Things were turning out well, at least for the warlord. Shining and Cadence took his advice and warnings seriously, his proposal came across as reasonable to them, even the tournament was going as he had planned it.
The warlord watched his warrior charge at the smaller stallion, both running towards one another at full speed, lances at the ready. The crowd cheered. The warlord's smile grew.
Cadence asked him a question that interrupted his self-praising daydreaming. “So you have no objections?” The warlord turned to Cadence, who didn't seem to be paying that much attention to the game. Shining, however, didn't let the loss get to him, it was only the pre-qualifying round after all. Only thirty-two could be allowed to contend.
The warlord raised an eyebrow. “To Twilight joining us? Of course not. I have no quarrel with her.”
'She was the only one speaking sensibly at Celestia's day court,' he silently fumed. “I also have nothing against her bringing a few friends with her.”
Cadence seemed to smile genuinely, as opposed to the fake nervous ones she had been giving him up till now. “Thank you for being reasonable, Viggo. We weren't exactly expecting you.”
The warlord shrugged. “I wasn't exactly planning on coming by either. This is all kind of spur of the moment stuff.” When Cadence saw Viggo's smile she giggled, though a bit nervously. 'A fake laugh,' he thought. Fair enough. This smile I’m wearing isn’t genuine either.
Shining’s focus was on the next matchup down below, another one of his grunts was up. The tournament was doing a good job revealing the stallions that showed promise. The whole time Shining was memorizing the names of his guards, trying to decide who would make a good lieutenant.
There was another clash of steel and crystal armor. The warlord admired his glorious forces for a silent moment, until he couldn’t hold it in anymore. “My warriors are strong, are they not?” The warlord and Shining both looked down at the victorious griffin warrior.
“They are,” he agreed. There was no emotion in Shining’s voice.
“Still thinking about my proposal?”
No response. Cadence walked to the other side of her husband.
The warlord sighed. “You don't want those creatures running around your land. You can have both peace of mind and a huge amount of slave labor to help your empire prosper, if you would only side with me.”
Shining seemed to be struggling, trying to analyze the proposal the warlord brought to them earlier. His wife answered for him. “We still need time to think about it.”
He nodded, understanding. There was another clash. Both stallions; both of them Shining's guards.
Viggo stretched. “I'm going to go see what's available in the bar.”
Cadence smiled. “Pretty much anything you've ever heard of. We have a grand collection. Help yourself.”
“I'll take you up on that.” When the warlord let the door behind him close he could already hear Cadence and Shining talking. He smiled, but it was a different kind of smile from the ones he showed them.
He walked over to the bar and set his griffin rump down on one of the stools. The bartender bowed. “King Viggo, what may I serve you?”
He chuckled. No one called the ruler of the Griffin Kingdom king anymore. The Griffin Kingdom was just a shell of its former glory, much like this place.
“Got any mead?”
Several minutes later the warlord could still be found in the bar. Twilight was just outside the room he was in, talking with her friends about what Celestia's nobles taught her, but Viggo didn't know that. He just wanted to give Shining and Cadence time to talk in privacy about his proposal a bit.
He slammed the crystal glass down. “Damn that shit's good!” The bartender's eyebrow twitched, not sure how to handle this. “Moon Crystal brewery you say?”
He nodded. “It is so, King Viggo.”
The warlord turned to his triple meat burger and took another big bite. “It's a lot better than the watered down piss that's being sold in Equestria. I'll tell you that much! And Equestrian meat taste like ass.”
The bartender tried to suppress a gag.
'HA! Namby pamby ponies!'
The warlord ate the last of his burger, chugged down the last of his mead and let out a loud burp. The bartender paled.
Viggo wiped his beak with the back of his claw. “Complements to the chief, that wasn't half bad.”
“O-of course, your Highness.”
Viggo went back to the royal stand. As he opened the door he heard the two stop speaking mid-sentence.
Good, got them talking. Shining and Cadence must realize they need me. Celestia can't save them from the human threat.
“Qualifying rounds almost over?” asked the warlord, knowing the answer full well. He couldn't hide the smile he always got when he was having his way.
“Almost, this is the third to last match,” replied Cadence.
Viggo took a swig of his new favorite mead brand. Glad I took another glass of this, stuff is amazing. Maybe I should work out a trade agreement with these crystal ponies while I stay here.
The two contenders clashed together, a satisfying ring echoed out as their lances hit dead center, but both stallions stood strong. “Good show,” said the griffin, and he meant it, it was a great place: this Crystal Empire.
“Oh Twilight, I'm glad you're here, I was worried you'd miss more of the show.” The warlord turned around to see Cadence enter the royal stands, her friends followed right after her. Shining went to his wife. “And you all! It's been too long really.”
While they continued greeting one another, a butter yellow pegasus was looking at him. 'Being rude won't help me here. Better try to improve my image with Twilight, would also be wise to be nice to her friends. Can’t be too hard. I think she likes me. Everypony likes me.' He nodded to one of Twilight’s friends, a timid looking pegasus.
She seemed to shrink into herself and moved to where other ponies would be blocking the view between themselves. 'Shy?' he wondered.
“Shining, are you-”
“It's good to see your friends came by,” Shining interrupted Twilight.
They exchanged a few more pleasantries. Viggo took another drink.
That's when Twilight took note of him, she seemed troubled by his armor for some reason. What? Never seen a griffin is his battle gear? Hmmm. Guess I'll break the silence if she won't.
“Oh Twilight, we meet again.” The only thing that went through the warlord's mind was, ‘should have worded that better.’ ‘She's more dangerous in the political arena than she looks. Even if she doesn't know anything but what's in a few textbooks.’
“Your uhh, assessment of the humans was... interesting... back at Canterlot that is...” -Viggo took a sip of some dark alcoholic drink- 'Be nice, Viggo. Be nice. Keep that eye contact.' “it was one of the few purposeful things that was said in Celestia's day court... two weeks back, or was it a week and a half maybe?” Time was getting funny these days, with the war and all. ’A week,’ he remembered, ‘It’s been a week.’
“Well... I hope things aren't too bad for you. I heard that the humans are not letting up... At any rate I hope you enjoy your stay in the Crystal Empire.”
Apparently Twilight isn't keeping up to date with the war news. Things aren't going that bad. Some wins some loses. Humans were always good at putting up a fight. The weakling slaves were always poor representations of wild humans. I'll inform her later, maybe. Just be nice. Don't verbally beat her down for not knowing anything of the real world.
“I am. Thanks for asking, Princess Twilight.” Viggo smiled, thinking of all he would accomplish here.
Twilight gave him a scrutinizing look. Not sure how to respond to that, Viggo shrugged and took a drink as he looked at the others, that's when he noticed him. He must have been at the back of the group and the last to come in because Viggo never saw him before. At any rate, the human was glaring at the warlord. He spat his drink out as the trumpets blazed and the next set of contenders entered below.
He pointed at the human. Yep, it was a human, unchained looking right at him. Every other pony seemed to not care. Equines were crazy. “Y-you let humans walk about freely!?”
Twilight was meekly raising her hoof, as if she was in a classroom asking permission to speak. She trembled a bit, not expecting this reaction. Shining helped her. “Don't panic. My sister Twilight managed to train the human completely. He's not violent in any way.” Shining looked at Twilight for her to continue. She understood entirely.
Twilight flew up next to her slave's head. The human, not used to the sight of Twilight actually using her wings, watched them with growing interest. She cleared her throat, having high hopes for this next trick and wanting to get it just right. “Bow to King Viggo.”
The human's eyes turned to whom she was pointing at, then did the practiced gesture. His hand came out of his cloak and swung gracefully across his midsection, one leg went back as he tilted forward. His eyes were even looking at the griffin's claws as his head bowed. “Nace to meech you, Keing Veageo.”
Everyone but Spike and Twilight took a step back and gawked at him. Twilight, not sure how to explain his quickly growing vocabulary, shrugged and giggled, embarrassed by the attention. “His pronunciation needs a little work, but it's pretty substantial I think, considering that he's a human and all.”
The human ended his bow and was watching Twilight again. Wondering if he was going to be told to do another trick.
The warlord was shaking his head at Twilight in disbelief. “They can't be trained to such a degree!” The warlord turned to the human, he didn't show any sign that he would attack. If anything he only looked ready to defend himself against the griffin. The human looked like he was anticipating an attack even. “Surely they can't. Such a barbaric animal just can't,” He paused, “Surely...” He found his talon naturally rose and began stroking his neck. “If this is true... It changes, not everything, but a lot of things. Hmmm.”
There was a clash between warriors down below. The warlord looked, easily distracted. They all looked down below as well. “Ahh, pity,” complained Viggo, “I wanted to show you all my best fighter.”
Shining and the others looked down at the struggling stallion on the ground, beaten by the griffin. He struggled to get up, and that was when his foreleg bent the wrong way. They all grimaced save for the warlord. Some crystal ponies were dispatched to help him to the infirmary.
The griffin warrior down below saluted his warlord. Viggo waved back at him.
The warlord noticed that Twilight's friends were giving each other worried looks. Didn't know what you signed up for did you? Crazy ponies. He turned to the human. Actually, crazy ponies indeed.
Trumpets blared as the true festival began. It looked like fire eaters were taking center stage by the looks of it. I need another drink. These Equines are going to be the death of me. Viggo smiled at the ponies. “I'll be back.” Both the human and warlord kept a wary eye on each other as he left them for a few more minutes to go drink again.
Twilight and her friends were able to relax more after Viggo left, they chatted away the whole time as each performer did their thing. The show was marvelous, ponies doing almost unnatural feats, each outdoing the other in a spectacular performance. Twilight especially liked the poetic songs that were sung, not because of how amazing they were, but because it was the foundation of modern music.
Then came the wondrous play at the end. Though Twilight preferred to read classical literature rather than watch classical theater, she still enjoyed it, and gave a wholehearted hoof stomping applaud at the end.
“Oh my,” Rarity said in complete adoration, “what a positively marvelous performance. And when Lady Jade revealed that she had known of Lord Nocturnal's betrayal for two years! What a marvelous, ingenious ending.”
They all engaged in adorable hoof stomps and began giggling.
When the human turned towards them to see what the heck they were doing, Spike shied away. Still seeing every action as aggressive.
Applejack tipped her hat to Twilight. “Really appreciate the show Twi, it's turning out better than anticipated.”
Twilight nodded, happy that her friends were happy.
The shouter down below made the announcements clear. “The tournament is about to commence! Round one is about to commence!”
Rainbow went to the balcony rails and took an early seat. “And it's just getting started.”
The warlord made his way back into the stands, he looked a bit tipsy. He walked near her, but stopped when he got close to the human. They looked at each other for a moment, both not trusting the other.
Then the human glanced over to his master. He seemed to be studying her expression, but she couldn't discern why. The human shrugged, then walked to the back of the balcony and took a seat and did his meditating thing.
The warlord took a cautious step closer to Twilight while watching the human. “Strange.”
Twilight wasn't even sure why the warlord walked over next to her. It was a little awkward for her, she didn't know how to act with important members of society like him. The training helped but...
“So Twilight,” -She turned to him- “about the human.” Viggo turned to give a scrutinizing glare at the human, sitting cross legged, eyes closed, and almost not breathing at all. His hood was pulled up all the way, it almost looked like a pile of fabrics. Never moving.
“What about him?” She asked in a respectful tone.
“Did you learn anything that we could use against them? Some weakness. Because we really need to be working together on this. I think.” The warlord seemed a lot more interested in her than before. It was something that she thought she might like, being noticed that is. But when dealing with this young unpredictable ruler. It was hard to speak in absolutes.
Twilight scratched the back of her neck. She tried to keep her nervousness out of her voice. “W-why do you want to fight them so bad? Don't you have enough?” He made a face she couldn't read. “What I'm studying is a way to reason with them. To form a peace deal. For your war.”
His eyes widened. “Wait, what? Start from the beginning. When did this research begin?”
Twilight's nervousness grew, she was growing worried she was saying something she shouldn't have. “Well umm... right after you... left... we tried to devise a way as to... save your kind from... a counter attack... by the humans.”
His left eye twitched. That crazy look back at Canterlot castle appeared again in his expression, but in only lasted for a second. “I see. Well, there are other nations than Equestria that can help me.” He stormed out of the stand as quietly as he could. Back to the bartender, she quipped to herself. Then released a breathe she didn’t know she was holding..
“Twilight?” She turned to her other side to see her human had walked up to her when she hadn't noticed. The human appeared to scan her face for her emotions, then looked at the way that the griffin just stormed out of.
He leaned in to rub the back of her neck. She giggled at his affectionate nature. How these creatures could be perceived as cruel was beyond her. Yet she knew deep down, that her human was very special. The books, and even her own personal experience back at Canterlot testified to that.
Twilight gave him a quick hug, he bent his knees and hugged her sideways with one arm. “I'm fine. Don't worry.” Twilight knew it was silly to think that her human understood her, but it just felt natural to talk to him sometimes.
The trumpets blazed again, and the first two contenders walked out. They were both stallions. A moment later the warlord walked back into the stands and took a spot next to Shining. They were announcing the names of the contenders, this would be a lot more formal than the previous matches.
Rainbow trotted up to her. “Hey Twilight, me and Applejack are making a run to the bar, do you want me to get you something?”
She thought on that. “No, I'm good for now. Thanks though.”
“No prob.” Rainbow zipped out of the room, wanting to return as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, the warlord was beginning to sweat.
Oh this was bad. This was really bad. Celestia already gave up on the war. CRAP! And Twilight was right! A counter attack was coming! All for just a few hundred wild human slaves! It would cover the cost of the war, but just barely. There had also been the measly five hundred acres of land we conquered, that could be rationed out to my army to keep them happy. But it wasn't ideal. Even worse some back at the Griffin Kingdom are questioning my ability to rule.
Viggo's talon rubbed his stressed eyes. It's okay, it's still salvageable. At any cost, I need support for the war. I need it. I can't leave without it. The agreement was that I would stay a week at the castle as a guest. I'll have to make the most of it. But even if I do fail, there's always Broncovy. They're probably willing to push back against the humans. Hopefully...
The warriors clashed. He paid it no mind. He looked at Shining to his side, then back at the match.
These ponies just don't understand how cruel and vile these humans really are! I'll have to educate them. He looked over to Twilight. Of course! Twilight!
The same warriors galloped toward each other again. Having both managed to say on their hooves after the first clash.
’Twilight is studying humans for Celestia, if I can convince her of what humans are really like then I might still take Equestria as a war asset for my war. May even take the Crystal Empire as well, with her being Shining's sister and all. Hmmm. Perhaps I can invite her to the Griffin Kingdom with me. Show her some wild tribes in their natural habitat. Once she sees a human that isn't tame, that isn't perfect, that doesn't have only two arms and two legs. She'll change her tune.’ Assurance hit him. Viggo was sure this would work. A week to convince Twilight to visit his kingdom and see how bad humans really were. ’I have a week to convince Twilight to come back with me to-’
“I hope that you see that my troops are not anything to laugh at, Viggo? Have you been watching the match even?”
Viggo was slapped back into reality by Shining's question. “Of course I was. A fine show indeed.” He looked at the board ahead, showing who would contend against who. “So my eight warriors made it, sixteen of your guards made it, and eight equestrian ponies managed to make it into the game as well. This should be interesting.”
Shining's warrior went up on the board, defeating the Equestrian stallion. The next set came through. This was one was a griffin against one of Shining's guards.
“How many humans did you say your scouts reported near our border?” The warlord didn't expect this question from the prince.
He's using his head, good. Wonderful. I may just win this war yet.
“Two thousand, Shining.”
The prince grimaced, mouthing the words 'two thousand' to himself, almost in disbelief. He was having trouble coming to terms with what Viggo told him. The warlord shrugged. “If you don't believe me you can always send your own scouts up north to see for yourself.”
The contenders below clashed, the griffin won. The stallion couldn't get back up.
“I believe you,” stated Shining. “ I've known the humans have been getting restless for some time. But I've always hoped that they would never cross our borders.”
Viggo raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever fought humans before?”
“No.” There was a hint of bitterness in his tone. The warlord decided not to press it.
“Hmmm,” the warlord struggled to explain it, “they are tough, beatable, but freakishly tuff. You know they have steadily been growing in numbers and have been taking territory for the past five hundred years?” Shining didn't respond. “They are capable of unimaginable horror. They hoard treasure that would make the two of us look like peasants, and they are extremely dangerous.”
The next set of contenders clashed.
“Ignoring them will not save you. You need to accept my proposal, an alliance between your kind and mine is the only way you can survive this winter. Equestria is too far from the threat, they won't take it seriously until it's too late.”
Shining gazed at the arena still thinking, and not speaking.
Viggo sighed, then looked over to the human. It was standing next to it's master. It's cloak was wrapped tight around himself, apparently he was having trouble dealing with the cold. Yet he wasn't shivering, he had a far off expression, like he was looking past the dueling contenders.
The two of them watched in silence for several minutes.
Twilight was enjoying herself. She was with her friends, they weren't put off too badly by her human. Plus her human was in a quiet, but affectionate mood today. All was well. It was turning out to be a good day. Applejack took the spot next to her.
“Howdy Twilight, that really is a mighty fine first tier human you got there.”
“Thanks, Applejack.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “That's the second time you called him a 'first tier human', how did you know where I got him?”
The farm mare chuckled. “Ah may not be no human expert, but I know the cream of the crop when I see 'em.” Applejack looked the human up and down. “Ah'll admit I'm a bit jealous, how much can he lift? Does he got good endurance?”
The question took her by surprise, she had never actually given him a single choir to do. “Well, uhhh, there was that one time that he ripped a magical collar off of himself.”
Applejack's eyes grew. “The magical containment ones?” Twilight nodded.
When Applejack didn't respond, Twilight continued. “And sometimes when I left him in his cage for too long he would get antsy and lift himself up with the bars over his head.” The farm mare was left speechless.
“L-like a monkey?” They both turned to Fluttershy.
Twilight gave the timid mare a friendly smile, even though she seemed to have popped out of nowhere. “Yeah. Though he doesn't look like he's actually enjoying it.” She looked up at her slave. “More like it's a workout routine or something, perhaps a behavioral adaptation to keep a large amount of muscle mass.” Twilight shrugged, not aware of any better explanation. It's a good theory as far as she was concerned.
Applejack watched him for a moment. “But what does he do?” She drawled out the last word to emphasize her question.
Umm, nothing? Before Twilight could answer, there was a loud crash down below.
“HA!” bellowed the warlord. “Well done!”
Twilight and her friends looked down below to see the warlord's best warrior over a defeated stallion.
Twilight paused for a minute, wondering if she should just use this opportunity to not answer the question. ’I'd love to tell them that it's an assignment from Celestia herself, just not now.’ It felt like the best course of action at the time. “Maybe I could tell you guys more after the first set of matches is over. There will be an intermission afterwards.”
Applejack nodded. “Sounds ok to me. I'm only askin' because I'm interested. Don't mean to be nosy.”
Twilight waved the idea off. “Oh no! Not at all.”
“But... umm...” Twilight turned to Fluttershy, the mare took a timid step back when the human turned back to look at her, “what's his name?”
Twilight looked at her with a blank look, processing the question. Human's have names? Another chastising voice came from inside her head. OF COURSE THEY DO! A HUMAN NAMED TENTACLES WAS EVEN MENTIONED IN THE BOOKS YOU READ!
A bit of embarrassment was creeping in on her as she turned to Spike, who was nearby and was half listening to their conversation. “Don't look at me,” Spike defended, even before Twilight could ask him anything. “He's your human, you name him if you want. I've done more than my share of feeding him and such when the maids get too scared of him.”
Realizing that the entire blame fell on her, she turned to Fluttershy with a sheepish smile on her face. “A name you say?” She looked around. “Uhhh, ummm.” She looked at random things nearby, then to her human.
The slave looked back at her, broke eye contact, looked around, then looked back at her. He shrugged, as if asking. 'What? What do you want from me?'
Twilight looked back at Fluttershy to see her knowing smile. She leaned in closer. “Haven't named him yet have you?”
Twilight leaned in closer as well. “Uhh, not yet. No.”
Another clash from the contenders down below. The human whistled, in recognition of Equine valor, one of Shining's warriors beat a griffin. A few, including the warlord, looked over to see the human make his strangely familiar noise.
'Huh, he knows how to whistle also? Weird.' Twilight let that thought linger. 'Whistles?! Do I call him Whistles?'
Twilight looked over to Fluttershy. “Give it time, don't rush it, I'm sure an appropriate name will come to you.”
“Thanks, Fluttershy.” Twilight went back to the stand to watch the rest of the matches. The intermission would start soon enough. She looked up at her human. 'No, Whistles is a stupid name.'