> A Displaced Lich > by Shadowflameking > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I grinned as I finished watching the latest episode of My Little Pony Friendship Is magic, to be clear, I was not a brony, I did not hate nor like the show, barely paid attention to it, but my roommate Matt payed me two bucks for every episode I watched, the only show I really liked was Adventure time. I had watched all 186 episodes of Mlp and each time Matt payed me two bucks, he payed me ten to sit with him and watch the movie, so I had collected 382 dollars, two hundred of which went into my costume, oh I forgot to mention that didn't I? Well, there was a cartoon and video game convention tomorrow, I had spent most the money I had gotten from Matt, on a very life like Lich King costume, it had everything, but since I didn't like that one broken horn the Lich had, I had that fixed, the eyes of the costume would glow green from lights placed behind black tinted glasses glued into the mask itself, going to sleep I couldn't wait for tomorrow. Waking up around 10:25 am I grabbed some breakfast and started putting on my costume, the convention was at a local mall, just three blocks away, so I wouldn't need to drive there, after getting my costume on I turned to Matt. "Well, what ya think?" I had the head piece 3D printed and then painted with the correct colors, a grey cloak that I had shredded at the bottom to make it look old and worn, the cape was the same color and held in place by a chain painted yellow and two rubies in the center of the parts keeping the cape on, and for the final touch a metal crown like the one from the show, it was a complete bitch finding someone to make a copy of the Lich Kings crown but it was damned well worth it because I looked just like the dude. He gave a thumbs up. "From the pics of that guy I've googled ya look just like em aside from having four fingers and two horns." He was in a Discord costume, think Discord but humanized, he even had that stupid golden cane with the head of Twilight on it, as I have said before I don't pay much attention to the show but if you watch enough of it things like names tend to stick. We walked to the convention, and split ways and agreed to meet back at the house in at five, walking to random booths I bought two double barrel sawed off shotguns from the Mad Max game for twenty bucks each, even fake shells for them, about 40, and I also bought a six shot .44 revolver from the game 'Red Dead Redemption' now some of you may wonder, why the fuck did ya just buy those when they had nothing to do with your costume? Its because fuck you, I can buy whatever I damn well please with my money, besides that they where hidden under my cloak and thus no one could see them. I was just about to go hit the food court before I saw a stand that was run by a chick dressed as Fiona, a female version of Finn, walking up to the stand I noticed a bunch of things for sale, most looked like magic things you'd see in the show Adventure Time, but what caught my interest was the ten black and green orbs and a vial of glowing white stuff, most likely supposed to be a guardians healing blood like from the show, along with a book called the Enchiridion, the book of heros, it had all the gems in the center needed to open a portal to Prismo and everything. "Nice costume dude, what ya gonna buy?" Wow, she sounded just like Fiona from the show, but those orbs looked just like the ones from the Mlp movie. "I'll take the ten green and black orbs, the vial of guardian blood, and the Enchiridion please." I grabbed my wallet. "That'll be fifty bucks." I handed her the cash and placed the items inside a pocket of my cloak, only for everything to turn blinding white and searing pain. My skin and flesh melted away, my skull grew two curved back horns, and the pain became worse when I felt thousands upon thousands of years worth of knowledge shoved inside my skull, I would have screamed but I currently did not have vocal cords. I should have blacked out from the pain, but alas I was not that lucky, and was plopped into what looked like a crumbling throne in some kinda large stone room with no exit. Trying to move I found I couldn't, I was just bones...fuck I couldn't move, I could only stare at one area of the stone floor to, this was gonna get boring quickly, but just as I was about to accept being a skeleton stuck in a tomb a large stone door pulled itself up and a weird blue cat thing walked in. "Finally after a year of perpetration, I have finally found the tomb of the Undead King, and this time Daring Do has no hope to stop me." He walked up to my skeleton and pulled out a jar of green blood, a cup of red powder, and some kind of weird amulet that looked like a unicorn with wings along with a blood red gem in the center. He opened the jar and poured the red powder in, before putting the amulet around my neck and pouring the jar of green blood and red powder onto me. Suddenly there was a flash of red and green before rotted flesh grew on my bones, and my eye sockets lit up a toxic green color and I was able to move again, standing up I looked at the being who did this, he looked like some Aztec god reject, I was about to speak before he started laughing like a classic movie villain. "Yes! rise once again so that you may rule with me! Ahuizotal!" Before I was able to reply the sound of fighting was heard and a tiger of all things was thrown through the large door before an anthro gold colored pegasus walked in, shes gonna get sued for ripping off Indiana Jones I'm sure of it. "Ahuizotal ! stop this before its to...!" She saw me in all my bony glory and glared at Ahuizotal before running off after throwing down a small smoke bomb. I turned to Ahuizotal after she ran off. "Where are we now and were is the nearest town?" It felt weird talking and hearing the Lich's voice and not my own if I'm being honest here. He got out a map and showed it to me, there was no names on the map, just pictures of cities and villages. "We are in the Everfree Forest thirty miles away from us now the closest town would be this one." He pointed to what looked like a small village on the map, again there were no names on this map for some stupid ass reason. "Then lets go, but I will not hesitate to shoot you if I need to." How was I gonna shoot him you might ask? Well the fake guns in my cloak felt heavier so I assumed they had become real like the orbs and vial of healing blood I had bought, which would also mean the book of heros would be real as well, We began walking in the direction of that town. Daring Do was flying almost as fast as Rainbow Dash had when she made a sonic rainboom, her target was Ponyville to warn the town of the evil that had just been unleashed onto the world once again it took her almost two hours going at her top speed to reach the town, but it was well worth it as she flew into Twilight's castle. And crashed right into the Princess Of Friendship herself as it was early morning causing Twilight to spill her coffee, her mug falling to the floor and shattering to a thousand pieces. "Sorry Princess! but we have a HUGE problem!" Daring helped Twilight up from the floor Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stood up. "And what would that be exactly?" She yawned, Spike hadn't even made any food yet. "The Undead King has risen again and is most likely going to come here, he has to be stopped or else he'll kill us all." Twilight's eyes widened and her horn glew purple before there was a bright flash and the rest of her friends where in the room with her and Daring, and Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Explain." Daring cleared her throat. "Long ago there was a ruthless king who was said to be undead, as nopony could kill him, this was long before Equestria was founded before then it had no name, but this king's only goal was the extinction of all life, he would have gotten his wish had it not been for some unknown hero who defeated him, the Undead King's followers built a temple to him and had it sealed with him on a throne of stone and bone." Twilight tilted her head. "And he's on his way here, now?" Daring nodded her head. And Twilight rang the castles alarm causing the guards in said castle to rush for combat, getting their muskets ready for a battle in case the mane six couldn't deal with this threat, they would arrive far to late however. Me and Ahuizotal had been walking for five hours, in that time I had a horrible migraine as random bursts of knowledge busted its way into my head, things like black magic, necromancy, things like that. I had also checked my cloak pockets and everything I had bought had become real, I had loaded each sawed off shotgun and checked the revolver, it only had six shots and I had a box of ammo on me for it that held 50 bullets for it, and to my surprise my Mp3 player and the headphones for said device. Animals stayed clear of us sensing that it would not end well for them if they tried to make either one of us lunch, most likely me, about another hour of walking later we came out of the trees and saw the village that was on the map. We walked into town, only to notice all the windows and doors had been boarded up from the inside and the town looked abandoned I was about to ask Ahuizotal just how old that map was before a rainbow colored blur shot into me knocking me back a few feet, the town sign had said 'Welcome to Ponyville, population two hundred.' so I knew this was that show Matt payed me to watch but an anthro version of it. I threw the rainbow one off me and to the dirt before a lasso of all things was tied around me. "Hold on Rainbow I got'cha!" Applejack yelled and tried to yank the rope to pull me down, I was having none of it and green flames burned the rope to ashes. Before Ahuizotal was able to react to this Daring do had kicked him in the side of the head ninja style and knocked him out before tying him up, I pulled out one of the pre-loaded shotguns and aimed it at her, before shooting both barrels causing her head to explode in a rather glorious fashion, and causing the rainbow one to scream bloody murder and dive at me from the air, when she got close I stepped to the side and grabbed her by the wings causing her to yelp. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit strangers?" She growled and tried to get out from under me, so I tugged on her wings as hard as I could causing her to scream loudly as the sound of breaking bone and tearing flesh filled the air before her wings were ripped off and I picked her up by the throat before throwing her into Applejack causing Rainbow to black out from the pain. Fluttershy who had been hiding behind Rarity suddenly flared her wings and glared at me. "How dare you..." I looked around. "How dare I?" Again it was super fucking weird to have the Lich's voice. Fluttershy's eyes widened as she used 'the stare' "How dare you! You do not come into MY home and hurt my friends! Now say sorry!" I rolled my eyes and shot her in the shoulder with the revolver before aiming it at Ahuizotal and shot three shots into his skull, he was dead weight the second he got knocked out and would be useless to me, while the others had been distracted I walked off and saw a train station with a train just leaving the station, hopping onto the train just as the last car left the station I saw it was mostly empty and the car I was in was completely empty, I watched the town get smaller and smaller as the train chugged along, meanwhile Twilight had rushed Rainbow and Fluttershy to the hospital for treatment, completely forgetting about the Lich. > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was hours later, Twilight and the rest of her friends where in the hospitals waiting room, Fluttershy's eyes where red and puffy, she had been treated and had a sling on her right arm to prevent her from hurting her should more, Pinkie's mane was strait, Rarity looked shocked, and Applejack was angry, while Twilight was pacing back and forth around the room, unable to sit still. Another hour later a chocolate brown stallion walked out of a door and to the mane 5 "I have some good news, and some bad news." They leaned in to listen, not breathing. "Your friend will be fine and will make a swift recovery, but, we had to amputate what was left of her wings, I am truly sorry but there was no way to save them." "Thank you Doctor, we are glad she will be fine, we will keep an eye on her, how long will she be here?" Twilight asked. "About three days, the healing spells on her back should be finished by then, and the pain killers should also wear off by then." The Doctor nodded and walked off to check on others. I looked out a window in the back and saw a giant mountain split down the middle perfectly like someone took a huge knife and sliced the mountain like someone would butter, I hopped off the train before it could pass the mountain, and started walking. I wondered why I wasn't flipping the fuck out about being on another world, I think it was because the only person who will notice Im gone would be Matt, since I had no family to speak of and because Matt could pay the bills himself with all the cash he has, he has never told me where he makes so much money though, I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the large crack in the earth until I fell in, and landed face first onto a large one eye'd goat skull. Standing up I noticed I barely felt any pain from that, and noticed a weird gold thingamajig on the ledge of the little rock I was on, grabbing it I placed it into my cloak pocket, who knows might be worth something. Looking up I slowly climbed back up, it took me three fucking hours to get to the top though, when I did I continued my walk up the mountain, and finally after almost six hours I reached a town that was called 'Griffinstone' if the sign was anything to go by, I saw a lot of anthro griffins, and some shops, I pulled the gold thing out of my cloak, still not knowing what to call the fucking thing, and was about to ask if anyone wanted to buy it, but before I could all griffins locked their eyes onto the gold thing in my hand. "He...he has it, The Idol of Boreas, I can't believe after all this time it has finally been found." An elderly griffin with a scar over one of his eyes spoke and walked up. All griffins bowed to me, after a minute this was starting to get weird so I spoke up. "Why the hell are you all bowing to me?" I still found it weird to hear the Lich's voice and not my own when talking. The griffin with the eye scar spoke up, telling me the tale of the idol and how it had united them making them the envy of all other species. "So what your saying is, because I have this idol, you are making me the ruler of this kingdom?" Damn, if it was that easy back on earth there would be no need for nukes...or guns. Almost every griffin said. "Yes pretty much." At the same time, it was a little fucking creepy, but then again so is a seven foot tall skeleton that looks like a zombie on crack and magic. I rolled my eyes and went with it. "Well alright then!" I was led to a castle that looked to have seen better days, griffins where already working on repairing it, as a small explanation about why I dressed as the Lich, it was because I loved villeins, even the villeins from that mlp show Matt payed me to watch, but the best one in my opinion was the Lich, he only had one goal, the extinction of all life, and nothing would stand in his way to get what he wanted, and now I was him, aside from not wanting to kill everything like him, but now I had a base of operations to work from, and best of all? a fuck ton of minions to do as I wished and would kill if I told them to. Walking back into the town I saw a gun shop next to a blacksmith shop, seems they didn't have steal or at the very least no one on the planet has discovered how to make it yet, the only known metals were copper, tin, zinc, lead, gold, silver, aluminum, and iron they also had flintlock smooth bore muskets, pistols, and I even saw a blunderbuss, one of the first shotguns. Looking at my own guns I had an idea and looked to the Enchiridion, I could break it at any time and cause the portal to Prismo the wish master to open at any point, I'll wait just a little bit longer till I know just exactly what I wanted to wish for. Looking through a few books I had brought to me about Equestria I realized that Equestria was kinda fucked up, they banned non unicorns from making weapons and tools that wouldn't need expensive enchantments that would wear out with use, there was a law making it a crime to eat meat or blood even if you where an omnivore or a carnivore, and they had prohibition laws making alcohol illegal in any shape or form, and from what the griffins told me thestrals are part vampire bat and need blood and meat and are omnivores, but Celestia's house of nobles put up bans of consuming blood or meat in Equestria, and thestrals are provided with a 'fake blood' potion that barely gives them what they need but the catch is to get it you have to be part of the Luna guard, or struggle to afford it on your own. Looking over to a few barrels of black powder I grinned thinking of an idea, but before it could be put in place I took the Enchiridion, and smashed it causing it to crack and ripple as a portal formed from thin air, and hopped in. I was in a large yellow room with a large flat pink guy who was on the walls, Prismo the wish master, he spoke and sounded just like he did in the show. "What can I do for ya?" I had planned what I was gonna wish for the second I saw the kind of firearms they had on that planet. "I wish, for a hundred wishes." Prismo groaned. "I hate when they do that, fine what do you want?" "First nice to meet ya, and my first wish is I want a sandwich with mustard, salami, lettuce, tomato, pickle, on white bread." There was a small flash of light and I was holding my sandwich. "As for my second wish I wish for two hundred M2 heavy machine guns in 50 cal with unlimited ammo for each, like in some video games, two thousand 1921 Tommy guns in .45 that have a 50 round drum magazines, a hundred M249 SAW's that shoot 50 cal and has a one hundred round belt fed contained in a metal box on the side of the gun, a few hundred SVT-40's in 50 cal, enough colt 1911 pistols to give every griffin who will join my army a side arm, three hundred pump action shotguns, and ammo for all of these and blueprints to make said ammo for all of these." I ran out of breath at the last part, was my wish op? sure! did I give a fuck about that? fuck no! Im the BAD GUY I don't give a shit If Im fighting cavemen with spears made of bone and stone or If Im fighting fucking aliens, I will use whatever weapons I damned well please! With a flash of light a large military shed popped into existence by the castle that was four floors deep and filled to the brim with the weapons I had wished for. "I also wish for trenches around my entire kingdom like the ones the Germans used in world war one." Another flash and my wish was done. "Will that be all for now?" I shook my head. "This last one will be it for now, I wish to have a way to come back here or talk to you for more wishes and secondly I need a fleet of planes, to be specific a fleet of P-51 mustang's a thousand strong, and to have unlimited fuel, and for a red light-saber, that will be all for now." With a flash I was back at the castle and had my sandwich in hand and a phone in my pocket that only had Prismo in the contact list. Eating the sandwich I grinned thinking of all the destruction I would be able to cause with an army outfitted with MODERN weapons, and not the shitty flintlock muskets and pistols that everyone else used. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was around three weeks later, Rainbow Dash had been released from Ponyville hospital and was living with Fluttershy since she could no longer reach her cloud home, and Fluttershy's shoulder had healed nicely due to healing magic there where wanted posters for the Lich everywhere he was wanted for harming two Elements of Harmony, despite the fact the mane six no longer had the elements they where still called the elements of harmony by most ponies. Celestia sighed as she looked out a window in her throne room, her kingdom was turning into chaos, earth pony farmers where rioting due to the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation's latest price being two hundred bits more then last year, causing many farmers to resort to bootlegging due to the fact they couldn't pay six hundred bits for some lazy pegasi to move a few clouds here and there then nap for a few hours in the trees, they have to pay said pegasi by the hour and HAVE to pay them forty bits an hour, so you can see why the earth ponies would riot or revolt. Many farmers had gone missing, almost all earth ponies in her kingdom where hiding, she had no clue where they could be, but she had gotten a letter saying that a large caravan of earth ponies had been seen headed to the ruins of the Griffin Kingdom, even thestrals had been abandoning there posts and hiding so they could hunt in peace and eat what they needed to eat, she knew the fake blood the nobles made them take instead of the blood and meat they needed was a poor substitute but she had felt it important to get the them back into Equestria and ready for her sister's guard before she returned, Luna had no clue about the fake blood being a poor substitute and if she found out that Celestia had lied to her she feared what Luna would do, but since Luna's guards where slowly leaving she had no choice but to tell her soon. As for the Griffin Empire as it was now called, it was booming, the trenches around the empire's borders where manned with M2 heavy machine gun nests and griffin troops wearing desert military uniforms armed with Tommy guns and 1911 pistols, and the griffins armed with STV-40's where the snipers of the army, and most had a scope attachment on them to help with shooting targets, then there where the griffins who where armed with the M249 SAW's, they where the heavy's of the griffin army, a portable heavy machine gun that could be carried into battle, and the empire's new flag was a white fanged human skull with horns like mine and glowing toxic green eyes with a black background. Training griffins to use these weapons was a little more easy then I had thought it would be, since they are so very different to the muskets and one shot slow loading weapons they where used to, but they got the hang of it pretty quickly, and I had introduced how t make steel, I mainly knew this stuff because I watched a lot of random youtube videos and documentaries on things such as world war two fighter craft, that was why I had wished for the mustang's because I just loved the way the plane looked and due to the fact it was one of the best fighters of the war, they had a Mk 2 heavy machine gun in each wing loaded with 50 caliber shells that could pierce through the thickest armors other kingdoms used, since said machine gun could shot through slabs of steel and concrete I don't think it will be much of a challenge to shoot through thin iron and wood, I looked to the map I had with me, and on it with a large red circle on it was the griffin isles. Soon it would be time to begin my plan to make this empire the largest in the world. > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was two weeks later and Celestia had run out of time to tell Luna the truth about the fake blood the nobles where making Luna's night ponies take instead of the meat and blood they needed, to be fair though the nobles put a ban on the consumption of meat and blood apply to any sentient species in Equestria, that was the main reason you don't see many griffins or other meat eaters in Equestria. "45 Tia! three garrison's worth of my Children of the Night forswore their oath to me and fled to another kingdom! because of your nobles blood and meat laws!" Luna screamed at Celestia, her eyes glowing white as the moon she loved. "This is not my fault, Luna!" Celestia shouted back angrily, crossing her arms across her chest. "Oh, are there more lies you would like to add to the list?" Luna raged. With a bright white flash she summoned a vial of the blood substitute. She waved it in front of Celestia's nose. "When I returned, you told me of the ridiculous blood and meat laws those moronic nobles put on my thestrals. You told me of this, this drek you forced them to drink instead of the fluid of life they need. You swore to me that it was as good as the real thing. You PROMISED me that it would do them no harm!" "And being the fool that I am, I believed you." Her eyes narrowed. "When I heard of my little night ponies abandoning me to sate their hunger, I secured vials of the potion for myself, and tested them. Do you know what I found?" The bottle shook in rage. "It was CRAP! Not half of the vital essences of real blood or meat, and mere traces of those, stirred in with a potion to suppress the appetite. This, this colored water would not nourish any omnivore!" Luna threw the bottle against a wall causing it to burst open with the sound of shattering glass as the pale pinkish liquid inside spilled to the floor and soaked into the carpet. Celestia looked shocked and hurt, it was to late to tell her sister the truth now. "Luna, I swear to you I did not know." Celestia pleaded. Luna turned to face her. "How could you not?" she screamed. "They were under your rule almost a century before I returned! Did you not question why my thestrals seemed So much weaker? Why they left the service for health reasons, near a decade sooner than your own Solar Guard? Why after returning from exile, they began slowly dying out?" Celestia shook her head. "Luna, I never knew the inner workings of your thestrals the way you did, my physicians and alchemists, the best minds swore to me over and over that the synthetic blood was doing them no harm, it was never meant to be a permanent solution, just a temporary thing, till the ponies were used to them again. I knew the alchemist's blood was a poor substitute, but I felt it was more important to have your faithful followers returned to Equestria, and waiting for you when you returned." "Then why did you banish them in the first place?" Luna's tone was cold and emotionless. "It wasn't me who banished them! it was the house of nobles along with the rest of Equestria who did! had I tried to stop it there would have been full out riots and violence Luna! it pained me to see you gone, and to see my ponies being so racist to your ponies because they choose to stay with you even as Nightmare Moon." Luna rolled her eyes and huffed. "You wished not to be seen as a tyrant yet in doing so you let the nobles pretty much take over the kingdom and force others to do what they wanted, even the earth ponies are abandoning you because the nobles and the Cloudsdale Weather Corporation raising their taxes and trapping them on their own land, and to make matters worse most earth ponies who haven't fled the kingdom have resorted to bootlegging because of your moronic prohibition laws, sister you have lost my respect because of the blood and meat laws, and because you let the nobles take control of the kingdom even though we both SWORE on our mother and fathers name that we would not let that happen no matter what happened, from this point on I am no longer an Equestrian princess and I do not want to see you again till you fix this kingdom,if you cannot do that than do not bother trying to contact me, and I am taking my ponies away from this shit show of a kingdom." Luna took off in flight, and popped a magic flare that was white, seconds after she did so around three hundred thestrals followed her in flight as they flew off into the distance. Celestia stared at Luna as she flew off with her ponies, and broke down sobbing. It was hours later before she stopped and sat back onto her throne to start day court, but meanwhile Luna was flying towards the ruins of the Griffin Kingdom, she knew her ponies would be accepted there due to the fact griffins are omnivores, she saw a large herd of earth ponies moving there as well, and joined them, it would be three hours of following the tracks before they would make there way into Griffinstone. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I grinned seeing the mustang's flying outside from one of the many windows in the castle, why did I wish for mustang's and not jets you may wonder, because FUCK YOU! I love the old fashioned planes and had watched some documentaries on them, I was enjoying a nice meal of sausage, biscuit, and gravy, while I no longer needed to eat I did so because I like the taste, just as I was cutting into another biscuit a servant rushed in and bowed before he started talking. "Your highness, I think we might have a small problem!" Ah Storm Claw, never change you glorious bastard. "Do tell, because I love solving problems, with violence." My eyes flashed toxic green as I said that. "With all due respect sir this kind of problem can't be solved with violence, a large herd of earth ponies and thestrals have showed up seeking shelter and new lives and have abandoned Equestria as a whole, but an Equestrian princess is with them, and claims she is done and has left the throne to look for a new home for her ponies and those that have followed her, what should we do sire?" That was a lot of information to process, I thought for a few moments before I speaking up. "Find them places to stay and have them follow our laws, breaking these laws will result in harsh punishment and possible death, I am not to be disturbed as I have a matter of great importance to attend to." "At once your highness." He bowed and quickly left the room, and I finished my meal before pulling out a gold bit from my pocket. What may be so special about this bit you may wonder? for one it had a picture of Bill fucking Cipher on it and when I held it you could hear this exact sentence. "Hiya! Im Bill Cipher dream demon extraordinaire! Im not really a bad guy or a good guy, so if ya ever need any help then we can strike a deal!" I was so fucking confused when I first found the coin, but if what the voice in it said is true I might be able to gain some information on how I was sent here. I tapped the coin, not sure how to reply to the message. "Um....I summon thee?" Pathetic I know, but the coin glew yellow before there was a flash of white and Bill himself was floating in front of me. "Hiya! what can I do for ya?" He tipped his hat causing gravity to cry in agony for a few moments before it was returned to normal. "Do you have any clue how I had gotten here?" I asked and it was fucking strange seeing him not on a screen. "Oh so Im the first displaced you've summoned! well to answer your question, you my friend are whats known as a displaced, also known as dimensionaly misplaced being, either you went to a convention and bought something from a creepy fuck who looked like a merchant from resident evil, or met someone else entirely, either way you are displaced! but don't go thinking your special in any way aside from who ya are as there are thousands if not millions of others like us who got screwed up the ass by the merchant." "Okay and my last question is, the hell is up with this coin?" I held up the bit I used to summon him. He chuckled for a few moments. "That is a token, many displaced have them or call them by another name, all you need to do is find something and force some of your energy into it and say a phrase, now I would love to help further but Im missing an epic battle between Discord and Deadpool so bye!" He was gone in another flash and his bit on the floor, I picked up the bit and placed it back into my pocket. "That was...weird yet informative." I shrugged and went about my plan again, and looked at the blueprints I took from my cloak pocket, those orbs I had I later found out were called obsidian orbs and my plan was to have one in the center of a barrel of black powder before blowing it up causing the green mist to go over large areas of land and air, and would petrify any who got caught in it, t'was the perfect plan aside from trying to choose who to use it on. Checking a list of kingdoms I tried to choose what one to bomb with my new weapon, it would be at night with the planes painted black to hide better so it was most likely they wouldn't find who did it, there was Equestria, the Crystal Empire, the Minotaur Kingdom, the Caribou Empire, Zebrica, and the Changeling Empire. All are within range of my bomber planes thanks to the unlimited fuel wish for the planes when I asked Prismo for said planes to begin with. I sighed and gave up trying to find one to bomb first, and decided I needed to use my magic, I had only used it once when I burned the rope from that orange bitch, walking outside I let out a small wave of green magic that soaked into the ground, I could sense bones of long dead warriors around me, and forced some of my magic into one of them. I watched as a skeletal hand burst from the ground and with it another and a head as the long dead griffin pulled itself out from the ground, it had a red bronze armor on that was full of dents and scratches, its eyes had a sickly green glow in them and I was grinning hard, until I heard a voice behind me. "You practice the dark arts?" I turned around to see Luna, again if you watch the show even without paying much attention to it you tend to pick up things like names and locations even if ya don't wanna, she was 6 foot 3 and had on a midnight blue dress with silver mixed in, when I turned around I saw her pale a bit seeing as Im a seven foot tall skeleton that looks like something out of a horror movie that was to be expected. "Yes, is that going to be a problem?" My eyes once again flashed toxic green as a warning. She shook her head. "No, unlike my moronic sister I know that the dark arts are only dark if used to cause mass death." I shrugged and waved my hand, and the griffin's bones fell into a heap motionless, the green glow from its skull gone. "So what brought you to my domain?" Oh now she looked pissed. "My sister has let the nobles take over the kingdom, and in doing so almost condemned my little night ponies to extinction due to lack of meat and blood in their diets, she is loosing control over the kingdom faster than she can handle it, I gave up my throne in Equestria because I knew my ponies would not be accepted there due to the blood and meat laws, along with the nobles, so even if I did have a problem with it I would have no power to do anything against you without invoking your wrath." "Well you and others are welcome here, stay out of my way, and don't as questions about my plans for this world, and we will get along just fine, maybe even be friends! but remember, I don't tolerate others braking my laws, any who do so will be punished as if they are citizens of this empire, regardless of status or titles." She nodded. "Seems reasonable, I shall leave you alone for now, perhaps we can talk more over some tea or alcohol." She spread her wings and took off in flight. I look the the bones of the griffin I had raised from the dead before having it rebury itself and walked back into the castle to the training grounds, griffin troops where training to use the weapons I had gotten them, and a few days ago I had wished for fifty world war two battleships that ran on gas with 50 cal anti air weapons, they where like the ones the USA had during that time, but there where a few things I wasn't gonna wish for, nukes being one of em cause fuck that I am not destroying the world completely, and I had introduced radio communication as well, so my troops could talk to each other at any time on the field of battle anywhere. And the best part about the wishes I had is I could wish for something and all I would have to do is say a specific number, and the battleships ammo supply would respawn every ten minutes, same for the planes I had. Looking over the information I had some griffins gather for me about other kingdom's military might it was kinda pathetic compared to mine, wooden ships with muzzle loading cannons for the navy? and they shot stone cannon balls not even metal ones, airships that use explosive gas to keep afloat? those could be taken down by my M2 50 cal anti air guns, and for artillery every kingdom just had large cannons that needed TWENTY soldiers to load a five ton cannon ball, I had just asked Prismo for a hundred howitzers to be specific they where M777 field howitzers that could lob a 155 millimeter shell 25 miles. And for troops on the ground I wished for a few hundred RPG's so they could take out an enemy airship if needed. Now so most of you out there this may seem like Im being far to over powered, and you would be right! but I like to think of it like this, there's no kill like overkill, and besides the fact Im the fucking bad guy and don't care what others think of me, speaking of I noticed when I was turned into the Lich my emotions were....dulled, they where still there but they where dulled down, like when you have a glass of juice and someone waters it down, you can tell the difference. I looked over the map of the world, and decided I would take back the griffin isles, it belonged to the Griffin Kingdom before ponies invaded and settled there just before the collapse of the Griffin Kingdom, building the city of Trottingham, and I was gonna take that island back, because it would be the perfect area to place field artillery that could bombard any incoming ships or airships with anti air fire, and because it was only twenty miles away from Griffinstone itself so the ships docked in the harbor should be able to hit the islands without even needing to leave the damned harbor. Clicking the button on the hand held radio I had on me at all times. "Its time, fire the shells, explosive armor piercing and armor piercing incendiary shells, your target is the shore of Trottingham, it shall serve as a warning to leave or face extermination." The radios buzzed to life with orders being sent down to the battleships, and the large 310 millimeter cannons on the ship slowly turned towards the islands and let loose ten shells with loud bangs causing the ship to rock back some. Ponies in Trottingham heard a loud whistling sound before 310 millimeter shells impacted just off the shores of the main island, causing ponies to scream and flee in terror, while the royal guard and solar navy had seen the shells come from the ruins of the Griffin Kingdom, and had ten navy ships sail out to engage the hostile griffins, along with royal airships, while the royal guards who stayed behind helped those who where panicking. I grinned watching this with the use of a scrying spell, it was like a live action movie, I watched as my battleships moved out of the harbor to engage the primitive wooden ships, they where under orders not to underestimate Equestrian firepower however, because you never know what can happen in the tide of battle. Iron Shine the captain of the Trottingham branch of the royal navy watched as large ships FAR larger than their own slowly moved forward, the ships where made of metal for Celestia's sake! they should be sinking not sailing! and how are they even sailing without masts to catch the wind!? "Where is my airship support!?" He screamed into the communication spell, after he said that three Equestrian royal navy airships floated into view and took place above the Equestrian navy ship. Iron Shine grinned. "Ha lets see them talk big now." Just after he said that a loud voice boomed from the metal monster of a ship. "By order of his majesty the Lich King you are to vacate the Griffin Isles or be terminated, you have five minutes to comply before shelling of the island will begin." Iron growled and grabbed his communication stone. "Fire the cannons at that airship!" The royal airships shot twelve pound cannon balls, enough to breach the normal wooden ships all kingdoms used, but they shattered upon impact when hitting the ship, and Iron along with the crew of his ship and the airships noticed a large shadow slowly blocking the sun before most of the Equestrian's paled. Ya see I knew about the world war one zeppelins, how could I not Im a history nut, but anyway the point is, I asked prismo for zeppelins that where seven hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and kept afloat with helium bags that would never leak unlike modern zeppelins and unlike the world war one versions this was driven through the sky using six jet engines and the command center was connected through the entire airship so that it was one large motherfucker, this thing was armed with MK-19 automatic grenade launchers and 50 caliber browning machine guns along with three tons of bombs, and howitzers, you heard me right six M777 howitzers built into the sides, three for each side of the massive ship, it was the behemoth of the Griffin air force. And one of them was above the ship I had sent to 'negotiate' the ponies 'willing' vacating of the islands. Iron Shine looked up at the massive airship, before grabbing his communication stone again. "Fire on that airship! I want it taken down NOW!" The royal airships fired upon the massive airship, only to get taken down by howitzer fire, along with grenades being shot at it by the MK-19 grenade launchers on bored the ship, one of the ships started flying away with its engines smoking as it flew towards Canterlot. Iron Shine looked to the massive weapons of war pointed at them, before doing the wise thing and fleeing for his damned life along with everyone else on the ship, soon after that the shelling of Trottingham began and civilians and guards alike started evacuating, two hours later I controlled the Griffin Isles and once again griffins settled down on the islands, turning it into a military outpost. > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The royal airship that had fled from the battle of metal, as it was soon named by those flying the craft, slowly crash landed into a Canterlot airship dock much to the surprise of the guards there. Royal guards stormed up to the crash to help with any wounded or in need of medical attention, before the captain of the ship rushed off to the throne room, and ignored the guards and burst in slamming the huge doors into the marble they where built into. Princess Celestia's head shot up from the scrolls she was reading. "What is the meaning of this!?" She shouted at the captain. Captain Dusk Shine bowed. "I am sorry your highness, but three of our royal airships where taken out by an airship far larger that our own, and the Griffin Isles have been taken by the griffins, they said that due to their new ruler 'The Lich King' we where to leave the island or be terminated, they held up to that threat your majesty." Celestia's glare dropped and she frowned. "Griffin airships you say? that should be impossible due to the fact that griffins no longer have a kingdom, just lands in which they fight for things like water, food, and gold." "I do not know your majesty, but these griffins where armed far better than any of our troops." Celestia thought for a few moments before speaking. "You are on paid leave, go spend time off and relax, same for everypony else who was on that ship, they've earned it." Dusk bowed and left the throne room, and Celestia thought about what he had told her, and summoned a scroll along with a jar of dragon fire, before writing a letter to the other rulers of the world. Within hours the other leaders of the world where in a small meeting room, when I say small I mean about the size of a 7-11, Celestia spoke up. "Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria." She sat down as the others continued on as per normal. A diamond dog that looked like a breed of cane corso spoke up next, he sounded like someone from New York. "King Bonejaw, ruler of The Diamond Dogs." He sat down. "King Golden Horns, Ruler of The Minotaur Islands." The seven foot tall minotaur sat down, causing the stone of his seat to crack some. "Queen Kaliwa Ruler of Zebrica." Said zebra sat down and thus the meeting could take place. "I have called you all here today because I think we might be on the verge of war with a new and powerfull kingdom." Celestia took a sip of water. "One that has automatic cannons and muskets, and airships that far outclass any we may have." "How is that possible? what kingdom are we talking about?" Bonejaw spoke up, he didn't like the idea of a kingdom with better technology than his, if that was the case what would be able to stop said kingdom from raiding his city and his jems? Celestia looked at the rest of those sitting at the table. "I know not what the kingdom is called, but it has made itself out of the ruins of the Griffin Kingdom, and has violently taken the Griffin Isles from Equestria and forced everypony on said islands to evacuate or die, from the reports I was given they had large metal ships that our enchanted stone cannon balls did nothing and shattered against the hull of the metal ship, along with an airship that is over six hundred hooves larger than our own ships." The room fell quiet, if what Celestia was saying was true, then they might have to combine their forces in order to take this threat down if it becomes worse, along with the caribou sending threats to almost all kingdoms if they both teamed up it would be a large war, possibly as large as the Nightmare War that happend around a thousand and two hundred years ago. As they talked about what they could do to stop a war from happening there where caribou airships where flying towards the Griffin Empire. I had asked Prismo for a few hundred SEA-WIZ units, now for those who don't know what a SEA-WIZ is its an anti-air mini gun that you can find on most modern navy ships, it can automatically select a target and shoot it down, I had renamed it the AAMG or the Automatic anti-air Mini Gun, it has six 20 millimeter gun barrels that can shoot over three thousand rounds a minute and will automatically track and shoot air targets. And right now they where aimed at a fleet of caribou airships, about two hundred ships, and they looked armed to the teeth in terms of this planets weapons, massive cannons and large bags of hydrogen that was lightly armored with thin iron plate...wait a second, taking a closer look I noticed the shape of a water cooled machine gun...holy shit they have maxim guns or something like them, the largest one, about two hundred feet long, slowly started landing near the castle, if things went wrong the anti-air units would be instructed to take down all hostile air targets. I watched as it landed and twenty caribou guards dressed in bronze plate armor stormed out and guarded a caribou that looked much larger than the rest of them and also had on golden armor with a weird helmet with a red gem in the center of it, and did I forget to mention all these caribou where armed with what looked like bolt action rifles and from what I can see from here their airships have water cooled machine guns like the ones of world war one? unlike the flintlocks of every other kingdom as far as I knew, which also meant they could possibly have six shot or five shot revolvers, I still had my revolver and my two sawed off's on me loaded and ready to fire if needed. The largest one was only a foot larger than the rest however, and eye height with me, he calmly walked up to me acting like he owned the place, and stopped in front of me. "I am Commander Steel Hooves, this land is now under caribou rule, any who try to fight will be killed and hung on pikes as a warning to those who try to face the might of the Caribou Empire." He pulled out a revolver, knew it, and aimed it at me, In turn my eyes flashed green and the world around him faded to black, only me and him were there. "What black magic is this!?" He was turning in circles before he aimed his revolver at me again, I only laughed which seemed to piss him off as he let loose two shots into my chest, sadly for him Im undead in such a way that I don't have a brain for him to destroy like most modern zombies, the only way to 'kill' me would be for him to destroy my entire body, and even then I would be forced to invade a host body and take control over it if that did happen. I had learned while testing my magic how to force my will upon someones mind like the Lich had done to the snail in Adventure Time, to everyone else his eyes were black with little white dots in the center, slowly I began walking towards him. "You are to go back to your king or whoever rules you and tell them this." I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. "The Griffin Empire is OFF LIMITS, or else I will hunt down every caribou in the world and laugh as they die by my hands and by the hands of my loyal griffins." I threw him to the ground giving the other caribou a chance to shoot at me, only for them to be shot by my griffin sniper units, that was the signal the AAMG's needed as they began to fire upon the caribou's airships, oh sure they fired back but the damage was minimal when you had mini guns unloading hot lead into them at a rate of over three thousand a minute, soon the battle, if you could even call that a battle, was over and my griffins where picking through the remains of the caribou's airships to see what kind of technology they had, if it was anything that could beat ours than it would be integrated into our defense systems. From what I can gather these caribou are far more advanced than the ponies, minotaur, or diamond dogs, they had enfield bolt action rifle that fire .308 it seems to be the only rifle they have as I can't find any other rifles on the caribou or in the wrecks of their ships, said rifles holds ten rounds, and they also seem to have five shot revolvers that fire .45 Speaking of, their airships are far more advanced as well as they have a crude form of steel, which would explain their machine guns but due to it being crude means their weapons will wear down much faster than a normal rifle would, along with the fact they use black powder to fire their bullets and not smokeless like mine. I had no information on the Changeling Empire whatsoever due to the fact they reside in the badlands, south east of my kingdom, and I wasn't sending scouts out due to me wanting to keep my presence in this world hidden just a little longer. Seeing as the caribou had nothing that would benefit my empire, I had an idea, Equestria, and a great many other kingdoms used muzzle loading smooth bore muskets and flintlock pistols, yes that would be quite nice, Im going to have one of the ships repaired and ran by undead caribou to crash it into Canterlot, they should find all the ammo and other things and start producing them on their own, evening out the playing field, as its no fun to just instantly kill your opponent in combat. With a quick word to Prismo one of the ships was back into the condition it was in before my AAMG's unloaded round after round of lead into it, and with a quick burst of my magic the crew of the ship was back to manning it, aside from the green glow and holes in there bodies they looked like normal caribou, and only had one goal, cause as much death as possible to Canterlot. I grinned watching it fly off into the distance, also picking through the ruins of other ships revealed all airships ran off a engine that used crystal sugar as fuel, so that would explain why there was never any exhaust from their ships engines aside from a small bit of steam, they where using fucking sugar as fuel. With a quick wave of my hand the large caribou who had died due to sniper fire, rose back to his hooves, his eyes filled with a sickly green glow and emotionless, before he took a one person airship, it was very simple, a small basket with a lever for up and down and one for left and right, and a button to make the engine move forward, the gas bag was just tied on with duct tape and simple rope and it only had enough fuel to make it to the Caribou Empire's capital, they resided to the south near the snowy areas of the south. Watching the small airship fly off I sat back on my throne, soon the world would know of me and my empire, and that no one would fuck with me and live. It was six hours later that the House of Rulers meeting came to an end, but as they where all getting ready to leave Canterlot's air raid alarm bells began going off, indicating that Canterlot was under attack by air. Royal guard pegasi armed with muskets with a bayonet attached to the ends flew into the air to see, only a single airship shooting into the city and dropping fire bombs, flying in close they took aim, and fired, only 50 yards away they were within the brown bess muskets killing range and managed to hit three of the four caribou manning the guns before the last was stabbed through the neck by a bayonet, the green glow in their eyes dying with their bodies. The ships where searched and landed before they where studied, abit this would take a month before Equestria would be able to create their own and share the plans with the other kingdoms after checking that everything worked as it was supposed to. Sitting all day on a throne was boring, least I had angry birds to keep me entertained on that phone Prismo gave me, just as I had finished killing the 7th level of pigs in flying machines there was a blue flash of magic as a scroll landed in my lap. Opening it I was being invited to the Changeling Empire to the blue hive by someone named Queen Seelii, seems I have someone who wants be an ally, welp I guess I'll accept as I have nothing better to do, says to be there tomorrow at noon. > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I looked out the window of the small plane that was flying me to the Changeling Empire, why not a royal airship you might ask? it's a waste of resources and time to fit one with things I have no real need for, such as a queen sized bed or a bar, things like that have no place in an airship unless more than one person was sharing the bed. As we flew into the Changeling Empire I noticed something, they had biplanes, they looked to be a SE5A biplane, like the ones the British used in world war one, then again I did see the wrecks of those kinds of planes within the hulls of some of the caribou airships, so this did not surprise me much. The biplanes tried to catch up to our two seat mustang, but were unable to do so due to the pure speed and power of the aircraft we were in, the griffin flying slowly landed on a small strip that had a few biplanes on it, and I hopped out to be met with lewis machine guns pointed at me, my eyes flashed green, they tend to do that when I'm pissed. "You will all lower your weapons or I will kill every last one of you, and laugh as I do so." The shear rage in my voice made some of them tremble, most likely new recruits, before whom I can guess was Queen Seelii stepped up, she looked a lot like Queen Chrysalis, again I remember her cause I love villains, but she had a curved horn, her eyes were blue and slitted like a cats, and her hair was a cyan color. "You must be the ruler of the Griffin Kingdom, I am Queen Seelii ruler over this part of the Changeling Empire, come with me and we shall talk in a more comfortable area." She started walking off, before I followed I had the griffin within the mustang lock the glass to keep others from getting into it and he stayed inside. We walked through halls that looked more like a castle than the hive I had expected to find upon ariving here, and walked into a small room that had a couch, a few chairs, some small tables, and a tray of drinks from tea to booze, and she sat down, I did the same in a chair opposite of her. "Onto the matter at hand, I invited you here to make an alliance, due to my moronic sister Chrysalis, Equestria will soon have aircraft detection systems much like our own and then any scouts we send into Equestrian territory will be spotted and shot down." She grabbed a bottle of what looked like wine and took a long drink from it. "And why me exactly?" It was a valid question as far as I was concerned, how she even fucking knew I existed was unknown. "And on that matter, how the fuck are they only JUST now trying to make the detection system, as you called it?" I asked, remembering that one episode when the changelings invaded, again a love of villains and me being payed to watch the show was coming in handy. She sighed. "My moronic sister tried to invade without talking to me and in doing so put our entire empire at risk, but due to the detection system running of changeling magic they have been trying to get it to work off enchanted gems or unicorn magic, and from what spies have told me they have succeeded." "Again, the fuck does this have to do with me exactly, How could I possibly help you in any way?" She rolled her eyes. "Because your aircraft emit no magic in any shape or form like others do, that's how the system works, once it detects the magic caused by a crystal sugar engine it relays this to pilots in the planes and they take action to shoot down the invading aircraft, I don't know how you managed to make your craft produce no magic from the engines, but due to that you can get past their detection systems, like you did ours." Thinking about it that reminded me of radar, but with magic added into the mix, since my planes have no magic that would make sense they can't be detected. "And what would I or my craft do once past the detection systems exactly?" She gave me a deadpan look. "Are you blind? destroy them, or as many as you can, if you can do this we shall hand over any weapon designs or blueprints to you if you deem them useful." Thinking about it why did they even need planes to begin with? they had wings for fucks sake! "Wait a damned minute, why do you even need planes when your kind have wings exactly?" Queen Seelii buzzed her wings to show me as she spoke. "Changeling wings are thin and fragile, we are not made to fly longer than an hour, two at most before we are forced to land, the planes ensure we are able to stay up longer, and due to our wings jumping out of a crashing plane is quite easy for us." Alright now that made sense I guess, there wings did look like a flies after all. "Alright, what do the detection systems look like and how should I destroy them?" She grabbed a picture from a pocket in her dress and showed it to me, it looked like a large tower with a weird looking piece of metal in the shape of a circle with gems around it. "Alright, I can do this tomorrow around one pm." She nodded, and offered me a drink, I accepted and from there we talked about the best ways to destroy a kingdom, I also corrected her by saying that my empire was called the Griffin Empire, I wondered how the caribou king was liking my little surprise I had made for him, oh well Im sure I would find that out later on. --------------------------------------------------------------------Tomorrow 12:40 AM------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Princess Celestia sighed, the royal airships had been being upgraded to use a new type of weapon, designed by a pony named Iron Hale, Hale rockets, they would be launched out of tubes in the airship and strike a target, they looked much like thick metal tubes with a round end and the back was flat, with three vents with a small three armed spiral that would cause the gasses escaping to cause the rocket to spin, keeping it stable in flight, they were made out of iron and used black powder to propel them, a great advancement in terms of weaponized airships, now it would be simpler to shoot down hostile ships. The rockets had been created around three weeks before the Caribou incident happened, but due to it taking a bit longer than expected to modify airships to accept the new weapon they could only just start being installed into airships new and old alike, with the new advancements in rifles and pistols thanks to the caribou's airship being caught with no damage to it her royal guard and royal airship fleets would soon have better weapons than ever thought possible, all within a few days thanks to Equestrian magic making it simple to replicate the weapons in question, just scan them and copy the scan onto some paper sheets or a bored and they could recreate them, within limit as even with magic the production was still a bit slow, but far faster than if they didn't use magic. It would be much easier to detect any hostile craft as well due to her top scientists getting the magic detection systems to work, they would send out weak waves of magic and if any craft using a crystal sugar engine were hit with would send a signal back, their exact locations could be pinpointed and then the royal air force would shoot them down. A royal guard walked up to Celestia and bowed. "Princess I have been asked for you to follow me to the test site, so you can see the power of the new weapons that have been created." She smiled thinking how her little ponies were just a little safer. "Of course let us be on our way then." Celestia said as they walked over to the airship bay of Canterlot, a large section dedicated to landing and flying airships and testing them on old targets, mock enemy airships that would float with no captains at the wheel. The guard saluted and walked off back to continue his post, and Celestia walked to a section of the airship bay fields that had a general shield spell put into place around it, and soon enough Twilight was escorted into the bubble shield as well to watch the demonstration. "Celestia, what exactly did you call me here for?" Twilight tilted her head as she sat next to Celestia. Celestia looked down and smiled at Twilight. "You are here to witness the first weaponization of a rocket, then you can continue with your friendship festival as normal." She looked over to the airship, tied to the ground yet before it could fire a single rocket Canterlots air raid alarm started going off, as large thick clouds of black smoke began to cover Canterlot, about a minute after large airships started landing, shooting large shells from their cannons as they opened up letting out rather large storm troops, no not stormtroopers from star wars you dense morons, the weird yeti things from that Mlp Movie, back to the story now, Celestia and Twilight quickly fled to Canterlot Castle's vault, only Celestia herself could open the door so they would mostly be safe, sadly Cadence had been turned to stone by commander Tempest's obsidian orbs while all of Canterlot panicked as guards rushed to combat the invades, only to be shot by their Browning Automatic Rifles, or BAR's. I had decided to use something that in my opinion would out do any mustang I had, I asked Prismo for some Horten 229 jets, most don't know this but the Nazi's created the first all wing jet fighter, sadly only three had been constructed so only one real example was still in good condition, but thanks to Prismo I had 50 of these glorious planes, mustangs would still be the main fighter of my empire, but the hortens would be the elites of my forces in air to air, and air to ground combat, the only differences from the ones the Nazi's made was the fact these were made out of titanium, had better engines, modern radar systems, and missiles in on the side of the wings, six per wing, the only thing I did not change was the four 30 mm cannons on the sides of the cockpit, this plane was rather large as well with a length of 24 feet 6 inches a wingspan of 55 feet and a height of 9 feet 2 inches. And right now I was seeing off the pilots who would make me proud, by destroying most of Canterlot, they had a special bomb to deploy to make even more chaos, in the event they were shot down, the plane they were flying would 'respawn' right back onto my air fields, sadly Prismo can't bring back the dead without altering time, and while I may be evil, I'm not gonna fuck with time travel, so the pilot would stay dead, and I only had five wishes left, so I'd have to use them wisely if I wanted to have any ace aside from my technology. I grinned as the hortens took off one after another, and lined up in a V formation while they flew to Canterlot at speeds of almost seven hundred miles per hour. The hortens flew at speeds only dreamed of by most air forces around the world, but unknown to me the Storm Empire had fighters that far outclassed anything Equestria had, by about 70 years or so, the Japanese zero fighter, also known as a A6M Zero, as my hortens approached Canterlot and the detection system towers, their radars began detecting about 20 hostiles, as the hortons closed in on Canterlot things started to heat up , the Storm King’s zero fighters were dominating the skies but luckily for me zero’s were outclassed by my jets, as my hortens had better radar systems, armor, guns and they had missiles, not to mention the hortens speed. As the hortens closed in on their targets they went in for the dive, missiles lit up the sky like they were fireworks, streaking towards their targets, explosions sounded out. One by one fighters exploded, some made evasive maneuvers but they were gunned down by 30mm autocannon fire, as this was happening some of the hortens started to drop their “special” bombs, releasing a green haze over the city, equestrian fighters struggled to even get off the ground, the hortens, after destroying most of the Storm King's fighters, forcing them into retreat, the hortens did one last bombing run of Canterlot, once done they flew back to the Griffin Empire, the towers, and most of Canterlot in ruins along with the Storm King's forces being decimated, the special bombs the hortens dropped were large canisters of chlorine gas, causing any who breathed it in to foam at the mouth and eyes as their lungs filled with fluid, drowning them from the inside, and I grinned once I saw a section of Canterlot fall down the mountain it stood on, seems one of my hortens targeted the support beams keeping that section of the city up, today was a good day, I really need to thank Prismo for recording this for me. > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twenty minutes after the attack Celestia, Twilight, and the rest of the mane six stepped out of the Canterlot Castle vault, Celestia and Twilight having a bubble shield around them to protect them in case of an attack they saw the horrors that had been inflicted upon Canterlot. Fluttershy puked, then fainted when she saw ponies blown up or with their eyes and mouths foaming a pink foam that let wisps of smoke into the air, while the rest of the mane six, and even Celestia despite having white fur, all paled at the sight of dead guards, storm creatures, and civilian ponies all laying dead in the street while Aj and Rainbow Dash stared in shock, Rarity caught sight of a dead Blueblood however and slightly smiled before she quickly stopped before she was noticed by her friends, at this point Celestia was no longer sad however, she was livid that this would happen to her ponies, her city, her kingdom, it was supposed to be the safest place in the world yet all that has been happening lately was death and chaos, and she had no damned clue where the hell Discord had gone off to, so she couldn't even ask him for help. Canterlots foundation shook and vibrated slightly, showing just how much damage had been done to the supports that had been magically fused into the mountains rock and soil, Celestia turned to the mane six. "Girls, I think you all know what this means, this is the last time I will stand an attack on Equestrian soil and its ponies, I am going to call a meeting with the other kingdom rulers to see if I can gather their support if Equestria is to go to war, because if we are I am afraid we might be facing two technological superpowers who's military might will outclass anything we might have, and we might be facing the Caribou as well, I am sure their one attack they did would not be their last, you are to stay in Twilights castle, as that is where the meeting will be taking place, due to the poor state of Canterlot, while repair ponies repair and fix the city and foundation itself, you may go now, I will teleport you all to Twilight's castle." Celestias horn lit up in a yellow glow and with a small flash the mane 6 had teleported into the main hall of Twilights castle. Twilight sat on the floor with a worried look, her friends following suit. "War...something that has not happened for over a THOUSAND YEARS might be happening soon, do you know what this means girls?" Fluttershy shook her head, as did Rarity and Pinkie, while Rainbow Dash stood up. "Yeah I know what this means, a chance for revenge against that fucker who ruined my life, took my wings, and took away my friend!" Applejack shook her head. "Calm down their sugar cube, ya'll wanna end up like Daring did? I don't say that to piss ya off none, but you saw what he did to her himself with that fancy shooter o his, and that was when he was alone, who knows what kinda allies or minions he's gotten since then, ya'll can't just rush off for revenge the second ya find out where the varmint is RD, ya gotta think about us, not just yerself." Rainbow thought for a few moments. "Alright Aj, I'll stay cool, for now at least." Rainbow sat back down. Rarity was the one to speak up after a few seconds of silence. "So what does going to war exactly mean for Equestria itself darling?" She looked at Twilight. "It means that our Equestrian way of life is at stake! if we go to war as we are now we will be crushed, and keep in mind thats with me calculating that all non hostile kingdoms take up arms and join Equestria in the fight." Celestia teleported in, with her the rulers of the other kingdoms, they all walked into the main meeting hall of the castle and sat down. Twilight and her friends waited, for about an hour before Celestia walked out with a grave look on her face. "We are at war, with two Empire's and one is barely known to us, you are to defend Ponyville with your shield bubble spell Twilight, unicorn guards will be sent to boost it when needed along with pegasi to keep the skies clear, any supplies you ask for will be granted." Celestia teleported out, taking the other rulers with her without giving Twilight a chance to reply, Twilight, along with her friends all looked to be in complete shock, while meanwhile ponies, elsewhere, were enjoying their new lives within a new and powerful empire, of which the likes the world had never seen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Griffin Empire---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A public barbecue was going on, ponies, griffins, and any other species that had wanted to join was welcome, it was a celebration on the victory at Canterlot, thestrals, earth ponies, and griffins were all enjoying some good food and drink, even though the earth ponies did not eat meat, there was still grilled vegetables and other items for them to eat as well, strangely enough even Luna was enjoying a chicken leg with her beer. A grey and white earth stallion walked up to the table and grabbed a bear before headed back to his buddy, a yellow thestral with green eyes. "So, life here as I have seen in the past week or so living here is much better than the sad shitshow back in Equestria eh pal?" He handed his friend a unopened beer. Taking the beer the thestral grinned as it was swiftly opened and its contents drained. "You said it Wolf, that place was a shitshow in more ways then one, now we don't have to go to a speak easy for booze and I can eat meat in the open without fear of my business license being revoked cause some stupid nobles can't handle a little blood." Wolf nodded and grabbed a small tart from the table of goodies and took a bite. "Yeah, and now I'm not trapped on my own land tryin to keep the timberwolves and greedy pegasi out, damned pegasi kept tryin to demand I pay them when I had installed an automatic sprinkler system! kept goin on about 'tradition' and all that crap, I know the difference between tradition an greed, they just got to greedy, ah reckon thats why most earth ponies moved up here to this fancy empire, less restrictive laws, taxes are no more than 50 bits a year from what I've read in the lawbooks these griffins are printin for all to read, and its a rather short book in all honesty, unlike Equestria where they got 50 laws on the taxation of lettuce, ya'know what I mean rocky road?" Wolf drowned his own beer, happy that he did not have to hide his liking for the stuff like he had back home. Rocky nodded. "Yeah I know what ya mean, and thanks to these griffins not really havin many shops around before we showed up my ice cream shop is boomin! griffins seem to like chocolate the most and sometimes raspberry, gonna have to look into findin more milk to make the ice cream soon since the cows up here don't produce as much as the ones back in Equestria do, but that is a small price to pay for more freedom if ya ask me." Their conversation went on for awhile till the small party ended, and I grinned looking upon a rather old addition to the castle, a missile silo. Now, as said before I was not gonna wish for nuclear weapons, however I had found something interesting in a book about alchemy, dark matter, and no not the kind that can destroy the universe if it comes into contact with matter, thats anti matter you morons, but this, was pure evil, it was something you could brew up, with enough hard work, and it would destroy ANYTHING it touched, just a drop of the stuff could turn an entire building to liquid, making bone, metal, wood, anything, melt away as if it had never existed, so when I had found this I asked Prismo for something awhile back, short ranged ICBM's that had dark matter warheads, I had to specify what I meant about dark matter, and when I did I laughed with joy when this silo popped up with 50 missiles, it was rather large after all, and the best part? these things no matter what was done to them would not go off within the empires borders thanks to specific wording to Prismo when I had asked for these beauties, I had my ace, and I would only use it when needed, except the Caribou Empire, I fuckin shot three of these at them and took them out before they could become a real threat, and I have recently learned of Equestrias attempts to make FLYING aircraft carriers! while that would be genius if they had hortens or some other jet style plane, they would have no way to land and not crash the damned things into the airship they where launched from, I myself had 40 MODERN abit larger to support the horten and its large size, aircraft carriers, unlimited fuel to, they would run forever so long as their was griffins to man the damned things, I have not launched any yet, If conflict is to arise like I want it to however, I will be doing so soon, until then I shall wait, and plan, for the day this world will know reality of the likes it has never known before, one were friendship, can't solve every problem thrown its way, > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was three weeks later, Twilight and her friends, as told, stayed in Ponyville while Twilight kept a bubble shield around the entire town. There were 20 unicorn guards helping maintain the shield when Twilight needed to rest. At the moment, however, Twilight was at the train station seeing Spike off. He was going to the Crystal Empire to make the crystal ponies feel safer. "I hope you have a fun time, Spike! remember to be careful and not to leave the Crystal Heart’s shield!" Twilight waved as the train chugged out of the station, and Spike waved back. Three hours later, Spike was getting off the train and headed straight into the Crystal Palace at the center of the empire, going to the top floor as he was told to. He met up with Cadence. "Spike! It’s so nice to have you here. The crystal ponies will really appreciate it." Cadence sat down with Spike on a few small chairs. They were on the top floor of the tower, while Shining Armor walked up and sat down with his wife. "Uhhhhhg, I wish the crystal ponies would let me modernize their army. They still use spears for Celestia's sake! They won't even let us use any detection array towers! It’s completely stupid to let them have complete control over the military like that." Shining groaned and took a sip of tea. Cadence giggled. "Oh hush you, they have their traditions and its important to them that they are kept alive." Their conversation continued while Spike was munching on a bowl of gems and being fanned by two crystal mares. -------------------------ten miles outside the Empire-------------------------- I grinned as I sat with Queen Seelii on one of my behemoth airships, turns out the changelings had airships as well but unlike mine, they were not driven through the air with six jet engines and used the same propellers they had on their biplanes, just larger, why were we on our merry way to the Crystal Empire you might be asking?  Well it was quite simple, the changelings fed on love, the Crystal Empire has a magical item that emits love so long as ponies are around it, Queen Seelii asked me to help them invade the Empire, I agreed to do so and was happy to hear all they wanted was the ponies and the crystal heart itself, I could take whatever I wanted after that, six changeling airships where following mine, abit they strained to keep up due to the fact my airships had better engines, speaking of my airships, I had upgraded them a bit, they now had air to air and air to ground missiles, and mini guns on the sides to replace the MK2 50 caliber machine guns, simply to lay down more fire when needed, and right now the Crystal Empire was coming into view, I had a special shell that would fuck that shield around the empire up big time, changelings used love for energy, so it would make sense some of it ended up in their magic, well as it turns out changeling magic fizzles out near me when I am using my own magic, so I had one of the howitzer shells brought to me, where I poured magic into it for a week straight, it glowed green and was very toxic to anyone who touched it, aside from me of course, and that would take the shield down. The empires barrier shone in the light, shame it would be the last time this barrier ever existed, and from what the changeling spies had reported, they had no guns, no air defence, not even a damned air force! So this was going to be a piece of cake. My airship aimed its howitzers to the shield and I myself loaded the shell into one of them, and fired, the shell impacted the shield and began to crackle with violent arks of green magic, the shield slowly turned a toxic green before it faded away, that was the mark for the changelings who started launching large thin metal cans at the empire, all filled with a knockout gas. Once the cans hit the ground they broke open, letting the gas trapped inside into the air, any who breathed it in where knocked out within moments of breathing it in, it only took 15 minutes for the entire empire to be out of it, changelings flew down and cocooned anyone they found, much to my surprise they brought three of the cocoons to me, and Queel Seelii grined so hard the Joker would envy her. “As a gift for helping us, as agreed before you can have the Empire itself if you wish to take it, and as a extra little gift, the rulers of the Crystal Empire and their friends pet dragon, cocooned to stay asleep for you to do whatever you wish with them, we have no use for these three since they cannot power the heart.” Changelings loaded the cocooned ponies onto their own airships and began to head off, Queel Seelii started flying to one of her airships with the heart in her arms. “Thank you for the help! Enjoy the empire!” She boarded one of the airships and began the four hour trip back to the Changeling Empire, for me it would be a one hour trip cause again, jet engines, but that was not the point. The point was, I now had a new city, and only needed to ask Prismo to move it for me, so taking out the phone he had given me and sending him a quick text, the Crystal Empire vanished from the north, and was plopped down near my capital of Griffin Stone, a new city in an ever growing Empire, this would surely be the last straw for Celestia for her to attack, let her attack, I was ready for it, my entire Empire was ready for it. I had a few surprises up my sleeve, things I had asked for a while back after I asked Prismo for those weapons of his, and soon they would be put into play, lets see any army take on mine once they see their modern weapons, they all had world war one and world war two style shit, I had modern weapons, for the most part at the least, so I doubt any ship of theirs can take down any of mine. They still had used wooden ships, seemingly to stupid to realize how to make warships out of metal, the Storm Empire however might have semi modern battleships, so I'd have to tred carefully, that Storm King could become a major threat to my plans, I was going to see if I could get him to bow down to me, or if he chooses not to, I can always hang his skull on my wall like a hunter would hang the skull of a great kill, oh well, we shall see. > Chapter 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was three days later, Spike had not returned to the train station. No letter to explain why, when she sent letters to spike via her magic, he would not reply. Attempts to get into contact with Cadence and Shining failed as well. Twilight Sparkle paced around the foyer of her Castle of Friendship, nervous as she explained again what she thought happened at the other five. Pinkie Pie couldn't simply sit and listen to a broken record without doing something, that was worse than watching paint dry. So she was party planning in her head, while simply nodding at appropriate pauses in the flow of words. AppleJack was far more fidgety over the issue,she honestly felt something was wrong as well, she just couldn't put her hand on why. Fluttershy was genuinely worried, but couldn't voice her own opinion until Twilight stopped talking, which she hadn't for several hours. So she just nervously flapped her wings and gasped at the description Sparkle gave, again and again. Even Rarity was worried, although for  reasons. Such as, if she lost Spike, she wouldn't have her gemstone digger anymore.Or if anything had happened to the Crystal Empire, she would lose that glorious gemstone connection for her latest line of fashion. Not to mention all of the ponies she made acquaintances with over the years after initially bringing the Crystal Empire back. Rainbow Dash was there in the foyer, a dark expression on her face. She knew what happened, she was sure of it. She could still feel the pain of that creature ripping her wings from her body, the cracking of hollow bones, tearing of sinew and flesh as the bastard cackled in glee. Oh yes, she knew who had set this up. “Yo, Twi.” RD interrupted Twilight Sparkles frantic hypotheses of doom and gloom. “Oh! Y-yes Dash?” Twilight stammered as though just realizing her friends were there. “I think we should go to the map room be able to sit and chat instead of standing around.” Without waiting, Rainbow began walking towards the map room, forcing the others behind her to see her back, the lack of wings, the horrible scars. Once everypony was seated, Rarity noticed the difference in the map of the world. “Dear me! Twilight! What's wrong with the map?! The Crystal Empire looks to-to-” she fainted straight away in her chair, hand over her eyes, not for effect, but out of muscle memory from having done so for so long. Twilight and the others gasped at what Rarity pointed out, Fluttershy rushed over to Rarity, and Rainbow Dash just grunted as though she expected this. “I'll bet you anything it was that horn headed freak that ripped my wings off.” She muttered under her breath, rubbing at her shoulder with a hand, and wincing from the phantom pain of remembering. “Now RD, jus’ hold on a sec. How d'you figure that? This is an entire kingdom, just moving clear across the world! How can someone like that do this?” Applejack asked as she glared at griffinstone, as though it dissed Granny Smith. “It's just this gut feeling. Everything didn't start happening until after that freak appeared.” Rainbow said. Twilight listened and nodded. “You know what? I'm going to go with Rainbow on this one.” Twilight spoke softly. Poking at the Crystal Empires new placement. “I'm not sayin’ she's wrong Twi, I jus’ don't want us to rush into things without thinkin’.” Applejack said, for once, lookin very unsure of herself. Pinkie Pie simply nodded, as though agreeing to an unheard conversation. Her normally bouncy hair only slightly wavy, but the sparkle in her blue eyes not dulled. “Yep. This is going to be the biggest party in Equestria, in the history of ever.” Everypony in the room looked at Pinkie. “What? Did I say something?” She looked around, confused for a second, then let out a manic giggle. The meeting carried on for several hours. Rarity finally came to, and regardless of who or what did this, they had decided to first go to Canterlot, to tell Princess Celestia, and see if they could put together a search and rescue, and investigate what in tartarus's deepest pits was going on. They took Twilight’s hot air balloon, Fluttershy pulling it in the direction, and using her weather control as best she could to aide in the flight. They reached the castle in hours. The construction still underway. Small wisps of smoke from extinguished fires hung in the air like a blanket of despair. The stained glass windows cracked and shattered. But the castle still stood. If just barely. Fluttershy guided the balloon to the balcony where the golden sun statue stood, leaning off kilter. And the mane six went into the castles throne room, where Princess Celestia was sitting at a table with a map of the world spread out on it, little glowing flags, and airships dotted it here and there, her eyes flicking from one thing to the next, her face was worn and tired, as she let out a deep sigh. “Princess Celestia! We need to get to GriffinStone. It urgent!” Twilight spoke, causing Celestia to gasp in shock, her concentration shattered, making all of the flags and icon blip off of the map. Her eyes wild for a second, as she looked at the mane six as though they were strangers, but then she calmed down, letting out a nervous chuckle. “Ah, of course princess Twilight. As soon as an airshi-” “as soon as possible, your majesty.” Rainbow Dash said, impatiently. Celestia body language took on the subservient tone that it's gotten so used to, as she simply nodded. “As you wish. I can have you on your way within the hour. But I cannot spare much of my retinue.” She said, monotonous, as though reading from a script. “That is fine, Princess Celestia, we only need at most 10 guards. We can act as a peace visit. But we must go immediately.” Twilight Sparkle said, in her matter-of-factly manner. Again, the Sun Mare nodded, the bags under her eyes growing deeper as she focused her magic, sending the orders to the airship crew, and guard. About half an hour later, everything was ready. The ship's crew looked apprehensive about where they were going, and with no weapons to protect themselves with. And the ten guards that were on board didn't do anything to help that. Celestia stood and watched the airship take off and set out towards the now violently hostile territory of Griffin Stone. In her own airship. She was now stranded in her castle, and she wanted to get away from everything, from the responsibilities. But she couldn't now. She was alone. She felt abandoned, exposed, weak. Luna abandoned her because she hid things from her, and now her own pupil is off to investigate this anomaly, and Celestia wasn't sure if Twilight would come back. > Chapter 9 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine guns blared as Storm Empire airships and planes where shot down at an alarming rate, seemingly they found who had repelled their attacks and sent an invasion force to try and take my empire, sadly for them I was not gonna just hand it over and bow begging for forgiveness, that motherfucker 'the Storm King' had the audacity to send his second in command 'Commander Tempest' to try and rip my empire from my bony hands, sadly for her she got a sawed off shotgun blast to the face the second she said 'We can do this the easy way, or the hard way' seemingly those who where under her command did not expect her to be killed so quickly and easily with little effort, if thats the case maybe she should have worn some actual armor and not a one piece body suit. I grinned watching my hortens take off like helicopters before flying off, I had a few features I had forgotten to mention to ya'll, these things where like a hybrid of a dozen different fighters thrown into one, they could take off like a hydra, they could kill a hostile fighter and not even be in line of sight due to their missile capabilities, and to my surprise, the Storm Empire had brought tanks, sadly for them I had tanks of my own, Abrams to be exact, latest models to, I had wished for a lot of items beyond just the weapons I asked for to begin with, I had helicopters, humvees, and other weaponry like that, after all if I did go to war with someone who could match me I wanted to be prepared, also I had learned why the Storm Empire's airships left black smog in their wake, they where using fucking OIL as fuel, not as a lubricant for the engines, as fuel, what a waste of oil, oh well, not like I honestly cared, it took about an hour but after that hour was up, what remained of the Storm Empire's main military force was in ruins, storm creatures and other species that had been forced into their ranks lay dead, their vehicles and aircraft burning wrecks, and their tanks where taken out pretty easy, all steel armor had nothing on the composite armor of the Abrams. I had ignored the Storm Empire's forces at Canterlot, due to the fact they posed little threat to mine, the only time mine attacked them directly was taking down their zeros so they would not interfere with my hortens mission to destroy the detection array towers, seemingly this had pissed off the Storm King, since he had sent his bitch to declare war, trying to intimidate me into surrendering, well, it ain't ever gonna fuckin happen, the day I surrender is the day I fuckin take the world down with me, so as a gift I had sent some of my behemoth airships to his pathetic empire, along with a few hundred hortens, so after the Storm King was no longer an annoyance to me, I could focus on my main mission, and if that mission is completed, it will shake this world to its very core, along with another world, however it would take a bit before it would be possible, I had a mirror to another world now, since I had taken the Crystal Empire, I'd need to modify it for what I had in mind, but once it was everything should be smooth as butter from there. Two hours later I got word that the counter invasion force had been very successful in their assault on the Storm Empire's cities, and now they where on their way back with the Storm King's head, and that little staff he always kept with him, and since I had the recipe for those little orbs he loved to use, some of them where added as missile warheads, I could crystallize an entire town if I had really wanted to do so, but I would save those for when things got real nasty, for now I would continue to improve my empire, advancing at a rate never before seen in this world, advancement would be done in months rather than years or decades, and since that was to be the case, I did not expect it to take long before my empire was the dominant power on the planet, the Griffin Kingdom once shattered by Equestria, would be the one to shatter Equestrias feeling of power over most of the planet, Equestria was the main trading hub for almost every kingdom or empire on this planet, and as such Equestria got to set the prices of things, such as wood, gems, coal, metal, and any other goods. By the time I'm done with Equestria, it would be nothing but a husk of what it once was and I would be at the center of it all when it fell, but that was not my only plan, no, I had much bigger ones, but those are for another time, for now I was watching griffins train to be in my army, either as a tank crew, pilot for the aircraft, a a sniper, or as a machine gunner for the trenches of the empire, I got a notification from the anti air minigun and missile systems I had put into place, that there was an Equestrian airship approaching, it had no weapons that could be seen, it had no ports for weapons either, I wonder just what was going on for them to send an airship that seemed to be Celestias personal royal airship, if the sun on it was any indication, it was a large airship, for them at least, it was white with purple and gold thrown in, in seemingly random spots, it also seemed to have no armor at all, being made completely of wood, but this was all from me looking at it through the anti air system cameras that had been hooked up to the phone Prismo gave me, lets see how they respond to communication, and to be clear, I was going to send them a warning to land now or be shot down through a communication stone, my airport had relays for those as well as normal radio, at first it was to contact friendly changeling aircraft in the area, now it would be used to see just what these Equestrians had planed. > Chapter 10 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the royal airship floated into view of the Griffon Empire, they noticed something rather alarming, large aircraft shooting down at weird looking tanks, tiger tanks to be exact, these airships looked like nothing they had ever seen, like a large triangle, with two large yellow engines spitting out flame as they flew with their machine guns blaring at the fleeing tanks, taking most out, ones not hit by the bullets were taken out with missiles, overall the wreckage of Zero’s, tanks, and a few airships, littered the land around the outer part of the Empire, their wrecks still burning bright with flames. “Oh my Celestia… this is far worse than we could have imagined.” Twilight said as she looked out on the carnage beneath them. Trying to see beyond the smoke in the air. Thankful that they were too high up to hear what she was certain were screams of agony, and the stench of death. “Than you could have imagined.” Rainbow dash said, her fists clenched tight enough to turn her knuckles pale blue. Twilight turned and looked at her friend, an apology on her lips, but Dash just turned on her heel and went to the ships cabin. “Save it for someone who needs it, Twi. I'm going inside to comfort Fluttershy. She's an emotional wreck right now.” The door closed, and Twilight Sparkle stood there, looking after her friend, a small tear hanging on the corner of her eye. She just wished she knew the answers to what was happening to her home, to her life. All around her, guards hustled about. Keeping the airship on course for the home of the Griffons. As the airship got closer to the capital of a new unmatched empire, a larger airship, four or so times the size of the one they were in, floated, or rather shot, into view, it having larger versions of the yellow engines that spat flames on each side, and it clearly was not powered by crystal sugar like standard airships were, it came to a halt by the engines flipping around to slow the craft down as it slowed and pulled up next to their, by comparison, small airship, and griffins could be seen wearing weird metal cloth armor, and holding weird looking rifles as a griffon with blue feathers and a loudspeaker stepped into view, guarded by four griffins armed with the weird rifles. “This is commander Storm Beak, you are hereby ordered to land your craft, failing to do so will result in you being shot down to protect the Empire’s airspace.” As if to hold up to this threat, the howitzers on the side of the massive airship took aim at them, and a locking sound was heard as they were loaded up with fresh shells. Nodding, Twilight Sparkle gave the signal for the crew to land the airship. Mentally preparing herself for the coming conversation between herself and the Griffin captain. As they went lower, she could hear the sounds that she wanted to avoid. And the stench of blasted earth, burning wood, metal, and worst of all, flesh. She was glad that Fluttershy was inside the cabin. Away fro- “O-oh my…” never mind. She turned and saw the other five standing shortly behind her, most of the color drained from their features as they saw that they were still a ways away from the Griffin capital. “What's goin’ on here sugarcube? We thought we were at the capital.” AJ asked as they finally landed. The larger ship landing shortly after. “It looks like they are heavily protecting their airspace. Afraid that there might be somepony irrational enough to threaten them. I'm sorry if anything happens. This still feels like it shouldn't have happened at all…” Twilight turned back, to watch the other airship. Hoping this wasn't a trap. The larger airship, Twilight noticed had a black flag on it, with a weird skull of a species she had never seen, it had large horns and green fire in the sockets of the skulls eyes, the airship did not land per say, but hovered in place, the large jet engines slowing down to keep it from going up further than seven or so feet, a automatic gangplank was lowered, and griffins wearing desert colored armor, with small bits of what LOOKED like metal plates in the cloth, marched out, holding STG-44's of course, Twilight didn’t know what they were called, neither did the other ponies, but to Twilight, it looked like a weird fusion of a machine gun, and a rifle, but small enough to be easy to use in combat, and currently they were aimed at them as Commander Storm Beak stepped down the gangplank, in a black uniform adorned with a few small metals, and an officers cap that had the same skull seem on the ships flags. “You are to tell us why you decided to come into Griffion Empire airspace without clearance, you could have been shot down in the confusion.” The griffion guards took aim with their rifles. Twilight cleared her throat and spoke out to the Griffin “We are a peace retinue from Equestria. I am Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. We apologize for our lack of decorum for not sending word ahead of us. We knew of no way to alert you of our coming. We are unarmed, and the only passengers on this ship are ten guards, the ship hands, and the six of us. May we please proceed to your capital? You may search the ship. To confirm that we mean no harm to you or your empire. We only seek to form a truce, or at the least, an understanding as to why this is happening.” Her knees wobbly as she finished her speech/plea. She placed her hands on the banister to steady herself. The Commander chuckled, as if finding it funny. “I have no idea why the King does what he does, I just control the air force, the tactics used are created by him, or his ideas, he has complete control of everything, what he says, goes, no exceptions, for anyone, I will call in to see if he will allow it, as he has instructed us to use a specific channel to communicate with him at any needed time.” Stork Beak grabbed a small little black box on his chest and pressed a button before speaking into it. “This is Commander Storm Beak, we have uninvited Equestrians who come for ‘peace’ and want to know what exactly is going on, whatever the hell that means, permission to let them into the capital your majesty?” There was static for a few moments, before a deep sinister sounding voice, mine, responded through the radio. “You may allow them in, however if any try anything, such as shooting, you are to shoot to kill, head shots, then body shots, and remember the rules, don’t stop shooting until they stop twitching, you are to do so if they try ANYTHING.” That voice, it did not sound natural whatsoever, in any way shape or form. Storm Beak placed the black box back into a pocket of his uniform. “Alright, you heard em, get these ponies into the capital and strait to the castle, keep a tight guard on them, you heard is orders, now follow them, Miss Sparkle, you are to follow these fine soldiers to the capital, post haste.” The griffins boarded their airship, keeping a tight eye on the crew. Twilight nodded humbly, the crew began prepping the ship to lift off again, most shaking as badly as the princess, others either too old and jaded to show care for these things. The guards still standing in their positions, at attention. As the ship lifted and began to follow the larger airship, she put her back against the ships barrier and slowly slid down. She felt like she was going to throw up. The first to get to her was Pinkie Pie. Her eyes slightly less sparkly than usual, bags under her eyes. “Hey there Twi. It's going to be okay. I'm just thankful I decided to leave my party cannon behind. . . heh, hope Gummy takes good care of it.” Twilight looked up at her cotton candy colored friend, a sad smile on her face, “Thank you Pinkie. I'm just feeling like this was a bad idea… but it needs to happen. I mean. . . Rainbow lost a lot more than just her wings back in Ponyville… I just want to find a way to give that back to her, but I-I just don't know how to.” She stood back up, wiping an errant tear from her cheek, then patting Pinkie on her shoulder, walking to the group of friends. All faces downcast after hearing the voice from the little box, except for Dash. Her teeth were gritted, and fists clenched. She knew that voice, she knew it well, it was burned into her memory, the pain, the snapping sound of flesh and bone, she dreamed about it every night since the day it had happened. > Chapter 11 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the airship gets closer to the capital, Twilight, and the others noticed something odd, changelings, bat ponies, and earth ponies were all around, mixed in with the expected griffons, it was not expected for them to be here, as far as Twilight was told, they had just disappeared and never came back, she also noticed they looked rather happy with their lives as they were going about their daily business. Applejack looked over at Twilight with confusion plain on her face. “Uhh, Twilight? You seein’ what I'm seein’? This ain't makin’ a lick of sense.” Twilight just shook her head slowly as their airship finally touched down. The gangplank lowered, and the guards took up position on either side of the mane six. Twilight looked at them and said, “Only two or three need to come with us. I want the rest of you to keep Celestia's airship safe. But for the love of Equestria, do not cause or start any violence. If somepony wants to look at the ship, let them. This is a peace visit. Understood?” The guards, and ship crew nodded. “You three, come with us, the rest of you, just try to relax, okay?” With that she started walking down the gangplank, and into the throng of mixed creatures. All the while thinking to herself 'This is what I wanted to create… peace amongst all of the races. How did some creature so evil create this?' While just following the general flow of the path. The others were gawking around, well all except Pinkie Pie, who managed to vanish from the group, and show back up with several treats in her hands, and a spicy rainbow candied fruit of some sort in her mouth, little beads of sweat forming on her forehead. “Wow! Everyone looks so happy! And look at all the missing ponies! They've been living here all happy this whole time! Isn't that ne-!” Rarity covered pinkies mouth when she saw Twilight flinch at the bluntness of Pinkie's words. Rarity gave Pinkie a slight glare. “Darling, I think she has noticed. Please, think before you charge head first into something we want to avoid.” Rainbow dash scoffed at that, both wanting to rush headfirst into something that she knows Twilight wants to avoid, but also wanting to be as far away from this place as possible. Seeing all of the pegasi and earth ponies being happy, when she was robbed of one of the few things that she took pride in. Both by the same creature. “Yes Pinkie, I see this. Let's hurry and get this over with.” Twilight said as they walked through the busy throngs.    As Twilight and their group walked through the crowded streets, the creatures gave them wide berth what with the royal troops surrounding them and escorting them to the castle, holding STG-44’s in their claws as they made it after about 20 minutes of walking to the castle’s gates, the castle itself looked like something out of a nightmare, it had been repainted black, green, and red, with green fire lighting up the castle’s doorways as they were walked inside, the griffon guards nodding to the two larger griffons carrying what looked to be heavy weapons at the front doors, the 6 or so griffons escorting them made it to a large set of double doors. “This is where your on your own, don’t try anything funny unless you want the King’s guard to plug you full of holes.” The commander said as the doors were opened by yet two more larger than normal griffons carrying heavy weapons.  Inside the throne room was a rather large throne, and on that throne sat a being of the likes she had never seen in any book, study, or anything like that, but she remembered it, barely, from the attack that was done on Ponyville by this creature, it had a long grey cloak on, two large horns, much like Tirek, but they looked larger, a face that looked to be rotted, a hole where its snout might have once been, and empty eyes filled with green dots for pupils. ”So, you have come here at last, what is it that you want? I am normally very busy, as you can tell by the pathetic invasion attempt by that moron calling himself the Storm King.” Next to the throne was two griffon guards, in heavy metal armor carrying the same weird rifles as the griffons that had escorted them to the throne room.  Twilight head tilted at the skeletal creatures words, as though she just heard a strange sound. Fluttershy “eep'd” and hid behind the rest of her friends at the sight. But it was AJ that spoke first “Wait a gosh darn apple pickin minute. You sayin’ that yer the one that ordered that egocentric monkey to conquer our home?” Twilight looked back at her friend, and saw little lights of rage in the earth ponies eyes, and spoke up to her “AJ, we aren't here to fight. Calm down. There is some explanation for this I am sure.” She said, half to herself as she turned back to face the Lich.  I turned my attention to the Orange one, ah yes I remember burning the rope she tried to lasso me with. ”No you fool, you have misunderstood what I have told you, he was invading you, and was in my way, so I had to destroy his forces, he got word of that and decided to try and invade my empire, that was the last mistake he will ever have the chance to be making, as my own forces are most likely turning his little empire to ashes by now.”   Applejack was taken aback by those words and shook her head to clear whatever cobwebs she had up there before stuttering a reply and giving up when Twilight shook her head ever so slightly. Rainbow remained in the back of the group, teeth gritting worse than applejack nerves, as she glared at the "creature" talking to them. Twilight could feel the pressure of anger flowing from her friend and tried to tell Fluttershy to calm her down. Which she tried, Fluttershy went to Rainbow Dash, and whispered comforting words to her. Twilight turned her attention back to the lich king, "I apologize for my friends attitudes. Your majesty, they are still a bit sore at what happened. I am sure you are aware of why we are here?" She asked as she stood there, wanting to get things over and done with. ”Your ‘friends’ attitude is understandable, after all I gassed your city and blew up your detection array towers, and any building that had research on them for my allies, it's not everyday one’s home is invaded and then blown up, however the only thing I know about you being here is that it was for ‘peace’ if such a thing even exists.” I chuckled as I finished speaking, this was completely hilarious to me.  The sound of grinding grew louder as the Lich king talked. Rainbow Dash had enough, shook off Fluttershy's attempts at cooling her temper, turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, as she got to the doors to the chambers she said, loud enough for her hoarsely whispered words to carry in the vaulted room "With this abomination, there is no such thing as peace Twilight. Haven't you read that scroll when you were a filly? I'm more than certain princess Celestia had you read it when you were still her student." Then out the doors before Twilight could react to her. Fluttershy followed her with an "Oh Dear..." Rarity wasn't looking so great, her hair was beginning to droop and sag drastically from the high stress in the room, but she didn't want to leave Twilight side. AppleJack wasn't leaving her friends side either, as much as she detested the Lich king, her friends were more important to her. Pinkie Pie was sitting on the floor next to the door, watching everything, looking around the room. She finally spoke up after dash and Fluttershy left. "Oh, I don't think Rainbow Dash cared about those buildings and towers. She's pissed at you for taking away her wings. Those mattered to her as much as her friends do. I'm not going to sugar coat it when I say this. . ." Pinkie's hair lost all of its bounce and laid flat as she continued "She wants you to vanish in the most painful way imaginable." Her hair bounced back up and her eyes sparkled once more. This transition caused Rarity to swoon and Applejack to gulp as they looked back at the Lich king. Only Twilight never turned away from the undead creature before her.  I had gone completely still, I didn’t even seem to be breathing, which in all honesty I wasn’t to begin with, the green dots that served as my eyes grew into a inferno of green flames that filled my skull's eye sockets before I spoke up, my voice as calm and matter of fact as always. ”Well unfortunately for your blue friend, I can’t die, anything that could be done to kill me, would never work to begin with, added to the fact I cannot feel pain, but, we could make a deal however, I have the power to give her wings back, but there has to be something you all can offer me for me to give up the guardians healing blood, if you can offer me something that would be of use to me, then I will give you the vial of blood, however there is not much I could want, so do keep that in mind.” This would be glorious, to see what they would do when offered a chance to help their friend, for a hefty price, and I didn’t mean gold, or gems, or any of that crap. Twilight gasped, but it was pinkie again who spoke, from the end of the room. "Oh silly me, I never said 'die' I said vanish, you know, like how you came to our universe to begin with. I know that you don't give a crap about us, let alone giving up a trinket you bought at a convention for what? 25 dollars? It's just a prop to you any way, and you have much more than that at your command, hell, you could simply wish her wings back, couldn't you? Yeah. I'm just spit balling and 'guessing' all of this of course." As she said this, she was looking directly into the blazes that were the Lich king's eyes, knowing she struck several chords with him. Her eyes as mischievous as always, and full of more knowledge than anyone could comprehend.  After listening to the pink one talk, I stayed silent for a few moments, before I broke out laughing, the kind of wheezing laugh you give when someone says something completely hilarious, it sounded unnatural in every sense of the word, until I stopped. ”Do you take me a for a moron? I know of your fourth wall powers, after all, I know who each and every one of you are, your talents, your weaknesses, even your personal hopes and dreams, and did you know I tried to vanish like your friend wanted? I asked Prismo to send me home as I am now, he was unable to even command an inch of magical power to do my request, he was denied by the very universe itself, and as a side note, those ‘props’ I bought? Each and every one of them turned real when I was sent here, I am no moron, I know who you are, and the power you hold over dimensions with knowledge that should be impossible, but for you almost nothing is impossible is it? I know about your little powers, and compared to either mine or Prismo’s, I will say they are impressive, but you lack a sense of self preservation, which even a common animal would know not to poke a wolf.”  Pinkie just nodded as the echo faded in to room "Oh, I know you know, but that's only what was shown in the show. Why do you want to be the harbinger of death in your own universe though? That just sounds, well, pardon my French, stupid. My sense of self preservation is just fine. I'm only pointing out things that all parties already know. Rarity can't hear me, because she's fainted, Appeljack, is too busy trying to wake her up to hear my soft words, and Twilight. . . well, she's Twilight. As for weaknesses, yes, I have the worst depression and anxiety an earth pony could have, eclipsed only by Princess Luna's, oh how's she doing by the way? Also, Twilight wants her little dragon pal back. That's the other reason we're kinda here." The words were soft spoken and rapid fire. But hung in the air like lead weights. Applejack could be heard muttering "C'mon Rarity, this ain't the place to take a nap. Rise and shine ya drama queen." Twilight blinked and shook her head and said "Did you say something Pinkie?" "Hmm? Nope! You must be hearing things Twi." Never looking away from the green flames. The flames in my eye sockets died down slowly, to their normal green dot in the center of my ‘eyes’ as I chuckled lightly. "I was not joking about the deal however, you six, minus the two who are gone keep in mind, I am adding them as well, are an integral part of this world as a whole, if I had wanted to rid of you I’d have done so a long time ago, when I first arrived here, as for the being the harbinger of death in my world? Well in all reality I wouldn’t be like that there, sure I’d have power and all that, but what do you think would happen if my world suddenly had magic when there was none to begin with? Chaos, and while I love causing chaos as much as the next person, that was not my plan, however I did plan to take a few items from my house before coming back here, I have no real reason to go back to that pathetic dirtball of a planet, nothing there is worth much of my time, I only have one plan for this world, after that plan is over I’ll be moving onward to the next step in my plan, as for the dragon, he is in a cocoon, I have not decided what I will be doing with him, Cadence, or Shining Armor yet, until I have decided what to do with them, they won’t be going anywhere, I am sure Twilight has a lot of questions by now, lets let her ask them, and actually see what it is she really wants, other than peace and that runt of a dragon.” I would grin, but alas no lips to do so with, so I settled for turning my attention to Twilight. Pinkie Pie shrugged then nodded, where as Twilight Sparkle blinked again at hearing about spike. "I actually do have a few questions, but the ones about my companion Spike, my brother Shining Armor, and my friend and sister in law, princess cadence, have been answered. But brings to mind, the question of 'how'. How did you manage moving the entire Crystal Empire from the frozen wastes of the North, and do you realize the exact removal of balance in this worlds magical energies you have set into motion? Its far worse than it was when you first arrived. It's going to be because of you that the wendigo return. And Those creatures feed off of what you use as power. The crystal empire was the seal that held that threat at bay. With the crystal heart. You removing it, will make your plot of destroying Equestria easier, but it won't stop there. As for what we could possibly offer you in return for our friends wings back, what do you offer to the person who already has everything? I'd say our friendship, but that seems like the absolute last thing that you would want. But that would mean more than just 'hanging out' and a shoulder to cry on, which, you obviously have neither the need nor ability to do so. But more along the lines of a complete cease fire between social powers. Even though that would benefit Equestria more than griffinstone." Twilight sucked in a deep breath, and continued. "What with almost all of the earth ponies joining your side, as well as the Pegasi. Leaving behind what few families that remain loyal to Equestria. I, as the princess of friendship, cannot swear my complete loyalty to you, and the nation of griffinstone, because that belongs to Equestria, and no, not to princess Celestia, she is a friend to me, and a teacher still. I am loyal to her as I am to those I consider my friends, and who in turn consider me their friend. What I can offer you, is knowledge, but judging by your talk with Pinkie Pie, you apparently have more of that then what I can offer." She turned and helped rarity back up, and helped smooth out some of her errant hairs back into rarity's coif.  ”Oh don’t worry about those pesky little wendigos, I already jarred all of them up, as for how I moved it? I have a powerful friend named Prismo, he has been a great help with my empire, as for what I actually want? I want Equestria to stay the hell out of my way, and out of the way of my allies, the Changeling Empire, run by three rulers, King Chitin, Queen Seelii, and Queen Chrysalis, you are to stop trying to interfere with our goals and plans, the only interest changelings had in Equestria, was ponies, with giving them the Crystal Heart, I solved that little problem, soon enough you won’t even have to worry about the thought of a changeling within the borders of Equestria, your home is on the verge of an economic collapse, and as a side note, only Earth Ponies, Bat ponies, and a few pegasi have moved here, most unicorns and pegasi are still loyal to, and live in, Equestria, as for giving you your friends wings back? Its an experiment of sorts, after all I know her pride and joy was flying, and I want to see how this turns out in the end, I was going to give you this vial anyways as my griffons have already learned everything they could with a sample of this healing blood, I no longer have use for it, so catch.” I tossed the vial of glowing white goo to Twilight, now some of you may think I was stupid for doing this, but if I was being honest I have zero fucks to give about the mane six, they are not really a threat to me due to the weapons and crap my Empire had. ”Oh and one last thing, your kind, Equestrians I mean, are welcome to visit, but as for your little dragon and those two ponies I got with him, you can have the two ponies, Cadence and Shining Armor, however I will be keeping that dragon in a cocoon for the time being, I have plans for him.” That was in fact, true, I had a pretty good plan of what I wanted to do with that little dragon, and lets just say when I was done, he wouldn’t be so little, soon enough, he would be pretty large, and deadly. Twilight looked miffed, as did her other friends, but I didn't let them get another word in as my griffion guards escorted them out of the throne room, and to round up their missing pals, they could visit any damn time they pleased, and they knew they would be unable to do anything against me, causing me to grin. After a minute of them being gone, Luna appeared from the shadows in one of the throne rooms corners. "That was a marvelous display Your Majesty, soon enough we can continue on the road to glory, for your Empire, and for the citizens that live within it." She hugged me, and I returned that hug, bein an evil asshole don't mean I can't have a friend or two, just gotta be careful WHOM I choose as a friend, otherwise that's how most back stabbings occur.