands up and walks towards Joseph. “We thank thee, Joseph.”

Joseph looks at her, slightly puzzles. The usually angry and grumpy moon horse is thanking him? Well, he actually did save Celestia, but still. The only thing he would usually get in Luna’s presence is either a glare, some yelling and finally a headache.

Luna reluctantly leans forward, trying to initiate a hug with the tall human, not sure how to do it. She is clearly not as experienced with physical affection as most ponies these days.

Joseph just slowly starts to chuckle as the reluctant princess manages to wrap her forehoofs around his neck, giving him an awkward hug. He pats her back softly and wraps his arms around her as well.

-Sister is indeed right. His hands do feel nice…-

The door of the dining room opens and Celestia and the girls stand there. Luna quickly shoves Joseph away and stutters a bit. “Y-es Joseph, We uhh… indeed require more of thine weapons. We.. uhm.. will let our workers produce more, yes.” Luna chuckles awkwardly and Jospeph looks at her a bit perplexed. He then simply plays along as he realizes Celestia just stumbled into the moment.

Luna then looks towards her sister as she walks in with a sly smile on her lips, the elements following her into the room.

“Oh, hello dear sister. Didn’t see you there.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Celestia gives Joseph a happy smile and he smiles back at her, rolling his eyes a bit.

…

Twilight and her friends then greet Joseph and Princess Luna. They all sit at the table and start mostly asking the human lots of questions. Where he’s coming from, what his world is like, what he did back home and other various things.

“So, I heard you can fly?” Asks Rainbow excitedly.

“Nope… Humans can’t fly. I’m actually a bit afraid of heights.” Rainbow deflates at that.

"A bit? Thats an understantement", giggles Celestia. Joseph turns towards her and glares daggers towards her. She just keeps looking at him with a sly grin and Joseph just sighs silently while rolling his eyes.

“Anyways... we have machines which allow us to fly!” All the ponies listen, even Luna listens, clearly interested. “They allow us to fly across our planet within a day. Some are so fast that you could travel from Ponyville to Canterlot in under one minute.”

“Whaat? That is awesome! You NEED to build one of those things!”

Pinkie, Twilight and Luna nod excitedly. Such a machine could definitely revolutionize transporting, they think.

“Maybe you’re right, Rainbow. But first we need to deal with this shit here.”

Twilight takes the opportunity and takes the attention of the Princesses. “So, what is actually going on here? We all thought this would be a quick mission and easy to execute. But then you didn’t reply to my letters. And this clearly does not look like a piece of cake like you said.”

Her friends nod and Celestia sighs.” We expected it to be a piece of cake… But then some things happened. We were trying to locate Gryphanus mountain base. Everything went well until we got attacked by Wendigos. An entire horde of them just appeared out of nowhere. We were lucky to get out alive, she looks back towards her flank which is still covered in thick bandages.

Twilight looks to be in shock. She quickly opens her saddleback and goes through a few scrolls.

“Ahm sorry Princess, but what in tarnation are those wendigos? Ah’ve never heard something like that.” Asks Applejack and all her friends except Twilight who was busy going through her stuff nod.

“They are ancient creatures who oppose magic and everything related to it. They are practically immune to magic. No one knows of their origin, Luna and I managed to banish them to Tartarus before Equestria was founded. But it seems like they somehow found a way out…”

Twilight then throws a clipboard with several pages with ancient writing on it onto the table.

“Maybe I know who might be responsible for their release.”

Celestia grabs the clipboard with her magic and goes through the papers while Twilight explains her findings. Her facial expression slowly gets more stoic the longer she goes trough the pages.

“I had an interview with Yanto just two days ago where he described to me in detail what he saw during his imprisonment at Gryphanus hiding place. He managed to sketch a few drawings of what he saw, and the most reoccurring theme were gems. After researching in the forbidden archives, I found out that those gems are ‘thestral runes’.”

Now even Luna looks quite disturbed. She just stares into the distance just like her sister who already put the clipboard back down.

“T-that can’t be.” Says Celestia with a rather quiet voice.

“What? What is going on? Whats so important about some gems!?” Exclaims Joseph as he looks back and forth between Celestia and Luna.

“Luna sighs and stands up, walking towards a window and observing the workers outside. “It seems like the Wendigos are somehow connected to Gryphanus.”

“Are you implying this piece of shit bird somehow controls these abominations?!”

Luna nods and Celestia looks towards Joseph with an unsure expression.

"So this former Griffon King controls some anti-magic monsters? No big deal we can just fight them without magic, right AJ?”

“Yup.” AJ nods with a grin and hoofbumps her friend, excited that magic wouldn’t be the solution for once.

Celestia stands up and addresses the whole group.

“This is serious. Only highly trained guards ponies can even dream about striking down such a creature. Wendigos are the most relentless beings you can imagine. Even if you strike them down they keep crawling towards you with the sole intent of killing you as slowly as possible.”

The ponies look a bit horrified now and even Rainbow and AJ don’t look as excited anymore.

“There might be thousands of them. We need a plan, and enough time to prepare ourselves.”

Twilight looks the most worried: “But Princess! If we can’t fight them with magic, then how can we even win?”

Celestia tries to hide a proud smile as she gestures towards Joseph who is now simply looking trough one of the small windows, observing the new cannons on the basecamp walls. He turns around and looks towards all the different equines in the room, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

“Ponies, let’s go outside! I will show you how we can destroy this feathery motherfucker without a single bit of magic.”

After making it on top of the basecamp walls, Joseph leads the group towards a bigger platform with the big cannon on top of it. It is about at tall as Celestia herself and the thick metal tube is over 2 meters long as it points towards the sky. He pats the base of the weapon with a satisfied smile on his face. The workers clearly did a incredibly quick and amazing job.

“Celestia, it is enormous what your ponies can achieve with just a bit of magic.” He shakes his head in disbelief. It only took them a few days to manufacture this beast. Back home it would take months to simply create the necessary machinery to produce such a weapon. In this world, all the high precision machinery weren’t necessary due to proficient magic users simply forging the materials into place how they wanted.

Celestia simply nods happily and even Twilight seems to look a bit proud at the human’s statement.

“This my dear ponies is my new fully automatic 20mm AA gun.” He pulls back the bolt of the heavy weapon and it slams forward with immense force. Fluttershy jerks back a bit at the sudden noise. They look at it with interest, especially Twilight looking quite intrugied.

“Wohaa its so shiny!” says pinkie while examining the device. “Can you shoot party poppers with it?

“Nope, back home it was used to take out enemy aircrafts. A few round of those will demolish a airship pretty easily.” He gestures towards the big pile of ammunition next to the gun.

Luna then steps forward looking at the device with interest. “So, would thou say this metal tube is able to fend off an adult dragon?”

“You could test fire it and determine for yourself if it’s sufficient for such a threat...”

Joseph smirks at Luna. “Unless you are scared, Princess.”

Celestia is already rolling her eyes and stepping away from the gun, gesturing the other ponies to do the same.

“We would never be scared of a metal tube. You are funny, human.”

Joseph chuckles and steps to the side, attaching the ammunition belt onto the weapon system. He then takes the nearby ear protection headband for the operator and hands it to Luna who is already standing in front of the weapon.

She just looks at him with a perplexed look.

“Put it on. This thing is loud.”

She just laughs. “Nay, we use the royal canterlot voice. We definitely don’t need this… thing.”

Joseph shrugs. “If you say so.”

“Alright, just aim the barrel towards the trees and press this lever down if you want to fire it. If you release the lever, it stops firing. Easy, right?”

“Indeed.” Luna sticks her tongue out and aims the barrel towards a nearby tree.

“Girls, cover your ears!” Shouts Joseph and then puts the ear protection on.

Celestia, Twilight and Rarity cover their ears with some magic, Rainbow and Fluttershy cover theirs while flying and Pinkie pulls out some more ‘earpro’ out of nowhere for herself and Applejack.

“Fire!” Yells Joseph.

Luna pulls the lever down and immediately releases it as her ears start ringing. The explosive bullet instantly tears into the tree and explodes the trunk from inside. Splinters fly everywhere and the jaws of everypony drops as they look at the instant destruction.

“Is that everything you’ve got, Moon horse?” He laughs and grins, clearly already satisfied with the weapons performance.

Luna growls at Joseph and rubs her sore ears, quickly adding her own ear protection spell on her fluffy ears. She then pulls the lever down once again, growling and screaming as she sprays bullet after bullet into the forest. The blast of every round pushes Luna back and forth as she tries to compensate for the immense recoil with her forelegs.

-clonk-

With that, the weapon is empty. Luna is almost panting as she looks towards the destroyed forest with pleasure written all over her face. Her forelegs are shaking as she is still gripping onto the weapon in full excitement. All ponies look at the forest with different emotions. Fluttershy and Rarity are mostly horrified, Twilight heavily intrigued and impressed, noting down some things on a notepad she summoned out of nowhere. Pinkie, Applejack and especially Dash gawk at the scene in awe. The later not able to fold her wings back in.

Joseph looks at Luna with a grin on his face, clearly satisfied with her reaction.

“I assume you like it, huh?”

The moon princess nods, a faint blush on her cheeks as she notices her wings not folding back properly. Celestia snickers behind a hoof and rarity faints with her cheeks red as well.

Joseph laughs excitedly and smacks his knee in delight. “Wonderful! So, who else wants to have go?”

It barely took 20 milliseconds for Rainbow Dash to appear in front of the weapon, shoving Luna away who just stumbles back, still a bit overwhelmed by the intense power of this impressive weapon.

The wind gently blows through the Northern Screech Mountains this late afternoon. The small rivers between the trees flow in a gentle pace, producing a relaxing sound which is accompanied by some birds chirping peacefully along.

It is nature at its best. Untouched by civilization. Calm, friendly and pristine…

Some birds and other woodland critters chitchat in their native tongue to each other, only to be interrupted by a huge shadow that darkens the sun immediately. They all hop into the thicker woodland, hiding from the potential predator.

Above the valley, three highly armed Equestrian airships soar deeper into the North. The three airships are connected to each other with bridges, now functioning together as one big vessel. These ships however, are not your ordinary Equestrian battleships.

Even from afar, one could make out one distinct difference. In front of each ship was a small podium with a big metal construction from which a two meter long metal tube emerged. On the left ship, Applejack and Pinkie stand next to the ships new weapon-system. Applejack just stares into the distance while her friend examines the ‘party cannon’ with great interest.

“Ohmygosh Applejack! I can’t believe we got tasked with operating this amazing super duper cool cannon! Can you believe it?!”

Applejacks spits out a hay straw over the ships railing and turns towards her friend.

“Well, ma friend, you’re a darn professional when it comes to cannons. And Ah’m strong enough to properly load this puppy. These ammunition boxes are quite heavy.” She flexes her muscles with pride.

“You’re super-duper right, AJ!”

They both hoof bump and look towards the ship on their right. Joseph is standing in front of his cannon as well, Celestia standing next to him as he shows her the necessary steps to properly arm it.

“The first thing you gotta do is pulling this bolt back. It is quite heavy, so it needs some force.”

“This one, right?” Asks Celestia while pointing to the bolt.

“Exactly.”

Celestia then pulls it back with her magic without any real effort.

“Good, now you need to grab the belt and insert it into this chamber, don’t worry if some ammunition hangs out on the other side.”

“Alright…” Celestia grabs the belt with her magic and fiddles the end into the open chamber.

“Like this?”

Joseph nods. “Yes, that’s perfect. Now pull the bolt back again a tiny bit and just release it, that’s it.”

She does so, the bolt immediately rushes forward and loads the round into the chamber. Celestia flinches a bit at the loud and powerful sound but then smiles at Joseph next to her.

“That somehow really does sound satisfying.”

Joseph nods and grins at her and nods. “You’re pretty cool for an ancient princess, Cel.”

Celestia snorts and rolls her eyes a bit while trying to hide a smile, her cheeks getting a bit rosy.

Joseph laughs at that and wraps his arm around the alicorns neck, pulling her into his side and snuggling her affectionately. Celestia giggles and blushes even more as she realized several ponies including her friends and sister are looking at her and Joseph.

- G-Grow up Celestia! You’re an adult, for mother’s sake! –

“You know… I can’t wait for this shit to be over. I feel like we could need a big vacation after we blow Gryphanus’ place up. Maybe explore the planet a bit with one of these airships.”

Joseph sighs with a smile and looks towards the distance while leaning into Celestia’s side. She leans back into him, her mane brushing over his neck and shoulder.

“I know you probably have seen each corner of this planet several times, so I guess it wouldn’t be that interesting for you…”

She just wits a bit and brushes her wing over his back, enjoying his soft humming as he enjoys it.

“You are right, I have.”

The two don’t say anything for a while and just stare into the distance. A big, rocky, and pointy mountain emerges slowly as the ship navigates trough the valley. Smoke rises from the mountain. If one had a binocular, they could make out several industrial-like chimneys coming from inside the mountain.

“But, I would be thrilled to join you and show you as much as possible of our beloved planet.”

Joseph smiles, and she smiles back at him, quickly removing a bit of her pink mane from her eyes with a foreleg.

Joseph looks to his side and back to her. “So It’s a date then?”

Celestia’s pupils shrink a bit and she ruffles her wings in excitement, clearly not expecting this. Is he teasing her again?

“A d-date? Like… a date-date?” She stutters a bit and tilts he head, wondering if he’s serious but clearly hoping he is as she firmly had locked her eyes on his.

Joseph looks back into her big eyes a while and nods slowly. “Yea… at least that was my plan. But we can also simply-

Celestia immediately presses a feather against his lips to shut him up and then hugs Joseph tight.

“Y-YESYES!”

“Ackk!” He gasps for air but hugs her back and relaxes visibly as she releases him from her strong forelegs.

The two just stand there, Celestia smiling at him sheepishly with red cheeks, her belly feeling all funny and weird…

“Good, then it’s settled. “He gives her cheek a kiss and gives her left ear some scritches. She hums softly and leans into his touch but then scoots away slowly.

“Huh?”

Celestia’s eyes just gestures with her eyes towards the ship on the right and left. Luna, Twilight and her friends and other ponies are staring and even gawking at the two. All having different emotions on their faces.

Luna, Fluttershy, Rarity looks towards them with a smile on their faces while Twilight and the others just look puzzled. Some of the workers simply try to avoid looking at them, too weird is their rulers schoolgirl like behaviour.

“Sorry, heh.” Whispers Joseph as he removes his arm from her neck.

“It’s fine.” She looks back towards the weapon and mentally goes trough the steps to arm it again.

--------

“ENEMIES AHEAD!” Screams a stallion from the deck as he looks trough some binoculars. “I REPEAT EMENIES AHEAD. I CAN SEE SIX GRIFFON BATTLESHIPS APPROACHING!”

All ponies start to scramble to their respective post. Luna and Twilight one the right cannon, Pinkie and AJ on the left and Celestia with Joseph on the middle one. Fluttershy and Rarity are busy fuelling up the engines with more crystals.

The sound of the heavy cannons being loaded is heard from the left and right as Pinkie and Luna pull back the charging handle.

“Oh dear, they are already quite near and really fast!”

Celestia fiddles around with he ammunitions belt and tries to load the weapon with somewhat shaky forelegs.

“Relax, Celestia. This time, everything’s gonna be alright, trust me.”

He puts his hand on her right foreleg and helps her load the weapon. After she inserted the ammunition the bolt smacks back into the gun.

Joseph steps away and lets his alicorn friend aim the barrel towards the six incoming airships. Soon they would be in striking range of their steel ball cannons.

“ON MY MARK!”

Pinkie aims the barrel with excitement towards the horizon and so does Luna, with her tongue sticking out from the side as she aims with one eye closed.

The stallion with the binoculars yells again: “THEY ARE LOADING THEIR WEAPONS!”

“I’m ready.” Says Celestia calmly as she grips the trigger-lever with her magic.

Joseph waits a few seconds and then takes a deep breath, enjoying the moment as he looks towards the six airships which are coming closer and closer. All ponies on the deck stopped their doings and just look towards their rulers and the elements operating these new alien superweapons. Some with pride and excitement, some still with worry and concern written on their muzzles. Their actions wouldn’t matter anyways right now, they are mere bystanders at the moment.

Two cannon balls zip by, missing the still connected ships by several meters.

“FIRE!!!”

The ponies on the deck just gawk in awe as first one, then another and then all three cannons start shooting towards the incoming airships. Luna grins and sways the weapons back and forth, trying to hit all ships as often as possible. Pinkie pretty much just sprays a few rounds into the first, and instantly locks onto the next ship like an aimbot while Celestia simply holds the barrel into the general direction of the ships. Aiming wouldn’t matter anyways…

All ponies in the background cheer and yell in excitement as they see their rulers demolish the airships in an instant. The explosive bullets tear trough the ships hull as if it were butter and explodes them from the inside. Pinkie and Celestia already stopped shooting while Luna just keeps spraying towards the falling ships, fuelled by the cheering and roaring of her subjects in the background. Some of the griffons who survived the mayhem dive from the ships and fly back towards the mountain in the background.

Eventually Luna stops shooting as well. The only sound heard is the echoing of the shots and explosions while the ponies stomp their hooves against the deck, cheering and praising the human.

“Wonderful! Incredible!”

“Marvelous!”

“What a show!”

“All hail to Joseph Wecksel!”

“Hoorayy!”

Now all ponies assembled themselves onto the main ship in the middle. The main six and even Luna and Celestia are now stomping their hooves, joining in the applause as Joseph in the middle smiles happily, but also blushing and feeling a bit uncomfortable at the sudden praise and applause.

“Th-Thanks! Heh…”

He blushes some more but keeps smiling happily, looking over all the excited and happy ponies, especially Luna and Celestia look the happiest. Never has he seen both, especially Luna in such a wonderful state. It almost brought him to tears. After a while, the cheering calmed down and in the background the stallion with the binoculars shouted the confirmation of all airships being destroyed with an excited smile on his face.

“You are all too nice. Thank you so much!” He gives the ponies a quick bow and then looks towards Celestia who walks towards him. She stops in front of him, gives him a quick hug and then looks back towards the crows which quickly quietens down.

“My dear ponies,

It certainly is time that I, Princess Celestia, and all residents of Equestria have to thank our new Director of Defences. Without his ingenuity and craftsmanship, Equestria would be dark place now. He got transported into our world, stripped of all his belonging, friends and families…

Even in his darkest and most dreary times he chose to help us ponies. A race he had never interacted with who live in an entirely different world to his. Over and over he showed us his goodwill and companionship, helping us to win the most senseless and relentless war of this millennia.

She pauses a bit.

“All while not asking for anything in return, except for some cake.” She chuckles a bit and even some in the crowd do, mostly Pinkie.

“Even when his castle got destroyed by the griffons, he kept staying by our side. I could offer him all the wealth in the world, and he would deserve it. But that’s not how we should repay him. Instead we should give him the same loyalty and friendship like he gave to us!

For our human, Joseph! Let’s properly welcome him to out community as a true and honoured citizen of Equestria. For Love and Friendship, even across galaxies!”

Now Luna joins Joseph on his other side and nuzzles his side. She then also looks towards the crows and speaks with her strong and firm voice.

“For Love and Friendship, even across galaxies!”

She then stomps her hooves onto the wooden deck again and all ponies join in, cheering and applauding, some even bowing in respect.

Joseph leans against Celestia and smiles happily as he looks towards all those ponies cheering for him, being genuinely thankful and accepting of him. As if he belonged to this strange world. A tear rolls down his left cheek and he starts clapping as well, enjoying the moment to the fullest.

Suddenly however, the crowd stopped cheering. They all and look with horror next to Joseph. He turns around and sees Celestia and Luna writhing in pain. Their horns seem to be crackling with a dark misty substance.

Joseph takes a step back in horror at the sudden turn in events. Even Twilight sems to be affected as well. The crowd gasps and shouts for medics as they all want to help the princesses but have no idea what’s going on.

“It hurt’s doesn’t it Princesses? GNIHAHAHAHA! HEHIHEHE!”

A wicked and sinister laugh fills the surrounding area. Joseph gets a quick chill down his spine and quickly turns around to address the maniac. There he stands. Out of nowhere. The reason all this had to develop in such a ridiculous-crazy thing. The reason he got kidnapped. The reason his castle got destroyed. The reason why many good creatures in this world had to and still are suffering.

“Gryphanus… Why the fuck are you not dead, you little piece of shit….”

Gryphanus limps towards Joseph with a smug smile on his face. His limbs and wings are still crippled but seem to have healed so well that he can use them again.

“You really think you can defeat me and my new armies? What a pathetic monkey you are, pah!”

Joseph just snorts and shakes his head in disbelief as this is going to be a quick and easy job. He grabs the P90 on his back and loads a round into the chamber, aiming for the insane dictator, quickly puling the trigger and sending a bullet towards his head.

“Heh, that’s pathetic.” Gryphanus snorts and yawns as he looks towards Joseph.

-What? Did I miss?-

Joseph pulls the trigger again and sends several salves towards Gryphanus, this time not missing. However, the bullets just soar trough his body, leaving him unaffected. They just continue forward, tearing into the wooden deck behind him.

“J-Jesus fucking Christ!”

Joseph jerks back, panicking. Some archers in the crowd shoot arrows at him with the same effect. Gryphanus emits another wicked and sinister laugh, clearly enjoying this to the fullest as the crowd walks back in fear as well. Only the alicorns stay in place, sitting on the floor in pain as the weird black force on their horns affect them them.

“Do you really think I’m that stupid to actually be here?”

Joseph just keeps aiming at him, arms shaking. Never, ever had a bullet not solved a problem. Now, they seem to be without effect. It makes him extremely nervous and he suddenly feels really small next to this insane griffon. Joseph stays silent.

“No, don’t worry. I am still in my mountain, enjoying a nice massage while I just decided to step by and say hello to my little infiltrators.”

Gryphanus looks towards the princesses on the floor and smiles at the sight as they writhe in pain. He starts slowly walking towards them with a wicked grin on his beak.

“Oh, they look so adorable, don’t you think, monkey?” He looks towards Celestia on the floor and starts limping towards her.

Joseph shoots some more bullets towards Gryphanus, only damaging the ships deck as they soar trough his apparition.

“Hey! Get the fuck away from her you piece of SHIT!!!” Joseph grits his teeth and growls in anger as Gryphanus stops in front of Celestia.

From behind him, Joseph hears the silent and weak voice of Twilight as she is still in pain. “T-The m-magic crystals. In… In the engines…” Twilight groans in pain again as the dark substance on her horn gets worse.

“Gryphanus glares daggers at the young alicorn. “Silence, you purple freak!” He then sighs and looks back towards Celestia on the floor, lowering himself to her level.

Joseph immediately looks towards one of the six engines and sprints towards one. Opening the engine up with shaky arms and grabbing a few magic crystals out of the engine. The engine stops spinning immediately and the ponies on the deck almost fall from the sudden change in speed. Only Gryphanus seems to be unaffected.

“Oh Celestia…” Gryphanus leans a bit foreward and licks his beak as he looks over her body with lust. “I can’t wait to imprison all your pathetic subjects and make you and your sister my personal slaves…. We are gonna have sooo much fun together, hehe.”

Celestia grunts in pain and scoots away from him in disgust. “N-Never ever w… will that h-appen.”

Gryphanus emits another happy and wicked sounding laugh. Seeing the all mighty solar Princess in such a state sends joy into his body and makes his spine tingle in excitement he had never felt before.

Gryphanus gets closer again, leaning down to hear ear to almost whisper. “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure… I have some things you and your little monkey friend are gonna enjoy fighting against… until he is crushed that is, hehe.”

Celestia just stares towards Gryphanus whose grin just grows wider and wider. Behind him she could make out an entire fleet of airships coming closer. On the ships were no griffons but wendigos hundreds of them, some even with wings. The pain in Celestias’ body now slowly dies out as worry and fear overtake her emotions.

From behind she could see Joseph run towards Gryphanus, carrying a few magic crystals in his right hand. He leans his arm back and starts throwing them towards the wicked dictator.

“DIE YOU FUCKING CUNT!”

The crystals fly towards the Gryphanus apparition and as soon as the connect, they vanish and extinguish the image of him as well. With that, the Princesses gasp for air, the black substance surrounding their horns now gone as well.

Joseph sprints towards Celestia and pulls her into a tight hug. He brushes his fingers over her neck. “Are you alright, Tia?” He nuzzles her neck and then looks with worry into her big eyes, waiting for her too look back into his.

She simply nods, clearly a bit distraught by what just happened. “Y-yes… but look” She gestures towards the horizon and shudders a bit. Joseph brushes his fingers over her cheek, holding her closer.

“Hey, I’m here. And don’t worry, this time we are properly equipped.”

She nods and gives him a weak smile, slowly standing up. So does Luna and Twilight. Luna grunts, still a bit in pain but walks angrily in front of Joseph and Celestia, looking towards the frightened crowd.

“PONIES!” She yells in her Canterlot voice.

“This!... This means war! We shalt destroy this foul griffon and his armies. Get under deck and equip yourselves with our new weapons! Make them suffer! Make him suffer! You must not show any mercy, is that understood?!”

The crowd cheers and yells in a war like chant as they disperse. Most running under deck to test out their new pony modified P90 weapons as soon as possible. Luna and Dash sprint to their cannon and attach a new box magazine onto it and so do Applejack and Pinkie.

Joseph then turns around to walk towards his cannon and sees Celestia already loading it, albeit having some difficulties as it jams. She must be quite in stress after what happened these last days. Joseph puts a hand on her neck and helps her clear the jam.

“I-I never felt so helpless in my entire life…”

She looks towards the distant airship fleet. This time it wasn’t merely just six, but at least fourty. Maybe even more.

“It’s okay. So did I…” He feels her leaning into his side and he leans back into her.

“But we are a team and together we will delete this motherfucker and his mountain with a single button press!”

She giggles and snorts. “I hope you are right…”

“I am”

He looks towards the cannon on which Celestia is resting one of her forelegs. Joseph puts his hand on her lower foreleg and grasps her hoof gently.

She looks at him and he looks back into her eyes, both inching closer to each other. She blinks a bit and looses herself in his eyes as his hair sways in the cold breeze. He looks tired. Marked from his new life in this to him strange world.

But somehow he seems happy… He wears small smile on his lips, apparently still seeing something good in all this. Celestia wonders why… Only bad things happened to him in this world.

She feels his other hand resting on the base of her neck, gently brushing her coat. Then she closes her eyes for second and so does he as they inch even closer, slowly pressing their lips and muzzle against each other for a soft kiss while the incoming fleet in the horizon grows bigger and bigger.

Over the last two minutes the valley turned into one of the most relentless battlefields Equestria has ever seen. Screams and rapid gunshots fill the valley as the ponies on deck shoot towards the flying wendigo horde with their new and modified weapons. Several pistols and P90’s have been adjusted so that an equine could safely use it. Magic users and pegasi had no issues there. Only earth ponies mostly sticked with a sword. However, some brave earth ponies tried balancing themselves on their hindlegs while shooting towards the incoming horde.

The screeches produced by those creatures from Tartarus send chills down everyone’s spine on the deck. Many wendigos fall from the sky, but they are replaced by more and more. Several ponies yell and scream as they run down under deck to carry up more ammunition, hoping there is enough.

“Reload, AJ! We need to reload!” Screams pinkie as she obliterates an incoming wendigo with a precise shot towards its head. The flying abomination immediately falls towards the ground after its head exploded. The dead wendigo’s forward momentum made the creature crash against the ship’s hull.

The deck rumbles at the impact and the bloody wendigo slowly slides down the hull, falling towards the river below where many other dead wendigos lay. They slowly dye the water in a crimson color.

With shaky hooves, Applejack reloads the massive weapon as more wendigos fly towards them, the screeching horde not wanting to end.

Pinkie gulps in fear as she looks towards the other two cannons, hoping they would support her and Applejack. However, Luna and Rainbow Dash who are on the right ship seem to be busy fending off several wendigos as well. The Princess is in visible distress as she tries not to hit Rainbow Dash who is flying around the wendigos to confuse them.

The two wendigos flying towards Pinkie and Applejack explode in a fountain of gore. Princess Celestia aimed the weapon of her barrel towards the left side of the ship where Pinkie and AJ are stationed. They both exhale in relief and thank their princess on the ship next to theirs with a nod.

“Hell Yea!” Screams Joseph in triumph, observing the ponies on the ship with a sly smile on his lips. “Keep going! Show those motherfuckers how bad ass you ponies really are!” He puts a hand on Celestia’s back, gently patting her to letting her know that he is there and proud.

Joseph grins as Luna and Celestia increase their rate of fire, spamming shot after shot towards the flying wendigo horde. After a while, the ponies realize their pistols and submachine guns are not doing much. Most throw their weapons away and focus on getting more ammunition towards the big cannons in front of each ship. The abominations fall like flies and soon most wendigos were eradicated, only leaving about forty airships in the distance. They all shoot their cannons. Soon hundreds of flying steel balls darken the evening sky, making Joseph’s heart skip a beat.

Celestia immediately let’s go of the weapon and charges her horn, the weapons glowing barrel swaying down gently while thick smoke exits the end of the now scorched barrel.

“Luna! Twilight!” She screams towards her sister and former student in her Canterlot voice. The two look towards the solar princess and nod, charging their horns as well. Everyone on the deck slows to a halt and looks towards the sky and incoming projectiles. They all seem to be aimed perfectly.

“NOW!”

All three alicorns release their charged magic, each one shooting some sort of magic beam into the sky. The beams meet about 20 meters in the air and merge, creating a massive force field above the three airships. The whistling projectiles start impacting the shield. Each impact making the alicorns flinch a bit as they hammer against the magic shield like an incredible hailstorm, cracking it more and more.

Joseph’s spine tingles and he gets goose bumps all over his body. He looks towards the princesses who fend off the not ending hailstorm of cannon balls. Luna and Celestia grith their teeth while Twilight sways, almost fainting.

-It seems like Yanto was right, there must be an anomaly inside this mountain.- Thinks twilight, trying to overcome the pain inside her horn.

Twilight gasps in pain, falling to her haunches in exhaustion as more and more projectiles impact the shield. Luna and Celestia writhe in pain as well, sweating and clenching their teeth together as they need to channel the complex force field without the young alicorn.

The ponies next to Joseph gawk with him, staring towards the shield as it cracks in some spots. The last few cannon balls tear trough the cracked shield and tear holes into the hull. Two ponies scream in agony as they got hit by several sharp wood splinters. Medics immediately run towards the hurt ponies and Joseph runs towards Celestia who sits on her haunches next to the AA-gun, panting in exhaustion. Celestia looks with worry towards Luna and Twilight who are in a similar state.

The stallion with the binocular looks down towards the enemy airships. “They are already loading their weapons! We have about 20 seconds!”

Joseph sprints next to Celestia and grabs the weapon’s handles, aiming the still smouldering barrel towards the horizon. He starts shooting full auto towards the battleships in the distance, trying to keep the barrel level. With anger written all over his face he destroys several battleships with ease, but more and more appear behind them as they fall towards the forest below.

The ponies on the deck cheer for Joseph, some stare at him with slight fear as he keeps pumping round after round into the enemy forces with narrowed eyes. He quickly looks back towards the barrel of his weapons as he notices the accuracy of the gun getting worse and worse.

“The hell?...” he swears in confusion.

The barrel is red hot and smokes heavily. Just now he realized how hot the metal handle is. He quickly removes his hands and just barely doesn’t get burnt.

Rainbow who just landed next to Joseph looks towards him and his weapon.

“What happened? Why did you stop shooting?”

Joseph doesn’t answer her and simply jerks his head to the left and right. Pinkie and AJ were also having trouble with their gun. They couldn’t even touch it anymore without getting burned and any further shooting via magic would seriously damage the weapon beyond repair. Only Luna is shooting a few more rounds into the horde of enemy airships, but also her gun is starting to malfunction now. A dozen enemy airships remain in the distance, soon ready to shoot their cannons again.

“Shitt…. F-Fuck!” Joseph runs his fingers through his hair.

“Joseph! What happened to thine weapons?” Shouts Luna over towards the ship in the middle where Joseph stands next to Celestia.

“T-They are overheated! I- I didn’t account for this!” He looks with worry towards Celestia who looks back with worry as well.

The stallion with the binoculars shouts once again. “They are aiming their weapons again! Brace for impact!”

Then, everyone hears Princess Luna’s powerful voice “Everypony get to the middle ship immediately!”

All ponies stop their doings and gallop towards the middle ship at once. Dozens of small explosions are heard accompanied by the whistling sound of the incoming cannon balls. The ponies tremble in fear and even Joseph is shaking a bit as he looks towards Luna, hoping she has a plan. She gives him a soft smile while staying calm and collected. Then the looks towards her sister who nods. They both shoot their shield-spell into the air. The magic beams connect in the air and form a shield once again. However, this time a smaller but thicker shield appears. Its focused above the ship in the middle, leaving the outer ships vulnerable.

“Impaaact!” Yells the stallion with the binoculars, the whistling sound getting louder and louder.

The projectiles hail down the Equestrian airships. Damaging the outer ships badly. Dozens of cannon balls tear trough the deck and hull, damaging it quite heavily. The AA-gun on the left ship gets hit as well, bending the still hot barrel away. The middle ship under the shield, however, remains completely intact. The cannon balls simply bounced off the magic shield without even cracking the shield this time.

Celestia, Luna and even Twilight have their wings flared, shielding many ponies from the flying wooden debris as the outer ships get peppered with cannon balls. Then its over and everything gets quiet again. The now harsher icy wind is the only sound heard in the valley.

Twilight managed to glimpse at a few buckets near a hole in the deck of the right ship. She then looks towards the still smoking weapon.

“Rainbow! Grab a few of those buckets and fill them up at the stream with me! We can cool the weapons with water!”

Pinkie giggles with glee and Joseph opens his eyes wide, hope slowly filling his mind again. Pinkie and Joseph immediately spring towards the two remaining AA-Guns and start loading their magazines. While Applejack and Celestia sprint towards the weapons as well to help them.

Twilight and Rainbow appear with four full buckets of water and immediately pour them over the two weapons, producing a lot of steam and sizzling.

AJ charges the weapon for pinkie and Celestia charges Joseph’s. With that the silent valley turns into a loud and violent hell once again. Airship after airship explodes in the distance as the explosive ammunition obliterate their wooden vessels. It gets hard to aim since the steam and lots of smoke from the burning airships starts to obscure the vision on the battlefield.

The ponies break out in cheering once again, but Celestia immediately addresses her ponies as she notices the barrels of Joseph’s weapon getting red hot again.

“Pegasi! Grab a bucket and fly towards the stream to get more water! We need to cool the weapons at all cost! The rest focuses on bringing the remaining ammunition towards the weapons, understood?!” She has to scream so they could even hear her under the heavy gunfire.

They all nod and get to work immediately while Pinkie and Joseph keep shooting towards the general direction of the enemy airships.

Every five seconds they stop for a short moment as a Pegasus pours an ice-cold bucket of water over the hot gun. Even the timid Fluttershy poured a bucket over Pinkie’s weapon. The water sizzles each time and fills the air with steam. The reloads happen within a few short seconds.

The weapons seem to be shooting non-stop for almost a minute. In the distance, they couldn’t even see one single enemy airship as the massive destruction and explosions put so much smoke and debris into the air.

Pinkie and Joseph stop shooting and gasp for air, their arms and forelegs shaking in pain. Everyone just gasps towards the horizon, waiting and waiting. It gets eerily silent…
The smoke clears after a while and now they could see the outcome. None of the airships are in the air. They all are either completely eradicated or laying on the forest ground, burning and smoking.

Several bigger bushes and even a few trees are burning between all the rubble and wooden debris. It didn’t look like there would be any survivors…

Everyone on the deck stays silent. They are happy to have won the battle. But everypony, including Joseph have an eerie feeling in the back of their minds as they realize how many battleships and lives they annihilated within seconds.

“I-It’s over… You all did well…” Whispers Celestia, giving her Ponies a sad but also proud smile.

After the battle, Celestia and Luna decided on leaving the heavily damaged left airship completely behind. The damaged AA-gun was quickly removed so no griffons could get a hold of it’s design.

The two remaining Equestrian airships then slowly soar towards the massive and snow coated mountain. It’s getting colder and colder as the wind picks up quite a bit. The stars slowly start to shimmer trough the sky, the sun now barely illuminating the sky. Only a few distant clouds shimmer in a dark orange while the two ships fly over the obliterated enemy airships. They are still burning, melting the snow away around the wreckages.

Joseph shudders a bit, but smiles softly as he feels Celestia’s right wing shielding him a bit from the harsh weather. He leans into her and smiles. “Soon it’s all over, Tia. We’re just a button press away…” She nods with a smile and nuzzles his cheek affectionately. “Yea. I can’t wait to go on a holiday after we are finished here… With you, my dear human.” Celestia pulls Joseph closer towards her and smiles happily while looking towards Gryphanus’ mountain. Soon it would be over…

It didn’t take the two ships long to reach the base of the massive mountain. After a quick landing, the Princesses, the Elements, Joseph and about a dozen ponies leave the airship to walk towards the mountain to locate the entrance to Gryphanus’ underground bunker.

Princess Celestia and Luna lead the way while the rest follows the two Princesses. Everyone’s hearth is pounding faster now. Either due to the cold weather or the fact that they were here. Here at the doors of Gryphanus last bastion. They are near to changing Equestria and the world back to proper and long-lasting peace. Everyone could feel it.

Celestia could already see two huge metal doors built into the icy stone, blocking access to towards the underground bunker. The flattened path on which the group walks indicates that heavy machinery once was pulled or drove over the snow towards the bunker entrance.

Celestia looks up towards the sky. It is dark, the big chimneys sticking out of the huge mountain coat the sky in a grim color. Here and there a few small lightning bolts brighten the dark smoke up as it mixes into the higher and stormy atmosphere.

As they get closer and closer, Luna notices a faint black snow falling from the sky. The weird part about it isn’t that it was dark, but that the substance only falls around the mountain, as if it was a uniform and circular force field.

“What is that?” Asks Joseph as he walks towards the line where the substance falls slowly down towards the still white snow. Somehow it just falls trough the snow, not even coating it as it is still as white as snow can be.

The ponies stop walking and observe the weird phenomenon, none dare to hold a hoof into the area where the substance starts falling. Only Joseph holds out a hand, reaching towards it. The particles fall trough his hand as if it wasn’t there.

“Hmm. It’s warm but besides that I don’t feel anything… is that some weird magical ash?”

Twilight looks at Joseph and his hand with interest. She looks back and froth between the substance and his hand. She wonders if she read about such an event in the forbidden archives…

Celestia joins her side and looks towards her with a questioning look. Twilights friends step next to her as well.

“Well, what’s going on? Let’s get inside and kick this bird’s ass!” Exclaims an impatient rainbow. Applejack and Pinkie nod with a grin.

Twilight looks towards her friends: “I am not sure if its good to be in that substance. It could be dangerous. I think I might have read about it in the forbidden archives. Something about a dark ash-like substance which can alter a so called ‘ancient magic substance’ in the environment. But the scroll said such magic is only theoretical and not actually possible.”

“Celestia, do you know anything about such magic?” Asks Twilight her former teacher.

Celestia’s looks with a stoic expression towards Twilight, her pupils shrinking.

“Princess?” Asks Fluttershy. “Are you alright?”

Celestia dismisses the now unimportant question and quickly turns around to address everyone.

“Unicorns! Do not touch the black snow! It is extremely dangerous, understood?!”

They all nod in fear, some stepping a bit away from the dark substance.

“Dangerous? This substance is pathetic!” Luna laughs as she stands inside the dark snowy substance, looking at her sister and the other ponies with a confident smile on her face.”

Celestia looks towards her sister, her eyes growing big. “L-Luna! What in mothers name are you doing ?! Get out of there immediately!” Screams Celestia with horror written over her face. Celestia tries to use her magic to levitate or teleport Luna out of the black substance, but no spells would work on her.

“Don’t be silly, Celestia it is merely a bit… w-“ She jerks a bit and starts loosing her balance. “w-arm…” With that, Princess Luna falls towards the ground, her entire body trembling and twitching as she vomits onto the snow.

“Lunaa!!” Cries Celestia while everyone gasps in horror as they stare in fear towards the now limp form of Luna.

“Lunaa!!” Cries Celestia while everyone gasps in horror as they stare in fear towards the now limp form of Luna. Celestia freezes in place and all the ponies gasp in shock.

Joseph opens his eyes wide in disbelief as he sees Luna still twitching and trembling on the cold snow. Clearly, this substance must be highly toxic. He gulps and then quickly dashes forward into the black snow to grab one of Luna’s hindlegs.

He quickly drags the unconscious and warm feeling Alicorn out of the black substance. Joseph grunts and sits onto the snow next to her while gasping for some air. He looks towards the spot where Luna fell unconscious, the lunar tiara still laying in the snow.

Celestia rushes to her sister immediately, holding her close as tears stream down her cheeks. The others circle around the Princess, all quiet but full of worry. Applejack holds her hat in front of her chest.

“Luna! Talk to me!” Cries Celestia

She gently shakes her sister and wipes some tears away as she merely gets a tired and weak grunt as a response. Lunas eyelids are shaking a bit and the rest of her body still has an occasional spasm.

Celestia closes her eyes and quickly performs various healing spells on her sister, her breathing uneasy and forelegs shaking. Never ever had she experienced something like this.

“If I were you, I would stop… Just end her suffering and let her die in peace...”

Celestia’s horn stops glowing, her body jerking for a second as she heard that voice. With flared wings the turns around and glares with fury towards Gryphanus who is standing in front of the metal doors, the black snow clearly not affecting him.

“Y-You!” Growls Celestia, lowering her horn and narrowing her eyes.

“What did you do to my sister you vile and disgusting abomination!”

Everyone gasps at her outburst and the sudden reappearance of their enemy. Everyone groups up behind the raging solar princess, the guards raising their spears and Joseph aiming towards the gryphon with his weapon.

Gryphanus just laughs, while looking at the group in front of him. He snorts, giggles and wheezes, clearly enjoying himself a lot. He looks back over his shoulder, as if there was someone behind his back. The big metal doors were still locked though.

“M-Manfred…” He chortles, “They really think they can save the moon princess!”

Gryphanus snorts and giggles again while a second voice seemingly coming from Gryphanus joins his laughter.

“You piece of shit! You want to be nuked again you motherfucker?” Joseph sends a bullet towards the Gryphons head, but it simply soars trough the apparition and ricochets away from the metal doors.

Celestia growls, screaming in rage as she charges her white horn with a powerful spell. With an angry roar she releases the spell, an incredibly hot and blinding bright beam of magic flying towards Gryphanus who is standing inside the black snow.

Joseph, the Elements, and all other ponies gasp at the powerful display of magic. They all cover behind her and shield their eyes as she shoots her magic towards Gryphanus, the immense power of the beam instantly turning the snow below it into steam.

With a loud bang the magic beam disperses as it enters the area with the black snow, as if it swallowed the magical energy instantly. Celestia just stands there, panting, anger written all over her facial features while she waits for the steam to disperse.

Slowly the steam vanishes, some of it turning into a fine snow. The image of Gryphanus just stands there with a sly grin on his face. The group behind Celestia recoil in horror as they see him standing there, completely unaffected. Gryphanus opens his beak and laughs intensely.

“Manfred! S-She really tried to blast me away with her silly m-magic!” He wheezes and laughs intensely.

Gryphanus ignores the ponies, as if the whole scene is a mere video call. Manfred’s voice joins Gryphanus’ once again. However, he sounded rather disturbed now as the earth starts shaking. After the short earth quake, some debris falls of the mountain, luckily missing everyone.

“M-my Lord, we seem to have l-lost power in our reactor. W-We…”

Gryphanus jerks at that, opening his eyes wide. “Manfred! Shut your mouth and just send one of the ponies in to fix it! We need more of this precious element for…” In his rage Gryphanus almost forgot he is still also in front of the group of ponies and the human.

He looks back towards the group angrily, narrowing his eyes while grinding his beak together.

“You better say your good-byes to your beloved moon pony…” He spits towards them and with a flick of his head, the image of Gryphanus disappears, leaving behind the shocked group.

Back on the Airship, Joseph leans against the door which leads towards the infirmary where Luna was put. Just after the incident the group retreated back to tend the poor Luna. She was pretty much unconscious. Sometimes she would wake up only to spasm and throw up once again.

The whole situation was quite hectic. The few nurses and doctors on the ship trying to do their best while Celestia, in a state of horror and despair, shouting commands and trying to heal her sister as well as possible.

Joseph couldn’t see it anymore. He just waited in front of the infirmary, hoping for the best. He sits on a chair, just staring into his palm of his burnt hand, wondering what live even is anymore. Could everything even get back to normal after what happened.

Joseph sighs and stands up, leaning against the wall, his trusty p90 laying on the hair next to him. The infirmary has quietened down considerably.

A Stallion nurse opened the door and pushed out a trolley with various potions and other medical equipment. He looked done for the night but adjusted his posture nonetheless after he saw Joseph waiting next to the infirmary.

“S-Sir” He said, giving him a slight bow. Joseph just looks away briefly.

“Is she going to be alright?”

The nurse lowers his head and sighs. “Well, we don’t know. Even after our treatments, she can barely speak… Sometimes she still spams, but she is stable for now and showing sings of healing.

“I see…”

“How is Celestia?”

They look at each other for a while, the nurse remaining stoic, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely a very difficult time for her…”

Then he lowered his head again and pushed the trolley away, leaving Joseph.

He turns towards the door and reaches with one hand towards the door knob, carefully opening it. The beeping of medical instruments fills his ears. On a bed, Princess Luna is hooked up to several live support tubes, several machines keeping her alive and monitoring her. However, she seems to be breathing on her own, albeit weak and crooked.

Joseph steps in and closes the door, there are no nurses or doctors inside anymore. Merely the two Alicorn sisters and Joseph. He sees Celestia standing next to Lunas bed, her face hidden behind her now dull and lifeless looking mane.

She slowly raises her head and looks towards Joseph. He just wants to help her, but remains where he stands.

“C-Celestia…”

She just looks at him while a tear rolls down her cheek. Soon her stoic facial expressions break up and she starts whimpering, supporting her body against Lunas bed with her trembling forelegs.

“I thought… I thought I had lost her.” She gulps and looks away from Joseph. “I… I can’t…”

Her forelegs start trembling even more as she hiccups, more tears falling onto Luna’s bedsheets. She feels one of his arms scooping her up around her neck, pulling her into a warm embrace.

“It’s alright Cel...”

They remain like this, Celestia hugging him tight and brushing her wet cheeks against his shoulder while he brushed his fingers through the fur on her neck and back.

“It’s gonna be alright… I… I promise.” He pulls her closer and gives her cheek a kiss and then manages to give her a weak smile.

Celestia looks into his eyes and wipes some tears from her eyes, giving him a weak nod, then laying her head against his chest, just staying as close as possible to Joseph.

After a while a crooked and weak voice starts speaking next to them.

“A-Ad.. Adorable..”

Joseph and Celestia move away from each other and they both look towards Luna who gives them a weak smile, her eyes just barely open. Celestia blushes with a soft smile her cheeks, both now sitting on the edge of Luna’s bed.

Joseph blushes as well but quickly retorts. “How are you feeling, Lulu”? Asks Joseph, smiling at her, almost smirking a bit.

Luna just grunts, looking away in embarrassment, wishing she had her magic power to blast away a certain human.

“Y-You… cretin…” She manages to grin weakly but then coughs, the heartrate monitor being a tad bit faster.

Joseph chuckles, happy to see her well while Celestia shushes her sister, scolding and remining her that she needs to rest.

There’s a knocking on the door.

“Come in.” Says Celestia softly.

The door opens and Twilight enters with a few scrolls and books in her magic. She set them on a nearby table and walks on the opposite side of Luna’s bed. She nods a hello to Joseph and Celestia and then looks towards Luna.

“How are you feeling, Princess?”

Luna closes her eyes and takes a deeper breath.

“W-We… b-been better.”

Celestia looks towards her former student, her eyes looking hopeful.

“Could you find out anything?”

Twilight just nods, organizing her scrolls and books.

“There’s some good and bad news…”

She waits for a moment and then continues.

“I’ve discovered that Gryphanus somehow has access to ancient wendigo magic. It… It is still unknown how this black substance works or what it actually is. But… I am sure that it somehow is related to magic but in an entirely different way. It works similar but is also different in it’s very nature… It is fascinating that we…”

She stops herself and clears her throat after receiving some glares.

“S-Sorry… The gist is that this black substance is some sort of anti-magic. It alters the magic substance in each spell and organism on the deepest level. The more magic a pony or any creature has, the more intense the black substance affects them.”

Twilight levitates a few scrolls and goes through them, even showing the two princesses and Joseph some difficult and huge calculations. Both raise their eyebrows, clearly not understanding anything.

“I could calculate the lethality of the substance using a few formulas I came up with. Earth ponies could interact with it for three or four hours without any too serious consequences. Pegasi just barely an hour. Unicorns will get a fatal dose after three to five minutes and… Alicorns could die within seconds after exposure.”

She takes a deep breath.

“Obviously, all magic does not work inside the affected area. Not even basic levitation spells nor flying.”

Joseph sighs, shaking his head.

“Geez… What a about the good news then?”

Twilight looks up towards Joseph and Celestia, chuckling nervously.

“T-Those were the good news. Princess Luna is lucky to even be alive…”

They all pause for a moment and everyone looks towards Luna, as she stares towards the ceiling.

“Tell us t-the bad news…”

Twilight looks towards her former mentor, but she just keeps looking at Luna, brushing a wing over her side to let her know her sister is by her side.

Twilight takes a deeper breath and sighs.

“W-Well the substance has long lasting effects concerning the magic structure. I am not one hundred percent sure, but… I calculated it over and over and-“

“Sparkle! … p-please.” Luna coughs again and her voice sounds quite bad now after she raised her voice just a bit.

Twilight nods and waits for Luna’s coughing to die down.

“It is expected that you will not be able to use your magic for a long time, Princess.”

Luna grunts in annoyance. “F-For…How long?”

“According to my calculations and if we can’t find a cure… I am afraid it could be as long as a century. I’m sorry, Princess.”

Luna doesn’t say anything, merely looking towards the ceiling while the others look down towards the bedsheets, occasionally giving the lunar princess a sad look. A few moments pass with no one speaking, only the heartrate monitor spikes up more and more.

Celestia gently hugs her sister with her wings, but she just lays there, still looking to the ceiling after her sister moves back to Joseph’s side. Twilight wanted to say something but stops as Luna opens her mouth.

“We… We wish to be alone.”

Celestia shakes her head, wiping her wet eyes dry with a feather. “L-Luna We are here for you, we-“

“S-Sister. Please…”

Celestia recoils a bit and gives her a sad but understanding nod. “I will bring you some food later, I love you sister.” She lets her head hang and walks out of the room, Twilight joining her with a similarly slow and sluggish gait.

Joseph stands up as well, planning to leave as well but Luna stops him. “Joseph…”

He looks back towards the bed. She takes her eyes off the ceiling and looks towards him into his eyes. Hers are red and show a mixture of sadness and anger. Joseph walks closer to the bed and sits on a nearby chair, now being level with her.

“D-Destroy him.”

He keeps looking at her, her blue eyes showing more and more anger.

“This needs… to end.”

Joseph nods, knowing that it would get worse the longer they all waited. Just recently they nuked this bastard’s castle and he refused to die. Not even did he not die, he now lives in a castle protected by ancient magic while building his own nuke. It needed to end. Fast.

“I know.”

He gives her a determined look, quickly walking out of the room and heading towards the battleships armoury.

“Joseph, listen to me! You need to calm down. We cannot rush this. It is way too dangerous!”

Joseph doesn’t listen to Celestia, merely grabbing several P90 magazines and stuffing them into his trusty backpack. He even takes a second P90 and slings it around his neck in case the first would ever malfunction.

“Joseph are you crazy?!” She uses her magic to grasp him and make him look towards her. He just grumbles and looks away as she scolds him. “It is way too dangerous to go on your own! We need to carefully plan this.”

He huffs at her, rolling his eyes. Quickly turning away from her, he loads some more stuff into his backpack, including the remote detonator, a radio and a first aid kit.

“And what plan would you suggest, huh? Remember what happened to your sister? I’m the only one without magic and I’m sure not even the earth ponies would want to step inside that mountain after they saw what happened yesterday!”

Celestia’s hindlegs shake a little after she realized he made quite some sense.

“W-We could retreat and manufacture more ammunition for our new cannons. Shoot at the mountain from a safe distance! M-maybe… Maybe like that we could…”

Celestia herself knows that there needs to be done something now, but imaging Joseph all alone inside Gryphnaus’ bunker made her feel sick. But how would they be able to help? Her head hurts and she sits down on the floor, groaning and taking deep breaths to try calming herself down. It was too much, imagining losing Joseph now after all that happened twists her stomach and makes her head hurt badly.

She feels him sit next to her on the floor and then slowly looks towards him. He gives her a soft smile.

“Is someone worried for a certain human?”

Celestia’s left eye twitches and she firmly slaps his cheek with a wing.

“Be serious for once, Joseph!”

Joseph recoils a bit and rubs his red cheek, just looking at her, his eyes now also showing some worry and uneasiness.

“S-Sorry…” She says silently, looking to her forehooves. She moves one hoof towards one of his hands, brushing her fur over his fingers.

He stays quiet and looks up into her sad eyes.

“We experienced so much during the last few months Joseph, didn’t we?”

He nods. “Y-Yea…”

“So much trouble, so much grief and pain… We all managed to push through it together.” She wraps a wing around him, and he leans into his side.

“But we also had our fair share of wonderful days. Silly days, funny days, some even relaxing and carefree. That’s what it’s all about. Friendship… and love.”

She looks towards him and smiles into his eyes. A tear is rolling down his cheeks, grasping her hoof and firmly squeezing it as he listens.

“So much happened… And I think the short time with you has been the most amazing days I have ever experienced this century.”

She brushes her feathers over his back, her primaries rubbing gently over his neck and hair.

“Do you remember the first day we met Joseph?”

“Yeah, heh…”

He chuckles, wiping his eyes dry away as he thinks of the memory.

“Twilight told me there was some sort of bipedal monster hiding in my old castle in the Everfree Forest. I immediately teleported there to assess the situation. You threw various things at me as I tried to enter my castle. You claimed that the castle would be yours now and you made it clear that you would not talk to ‘cute and imaginary pony princesses because they are not real’ ”

“I was batshit crazy huh?...”

Celestia snickers behind a hoof, brushing Joseph’s cheek with her primaries.

“You were, but at the end of the day you let me inside, nonetheless. You even had some fresh fudge cake from earth still in your solar powered fridge.”

“You demolished it like a pig.”

Celestia giggles happily, rubbing her cheek against his head.

“I did.. And it was heavenly. Even today I can still remember it’s taste.”

The two remain like this for a while, enjoying each other’s company…

“What I wanted to say is…” She looks way for a second. “I- I can’t imagine losing you, okay?

She looks back into his eyes and he looks into hers, moving some of her mane behind her ears with a hand.

“I’ve survived two nuclear blasts… You won’t get rid of me so easily, my Princess.”

That elicits a smile from the white alicorn. They both lean in while looking into each other’s eyes, only closing them as their lips touch.

The next morning, Joseph stands in front of the mountain, the black snow-like substance still protecting the structure from any magic users. He wears a thick jacket and gloves, grunting as he stops the trolley with the nuclear warhead on it.

Grabbing his P90, he checks again if all magazines on him were still fully loaded and then slowly and carefully walks into the black snow, getting closer towards the huge metal doors. They are secured by a big lock. Grabbing the radio, he moves it towards his head and speaks into it.

“I am inside the black snow.”

There’s a pause. Only the harsh wind blowing over his ears.

“And how do you feel?” Celestia’s voice comes through the radio. There were also some other voices in the background mumbling and whispering.

Joseph looks back towards the ship in the distance. He could make out Celestia and several ponies on the deck observing him. Luna seems to be standing on the desk as well. Joseph then looks towards his hand as he takes out some dynamite from his backpack. The black dust merely flies trough his body as if he weren’t there.

“I don’t feel anything… I will set up the charges now.”

After setting up the explosives, he walks back towards the trolley and hides behind it in a safe distance.

Celestia watches everything from the ship while the stallion with the binocular scans the environment around Joseph. The Elements observe the scene as well.

“Aww man. Stupid anti magic shield. I would have loved to kick some gryphon ass down there.” Exclaims a annoyed Rainbow Dash.

The radio can be heard again.

“Fire!”

The door immediately explodes, and a thick ball of smoke and snow raises. It quickly gets blown away by a gust of cold wind. The echoing of the explosion could be heard while some wind noise comes from the radio.

“Joseph- Are you alright?” Asks Celestia, slightly worried.

She only hears his weapon being charged trough the radio.

“Yes. I’m going in.”

Joseph keeps walking down the wide tunnel leading further down and deeper into the icy mountain while keeping the bomb on the cart from rolling down the tunnel. Luckily, the cart has integrated brakes. Nifty, huh?

He continues walking, the P-90 dangling on his back as he goes deeper into the mountain. It is still cold, but the cold isn’t as harsh as he shielded himself from the harsh winds. Icicles are hanging from the ceiling and the deeper her gets the darker it got.

It didn’t really look like the entrance to a big underground bunker but merely like a big mining tunnel. It even had train tracks. They were dirty but not dusty at all, clearly having been used lately.

He grabs a flashlight and shines it into the dark tunnel. The tunnel just doesn’t want to end. He couldn’t even see the bottom, the beam dispersing in the fine dust from the tunnel after a few dozens of meters. On the ceiling he could see some crude looking lightbulbs. He follows the cables and manages to find a big switch. He quickly pulls the lever down.

The bulbs start shining one after another, the tunnel getting illuminated, each time a light goes on the electrical system produces a loud click while humming and buzzing as well.

“Jesus….”

The end of the tunnel was about another 100 meters further. He releases the brakes of the cart and pulls it towards the door, getting closer and closer.

“Alright, a few more meters and then let’s get the fuck outta here.”

With a sly grin, Joseph walks further down, only to spot something in the ceiling next to the electrical lights. He lets go off the handle of the bomb cart and studies the ceiling more closely. There are holes inside the rocky ceiling. Emerging from those holes, Joseph could see fuses coming out. The fuses join into a bigger cable which leads down the tunnel. It was clearly a tripwire trap.

It was now that he realizes the bomb cart is not next to him anymore. Instead, the thing is rolling straight towards the doors at the end of the tunnel, soon about to roll over the tripwire.

His instincts tell him to run towards the exit as fast as possible, but he realizes the remote detonator is on the cart as well. Without it this whole mission would have been for nothing.

“F-Fuck! Jesus fucking Christ!” He panics and looks back towards the exit in the distance and then back towards the rolling nuclear bomb.

Joseph then dashes towards the rolling cart, hoping he could reach it time, but it’s too late. It rolls over the tripwires and immediately the explosive charges behind him go off, spraying rock everywhere in the sudden darkness as the lights go off immediately.

He feels a sharp pain in his left leg as he falls towards the ground, shielding his head and face with his arms and hands. A few seconds pass and as he thought it was over, but now the ceiling gives in. Joseph hastily crawls towards the metal door at the end of the tunnel as dust and smoke fills entire area. He coughs and groans in pain, while laying on the cold floor in the foetal position.

Soon though, the smoke and dust settled. Joseph tries to stand up while coughing, only to feel the sharp pain in his left leg again. Using his smartphone as a flashlight, he looks towards his leg and sees his pants torn right below the knee. His shin is bleeding, coating his pants in a crimson red.

“S-Shit…”

He limps towards the damaged bomb cart. The wheels are destroyed, and the ticking bomb is now barely visible through the cracked wooden planks. He pulls back the cover, exposing the insides of the cart, hoping it is still intact. The bomb got smashed against the inner walls of the cart, but it seems to be undamaged. The wires were all in the correct spot and the various indicator lights showed that it is still armed and fully intact. He exhaled a sigh of relief and then puts the remote detonator into his backpack.

“Ghzzz- J—Jos--- Joseph?!”

He raises the radio closer to his head while a few more pebbles and smaller rocks fall from the ceiling.

“W-What happened” “A- ghzzzt- Are you alright?! Oh dear Luna, please tell me he is alright!”

The connection is bad now that the entrance is blocked. Over the constant static and heavily compromised connection, he could hear Celestia panicking on the other end.

“H-Hey Celestia, I’m fine!” He shout-whispers into the radio while coughing a bit.

“Don’t’ worry, everything is alright. It’s just… uuhh.” He pauses a bit, clearly not wanting to put the alicorn in more distress.

“W-What’s wrong Joseph?”

“ Uhh…the tunnel… It kinda collapsed on me for some reason, heh. So, I can’t get out. I’m fucking trapped. But the bomb and I myself are still mostly intact! So that’s good right?” His smile slowly fades as he realizes how fucked he really is.

Back on the ships deck, the main six, several guardsponies and the princesses stand on the deck. Some bored, some fixing a few things and one certain mare gripping the radio tightly with her forehooves as she leans against the metal railing of the ship. Her serene princess mask is gone. With rapid eve movements she scans the area for threats while her newfound special somehuman is walking into the abyss known as Gryphanus’ underground bunker. All alone. Without any help. Against hundreds of griffons and who knows what else might lurk down there.

She shivers and looks down towards the radio, wanting to speak into it to hear him say everything is alright. Then she feels a hoof on her withers. Jerking back, she looks at her sister who looks at her with a worried expression.

Luna’s ethereal mane and tail are devoid of any magic. Now merely a dark blue, but still beautiful, silky hair. Her eyes and entire body show that she was still tired and weak. But most importantly she is worried. Not for herself, but her dear sister.

Luna merely stands close next to her sister, providing her with her presence and some warmth.

“Joseph will make it. He is a tough one. That we are sure of, dear sister.”

Celestia nods, leaning into her sister a bit. Luna could feel her sisters body shivering slightly.

“He endured and overcame so much, didn’t he?” Luna gives her sister a weak smile. Celestia gives her a weak smile back and nods again. “Y-Yes he did.”

“And each time he overcame a hurdle, he came back stronger. There is no need to worry, Celestia. Luna wraps a wing around the pearl white alicorn, nuzzling her which Celestia accepts happily.

“You know we did not like him first but, we admit you managed to land quite a catch with him.” Luna gives her sister a sly grin. “Plus, you two are adorable together.”

Celestia giggles, her cheeks getting rosy while gently swatting her sister away with a wing, throwing her off balance, quickly catching her with her magic. Luna was indeed very weak right now.

Celestia looks with sympathy into her sister’s blue eyes.

“How are you feeling?”

Luna looks towards Gryphanus’ mountain in the distance, smoke sill rising from the chimneys.

“We will be alright. We…“ She looks up towards the sky where the moon is barely visible through the clouds. “I have been through worse.”

“And if Joseph can manage to flourish here without any magic, then so can I” She says with a determined smile.

As if on cue, a rumble shakes the mountain in front of the airship. Air and dust swooshes out the entrance from which Joseph ascended into the mountain. Several ponies walk towards the railings and looks towards the mountain, not seeing much except more smoke rising from the tunnel.

Celestia tightly grips the radio and speaks into it with worry. “J-Joseph?, Joseph!”

Her body and voice shakes. “Are you alright?!” She then looks towards the sky. “Oh, dear Luna! Please tell me he is alright!”

Princess Luna blinks at her sister’s words, clearly also getting nervous as there is no response coming from the radio.

Then the radio crackles a bit, and someone could be heard coughing. “H-Hey Celestia. I’m fine.”

The alicorn in question immediately relaxes her muscles and exhales in relief after hearing his voice.

“Don’t’ worry, everything’s alright. It’s just… uuhh.” The radio then stops transmitting for a while, making the alicorn tense up again.

“W-What’s wrong, Joseph?!” Asks Celestia with a worried but also scolding voice.

“Uhh…the tunnel… Well… It kinda collapsed on me for some reason, heh. So, I can’t get out. I’m fucking trapped. But I myself and the bomb are still mostly intact! So that’s good right?”

Celestia’s pupils shrink immediately as she yells into the radio. “W-What?!” “Mostly intact?!”

“Shhh, don’t yell, Celestia!” Joseph is now shout-whispering into his radio. “The griffons are probably on their way to me. A-and yes, a bit of shrapnel hit me in my leg, but… hngg.. but it is merely a scratch, trust me.” From his voice, it sounded like anything but a scratch.

Celestia starts shaking uncontrollably now. He is trapped down there, alone and clearly hurt. He once again tried to brush off the severity of the situation, acting as if he could handle it. He always does that, and it always reminded her how stubborn but also preciously determined her special somehuman can be. But she could hear it. His shaky voice and the grunts of pain made it clear that the situation was under NO control at all.

The fact that Celestia herself is a powerful alicorn would somewhat calm her down. For everything there would be a spell or something which would defuse various dangerous situations. If friends or loved ones were in danger, there was always a way to put them out of danger with relative ease.

This situation though was different. She thought about running down the tunnel to clear the rubble and rocks so Joseph could crawl out. But she knew the ancient wendigo magic would render her dead within mere seconds.

M-Maybe a few earth ponies could do the job, she thinks. They could last several minutes down there. Maybe…

She slapped herself mentally.

-A-Am I really thinking about putting others in serious danger. T-This isn’t me. I-I… I can’t think… I can’t…-

Celestia leans more against the railing, trying to support her weight as her legs wobble from the intense stress and worry on her mind.

The ponies on the deck look at their leaders in shock. Never had they seen them in such a state, and it made everypony worry for the mission and their life. There was Luna, devoid of any magic and clearly too weak to fight. Celestia was a shaking mess next to the decks railing. And Joseph, the human with all the ingenuity concerning weapons and inventions was trapped inside Gryphanus bunker, soon to be murdered by angry griffons. Even the Elements just look towards Luna and Celestia, their ears folded to their heads.

Luna looks at her dear sister and then to the worried and scared ponies on the deck. The situation was getting out of control. Quickly, she snatches the radio from her sisters trembling hooves.

“Joseph! Don’t give up! We are sure there must be at least one other way out of this mountain!”

The ponies on the deck, carefully walk closer to their lunar princess and her radio. Just static comes back from the device for a while. Then more silence and another wave of static. The ponies faces slowly fill with more worry but then there are a few more sounds. It appears that Joseph is still alive as the ponies on the deck hear the satisfying sound of a submachine gun being loaded with a magazine. With a powerful clonk sound, everyone could hear the charging handle being pulled back and released to load the weapon.

“As if I’d give up, L-una. Do you think so low of me?” Joseph’s scruffy voice fills the ponies on the deck with hope as they cheer and throw hooves into the air in triumph. Celestia looks up towards the crowd, her hopes also returning as she heard his voice. Maybe this really isn’t over yet, she thinks. Her cheeks get a bit rose as she realized how alluring his scruffy voice can be in sure dire situations.

“Die your pieces of SHIT!“ Joseph grunts in pain, shooting a few more rounds down a tunnel as griffons run after him, a few dropping onto the floor as they are hit.

He limps in hurry through another tunnel in this maze-like underground bunker. He has been running from the griffons for several minutes now. After the trap went off in the entrance tunnel, he quickly went through the metal door and closed it from the other side, destroying the doorhandle with a big rock so they couldn’t get towards the bomb to defuse it in time. Luckily, they just managed to locate him afterwards and immediately started chasing him down without even checking what could be behind the metal door.

While running away like a little bitch, he tried to waste as little ammunition as possible. A few dozen griffons had to be shot each time he ran into a dead end in this labyrinth. Four magazines were left now. Clearly not enough since more and more griffons seem to appear out of nowhere in these barely illuminated tunnels.

While running away, he drags his injured limb after his battered body. He is panting for air and shivering in pain as he passes another corner, two griffons slowly gaining on him. Around the corner he could see an intersection. He dashes down the left tunnel in hope the two griffons would choose the other tunnels. One did, but the other dashes down the left tunnel as well, soon catching sight of the human as he stumbles into a dead end, the tunnel getting narrower and lower. Aiming the weapon towards the threat, he pulls the trigger, but nothing happens. It must have jammed from the last shot and he didn’t realize.

“Found, ya you hairless ape!”

“Ah! F-fucking hell!”

In panic Joseph huddles backwards, falling onto his back as the griffon charges at him. Grabbing a hand full of dirt and dust, he throws it towards the griffon, the various debris getting into his eyes. The griffon shrieks in pain and crashes against a wall, writhing in pain.

Joseph considered running past the stunned griffon to get out of this dead end, but two more Griffons storm into the tunnel. In panic he starts crawling deeper and deeper into the narrowing tunnel while the griffons angrily crawl after him. It’s getting more and more claustrophobic, but Joseph’s battered, bleeding and adrenaline filled body did not protest.

“Get back you piece of shit!”

“Give up, monkey, we got you!”

One griffon grabs Joseph’s ankle of his injured leg. He screams in pain as he feels claws digging into his skin. With a scream he jabs the jammed submachine gun against the griffon’s claw and then into his beak until the assailant lets go of his leg.

Crawling further down the narrow tunnel, he quickly realizes that the griffons could never follow him down here. Too bulky and wide were their bodies that they could crawl after him. As he kept crawling and crawling the angry shouting from the griffons gets quieter the further, he crawled.

After what felt to be an eternity the narrow tunnel widens up slowly. Soon he could stand upright again and limp forward. The tunnel now looks rather scruffy and way more natural. Strange mushrooms and luminescent gems gently light up the cave-like tunnel.

He keeps walking for just a few seconds and then stops. His eyes fixated at something beyond the cave walls. He wonders what he is actually doing here and why is trying to run for his life. The mission went haywire after the trap blocked the exit. It’s only a matter of time before either they find the bomb and defuse it. Or before they manage to find him and put an end to his life. Rescuing any creatures working as slaves here also is also out of the question. He realizes that anyone inside this crazy hell-hole is doomed. This includes himself and he knew it.

Joseph coughs and grunts. Pain from his injured leg radiates through his entire body, the adrenaline in his system clearly gone now. Seeing a small cave stream nearby, he limps towards it and kneels down to drink and wash his wounds. It’s ice cold but fresh.

He stares into the cold stream and after a while he takes the radio into his hand. He keeps staring into the stream, his expression stoic but also somewhat determined. Closing his eyes for a second and taking a deep breath, he musters his remaining energy and starts into the radio while trying to sound as little miserable as possible.

“Celestia, Luna? Can you hear me? I’ve g-good news!”

It just takes two seconds, and the radio starts answering back as Luna replies.

“We hear you clear!” Celestia also seems to be listening in as she asks: “A-are you hurt Joseph?”

Joseph coughs badly while shivering, more blood seemingly oozing from his wounded leg. But he made sure the radio is not transmitting off during his coughing.

“N-No, Celestia. I’m fine. And I managed to find a map of this crazy bunker. There is an exit just a few hundred meters away can you believe it?”

Celestia is very excited now, grabbing the radio and speaking clearer into it.

“This is wonderful! Joseph I was so scared I’d lose you. Please be careful, okay?”

“Y-Yea I promise, Cel.” A tear rolls down his cheeks, his body still shaking. But his voice acting is good enough. “Look, there’s a cave next to where we fought the wendigo horde and the griffon airships. Move our airships there. According to my map… I should be there in about 15 minutes, alright?

“Oh, Joseph. I’m so happy you are fine!” Replies the excited and relieved alicorn princess with a happy voice. Once you are back on the ship, you will get a big scolding for why you put me in such worry, my dear human, understood?”

Joseph laughs, more tears forming in his eyes as he grips the radio firmly, holding it close to his chest, as if hugging it would bring him closer to her. He tries his best not so start sobbing.

“Understood, Cel, heh. N-Now get your ass moving to the cave, alright?”

“We are already moving!” She now starts whispering slightly. “See you soon, my dear.”

Joseph turns off the radio and sits on the cold and wet cave ground next to the small stream. With a weak grunt, he reaches around his back to get to his backpack. With shaky hands he opens it and takes the remote detonator into his dirty and bleeding hands, staring at it for what feels like an eternity.

Joseph is still sitting on the cold and wet floor. Eyes fixated on something beyond the cave walls. His body battered, bleeding and feeling numb. So does his mind.

The remains of his radio are laying next to him. Figuring it was for no use anymore, he shattered it into pieces with a nearby rock. Like that there was no way he could contact Celestia in case he gets cold feet and doesn’t have the balls to actually blow this hellhole up with him inside. At least that was his reasoning.

The gentle noise of the water stream and the occasional clonking of gryphanu’s machines inside the mountain are the only sound in the cave as he contemplates his life. While thinking about his past back on earth, he closes his eyes. Flashes of family and friends resurface in his mind. He smiles weakly and takes deeper breaths.

However, with every memory he has of his past life on Earth, he also thinks of his time in Equestria. The struggles… his deteriorating mind, panick attacks. But then it all changed so suddenly when a certain pony stormed into his pathetic throne room.

Josephs hands begin shaking lightly, a tear rolling down his cheek.

“Y-You fucking loved her you idiot…”

“And just… because she was not a human you didn’t…”

He hiccups and squeezes the housing of the detonator tightly against his chest, taking deeper breaths to calm his thundering mind down. Maybe he really is in a hospital and the docs are just losing him after fighting for months or years in a deep coma. A tired and depressed smile finds its way on his lips. Yea that must be it. He will just wait a few more minutes until the ship is in a safe distance. Then he would press the button and simply wake up.

There was silence for a while but after a few seconds a rumble is heard. It gets stronger and stronger. It feels like some sort of machine right below him seems to be acting up.

“F-Fucking christ… not now…”

He shakily gets back on his feet and tries to hold his balance. But as the cave floor gives in, he is just another object in motion as stones, gravel and dirt rush down a steep slope. He holds his hand with the detonator into the air, protecting it from accidental presses as he tumbles downhill. Soon his already battered body impacts with a lower floor.

With a weak grunt, he gets on his feet again, happy to be still alive and protect the detonator for a few more minutes. Looking left and right, he sees weird looking machinery everywhere. He finds himself in some sort of a lab. A lab where red and white warning lights are flashing everywhere.

Looking to his left, he sees three griffon scientists, two are hastily adjusting knobs and levers on a control panel while a third scientist seems to be working on a cylindrical device with several tubes and cables attached to it. In front of the control panel, a weird looking sphere suspended in air could be seen. The fuck is going on here?

Then, yelling.

From the entrance of the lab several griffons start charging towards Joseph. The three scientists in front of the control panel don’t even pay attention to the intruding human. They shout and seem to be hastily trying to fix the complex machinery in the middle of the entire lab.

Aiming his P90 towards the entrance, he shoots towards the incoming griffons. One by one they fall to the ground. Their spears dangling to the ground. A click indicates the gun being empty, he throws it towards a charging griffon. With a growl he picks up two spears on the ground from the fallen griffon soldiers, aiming them towards the last remaining enemies.

“You pieces of SHIT!”

With a strong backward movement, he lunges one spear towards the next griffon, impaling him through his chest.

“I can’t blow up myself yet! Can you maybe-“

Using the other spear, he makes quick work of the last two griffons as he dashes with quick speed around them, stabbing them from the back repeatedly with his spear.

“-chill for just 2 fucking minutes?!”

He spits some blood towards the half dead griffons on the floor, their bodies still twitching and groaning. He doesn’t care though. This is the end. He could end their and his suffering though, but he knew it was to early. The core of the bomb was one with an experimental payload. And from the last ‘test’ he knew how much potential its design had.

Looking towards his left he sees a scientist shakily holding a revolver style weapon towards Joseph. He clearly was not a fighter, his weak looking claw shaking and fear visible in his facial features as the human grunts and advances towards him.

“S-Stay down A-Ape!” I-I will shoot. I-“

With a swift hit on the Griffons foreleg, Joseph disarms the scientist, acquiring his revolver and pushing the scientist away. He stumbles backwards into a wooden crate and falls to the floor, his glasses dropping to the floor and breaking on impact. While the dazzled scientist shakily gets back onto his feet, Joseph hears more griffons outside the lab.

“Close the door!”

The scientist slowly and shakily gets onto his feet.

“I said close the door fucking NOW!” He aims his newly acquired revolver towards the scientists head. With a whimper, he sprints towards the door of the lab locking it with a key which he shakily hands towards the human.

“P-Please d-don’t shoot…”

“Thanks, mate.” He throws the key far away towards some random crates and then decks the butt of the revolver against the scientist’s head. He falls towards the ground, unconscious. Griffons outside the lab could be herd banging against the entrance of the lab, the metal door holding them back.

Joseph sighs and turns around towards the centre of this weird lab. His arms holding the gun and detonator are loosely dangling from his side as he tries to understand what he’s seeing. Floating in the air is a big metallic sphere with spherical runestones attached on its equator. On the black runestones are some weird looking white markings. The entire thing is humming rather loudly and emitting the same black substance. Probably the black snow which almost killed Princess Luna back on the surface.

This must be their wicked source.

The runes start humming louder and louder. The black stones turning even darker while the white lettering on them start shining brightly. With a powerful rumble, the entire area starts shaking while a spherical black but also somewhat transparent ball slowly appears below the metal sphere. The runestones on the metal sphere start displaying various numbers. They go up and down, as if they were searching for some sort of code.

“Mother of god…”

Joseph just stands there, looking up in awe and horror, trying to understand what he is actually seeing. Not even the weirdest sci-fi movies he saw came close to this.

The two scientists keep adjusting various knobs and levers on the control panel, seemingly keeping the apparatus working in a certain range as they focus fully on the machine.

‘Eh, just one or two minutes more and a button would be pressed anyways’, he thinks.

Joseph limps towards the two scientists on the control panel while not even trying anymore to understand what the fuck is going on in this lab. He hits the left scientist with the butt of his revolver on his head. The poor bird falls to the floor, unconscious with a bleeding wound on his head.

The other scientists screams in shock as he looks towards his comrade on the floor.

“Z-Zachary! N-Noo!”

The last remaining scientist walks backwards in shock, covering in front of the dirty and wicked looking human. Blood, sweat and dirt visible on every square inch of his body.

“Hi there, birdy.” Joseph grins, putting the revolver next to him on the control panel as the scientist moves away in fear. He takes the remote detonator into both hands, smiling at the scientist with a wicked grin. The griffons outside the lab seem to get more and more angry, now ramming the door with some sort of ramming device. The scientist walks another step backwards, his back colliding with a nearby wooden crate.

“You know… I am some sort of a scientist myself…” Joseph takes the transparent protective cap off the detonator, his bloodshot eyes fixated on the red button.

“Actually, I’d like to…” He gestures towards the two spheres in the middle of the lap, “ indulge in all this fucked up shit here, you know?”

Joseph glances back towards the metal door, its hinges slowly coming loose as the angry mob outside rams against it over and over.

“But everything I live for should definitely be outside the danger zone by now, so sayonara, you flying piece of shit. He puts his palm onto the red button and closes his eyes, the scientist in front of him screaming in terror.

“Wait! N-No!”

The three remaining airships just arrived next to the cave entrance, merely a few hundred meters from where they had the fight against the wendigo horde. The weather is nice, a cold and gentle wind blowing trough the valley while a few distant clouds are visible in the distance where Gryphanus mountain stands. Soon everything would be over, and peace will finally be restored.

Celestia smiles softly as she sits next to her sister, their wings embracing each other as they simply wait, leaning against each other. Celestia could feel the missing presence of her sister’s magic, but she could also feel that she somehow was content, seemingly handling it well. Or maybe she hiding it well.

Twilight and Rainbow walk towards the railing next where their leaders are sitting.

“How long do we have to wait? This is super boring.” Exclaims a impatient Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow! We have had enough action and fighting for once don’t you think?

Rainbow merely groans and rolls her eyes, flying into the air right in front of the ship.

“Whatever, but I’m off checking out that cave entrance so I can lead Joseph to the ship when he arrives.”

“Good idea, Rainbow. But be careful. Take a few guards with you, please.”

Rainbow rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed that her friend thinks she can’t handle some cave alone.

“Ah’ll join you!” Shouts Applejack from the other side of the deck.

Applejack exits the ship via the landing port and Rainbow flies off with a few loops in the air.

Twilight walks towards her former mentor and Princess Luna, sitting down onto her haunches next to Luna, looking briefly at her and then towards the mountain in the distance.

“How are you feeling, Princess Luna?”

“Please, Just Luna is fine…”

She waits a bit, also looking towards the distance, just enjoying the cool breeze blowing through her mane.

“We.. I am quite alright I think.” Twilight gives her a soft smile and nod.

“It could have ended way worse if it weren’t for sisters newfound heroic stud.”

Luna giggles as Celestia’s cheeks turn beet red, hiding her face a bit from her former student.

“So the rumours are true!?” explains an excited Twilight.

Celestia looks with wide eyes towards her sister and Twilight.

“There have been rumours?”

Twilight gives her former mentor a look that could only be describes as ‘seriously?’

“Don’t you read the Canterlot Daily?”

Celestia merely shakes her head, cheeks still a bit rosy. “Not really heh. There is simply too much gossip. But I must admit they aren’t wrong when it comes to my newfound… ‘stud’.”

Luna smirks after getting a eye roll from her sister.

“We even got an official date after all this is over.” Celestia giggles in a schoolgirl like manner, not even caring anymore as she is just too excited about it. It has been centuries since she had a proper date. And this date would be with someone she actually loves. Usually it was just some stallion who was good looking and nice but actually after the wealth and status.

“I am so happy for you two Celestia. So since when are you two together? And I must say even during all these stressful times you really looked way happier than usual,” beams a genuinely happy Twilight, seeing her mentor so happy.

“W-Well it’s all quite fresh and new. But it turned out that we have had feelings for each other since a few months now. I just hope I don’t ruin it… It has been centuries since I last dated somepony, I mean someone.”

Luna snorts. “Don’t be silly, dear sister. Joseph can be lucky to have you as his special somepony.”

Twilight nods with a grin. “Your sister is one hundred percent right! You’re a catch! Just be yourself and everything will turn out alright. Haven’t you thought me that as well, Princess?”

Twilight gives her former mentor a wink and Celestia nods, a melancholic smile on her muzzle.

“That I have my dear twilight.”

Fluttershy, Pinky and Rarity join Twilight and their princesses after a while, just sitting on the deck and sharing stories from these last few months. Exchanging laughs and smiles as they lean on each other.

After a few minutes Rainbow lands on the deck. Twilight turns her head towards Rainbow.

“Oh you’re back already? Did you pick up Joseph?”

Rainbow Dash slowly looks up from her forehooves towards her friends, a worried expression on her face. Applejack and a few guards soon is also appearing on the deck. AJ is panting as she gallops towards the front of the deck.

Twilight now stands up and everyone looks towards them. “Girls? What’s wrong.”

Applejacks gasps for air as she comes to a stop. “T-The cave...I-It..”

Rainbow looks towards her forehooves again. “It has no connection to the mountain. It just ends after a few meters.”

“Nonsense.” Rejects Luna “Joseph told us exactly where we had to meet up with him. He found a map, remember?”

“We-We really doublechecked everything.” Replies AJ, still breathing heavily. “We are either at the wrong location.. o-r…”

Twilight immediately gallops towards the nearby radio. Grabbing it and speaking into it in hopes of reaching Joseph on the other side. “Joseph!” “Joseph, can you hear me, please answer!”

All ponies wait, anxious to hear back from Joseph. But even after Twilight speaks into the device again, there is no answer. Merely a silent static could be heard as Twilight tries to contact him a few more times.

Twilight looks towards Celestia with worry. “W-What should we do, Celestia?”

Celestia stares into her former protégée’s eyes. Her wings slowly dropping from her sides, not answering her student as she starts to realize. Twilight and her friends start to worry more and more as they see Celestia falling in a trance like state, her wings loosely hanging from her back.

Princess Luna speaks up. “ Let’s fly along the mountain ranges with all three ships independently. Like that we might-“

A low and incredibly powerful rumble starts filling the entire valley, its power making the ship rumble and shake while the nearby trees loose some of their leaves.

Celestia slowly turns around, gazing towards the distant mountain. The massive chimneys on Gryphanus’ underground bunker starting tipping over due to the massive earthquake.

“There never was an exit not a map…” Whispers Celestia as she watches the chimneys in the distance fall towards the mountain, her expression stoic and cold while her sister and her subjects gasp in horror, some screaming as the entire mountain erupts like the biggest volcanic eruption they’ve ever witnessed.

The falling chimneys couldn’t even impact with the top of the mountain as it blew up before they reached the ground. Dirt, rocks, and massive boulders fly with insane speed into the air, soon raining down onto the valley.

The expanding shockwave merely strips the most nearby trees of their vegetation. They sway back and forth. Not snapping nor burning as the mountain shielded the valley from the immense power of the nuclear bomb. Only a few trees snap as the massive boulders finally start to rain down onto the valley.

The ponies on the deck watch the scene unfolding in front of their eyes with horror written all over their faces. Merely Celestia is still in her trance, her lifeless pupils staring towards the distance, the fiery explosion reflecting on her eyes.

Princess Luna snatches the radio device from Twilight and hastily speaks into it.

“This is Luna, Answer us immediately Joseph! … JOSEPH!”

As expected, no reply. Not even the usual static could be heard now.

Everyone except Celestia gasps in shock and fear as several massive boulders soaring trough the sky are headed right towards their ship.

The ponies walk backwards in terror. Fluttershy dives behind a wooden crate on the deck and her friends run away in fear as well. Luna immediately charges her horn alone. But luckily the boulders lands just about 20 meters away from the ship, obliterating several trees as it impacts with the forest. Dirt, wood and leaves fly trough the air and darken the afternoon sky even more.

“H-Holy smokes..” Groans a shivering Rainbow as she and her friends get up on all fours. AJ helps Fluttershy and pinkie up. They all look towards their leaders standing on the bow of the ship. The massive extent of the detonation is now clearly visible.

Gryphanus entire mountain was eradicated. Instead of the massive peak, there is now a smoking crater. The nearby mountains also suffered some damage, their peaks broken off a few landslides still happening here and there. The massive dirt and smoke cloud keeps rising into the air.

The ponies fold their ears against their heads. Applejack removes her Stetson hat, holding it in front of her chest, nopony says anything, clearly all being still in shock.

“I-I am so sorry dear sister…” Luna tries to comfort her sister, draping a wing over her back. The other ponies look with sad expressions towards their sun princess. Twilight slowly walks to the other side of her former mentor, also trying to comfort her with her presence and a wing of her own.

Celestia doesn’t react though, not even looking at them. Twilight can feel Celestia’s body starting to become tense, shaking slightly as she starts to open her mouth slowly, her shaking intensifying.

“W-Why…” She whispers weakly. Soon the alicorn starts to hiccup and sob while tears start rolling down her cheeks. Luna hugs her sister tight, Twilight stepping a bit backwards in respect.

“It’s okay, Tia. It’s okay…” She whispers into her right ear while trying to calm her down the best, swaying a bit back and forth in the hug which Celestia returns, crying into her sisters fur as she clings onto her sister.

All ponies on the deck look towards their forehooves, saddened at the loss of their friend and the pain of their leaders.

“Why…” She keeps sobbing into her sisters fur while muttering the word over and over again, her voice weak and shaky.

“The world can be a dark and unfair place, Tia.”

It seems like her efforts of calming Celestia down work. She relaxes visibly and stops clinging onto Luna. But soon a growl could be heard from Celestia. She removes herself from her sister and bucks angrily into a nearby crate. Obliterating it with her powerful kick accompanied with a loud scream of her.

“T-Tia.. please…” speaks Luna softly, looking at her sister with worry. The other ponies walk back, giving their leader some space. All visibly shaken up, clearly never having seen the solar princess in such a state of distress.

Celestia growls in pain and anger as she grabs a second and third crate with her magic. Flinging them violently off the ship. She then angrily walks towards one of the AA-guns.

Luna follows her sister, trying to calm her down before she does anything stupid. “Celestia, you need to calm down. Y.You…” Luna doesn’t find the right words as Celestia simply starts loading the weapon with her magic, her hooves shaky and eyes already red.

She releases the bolt of the weapon and aims it towards the remains of Gryphanus mountain. Holding down the trigger, she unleashes the power of the weapon Joseph created towards the crater in the distance. She screams in anger as she keeps unloading the weapon, the individually glowing rounds soaring towards the distant mountain.

The ponies on the deck huddle backwards, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy visibly shaken up the most as they see the violent mental breakdown of their usually so peaceful leader.

The barrel of the weapon starts glowing and smoking, the handle soon too hot to hold but Celestia keeps her hooves on the weapon until it clicks, indicating it’s empty. She pants and then starts to chuckle, soon laughing wickedly. Looking towards her sister with bloodshot eyes.

“E-Everything because of a Motherbucking cake, Luna! Can you believe it? Gahha- haaha.” She looks up towards the sky and gives off a desperate weak laugh, her throat clearly sore already.

”A bucking c-cake!”

Luna merely looks sadly towards her forehooves on the wooden deck. Trying not to cry as her sister collapses on the floor, while crying, sometimes still chuckling, and hiccupping silently.