As Princess Luna and Princess Celestia prepared for their visit to Gravehal Keep, a squawk from Philomena reminded Celestia to put her helmet on.
"Thank you Philomena." smiled Celestia, she squawked happily in response.
Castro was perched next to Luna who was looking him over.
"Sister, you should see his talons... they are incredibly sharp." said Luna, it was true, how he manages to perch on ponies backs without hurting them mut take great effort, because one side of Philomena's perch had deep holes in from where he had perched.
"He is a bird of prey, unlike Philomena, his talons need to be sharp." explained Celestia.
"Indeed... to take down a timberwolf..." Luna trailed off and shuddered.
"It is ok Luna, we have our armor on in case anything goes wrong." reassured Celestia and draped a wing over Luna.
"I know, I am ready sister." said Luna and floated her helmet upon her head.
"As am I." said Twilight who had her own purple armor made last night, much to the ire of the royal blacksmith who was trying to sleep, the Princesses awarded him with a pay rise and he could stay off work until they came back.
"Good, let us depart." said Celestia.
Celestia floated Twilight onto her back and the sisters spread their wings, Castro prepared to take off with them.
"Hang on Twilight." said Celestia as they took off to Winsome falls.
On the way the sight was beautiful... until they saw Niskaru below... suddenly Twilight looked back and immediately regretted it...
"Princess! Jacken is behind us!" she exclaimed, both rulers looked back and saw a massive beast following them.
Luna went to engage but a swipe from Castro just missing her face warned her to keep on going and not to engage.
She took the hint and they kept flying.
"There! the forest!" exclaimed Twilight.
Both sisters landed in front of it and saw two ponies in strange azure armor...
"This way your highnesses." said one and led them into the forest, they risked a look back and saw a floating ward made up of symbols appeared in front of Jacken whenever he tried to get within close proximity to the forest
The three ponies breathed a sigh of relief and followed the guards.
They saw Castro fly overhead to the Keep which the top of was now visible through the blanket of leaves.
Eventually they saw the grand gate of Gravehal Keep in all it's glory.
"Enter the Keep your majesties, the Liegelord is awaiting your arrival in the throne room." said a guard, what they didn't know was that a certain Warsworn was following them through the forest, sneaking behind them, he then used a spell to teleport himself to the throne room.
"Did you hear that sister?! throne room... who does this creature think-" Celestia cut her off.
"Did you hear 'Liegelord' Luna? he doesn't claim to be ruler of Equestria, only of his Keep!" she said.
"You are correct sister... I only paid attention to 'throne'..." apologised Luna.
"It's fine Luna, you just have to be open minded." smiled Celestia and entered the Keep, what they saw amazed them both, Twilight had already seen it.
Guards in the same azure armor, some in strange masked armor and others in robes lined their route to the throne room as befitting royalty.
"Your highnesses, my Master requests you relinquish your magic within this chest, apart from you Miss Sparkle." said a guard.
"Of course." said Celestia and pointed her horn at the chest, which slowly and rather smoothly removed her magic.
"Well? how does it feel?" asked Luna, suddenly Celestia let out a childish giggle quite unlike her.
"Tingly." she chuckled.
"Ok..." said Luna and did the same as Celestia, she fought the urge to giggle but it got the best of her.
"Hehe, ok, I see what you mean." chuckled Luna as they straightened up and walked the lined path, they looked to the left and saw... an odd sight... there looked to be a beast pen with a hydra, a manticore, a chimera and a cockatrice.
"Luna, look at that, that cockatrice is looking down, it looks to be tamed." said Celestia.
"All those animals do, it would take no less than our whole army to take this Keep as most would get lost in the forest, then it looks as if he has archers, assuming we make it this far, the beasts would weaken us even more, then his soldiers, and his unicorns, and his spies, providing we make it through that we still have the Liegelord himself to deal with as well as his deadly bird." said Luna.
"Not to mention his personal guard." added Twilight.
"He even has personal guards? this does not looks good..." concluded Luna, she was always the tactical mind, but the fact she thought they didn't have a chance to take this Keep worried Celestia immensely, Luna was rather good at judging their chances at winning a battle, as she made it her duty to know the military strengths and weaknesses and was the best at judging such things....
They stood at the door to the Keep and took deep breaths.
"Ok, here we go." said Celestia and entered the throne room.
They entered the throne room, which was incredibly grand, they saw the Liegelord on his throne, a lute in his hand and his eyes closed as he sang.
"Of all the songs in halls of lore, there echoes none more grand, than Olyen's many feats of might, the pure, and lady of the light, she is a knight of golden knot, she is the cureseeker, the conscience of the Summer Fae..." he was softly singing in an unrecognisable accent.
He slowly opened his eyes and placed the lute to the side.
"Your majesties... welcome... to Gravehal Keep!" he exclaimed and slowly stood and raised his arms.
"Thank you for your hospitality Liegelord." greeted Celestia.
"It is no trouble, and please, ponies as beautiful as yourselves can call me Corvus, welcome back Twilight." he greeted.
"Thank you Corvus." smiled Twilight and hugged him, which he hesitantly returned, meanwhile both sisters were blushing.
"Err, thank you Corvus for inviting us to your lovely Keep." said Celestia as Twilight released him.
"Yes, it is lovely, you have a nice Coat of Arms." complimented Luna, trying to get rid of her blush.
"Thanks." he replied and gestured with his claw, motioning for two ponies to enter with the chest.
it was placed on Corvus' lap and he opened it.
"Whew, this is some powerful magic, not as powerful as mine, but still..." he said.
"How powerful is your magic?" asked Luna.
"Very, enough so that it could eliminate Jacken, even so, I only wanted to make sure you really would give up your magic." I explained and gave them their magic back.
"Thank you Corvus." said Celestia.
"No problem, now come, I wish to talk with you over dinner, we shall eat here." he said and gestured to the table.
They both nodded and he motioned for them to sit around the center while he would sit at the end, so they could talk.
Suddenly ponies brought in massive plates of food balanced on trays on their backs.
"Do you eat with your claws?" asked Twilight.
"My what? oh you mean my hands? yes." he said.
"Do you use utensils?" asked Celestia.
"Yes." he replied.
Suddenly they picked up knives and forks in their magic.
"Come on Luna." said Celestia and she obeyed.
"No no, you don't have to, it' just less messy for me if I do you see." he said and they nodded and put them down.
Celestia and Twilight used their magic to pick up the food and take bites like Corvus while Luna stuffed her muzzle, much to Corvus' amusement.
"I have a question..." said Luna between mouthfuls of her favorite food, daisy sandwiches.
"Shoot." said Corvus, using utensils and eating like Celestia, sophisticated.
"Eye ere ou en artaus?" asked Luna with a mouthful of food.
"Luna! swallow your food and then talk!" berated Celestia.
She complied.
"Why were you in Tartarus?" she asked.
"A little spell mishap, I tried to escape a trap using teleportation runes, but they kept changing at the last minute, I cast the spell anyway and landed there, which brings me to my question, I ripped that cell open like nothing, how do you keep prisoners there?" he asked.
"Our cells have magic embedded in them, it should have been impossible for them to break without the key." said Celestia.
"Hmm, maybe your magic doesn't affect me as much..." he said while eating.
"Maybe, by the way, do you enjoy it out here all alone?" asked Luna.
"I used to, but now I find myself longing for company, meeting your friends Twilight reminded me of how much I missed the company of my dear friend Agarth, that old Fateweaver always did find trouble, at least he's fine last i heard." he chuckled.
"If you want, we can magically move this Keep near Ponyville, and you can be it's Liegelord during this... 'Neskeru' threat." said Celestia.
"Very well, it's pronounced 'Niskaru' by the way." he said with a smile.
"By the way Corvus, I've been wondering, what is that red stuff you eat?" asked Twilight.
"This? this is red meat, I require the protein in it to survive, grow and keep my energy up, usually we eat mindless chickens, cows or fish, I am aware ponies are herbivores so you haven't got any." he said.
"I see, we won't judge you because of what you eat, but you must know that some of the animals here are intelligent, so everypony would frown upon you eating them." said Celestia with a slight frown, trying to think of a way.
"I could make due with animals in the forest, such as some of the creature' I've tamed here, thanks to my old friend Cillian Keen teaching me his tricks..." he said and reminisced.
"Deal." said Celestia, Luna was on her third plate.
"Excellent." mumbled Luna.
"Don't tell Fluttershy though, she'll freak." said Twilight.
"I will keep that in mind Twi." he said.
After the meal was finished they wrapped up.
"That was most satisfactory, thank you Castellan." smiled Celestia.
"No problem your highness." he said.
"Yes, those sandwiches were delectable." Luna licked her lips.
"I wouldn't know." he chuckled.
"Yes, because you ate them all." Celestia turned a playful glare to Luna.
"I'm sorry..." she said and Corvus chuckled.
"It's fine, I can't eat daisies anyway." he said.
"Who prepared it?" asked Twilight.
"I did." he said.
"Really? I order you to stop being Castellan of this Keep and be hired as our new royal chef!" said Luna half seriously.
"I will have to pass." he said.
"This will mean war." warned Luna playfully.
"Bring it on." he said and Luna made a pie appear and threw it at him and he stopped it with his own magic.
"Maybe later you two, come Corvus, we will call the royal unicorns to help move the Keep." smiled Celestia.
"Very well, let me get my other armor on." he said and went to his bedroom, he came down moments later with the same armor Twilight had seen him wearing when she first was here but it was red, and more shiny and he had a helm tucked under his arm.
"Let us go." he said.
"Hold on Corvus." said Celestia, he held on to her wing she jumped a little as he touched her sensitive spot with a cold metal gauntlet.
"Sorry." he said and took his gauntlet off, putting it in his pack and replacing his hand, she managed to hold in the jump... and his hands felt so soft...
"Sister..." Luna waved a hoof in front of her sisters face which looked a million miles away.
"Oh, sorry." she said and flexed her wing trying to get him to rub it a little more...
She then teleported them outside of Canterlot.
"Woah..." said Corvus and swayed a little but regained composure.
"Let's go..." he said as they pushed open the gate...