“Now this is the life...” I lay back in my cloud beach chair.
“Yes, yes it is.” The mare cuddling next to me said. I lazily turned my head to her, her bright green eyes stared back at mine. Her beautiful orange-red mane draping over her face and muzzle, her glossy, dark-tan fur that seemed to sparkled in the mid-afternoon sun -Her fur and eye color a testament to her heritage. She was beautiful.
“And spending it with the mare of my dreams makes it all the more… magical.” I leaned over and breathed the last word into her ear, making her shudder. She always loves it when I do that. Just add a little scritch-scratch and she turns into putty. She let out a giggle.
“You always know how to tease me.” She batted me lightly on my arm.
“I try.” I laugh. We fell silent and continued to watch the blazing sky, it was only a few more hours until evening, so the sky was bathed in bright and brilliant shades of red, yellow, orange and purple. All seemed to swirl and line up in just the right places to make a beautiful masterpiece. It was truly a beautiful.
RIIIIIIING!
Until the patio phone decided to make itself known.
With a groan of complaint from Sunny, I get up and head to the table the phone rested on. The phone, along with every single piece of furniture and appliance, made of cloud fluff. Again the rang just as I picked it up, taking a moment to admire the piece of magitech.
*I’ll never understand how the hell magic works.* I thought with a smile. I put the brick of a phone against my ear.
“Hello?”
“Ember!” It was Celly, huh… What could she want?
“Celly? It’s been a while, what’s up?”
“Please, I need you at Canterlot. Come as soon as you can. It’s urgent.” Oh shit, what happened?
“Alright. Be few in a few.” I hastily put the phone back on its resting place. “Hey Sunny. Celly needs me for something, be back in a bit, sounded urgent.”
“Oh? Alright.” She gave the same concerned look I had. Celly never called me like the way she just did. In fact, she hardly even calls in the first place…
Bah! No matter. She needs me now.
POP!
I teleported to the throne room of New Canterlot and spotted Celly and Moony upon their thrones, staring intently at something across. I briefly wondered what or who they staring at when I faced towards the other end of the chamber.
I felt my stomach drop when I made eye contact with the figure across the large room.
King Claudius, king of the gryphons, was standing in all his damnable glory. His beak and eyes as sharp as ever. His facade of superiority faltered just the tiniest bit when he laid eyes on me. His guards visibly tensed at this.
“Ah, Prince Ember. How… lovely, for us to meet again.” His deep voice reverberated throughout the room.
“Claudius.” I gave a curt nod. *The same cannot be said for you, tyrant.* Last time I saw this waste of life was on the other side of crossed swords. How that bastard is even allowed to set talon on Equestrian soil is lost on me with all that he has done.
“Come now. We’re friends, are we not? You can call me King Claudius.” He said with a smug grin.
“I would, if you were a king.” I responded hotly.
“My patience thins with you, Ember.” He narrowed his eyes at me, he clearly didn’t like my comment.
“Likewise.” I state. The sound of Celly clearing her throat took my attention off the pigeon.
“Ember. I called you here so the four of us can deliberate on a peace treaty.” She smiled.
She… she can’t be serious.
“... Are you kidding me? You want to make peace with that… with that pigeon!?” I wave an arm exasperatedly at the gryphon king.
“That’s it! I have had enough of your insults!” Claudius took to the air and went to rush me. He did so with enough speed I had barely had time to think of a plan; let him get one hit on, and decimate him.
So, with that in mind I let him tackle me and throw a few punches and scratches. Right around the the third time I sprung into action. I got my legs under the bastard and, with a mighty heave, sent him sprawling to the floor. Before he or any of his guard could react I snap my fingers, my magic taking hold of their very beings. With my other hand I let out a shrill whistle by placing two fingers in between my lips. And eight changeling fly in from the shadows. Surprising both the princess and gryphons.
“Replace them.” Was all I said before the changelings nodded, saluted, and went to work. Using some mind spells I taught Chrysalis a while back.
“Ember! What is the meaning of this!?”
“Steps I’m taking to prevent all-out war between ponies and griffins.” I calmly quip. Everyone falls silent, save for the gryphons since I’m keeping their beaks shut, while the changeling effectively copy their memories to their minds. Essentially making them duplicates. And all they to do is- Ah! Now they look the part. Now they just need the clothes and armor.
With nothing else but a mental twitch of the old brain. The heads of all the real gryphons present spin precisely one hundred degrees to the right. WIth them being no more of a threat than cow dung, I drop them and let the changelings continue with their orders. I then turned to face the two mortified faces of Celly and Moony. They went to speak, but I held up a hand to silence them.
“Before you say anything. There almost literally wasn’t a thing you could do from preventing Claudius declaring war on Equestria again. So, I did the best thing I could.”
“Murdering them!? And replace them with changelings!?” Moony shouted.
“Basically, yes.” I nodded a little sagely.
“But, why!? How!?”
“Because, like I said, there really wasn’t anything I could do. And how, well… that really doesn’t matter.” I said while charging up my magic.
“Why would that be!?” An angry white alicorn yelled.
“You won’t remember this, ever.” I snapped my fingers and the same memory spell that a… purple alicorn used to restore memories. But in this case it’s erasing them. I’m sure they’re aren’t happy at this.
SLAM
Yeah… not happy at all. If that piece of pillar somehow crashing on top of me is any indication. But, no matter, I’m doing what I can to keep everyone safe and happy.
It should’ve been made apparent by now. But I feel I should make it clear that I will anything to keep my little princesses safe and happy. Anything.
Anyway, with everything sorted out, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony suddenly walked into the chamber.
“Ah, Twilight and friends. Good to see you all again.” I say by way of greeting.
“Good tah see you too partner.” Applejack tipped her hat to me.
“Ember darling! Good to see you!” Came Rarity’s hello.
“Hey Emby!” Said an exuberant Pinkie.
“Hello Ember.” Smiled Twilight.
“H-i Ember. It’s g-good to see you again.” Fluttershy timidly said.
“Hey Ember, how’s it hangin’?” Asked Rainbow. By this point the sisters shook themselves from the stupor I put them in.
“Ah, hello Twilight.” Celly more or less addressed the young alicorn. “You came just in time. Come, let us delegate this peace treaty.” The girls, ‘gryphons’, and me all follow the her and Moony to a room with a large round table right in the center. We all took our respective seats. Me sitting between the solar and nightly diarchs. The element bearers to the right. And the ‘gryphons’ to the left. All of them oblivious to the quite clean travesty that happened not more than three minutes ago.
And that is how it’s going to stay.
Hours of boring political delegations later…
Jesus christ, I’d never think talking about the finer details of a peace treaty would take so fucking long! At least I had some form of entertainment with my girls by pretending to fall asleep every once in awhile. Causing either Celly or Moony nudging me with an elbow. It also got some snickers from the ponies and changelings disguised as gryphons. But, that ended when they started glaring daggers at me. Too bad I could speak daggers at them for no probable cause.
Anyway, with the treaty signed --by the princesses, gryphons, and me for some reason-- we all left to go retire for the day. I had to put trust in the changelings that they would properly rule Gryphon Stone with the late king’s memories. Bah, who am I kidding, of course they’ll do it properly. And I just gave them a new supply of love to boot.
So with the threat of war long gone, I teleported home and was immediately tackled by Sunny Skies.
“Hey Sunny.” I manage to say before she locked lips with mine.
“You said you’d be gone for a little bit.” She pouted once we broke the kiss.
“I know, things just got a little hectic. There was a peace treaty signing between the Equestria and Gryphon Stone.” Sunny winced, remembering the stories I’ve told her.
“Oh, that bad huh?” She slowly got off me, brushing a hoof a little too close to home before she stood up.
“Yeah, how ‘bout we got to bed. Feelin’ kinda tired.” I groaned while I got up. The cloud floor is pretty comfortable, what with it being made of cloud and all, but the cloud was just that much better in comparison.
“But-but I was hoping we could have some fun before we go to bed! You left me alone all day!” And humphed and crossed her forelegs, pouting like a foal.
“Then you can be on top this time.” I feigned a yawn. “And I swear, you’re such a foal sometimes.” I crack a smile.
“Well someone’s gotta be fun around here!”
“Hey! I can be fun too!”
“Fun isn’t juggling knives on fire.”
“It is for me.” I grumbled. “C’mon, let’s have dinner before we go to bed.” I looked out the window and saw the moon already rising from the horizon.
“Hmph! Fine. But you better be extra fun in bed this time!”