> The Crystal Wolves (Rewrite)
>  by Roran Dreamon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Past Returns
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Darkness.

Oh how I missed you my lonesome friend.

Oh how I missed your cold, bleak, embrace.

How I miss your dark and terrible power.

But you didn't miss me, did you.

You knew where I was this entire time, just like he knows where I am and I him.

To be frozen in time, him sitting smugly on his black crystal throne and me, under the castle stuck in a massive black gemstone behind magically reinforced metal bars.

He thinks he can keep me down here forever, taking the knowledge of the people I was born to and the race that I have transformed into, and using it how he sees fit.

But I won't let it happen.

The dark unicorn king thinks he is safe up there, thinking that he has bested me in the dark arts although I only taught him how to manipulate the mind to break it and mold it as one sees fit, but he doesn't know everything.

Sombra thinks that I am broken, that my failure to stop him all those years ago has made me weak and pathetic, but he didn't know about that my plan has been in motion ever since we met for the first time.

I can still remember that day to, such a fond moment in my life...







It all started when my friends and I went to a convention, typical, really.

We went together as a group and rolled the dice to see what we would go as, and the unanimous victory went to Destiny, and I went against the grain and went as a villain instead of being the hero. I wanted to be different from the rest of my friends and two of them decided to join me as well, another being a villain as well and the other as the mysterious merchant of strange coins.

I was liking it, a costume that took a few days to construct, reading the wiki on who the character is, played the game to understand them further and in the end I think it was worth it, other nerds at the convention commented on my costume and thought it was nice.

Now if only this would get me laid and then I would be a happy man.

With my friends dressed up as their Guardians being the heroes, my other two friends as Omnigul and the other as Xür. Me on the other hand, I went as Skolas, the Wolf Kell, leader of the House of Wolves, and I was enjoying every second of it. Only problem was that I was a short one, the real one was easily at least eight or nine feet tall which means I was easily three, almost four feet too short but at least I was enjoying myself.

That was all that mattered to me, to just enjoy everything and to go with the flow of things.

But what made me change my thought process was when I bought something from strange looking old timer that was running a stall and well...lets just say that some bullshit happened and magic became real for me.

When I bought that little trinket and put it on to cover my old massive cloak clasp, I immediately started to get a painful headache and blurry vision before it transforming into me passing out in the middle of the convention and waking up that wasn't here at home or at the hospital.

I instead woke up in the middle of a strange town, its inhabitants are quadrupeds that instead of the natural colors that horses have, these are shades of all colors of grey, silver, white and other lightly colored crystals.

They looked at me, I looked at them, and they started to scream while I passed the fuck out like a little bitch cause honestly, I was not expecting to go from a convention in southern California to the middle of some foreign land. I sure hope it is not in Russia cause if it is then I am fucked six ways to sunday without any lube. And naturally when I woke up I found myself no longer in the middle of a town of horses but instead I was chained to the wall by my wrists.

Normally I would be freaking the fuck out right now but seeing how this is all just a dream and that I was asleep at the hotel I just thought that I can just wait it out, wake up and be told that I passed out like fucking loser and all will be good with the world.

Only...it didn't happen like that, I was instead woken by a bucket of ice cold water to the face and when I woke up I found that I was no longer standing at five foot six inches. No I was now standing at nine feet tall and several hundred pounds of muscle and armor and I was loving it, for about five seconds before I realized that I was no longer human.

Before I had a chance to start freaking out, they came...three beings that was unique and different from the horses that I have seen when I first woke up and first seen in the city. The first one was an alabaster white winged unicorn, her features were soft, womanly, a light pink mane and tail with magenta eyes, she had a gentle aura around her but she was inexperienced when it came to interrogations. The second one was a dark opposite of the winged unicorn with a light cyan mane and tail with turquoise eyes, she was rough, brash, very forward and she led the interrogation by tightening the chains on my wrists. And lastly there was the black unicorn with an equally black mane and tail, this guy...something felt off about him the moment he walked into my cell, something evil...that or it was the breakfast burritos I had this morning.

When those three entered my cell I waited patiently for them, I wanted to hear what they had to say although I doubt I would understand a word that was being said because they are horses, not humans with English or Spanish, or even German.

I was hoping I wouldn't understand a word they were saying but sadly that wasn't the case...

"What manner of creature are you? We have never seen anything like you around here nor in other parts of the world." The black unicorn said as he trotted up to me, inspecting my body closely as he talked, his red eyes gazing at mine for the briefest of moments before going back to my body or more importantly my armor.

The black unicorn stallion stood at my legs for a few more moments before retreating back to the two black and white winged unicorns and murmuring something to them both, hoping that I couldn't hear anything but I caught every single word that was being uttered.

"This is unlike any other beast I have seen during my short time here Princess Celestia...this thing is easily taller than the minotaur chieftain I have seen and it doesn't seem like anything that should be up here on the surface. Maybe this beast is from Tartarus and has escaped?" The black unicorn whispered as his eyes quickly looked at me before flinching away and looking back at the two winged unicorns, and just now I realized that the pair was wearing crowns matching their colors, they were also wearing what looks like togas, matching hoof slipper thingies, a gold necklace for the white one and a dark silver for the black one.

"Neigh Councilor Sombra, We hath seen the abominations that runs rampant in thine cursed lands and never hath We gazed upon such a powerful beast before Us."  Before the white winged unicorn could speak the younger winged unicorn spoke up, pointing a slipper covered hoof at me before placing it back down, I guess pointing for these horses isn't an easy thing to do when you have to rely on that same leg to stay standing.

"Then where did this thing come from Princess Luna. If not from Tartarus nor the surrounding lands than where?" The black unicorn, now named 'Sombra' if this 'Princess Luna' is correct, was wearing what looks like a gold colored headband and a toga, but his toga was slightly darker in color, has what looks like a pocketbook at the base of his neck. My guess if what was said by the dark horned winged horse, he must either be someone that acts as a guidance teacher or some other office of importance?

"Perhaps our awakened guest will indulge Us all on its origins." The white one 'Princess Celestia' said, her magenta eyes gazing at my four pale blue eyes (yeah, I figured that out when I tried to normally blink and felt four eyelids closing simultaneously) the two of us were silently gauging the other, trying to see into the mind of the other but to no avail for either of us.

Clearing her throat the white winged unicorn trotted up to me before sitting down on her haunches and with a warm smile before speaking directly to me.

"Greetings, I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister Princess Luna-" Princess 'Celestia' said as her sister nodded at her name being called "-and the one beside her is Lord Sombra, a Councilor of the Assembly-" the dark unicorn nodded with a grin, apparently he likes being called by that title of his...an inflated ego or a common trait among the unicorns perhaps. 

"-and We would like to welcome you to the Crystal Empire."

From where I am standing this doesn't feel very welcome nor nice.

"Although you say you welcome me to your kingdom, you have me chained and bound to this wall." I said with some snark thrown in, because come on, who wouldn't throw in a little bit in this situation?

What I said immediately threw the white one through a loop, the dark winged unicorn seemed a bit peeved that I spoke to her like that and the dark unicorn seemed to be grinning even more, and I don't like it.

"I am sorry but We had to take precautions, seeing how nopony knows who or what you are and at the time We did not know if you are friend or foe." Princess Celestia said, still maintaining her smile all the while her sister was frowning at me, Sombra still kept that creepy smile of his.

"Smart move, not every day one encounters something unknown and expect it to be friendly when it could have hostile intentions. Nice to know that naivety isn't a trait of yours." I said as I tested the chains a bit, pulling at them to see how far I can move them only to find that I could easily move my arms a few inches forward in any direction.

Celestia smiled more, a faint red hue forming on her cheeks before a wing comes around and covered her muzzle, a giggle escaping her lips as her sister eyed me suspiciously, Sombra's smile on the other hand waned and even outright dropped.

Apparently those two thought I was flirting with Celestia. I wasn't cause there is no way in hell that I would even think of an animal in a situation like that.

"I dare say, are you flirting with me Mr...?" Celestia started, rolling her right hoof around, the same way a normal person would when they are trying to get you to say something or to just spit it out and get it over with.

"Skolas, my name is Skolas." I said, rolling my eyes although no one saw it because my eyes don't have any clear iris or pupils.

"Mr. Skolas, are you trying to flirt with me?" Wow, me? Really? Nope!

"No, just take it as a compliment." I said with a flat stare, flirting won't get me no where, and it sure as hell ain't gonna help me here.

"Good, flattery would have not served you any good here and I am sure it would not have even worked on my sister here." At least she is being honest about flattery not working, cause honestly only a fool would graciously accept flattery without taking it with a grain of salt.

"I know, it was an attempt on my part to get out of these chains through flattery. Now I guess I get to see how strong these chains are the old fashioned way." I said before giving a good tug on the chains, hoping that they would budge or at the very least bend a bit but so far nothing.

Seeing me test the chains bound to my wrist and keeping me connected to the ceiling, Princess Luna could only grin at my struggling only for it to turn into a gasp as I tugged harder and the chains shattered in the middle of the long link.

"Impossible! Those were crafted by the greatest smith of the Black Iron Clan and are strong enough to hold down an Ursa Major!" Princess Luna shouted, her wings flaring out and her horn pointed at me as it started to glow a color that I can tell that means that I am about to have a really bad time. Or in other words she looks pissed and defensive and she feels threatened that I joke broke those chains with ease.

Looking down at the chains I held them up to my face before crushing them into my hands, forming a ball of ruined metal with distinct chain loop shapes all over it before revealing my lower set of arms, yanking the chains that was still bound to my wrists off.

The look of shock was clearly evident on their faces, all of them looking at my other set of arms as I gathered up the wasted metal and crushed it all into a single sphere of crumpled scrap before dropping it on the floor.

"This doesn't look like it was made by the greatest smith ever, it looks more like a poorly crafted pile of scrap metal than anything else. So called strong enough to hold an Ursa Major, ha!" I shouted as I loomed over the three, Sombra was just standing there, now scared and shivering where he stood as I looked down at him. Princess Luna had her horn glowing brightly as a large magical sword materialized before her and was pointing it at me, Celestia on the other hand could only shake her head as her own horn glowed a golden color and levitated the ball of ruined chains from the floor and looked it over before placing it beside her left hoof.

"So it would seem...Luna do lower your sword, I think that will only serve to anger our new friend and I doubt that it would leave a dent on his body or his armor...uh you are a he...right?"

"Yes, I am a guy, male, whatever you call the opposite gender from female." I said as they looked at me as if I started to speak gibberish.

Giving a flat stare, something I think they can't tell cause it is hard for my eyebrows to even move, I just resided and be very blunt and vulgar.

"It means that I have a dick." That got the attention of everyone, even the four guards that were standing outside of the prison cell. I just noticed that they were there because I saw four spears randomly moving about behind the three and that they all look the same. Either they are clones or they are just using generalized equipment.

"I see...well than, Luna lower your weapon and Mr. Skolas, do try to not react violently." I am the essence of calm, I am the picture perfect of peace, I am the fat man on a lazy boy on a hot summer day.

"Don't worry, I wont. So long as she doesn't try anything reckless or does something to anger me." That and I doubt killing royalty will give me any brownie points.

"Hehe, you are almost like my sister." Bullshit I am like her! I am not a horse nor do I pull a gun...sword out on someone for moving!

"Celestia! I am nothing like this beast!" Yeah! I am like, way better than her!

"Please Luna, you almost kill your squire for dropping your practice sword on the floor the other day." Ouch, man I feel sorry for that poor bastard.

"That peasant should have known better to not drop them right in front of Us! Does he not know how long it takes for them to be repaired at the end of each session!" They are just practice swords! I bet they are just pieces of blunted metal!

Wow, Luna is such a cunt, thank god I am nothing like her.

"She also sounds like she has anger issues." 

"That she does."

"Hey! We do not hath issues of anger!"

The two of us ignored her as we continued to talk, clearly making her upset with us, mostly me though.

"So..." I started as I looked around the cramp cell I was in, my helmet scrapping the ceiling forcing me to hunch down a bit to stop scratching the paint off.

"Yes you are free to go, but would you like to have some tea before we part ways?"

"Sister! Thou can't hath tea with him! He is a brute!"

"Sure, and not like I have anywhere else to go so I just might stay a while." I said as I smiled faintly underneath my rebreathing mask, slowly making my way out of the cell as the two princesses and councilor make space for me to leave, the four guards leading me out of the prison that is underneath what is a palace made entirely out of crystals. I do not know how they managed to construct such a place but they definitely deserve props for doing so. Hell it must be impenetrable by normal means seeing how crystals are normally hard to break, unless it is made out of diamonds than that requires either a laser beam or another but much sharper diamond.

And so that was my first day in this foreign world, I passed out, woke up in the middle of some horse town, passed out a second time for me to only wake up in a prison cell, met two princesses of importance and a unicorn of mild importance, knowingly flirted with one or two of them just to see if I could get away with it (I did), was released from prison and lastly had tea with them.







Le sigh

What a day that was, oh if only I could turn back the clock and hold them one more time, but sadly because of what happened on that fateful day several decades later I now just want to strangle the lot of em.

But before I could reminisce on my past, I felt a disturbance.

A powerful disturbance.

The world around me was shaking, forcing itself back into the waking world along with everyone that was trapped within the radius all of those centuries ago.

The stasis spell was ending.

Sighing to myself I closed my eyes and focused on the darkness that has surrounded me for the past one thousand two hundred and one years before absorbing it all, the black void that was once my prison doing nothing more than revitalizing me, recharging every single cell in my body before the black crystal shattered into millions of tiny pieces.

Now this would have been my crowning moment of awesome for breaking out of a prison of solid black crystal but there was a problem, it was lying on its side, and I was facing straight down at the floor, and my reaction time was about as fast as a dead cat.

So I landed face first on the floor that was soon followed by my body and the rest of the tiny shards that went upward instead of any other random direction.

Now I was face first on the cold prison floor, covered in crystal shards, and I really, really need to take a shit.

I swear I am getting to old to deal with this crap right now...

"I see you are clearly enjoying yourself, friend." a masculine voice said as I clearly remembered who that voice belonged to.

Oh crap...

"Come now, don't be shy, I know you recall who I am, buddy."

With a bit of effort I lifted my head off the cold floor to look at the one talking to me, giving the pony in question a pissed-off glare the entire time.

"I hate you so much Sombra." I growled out before the mad unicorn king started to cackle madly, throwing his head back as purple wisps of smoke left his closed eyes before his horn started to glow a deep blood red color.

And in that exact moment I felt the tiny fragments that I landed in lift off the ground before latching onto my head to pull it up and immediately slamming it back down, knocking me out cold.

Oh I am so sick of this horseshit...
> Intentional
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello darkness my old friend

CRACK!

It sucks to be with you again.

CRACK!

God I am thankful that I don't have a nose or otherwise it would be broken all to hell right now.

CRACK!

Is he done yet?

CRACK!

I will take that as a no...

Before I could ponder any further as to if Sombra has stopped using my face as a punching bag I received yet another of his famous black crystal clad hoof to the face, one again leaving a slight dent to my forehead but now cracking the small bridge on my nose that I do have (although I wouldn't call it a nose cause it is so damn small) and therefore breaking my nose.

One bloody mess later Sombra dropped my head and let me land back on the floor and just as I placed my hands on the floor to pull myself up and to show that bastard what I had thought of him over the millennia, he used the fragments to form around all four of my hands and locked me in place.

"Oh Skolas, Skolas, Skolas, did you honestly believe that it would be this easy?"

Looking up at him all I could really think and say was...

"In all honesty, yes. Yes I did think it would be this easy." And for saying such a thing I received yet another open hand...open hoof to the left cheek. I swear hooves are soft and fuzzy one moment and the next they are hard as a fucking rock the next.

Harrumphing at my answer I heard Sombra trot away from me before using the crystals to barricade and reinforce the bars keeping me here, the same cell that I was stuck in when I first arrived here.

"Do stay here and stay out of trouble. It would be such a shame if I were to suddenly...hurt somepony you care about." Sombra said in a taunting tone before leaving the dungeon, cackling loudly as he vanished, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Man I am so going to murder the shit out of this fucker.

With nothing but my thoughts, an empty dungeon, and my hands, all I could think about was the many horrible, gory, painful and terrifying ways I could kill Sombra as they ranged from tossing him into a wood chipper, a pool full of hungry sharks, even shot-putting him into a volcano terminator style.

Once I was sure that he was gone and couldn't hear me completely, I drained the darkness that he infused the crystals with and watched as they crumbled into tiny cracked shards and with it my hands were free. Flicking the shards off and away from my person I stood up and inspected the bars holding me here and with a roll of the eyes I scoffed at the weak display holding me here.

Such diluted darkness...seems like Sombra isn't at full strength yet, now is my chance to make sure he doesn't reach it.

Phase-shifting through the bars I turned my head to both directions, making sure that there are no mind-controlled guards on patrol but when I heard nothing but my own heavy breathing I let out a small sigh of relief. I can't recall how Sombra managed to combine the darkness with magic runes but all I do know is that he secretly placed those runes on a vast majority of the guards and they didn't know what hit them until the rune was activated. 

So many ponies died because of that action, but it was enough for him to almost win.

Not on my watch, never again.

Walking through the enlarged halls I cast my gaze at the surrounding area, noticing that everything now has a darker hue and that there are jagged black crystals lining the halls and ceiling. Seemed like Sombra took his time to greet me and decided to make this palace more homely for himself. I wonder how he will feel when I beat the shit out of him and use his body to break every single piece of corrupted crystal stacks? Probably not to happy, but he has a lot to pay for.

Stalking the halls of my new home I saw that things have barely changed since I've been staying here, usually I would just ignore everything and just do my job, but now that I have only one thing to do it surprisingly is giving me the time to truly enjoy what I have been bypassing for years.

The crystal spires and priceless artwork that decorate the place suits of ornament armor lean against the wall and lastly a stylized window of the two princesses moving in a circular motion with the sun and moon in their respective places.

I wonder why Sombra hasn't smashed this yet? IF those two couldn't stop someone that is younger and less experienced in combat magic than them, then they clearly aren't meant to rule anything. I mean seriously, I only told him how to harness the darkness and yet he managed to best two alicorns and a legion of guards. Although I admit it, I too was caught off guard and allowed this to happen, maybe I shouldn't have taught him how to harness his inner hatred and anger.

Picking up the pace a bit I started to scale the stairs to reach the second floor, recalling back the memories of my first time being here...







It has been an hour since I was released from my prison cell, Princess Celestia called it all a misunderstanding but I was busy grumbling and snarling to myself as we went up the stairs leading to the surface. I had to duck and mostly crawl up the stair as they were too small for me to properly walk through, further making it longer for us all to get up top and make this embarrassing situation go away. Well, make it go away for the princesses but for me, I am going to hold onto this for a later date and time to dangle over their heads.

To me this is downright embarrassing cause here I am, Skolas, The Wolf Kell, crawling up a flight of stairs on my hands and knees, with my face mere inches from a horse guard's tail and I must say, if I feel hot wind then I am going back to that prison cell for murdering a guard.

Lucky for me I felt nothing and once we left the prison what I saw was something you would find in a final fantasy game. Everything around me was grandiose and extravagant for a backwater planet, exquisite art, silk tapestries, priceless busts of horses of some importance, expertly crafted suits of armor on stands and flawless looking urns and jars. In all if one was to enter this place for the first time them they would be in awe with everything present, but for me it was more like a 'one-and-done' sort of thing for me, sure its a nice looking foyer and all but its nothing I haven't seen before, example, The Buckingham Palace.

When they showed me the grand foyer for the Crystal Palace I had to admit it was nice, but then they started to lead me up more flights of stairs, saying that this place took a decade to build and when it was finished these ponies said that it is truly a wonder that can eclipse anything that any other pony or non-pony can ever build. I simply ignored that comment because I thought back to Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, and to me those were amazing, a crystal palace is just showing off.

Once the first floor was done we moved up to the second floor which housed the servants and other castle workers alongside with the crystal guard as their barracks was right next to their own. I have to admit when I first met the crystal guards I thought that they were terrible and were underpowered, and for the most part they are with the exception of the princesses personal guards as they are wearing some pretty sweet gear. I saw that they are wearing crystalized armor and from what the Princess Luna has told me, it is enchanted by them so it is stronger and much more durable, made lighter and also it infuses with the pony wearing it some attributes that match their monarch.

The solar guards were made white, blond manes, and they seemed to have a low sun-like glow to them.

The lunar guards were made a dark grey, bat wings if they were a pegasi, their ears had fur tufts, small cute fangs, cat-eyes, and a habit of hiding in things to spy on people...ponies. How did I know they hide in things?

I found one in my bathroom bathtub.

My response was to turn on the bathtub and to toss the wet pony out the room before slamming said door shut.

Anyways, the regular guards wore substandard armor made of bronze and fabric, iron was considered a luxary because of how hard it was for them to forge it let alone successfully smelt it because their forges are garbage along with their knowledge on metallurgy and blacksmithing.

I could tell them how to actually make iron, hell I could even tell them how to make proper steel, folded steel even, but why would I tell them such a thing? Give them something that is beyond them, and they just might destroy themselves or worse go on a warmongering spree and enslave those with inferior arms and armor let alone a weak leadership structure.

Keeping the means to make better metal along with the ability to make plated armor, chainmail, studded armor, crossbows, hell seeing how this place is all fantasy and magic 'n shit, maybe steampunk style power-armor. But I'll just keep it to myself, maybe if I can get myself into a position of power within the ranks of these ponies and have my own soldiers, I just might share these secrets of the modern world.

Thank you 'How it's Made' and the Military Channel, your countless hours of boring bullshit on the week days will finally be put to some use.

Once I was given the tour of the second floor we immediately went to the third floor which was just a guest suite, my guess was that the nobles here must on occasion show up here to suck up and kiss the asses of their leaders.

And apparently that is where I am assigned to stay until they can find me a way back, but in all honesty I think I just might stay here. I don't know why but this place might be better than Earth, now if only it had tv and porn then this place will be ideal.

"Now Skolas, while you are staying here you must abide by our laws and rules, I do not want to send you back to the dungeons because you decided to break the law. I will be sending one of the servants to deliver to your room a scroll containing a short list of our laws but to make this easy for you, do not do anything that you know is wrong and you will not have a problem with me. Have a pleasant stay." Princess Celestia said before turning around and trotting off, her sister stayed behind for a few seconds to linger and glare at me before saying some parting words of her own.

"Heed my Sister's command carefully Skolas, fail to listen and thee will spend thy life in the dungeons till death." and with those words I watched the dark winged unicorn trot after her sister, her royal guards following closely behind her as I rolled my eyes and entered my room.

First problem I noticed was that the door was not large enough for me to fit through it. I solved the problem by phase-shifting through the open door before closing it behind me.

My second problem was that the bed was way too small for me. I did not solve this problem at all, I instead had to let my arms, legs and lower portion of my torso to off of the bed. At the very least my head was on a pillow.

And lastly there was my third problem, my bathroom was too damn small, even for me to properly fit in. I guess my only solution to this problem was to tell the princesses that I will either need a larger room and bathroom, or if need be use magic to make it bigger. I know there is a spell out there that can make the room bigger than it really is, I played 'Dungeons and Dragons', that shit should apply here as well...well magic spells and mystical equipment wise anyways.

Letting out a sigh of exasperation I opened my door in time to see a castle servant waiting there, a mare, if the smooth round features are to be believed in, was standing there, scroll in mouth. I took said scroll from her and thanked her before closing the door again, didn't even hear her say your welcome and whatever it is that servants say when they do their job.

When I looked down at the scroll in hand I realized that I had a fourth problem, I couldn't read what was written down on the piece of parchment in my hands.

"You got to be fucking shitting my nuts...I can understand everything they say but I can't understand a word of it on paper...what kind of joke is this? Like seriously, this is some fucked up shit." I said to myself as I put the scroll down and decided that I might as well go see the princesses, maybe they will be so kind as to inform me about the laws or at the very least the basic things so I don't fuck up and get thrown back in jail.

Shaking my head at this world's strangeness to give me a language I can verbally understand and the same one I can't understand writtenly. I think this is just the universes way of fucking with me.

With nothing to do but to wait here until they either come here and get me or they just drop off a cart with food on it in my room while I am asleep...eh, either way I get food. I just hope it isn't hay or god forbid...grass.

Lying mostly off of the bed and with nothing to occupy my time I decided to do what any man does when bored out of their mind and have no means of alleviating boredom. 

Sleep it off.

And sleep it off I did, but I didn't get to truly enjoy my nap because exactly two hours later the door to my room opened up to reveal both princesses standing there. The white one was fighting back a smirk at my current position while the dark blue one was simply laughing.

"So We see that thee hath been enjoying thy self. Is thee's bed comfortable?" Princess Luna said as she fought back a few snirks before breaking out into laughter again. Well fuck you to princess, I hope you step on a lego block and it gets stuck in your hoof.

"Well, it has enough give to it so I don't completely sink in it which is good, only downside to it is that I don't completely fit on it." I said truthfully to Celestia, but to Luna she might as well think that I said that in a snarky or snide sided tone.

"We could always have the carpenters guild construct a bedframe that will fit your size if you wish?"

"Nah, I'm good. Only problem I have is the door being too small and the bathroom not fitting my size, but other then that its all good." But I really do wish for a toilet and shower set that I can actually use, mostly the shower part though, smelling like death is the perfect chick repellent and a job ender...I really just hope that if there are any viable women here that none of them are gold diggers or snobby little shits.

"Excellent, we are both hoping that you are willing to answer a few questions for us. You are not in trouble but this will help alleviate any worries that we both might have and also help us understand you better so there won't be any confusion or trouble now or later on down the path." Princess Celestia said as she waved a wing at me, not sure how one can wave a wing like that, those things aren't meant to bend like that but then again I really don't know anything about wing structure and what else they are capable of doing.

"Sure, not like I can say no to the two rulers of a foreign country that I am in without fearing the repercussions of being tortured and/or interrogated for what I know of if I ever said no to you both." I really laid the sarcasm out really thickly on this one. I just couldn't help myself, the inner asshole within me is strong.

And of course the two princesses gave me their best 'Are you serious?' face, Luna's looked much scarier than Celestia's but there is no way I am going to risk the ire of one or both of them so I relented and accepted their questioning.

"So where shall we go for this interrogation? I mean questioning." I said trying to be smooth (Not!) but sadly they did not see it as such. They waited somewhat patiently for me to get my fat ass up off the bed before being led out of the room (I had to short-teleport myself out) and marched straight to the throne room.

Now let me tell you, its a nice throne room. It has two thrones made out of solid crystal, one is a light crystal throne while the other is a slightly dark crystal throne, and for me throne is a bit of an understatement, its more like a very, very low seat. Like, three inches off the ground before being a seat with an elongated back but sadly with no armrests. Those thrones would be pretty sweet if they floated in the air, had armrests and also made you look bigger then you really are.

"Soooo...shall we begin?"







...and what happened next well, lets just say it gave me reason to pause when I suddenly found myself standing in front of the throne room doors, closed tightly but not locked and sealed.

Unlocked, unsealed, and not a single guard in sight. It would seem young Sombra never bothered to fully control the entire crystal guard corps while he still had the chance while I was unconscious. Seems like he still hasn't fully learned from the last time I have managed to stall and bested him.

Staring at the massive doors I checked myself for my weapons only to find out that they are still locked up in the barrack armory, locked up tighter than a tax collector's purse, or back then, tighter then a chastity belt with a missing key. And as for that story...well lets just say that I encountered someone that had an infatuation with me that simply wouldn't die down no matter how many times I rejected it...

And look what that led to...things that at first never seemed to be connected turned out to be a series of events that snowballed into one massive clusterfuck that resulted in the collapse of an empire, the banishment of its capital and the exile of several thousand ponies along with their princesses...

But here we are again...just like last time but with the exception that I am alone, and so is he. This time I will no longer retreat, no longer compromise, no longer regret...this time, I will end this before it takes the lives of those I care about...and this time I will not fail, never again.

Feeling myself for any weapon that may have been left behind during their search and seizure I found that I had nothing on me, nothing but my hidden surprise on my lower arms.

Looks like these will have to do...

With nothing but my wits, my guile, my strength and my sharp tongue I slowly started to push on the doors, the twins creaking as they haven't been oiled in a long while and as I pushed the doors open I saw my target, right where I said he would be.

Sitting there on his throne was the corrupted crystal warlock, my first friend...and my first greatest failure.

Sombra.

"So happy to see you out of the dungeons, brother."
> Meeting of Minds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The throne room is such a massive expanse of crystalline marble and crystal windows that at times during the day it would be almost blinding to those that are unprepared for it, but at night it looked amazing, especially when a certain lunar princess was in the mood and allowed a constellation or two to show on the floor with the power of her magic and the crystal windows amplifying the images of the night.

There was three thrones in this chamber in two, two of them belonged to the sun and the moon princesses but the third one belonged to the head chairmen of the Council. I helped form that position after the question- I mean interrogation from Princesses Celestia and Luna with Councilor Sombra at their side.

Those two were grilling me for hours on end and I only told them the bare minimum of things but when Luna finally got impatient however...





The three of us entered the throne room, Councilor Sombra was busy talking to a guard wearing bronze armor, my guess trying to get the feel about something but when the guard shook his head and took a step back, I can guess that he was asking said guard about something else.

As soon as the three of us crossed the threshold into the throne room, Princess Celestia's horn glowed a golden hue and with it I heard the twin giant doors creak themselves shut and once they were closed the two princesses trotted over to the only pairs of chairs in the room and sat themselves down. Sombra saw that now was the time for our little talk and place himself between the two monarchs, really easy to figure out they were in charge (it was the crowns that did it), but anyways once they sat down they began their questioning.

They asked me who I am, what I am, where did I come from, did I come in peace or was I a scout for war (it was funny as hell for me cause Sombra said 'If you came in peace you surrender, but if your came for war then we surrender', Luna hit him in the back of the head for that one) what my plans are, how many more of me are there, etc. etc.

My responses were all snarky, I just couldn't help myself.

But what I could do was not make my case even harder on myself by being stupid.

Luna's response to my stupidity was to beat it out of me...cladded hooves hurt like hell.

"Abusing your prisoners is a surefire way of it coming back to bite you in the ass little princess." I growled as she said that it was noted before hitting me again.

"Just maybe the beatings will stop when thee answers My Sister's questions with respect!" Luna shouted loudly, and if I was still human then it would have probably blown out my eardrums.

"Luna, please, harming him does not suit our desire for peace."

"Yeah, listen to her for a change. You two preach that you are peaceful and yet you easily practice barbaric means of extracting information from those that are in your custody." I said but as I let those words loose I saw Luna back down from her hostile stance and shifted into one that was a lot more menacing then the old one.

Trotting around me, her eyes looking me over I realize that I might have just tipped her onto an edge that I knew that she was willing to jump off of to get what she wanted.

"Fine then peasant, if the beatings will not make you talk then I will take what I want!" I watched as her horn glowed a dark purplish-blue color before coming into contact with my head, and like that I was out like a light.

But it didn't end there, oh no sir it did not.

As soon as I was rendered unconscious, I felt something probe its way into my mind and as soon as it started to reach for things it shouldn't be, I decided to unleash a probe of my own.

(One thing that unicorns and apparently alicorns have failed to understand that those with a strong mind and sense of will, they can attempt to breach the minds of those they are connected with via the horn of those that are coming into contact with, but it can only be initiated when the one with the horn starts the probing process. It is a dangerous process and if one should fail in the reverse probing, then they run the risk of being mentally scarred and even more so brain damaged by having your brain almost fried. The few that have managed to do such a thing is myself, Discord, and Tirek.)

I felt the pushing and prodding of Luna's mind against my own, I could feel everything that she was doing inside my head, trying to find the truth to everything she is looking for, but I won't make it easy for her.

When she tried to grasp my true name, I showed her the names of countless others that were not my own.
When she tried to take my knowledge, I instead gave her the knowledge of failure. (fuck math)
When she attempted to steal my memories, I showed her hell. (I got a very vivid imagination, especially when it comes to horror games)

While she was occupied with my vivid imagination of my many deaths in Dead Space, I was busy probing her mind, something that she was not prepared for nor even bother to counter my intrusion.

Her mind was like an open book, each memory was laid bare, her thoughts, her fears, her hopes and dreams, everything.

And I made her regret it all by forcing her out of my head by trying to steal her darkest secrets.

As soon as she felt my probe slip into her mind and find the one thing she tried to hide, she immediately disengaged the spell, cutting the connection and giving the both of us a mental feedback shock, in essence a painful headache, but the damage was already done.

Once the connection was broken, the lunar princess felt back onto her haunches and started to rub at her forehead while I fell to a knee and had what was essentially a headache that is akin to a hangover. Both suck but this time I don't get the shitty bonus of puking on myself.

"Sister, what did I tell you about trying to mind read those that are under our wings."

"But Sister! He is hiding so much from us! His secrets-"

"Are his to have. We all have secrets of our own sister, it is not our place to take those and expose them." 

"This shit hurts..." I groaned as I fell over and decided to use the floor to rest on until my brain stopped feeling like it was on fire.

Trotting over to me I watched as Celestia kneeled (can horses kneel with four legs?) and looked at me sadly before speaking.

"Is there anything within my power that I can do to ease your pain?"

There is so many vulgar things I could have said at that moment, just so many things, but I liked my blood and guts on the inside of my body and I am absolutely positive that Luna would have made sure to rip them from me if I said any of them so I said something else instead.

"Yeah...a bigger bed would be nice."





And a bigger bed I got, now only my feet and hands hang over the sides now. I still didn't get the bigger doors for my room though...

And sitting on his corrupted crystal throne, with Celestia's and Luna's throne knocked aside and broken, was a pony who was once my friend, Sombra, and he looked pleased with himself.

Looking down at me from the safe distance between us, I watched my former friend laugh to himself as I allowed my gaze to settle on the pillars of black crystals that dot the room. The dark crystals had a strange shine to them, a dull glowing aura surrounded all of them and with just a bit of focus I saw that each one contained a hopefully still living body of a pony.

"Well it really isn't a dungeon when there are no prisoners to fill it and no guards to patrol it." I said as I started to walk past the pony-filled crystal columns, making sure not to come into contact with any of them as I know all to well of what will happen if I do touch one.

"I see, but don't worry, when I am done with you and send you back down there it will be filled with those that do not agree with me. You won't be alone for long but you won't be alive for long either." Sombra said as he looked at one of his iron-cladded hooves before his horn ignited in a hellish red/black, making me take a step back just before a thin crystal spire rose from the ground and nearly impaled my left foot in the process.

If I hadn't taken that step backwards when his horn started to glow I would be in a sour mood right now.

Looking down at the black spike and then to Sombra I saw that trademark grin of his before his horn started to glow again and the same as before I took a step back again but this time it was a trio of spikes. I am so glad that I took that step back because if I hadn't, it wouldn't have just stabbed me in the leg, it would also be a crotch shot as well which would never sell well for me. I value my man parts above everything else and if those were to ever get damaged or destroyed, no amount of force on Earth will save him from my terrible vengeance.

Bobbing and weaving between the crystalline ponies and the shards of deadly black spires, this is exactly what happened before the massive stasis spell that both Celestia and Luna (alongside with every single unicorn they could get their hooves on at the moment that wasn't encased in black crystals) placed on the capital of the Crystal Empire, but this time those two aren't here to interfere with my own little rebellion against the two little failures.

Before I could think back further before our little incident and how it matches this one, I felt a flat object impact my right shin from two sides, effectively forcing my right leg to buckle under the pain and the weight of my body.

"Fuck! Why is it always my shins! It doesn't matter where I am anymore! It always ends with someone hitting my fucking shins!" I shouted as my two smaller hands rubbed at the injured spot while my two larger ones were lifted up and covering the exposed part of my helmet as I felt a spire shatter across my forearms, sending shards everywhere.





It has been a month since my arrival to this place, and not much has changed. My room may have been altered to better suit my...stature... but for the moment I am still under lock and key and the ever vigilant gaze of the crystal ponies that live here.

Ponies, that is not something that I would thought that would be a dominant race on a planet. A bunch of herbivores who skitter and flee at the sight of blood and death, a sight I first witnessed when a beast from the wild managed to enter the lower districts. I believe that what the beast was a manticore, if my memory of D&D is correct, and when I saw it I realized that I was mostly right. 

Instead of the human-like head it instead had a lion's in its place, its tail is not lined with deadly sharp barbs but is instead a scorpion tail which means it lost its ranged projectile for quite possibly dead poison, its body is much more lion-like instead that of a horrible beast from hell and it still had the dragon wings but from what I saw it can't really fly, only glide. It may not look like the manticores that I know of, but it still dies like them, only problem is that ponies seem to hate the fact that I killed something in front of them.

How are they to win a battle if war were to ever come onto their doorstep if they can't stand the sight of death and destruction?

But anyways, when a month has passed the three tried to once more talk to me but this time they gave me an offer that I couldn't refuse.

I will be allowed to roam freely throughout their kingdom, but on the condition that I work for them by scouting their lands for any wild beasts and I am to study them, learn their habits, find their weaknesses, and need be if they start to become restless and start to wander near any towns or villages, I am to strike them down.

When they told me about this deal, I at first thought it was a means of getting me killed and to have my corpse studied to further their own advancements, but when I took the deal and saw first hand what I will be facing, I realized that this wouldn't be so bad doing this for a living. I mean sure I almost got stabbed a few times, was mauled but my shields took the brunt of the damage and I now got a new throw rug for my room.

Soon enough this new job of mine started to become fun, I mean sure I could be using the guns that I came here with (a shrapnel launcher and two shock pistols) but where is the fun in that? These things can't hurt me and I have two swords at my disposal (and they shock things too!), but that is besides the point, I get paid to do this and I only have to deal with wearing an enchanted tracking collar so they can monitor my movements and I only get paid when the job is done and I bring back proof of the deceased mark.

Anyways it was on my third job that I encountered something, or should I say someone when I was out hunting. I was in the forests that surrounded the Crystal Kingdom in its early years before the great industrial and population boom of 0125 BD (that's Before Discord for you scholars and turbo nerds) when I heard a twig snap directly behind me, and went to duck and roll through a bush to surprise my ambusher, I instead scared the shit out of a young mare wearing a fancy looking toga-like dress.

This pony had a peachy coat of fur, a golden colored mane and emerald-green eyes, and although I could not see her cutie-mark through her dress I can only fathom a guess that it has to be something for the nobility or something on the scholarly side of things.

This mare stood there, just looking at me with the most inquisitive stare I have ever seen, even more than the time the two princesses were looking at me when we first met. Staring at her I saw that it was just her and no one else and it then made me wonder why was there a young noblemare all the way right here without a shackle of guards to protect her but instead she was alone, well not alone anymore seeing how she is now here with me.

"You! What are you doing all the way out here? This is an unsafe area and you must return back to the capital for your own safety." I said in a calm manner as I did not want to disturb any of the local wildlife and also alert any wild beasts that have yet to detect us and hunt us down. I can protect myself just find but I don't want to also try to keep her safe and sound because she decided to talk loudly and get us into trouble.

"I am here to assist you in your quest against the beasts of the wilds-"

"No." I said flatly, honestly, why would she try to help me?

"But why!" The mare shouted and I immediately lunged at her and covered her mouth, grabbed her by the back of the neck and held her front legs tightly before pressing my face to hers.

"You fool! Are you trying to alert every single beast to our location with your shrill voice!" I hissed in her face as I quickly looked around to see if anything was coming at us but when I saw nor heard anything approach us I released the mare from my grip.

She quickly took several steps back but she stood her ground as she straightened herself out.

"Well excuse me for wanting to help your ugly hide! I thought you would appreciate my thoughtful assistance but instead you refuse it!"

"Because I do not want dead weight bringing me down and I don't want to worry about some mare that will get in the way and die." I said quietly as to keep anything that might be nearby from hearing but that only served to anger the mare more.

"I am not useless!" She shouted at me again but this time she galloped up to me, turned around and mule-kicked me right in the shin.

I bit my lip and let out a muffled cry of pain as she scooted back and looked at me with smug grin, but that quickly faded away when I stood back up and when she tried to run away I grabbed her by the tail and hissed right in her ear.

"You want to be useful, then I have just the thing for you." I angrily glared at her before lifting her up off the forest ground and started to go back to my hunt but with my new partner in tow.

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Oh, you'll see."

I used her as bait to draw them out.





"I recalled a time that you told me this weakness of yours, maybe in the future you shouldn't tell anyone what can take you down without putting too much effort." Sombra said as I heard the clip-clop of hooves on crystalline marble as he slowly made his way towards me, firing off crystal shard after crystal shard at me, or more importantly, my head.

"And I also recall a time when you used to be into stallions." I shouted at the dark unicorn as I fell to my injured leg and rolled to the side before standing back up, using the momentum to dive and weave through the frozen ponies, the ice shards bouncing off and doing no damage to those stuck in time.

My comment on his sexuality struck a chord within him as he immediately pulled out all stops and concentrated on me for the briefest of moments before teleporting right in front of me and blasting me in the chest with a high powered explosive blast of magic.

The result was me being launched backwards and directly out of the throne room, smoke trails leaving the damage site on my chest while also leaving a nice one inch dent in my chest. That shit hurts.

"I thought I told you to never bring that back up!" the mad king shouted before teleporting up to me again but while I was on my knees getting back up, he was standing in front of me again but this time his throne being held in his magic aura.

Oh this is going to suck.

I shut my eyes and just in time to, getting hit by a crystal throne hurts like hell, especially that it exploded upon hitting me and sent me down the stairs and onto the third floor landing.

Groaning in pain from being smacked with a big ol' chair, I pulled myself up and off the floor only to catch the sight of Sombra standing at the top of the staircase, glaring angrily at me with billowing black smoke coming out of his eyes and a hoof scrapping the damaged crystal marble tiles.

"You're paying for that Skolas." I heard Sombra speak but I was too busy hearing something else, the sounds of a mechanical march of hooves, so many hooves marching in unison and in a slow tempo. Almost mechanical in nature but far from the truth it was something far more sinister, something that I helped create and later realize my second greatest mistake.

Oh no...

The sound of marching hooves only grew louder as they got closer and it wasn't long before I saw the remaining brainwashed and corrupted crystal guards that have yet to be liberated from Sombra's grasp.

"Oh bollocks..." I muttered as Sombra's horn flared to life and with it the guards lifted their heads in unison, their eyes emitting the same glow as his own eyes with the exception that their eyes look dead and hollow.

Marching in front of Sombra and partially down the stairs to keep us separated was the mind-dominated crystal guards, and all of them are heavily armed and armored. 

"Skolas, meet my greatest creations!" And with that declaration of what they are, all forty ponies turned their heads toward me and I saw the hollowness that was their eyes, blank and empty, and none of them were going to show me any mercy as they pulled out saw blades, sharpened halberds and pointy spears and axes.

Oh hell...

Now normally this wouldn't be so bad for me, but ever since I told Sombra that the only way for me to get injured here, seeing how they don't have access to explosive weaponry, thousands of bullets, or even Vex-grade technology, his only chance came when he infused the darkness into a small arsenal of weapons that are now right before me. I once thought that the darkness couldn't hurt me, I was proven wrong on the day the entire kingdom fell into a stasis field.

I still got the scar on my right hands to prove it.

Even though these were Sombra's creation and he hadn't divulged any information on their weaknesses or how they operate, I do know one thing that will clearly disable and cripple them to the point that they won't fight back. Sombra's magical connection to them all is what fuels the runes that adorn the inner confines of their helmets and if I could just break his horn off then those he has under his control will be released, but they will suffer a severe case of mental-feedback from the sudden disconnection.

That and they won't remember a thing of what they were doing, just as long as I don't say anything that they did while under Sombra's control (herded innocents into the dungeons to be tortured, set fire to my house, twice, instigated the griffons to attack us and started a war that brought in the three pony tribes of the southern lands, and because of that war nearly unleashed Discord from his prison.) but sadly as long as these guards keep me away from their master I can't free them.

"Crystal Centurions! Bring me his head!"

Oh fuck me to tears...
> Ending an Old Threat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Crystal Centurions! Bring me his head!"

As soon as I heard those words all four centurions aimed their weapons at me and slowly started to march down the stairs in unison, not one tripping or shambling like the undead that they are acting as. The mind-domination runes on their helmets doesn't hinder the wearer, instead it they act as themselves with the exception that they can not talk back, can not refuse a given order, and also can not be removed while it is active. Truly its only weakness is either an anti-magic dome (nobody in the empire seems to be capable of doing it) or by disabling or killing the caster that is controlling the enslaved.

Once the front row of centurions got within striking distance I allowed them to make the first move, knowing full well that my shields will be able to take the blows with ease and I could just bulldoze through the lot of them without even having to worry about getting injured in the process to reach Sombra.

But I failed to realize that before the battle to defeat Sombra the first time that he managed to disable my shields by overloading the power core with electrical discharges, and I in turn paid for it when saw several swords and spears entered what was supposed to be my protective shield zone and glanced off or broke on my armored plated chest and legs.

Oh shit my shields are offline!

The saw blades and spears that made contact with my body either broke the serrated teeth or the spearheads snapped off of my armor, but I know that eventually one of those sharpened weapons will find a gap and hurt me.

And that was when I just realized that I am pretty much nine feet tall and I am more than strong enough to smack these ponies aside.

Smirking at them from behind my mask I rotated my body to the left before rearing back and unleashing my arms, both of them smacking aside a few ponies alongside their weapons before using that moment to rear back with my left arms and swung them wildly to the side, knocking more centurions aside. As soon as the first row was pushed aside and dazed from the attack, the next row came in but this time half of them leapt at me with their swords in their mouths and their spears in their hooves while the other half stayed on the ground and raised their weapons at me from below, trying to break my stance and have me knocked down and impaled with extreme prejudice.

Instead I opted to duck down and juke through all of them by phase-shifting through them and as soon I was face-to-face with the next row I decided to keep on moving, turning myself into a battering ram and made myself at home in their personal space before knocking them aside and into their comrades. With me now in the middle of the centurions and now the ones I blew past have just managed to turn themselves around and are now pointing their weapons at me.

So there I was, surrounded on all sides by mind-controlled crystal centurions, all of them are easily within spitting distance and are poised to strike at me, but I still had a few aces up my four sleeves.

I waited for the centurions to make their move and as soon as they did and dog piled on top of me, all of the ones that are actually on me were stabbing, shanking and biting me. The blades that hit my armor broke upon impact, but the few that were biting me actually did nothing but hurt their own teeth, but seeing how they are mentally-dominated at this point they are just not complaining about it.

That and they have molar teeth so no real damage done there.

With the amount of physical contact that is happening, I decided to activate the static core that lies within my chestplate, and after a three second delay I unleashed the core, the electrical buildup zapped and electrocuted everyone that surrounded me.

As soon as their bodies made contact with mine it sealed their collective fates. The electricity coursing through every single crystal centurion that was piled on top of me received a very special shock therapy courtesy of me, the electrical discharge stunned, disorientated, and rendered a few of them unconscious and the few that managed to stay standing were swept aside as I grabbed the closest pony with my upper right hand. 

With my hand wrapped around the neck of a pony I lifted said pony off the ground before throwing them at a centurion that was still standing, spear in hoof and was shrugging off the electrical shock only to be smacked at his center mass with his friend's body. With several of the centurions still on their hooves disorientated from the electrical shock and are just now starting to shack off the buzzing numb sensation that made their limbs feel like it was made of heavy lead.

Cracking all of my knuckles I reared back and started to hit everything that wasn't me or on my side. My fist found purchase with a young mare's face and while I would love to apologize for hitting a mare, she was trying to impale my lungs with a hefty spear so I decided to apologize later instead. As soon as she was down for the count I targeted my next opponent, a fairly grizzled stallion who had shaken off the stun and who just threw his sword at me.

I must say that whole saying of throwing your sword at someone always works. IT doesn't, it almost always ends in failure, like just now.

When that stallion threw his sword at me, I watched it go flying through the air, pointy end hurling right at me chest and when it collided with me, it bounced off with a tink and landed on the floor just as we both looked at each other when it hit me. Although I can't look at his face I can guess it was a 'I dun goofed' and he was right, he dun goofed and his reward for it was to be kicked into the air with my left leg before being slammed back down with a double fist hammer in the center of his back.

With that guard out for the count I moved onto the next batch of targets, a small cluster of guards that had escaped my discharge and I realized it was the ones I had smacked aside earlier, they had recovered from being flung aside like rag dolls and were now coming back up the stairs, some of them without weapons while the rest still brandished damaged goods.

Rolling my shoulders I turned around and faced my foes once more, they hesitated but only for a moment before rushing forth. The first one that met me was in turn greeted by my fist crashing into his helmet, knocking him out cold from being hit in the temple. The next three faired far better then their companion, if only by a small amount because they had the advantage of numbers but not the advantage of being equipped for the fight against me. The trio of centurions rushed up to me and tried to impale me onto their spears but instead the spearhead got lodged between two flexible plates on my lower torso and while it looked adorable that they thought that they could kill me so easily, I returned the favor in kind by breaking the spears in half before bashing them between the eyes with the flat metal blades before throwing their bodies aside.

I would rather not step on the centurions and risk crushing them to death, I will need them later to help stabilize and rebuild this kingdom from the ground up.

That and it is really hard to train a batch of centurions since the wash out rate is absurdly high. About roughly out of every one hundred crystal guards that tries to join the order, only one or two ever succeed.

But onto other matters, like feeling a hammer hitting me in the back of the knee and knocking me down into a kneeling stance before feeling another hammer strike me across the face, actually making me draw blood when I bit my cheek. Now I know that getting struck by a hammer isn't the healthiest thing in the world, but when I got whacked across the face with that bludgeoning weapon I had realized that I made an error in judgement that I couldn't be harmed by these weapons.

Blunt objects can hurt me just fine.

Yelping out from the sudden impact to the side of the head I tried to stand back up after the ringing had stopped but that was interrupted when a second hammer blow knocked me flat on my back when the war hammer crashed against my spine.

With me lying on the floor I felt the hammer bash against me again and again, it doesn't do much to hurt me physically because my armor is keeping me safe but getting cracked across the face though, I know for a fact that something in my mouth is broken, probably a few teeth.

Spitting out globs of blueish-white blood and shards of broken teeth, I raised my head and looked at the centurion responsible for that blow and saw that she was winding up for another attack but I put a stop to that by sweeping her off her hooves and took the hammer away from the downed centurion and in her stead used it against her and her friends in kind. The blunt weapon cracked across her muzzle along with the closed helmets of two more centurions, the resulting blow knocking one out and the other a bad case of head trauma before tossing aside the weapon by dropping it heavy weight down on top of the dizzy elite guard.

Turning my attention to those left standing, I saw that there wasn't many left that could stop me, not that they could actually stop me as I hear the barely soft audioable humming as my protective shields came online, and just in time as well because as soon as they turned on a small blade explode in front of my face, the metal blade collided with the shielding layer and with the repulsive force going against the weak penetrative power of the stab. The resulting explosion sent tiny shards everywhere but the best part was the centurion who recoiled back from the mini-explosion and when this one tried to reach for another weapon I gripped him by the scruff of his neck before standing to my full height with one thing in mind.

Once my hand grasped his neckfirmly I lifted him off the ground before using it as a flexible club, whacking those that were still standing with their friend, and I must say using a still living person as a weapon was nice, I only had to worry about swinging too hard and accidentally killing my weapon or the people I am hitting.

Swinging the body around once more and after seeing that there was no one left standing besides Sombra, I decided my next course of action in a second.

I threw the unconscious centurion right at Sombra like a javelin.

But naturally Sombra moved out of the centurion spear's path before backing up and trotted to his throne. The centurion in question that I tossed flew past the throne and smashed against the back wall before sliding down into a heap. For a moment I thought I heard that cartoony sound effect when someone is sliding down a wall after running or being throne into it.

He wanted to fight me in the throne room, I can only imagine the damage that the two of us will do to that grand chamber but the repairs can wait till after the kingdom is back on its feet and isn't collapsing on itself.

Once he was out of sight I grabbed my swords that I had dropped on the floor and held them tightly this time, I can't afford to drop these two again, especially with what I am going to be facing in a few moments. As soon as I had a firm grip on my two shock blades I reached back with my lower set of arms and pulled out the small set of shock daggers that I keep just in the event that I get disarmed and they don't find those particular knives.



Walking up the stairs I saw Sombra waiting for me beside the lonely throne and the frozen crystalized bodies of my friends and comrades pushed to the sides of the room, I guess he doesn't want to damage his slaves when they still have use in them.

"Come now Skolas, let us end that which binds us together. Only one of us will be walking away from this battle today and that pony will be me!" Sombra shouted before drawing his sword from its scabbard, a long crystal metal estoc but that was immediately followed by four more black crystal rapiers that seemed to have appeared from the shadow of his signature weapon.

'Huh, that is a new trick...no matter.'

With my two swords unsheathed and at the ready I slowly made my way towards the mad unicorn, my breathing mask disconnecting itself from my mouth before slinking back into my armor and with it my lips slowly parted to reveal my teeth. Although Sombra has seen my chompers several times throughout his life, it still unnerved him a bit which granted me an opening as I flash-stepped forward and cocked back my arm and took a swing.

Punching Sombra in the face it launched him back several feet as his body rolled along the smooth crystal marble floor before coming to a complete stop beside the throne, a line of blood dripping from his muzzle as drops started to pool on the ground beneath him. Wiping his muzzle with a hoof I watched him look at his bloodied hoof before turning his gaze to me before sneering and charged back at me.

With a swing to my head that was immediately followed by several rapid stabs I retaliated by deflecting his blows to the side, Unicorns are not very good at multitasking with their magic and although Sombra is one of the few who can succeed in that task he isn't that good with wielding multiple weapons that are also powered by the same magic that is being held up in the process.

Growling at me I watched the unicorn return to his old tricks and went with several rapid stabs and slashes, keeping with the same combos over and over again which was easy to dodge or deflect because his attacks were so easily telegraphed.

"Oh Sombra, you never were one for fighting. You were always for the theatrics but this is not one of your orchestrated events, you can't buy my loyalty nor could you escape my judgement." I said as I deflected yet another rapier strike but this time I sheathed one of my daggers to grab the thin blade and yanked it out from his magical grip as my natural anti-magic field (however thin it is) and threw his weapon aside.

This move distracted Sombra, he had the look of utter befuddlement and I think that he has forgotten that I had this little ability and because his face still holds that shocked look I saw that it was my chance to end this now.

Lunging forward I deflect the ill-prepared rushed defense that Sombra set up and when the swords made contact with my body they lost the magical glow that surrounded them and fell to the ground in a clattering display before I cocked back and socked the not-so-smug bastard in the muzzle and sent him back several feet. His tumble stopped right at the foot of the throne steps and with a bit of a limp, I watched the traitor stand back up on shaky limbs.

But before I could end this farce and claim the throne for myself, I saw his eyes go glossy for the briefest of time and I knew exactly why this was happening.

In Sombra's eyes, he is seeing the thing that is most precious to him, his wife and child standing in front of him, but to me they aren't there. His family was killed on his own orders when the darkness within him and the black magic he learned from Grogar's numerous magic scrolls corrupted him to the point that he was beyond saving.

As he stood there, smiling for what must have been the first time in years, I saw that he was back to his old self before the madness took him but I had to end this façade that he is going through and it is a mercy for him at this point.

Twirling my blades I made slashing motions at the two illusionary figures that only Sombra could see, but to him he saw me just cut down his wife and child right before his eyes.

His reaction was what I was expecting, he broke down into a feral rage.

Letting out a beastial roar I watched as Sombra lunged at me, all five of his swords now back in his grip lunged forward as well as I tried to block them all but all I did was redirect them away from anything vital and felt as four sharpened points penetrate through the gaps in my armor.

I didn't make a sound as they punctured my flesh as I was too busy blocking a particular sword from stabbing into my throat and killing me.

When those rapiers penetrated my armor and dug an inch into my body, I thought that was all he was going to do but that was when I felt those damn swords wiggle in place before being forced deeper into my body, one such blade went right through my upper right forearm and came out the other end as the other three went through my left thigh, left collarbone, and my ribcage just barely missing a lung.

The pain that I felt from that was unimaginable, I felt my muscles burn and ache from the wounds but what made it worse was that I felt my strength being sapped away from me but that was only the beginning. As soon as I felt the pain start to grow in intensity but it subsided when I managed to punch Sombra in the face again but this time it broke his hold on the weapons embedded in my body long enough to force him to retreat but it was short lived as he came charging back and rammed himself into me, pushing me back a few feet but I quickly regained my footing and pushed back in equal measure and lifted him off the ground but only for those swords still inside me to twitch and wiggle violently around.

Let me tell you something, having something that is currently inside your body and having it thrashing about is absolutely painful, and I mean it fucking hurts like hell. You might as well be pouring molten metal into your veins and then for added measure your muscles are being torn apart one strand at a time.

Ripping the sword out that was shoved into my chest hurt, but the pain was numbed down when I used that sword and stabbed it into Sombra's right forehoof into the ground. That move did little to dissuade Sombra but what it did was throw Luna's throne at me with his magic which launched me toward a balcony and before I could recover from such a blow he charged at me again but this time he leapt into the air and collided with my chest, his horn imbued with the darkness and black magic, and stabbed right into my chest through my armor over my heart and with the impact it I felt my lower back make contact with the railing and the two of us fell over the edge.

I was expecting to be falling down a flight of stairs to the lower levels of the palace, but then I realized that this balcony was attached to the throne room.

I was not expecting to be pretty much knocked out the palace and to land ass first onto the floor outside my home.

As soon as I made impact with the ground all of the air in my lungs was pushed out of me and with the blades in my thigh, collarbone and chest they too were pushed out but only to the point where the blades were just in my body instead of going all the way through it. That sting like a bitch but I had to push on, I mean I had way worse injuries then this one. I was freaking set on fire by a dragon for fucks sake, this shouldn't hurt any worse then having my body burning for thirty minutes straight and also then getting smacked out of a cave and down a mile long mountain to a lake beneath it.

Groaning in pain I rolled over and felt a weight in my chest and I only needed to look down to see that Sombra was still embedded in my chest and with a yank I pulled him out of me before throwing him aside into the gate blocking access to the palace.

When I pulled him from my chest I may or may not have let out an effeminate scream of pain because when I yanked him out I felt on of his hooves hit my groin, the cup that I normally wear down there took the blow but I didn't know that at the time and all those years of repressed memories of my childhood of being kicked and smacked in the balls by my brothers came bubbling up from the darkest corners of my mind.

It was during this moment that the citizens of the kingdom started to come out from their homes, their stasis-induced coma coming to an end, and with it the first thing they saw was me throwing Sombra into a metal gate while I had four swords sticking out of my body like a damn pincushion.

A few of the citizens immediately scrambled back into their homes and locked their doors, but a few stayed outside and those few that did came to my aid, well...one of them did. That one brave pony was a colt, a young pony, came to the big scary alien that has four glowing black rapiers sticking out of my body and he helped me by using his teeth to grab the hilt of one rapier and gently taking it out, he earned himself some brownie points with me.

Of course that will have to be used later because as soon as the first sword was removed from my person I heard a pair of hooves slowly hobble toward me and I could only lean off the floor to look at the source of it only to earn myself an enchanted estoc to the throat.

It was bad enough that I fell down three stories and hit the ground with enough force to break a lesser persons body and had a couple swords sticking out of me like a damn pincushion but now I have a damn crystal long toothpick sticking out of my neck. My only saving grace is that it missed every single major blood vessel and artery along with my spine, downside is that now I have a fifth sword sticking out of my body.

I swear it is almost like someone just has it out for me. That or god is just taking a real piss on my day today.

My eyes were wide open with shock that Sombra had just outright tried to kill me instead of incapacitating me to force me to watch as his master plan unfolds, but this time he wanted me dead to get me out of the way.

'Motherfucker...this is going to hurt me so much tomorrow morning.'

And as for the young colt who tried to help me, he actually backed away from me as Sombra hobbled over to me but he kept the black crystal rapier in his mouth, I hope that thing isn't a corrupting influence or I might have to grit my teeth and put him down before he becomes something just like Sombra.

"You...you just don't quit do you? You should have just accepted my offer when I gave it to you brother...you would have lived like a king alongside me! But no, you just had to betray me like that, just had to side with those two cowards instead of your own blood!"

"You are no brother of mine Sombra, you never were. The moment you delved into Grogar's research notes you condemned yourself to an immediate execution, you disobeyed your princess's orders to burn them whenever they are found but instead you collected them and nearly became the very thing we fought against! It wasn't me who betrayed you, it was you who betrayed me!"

It was during this lull in the fighting that I noticed the gates slowly open up and behind them I saw glints of dull forms moving in the shadows, dancing to and fro from within the shadows.

"I trusted you! You were like the family that I had lost when I first got here! You were supposed to be the guiding light to these ponies not lead them to their deaths for your own greed!" I shouted back at him as I swing my arm at him, it missed him by an inch as it smashed into the ground and broke the brick pavement.

"There deaths are in vain because of you! What are a few lives compared to those that could be saved in the long run!" My once-brother shouted back at me, ramming into my chest and pushed back a couple of yards but I stopped him by grabbing him by the barrel and tossed him right into the palace gates, actually pushing them open in the process as his body skidded and tumbled into the center of the courtyard.

"The fact that you were using necromancy to try and prolong your life by absorbing the life-essence of those you killed and that you were going to kill any and all who would dare defy you and re-ignite the war with the griffons when we are not even prepared for it! Why must you try to throw away so many lives just so you could sit upon a throne that doesn't even want you!" I said as I slammed down again, this time making Sombra stagger backwards and in that moment the shadows moved.

Two ponies from the shadows leapt from their hiding places and ambushed Sombra, binding him down with glowing blue chains as they quickly wrapped them around his barrel and legs before holding him down with their bodies.

"Unhand me you fools! You will not disobey your king! I will have your heads for this insolence!" Sombra shouted as he tried to escape from his bindings but the magic around his horn fizzled out and only emitted nothing but sparks.

"I am sorry Sombra, but you will not be going anywhere, you must pay the price for your crimes and you will be paying them in full." I said as I sheathed my swords and slowly made my way towards him, pulling out the swords that was still embedded in my body one at a time and dropping them on the ground as I got closer to him.

Snarling up at me and taking a bite out of the air as I kneeled down in front of him, I looked into his eyes as I unhooked my helmet and placed it on the ground beside me as I placed all four of my hands onto his head, completely incasing it.

"You will pay for this!"

"Yes, yes I will pay for it. But just in the way that you won't be expecting nor will like." I said in a low tone as I focused on the darkness that resided within his very core and slowly drew it out of his body in a painful manner.

As I slowly removed and absorbed the darkness that once resided within Sombra, the dark unicorn in question was letting out a silent scream of pain. To me it felt like I was slowly burning up as his darkness was tainted by the black magic that has seeped into Sombra's core, but for him it felt like his flesh was burning and his soul was slowly being torn apart and put back together horribly and haphazardly.

The two ponies standing beside Sombra holding him place immediately let him go as they shuffled back several feet, respecting my power and staying a safe distance from the two of us as I purged Sombra of the power that I gave him.

Removing the darkness that was inside of Sombra is a daunting task. I had to peel away layer after layer of mental defenses that he had set up to contain it within his fragile frame but seeing how he had let it loose and allowed it to flourish to a dangerous enough degree, it left him open to a good purging but it also made it more painful and traumatic.

What no one knows about the darkness is that it can be expunged from somebody's essence and add it to their own if they know how to do it safely, because if you don't do it right it will pretty much twist and corrupt your own darkness and turn you into a raving mad lunatic as the prime example is the chained-up stallion before me. Another thing about the darkness is that it is a bitch to remove from a living body, extremely simple if it is being removed from a corpse but seeing how Sombra is still alive and that he still needs to be punished for his numerous crimes against the empire...I am sure he can handle the pain. For now anyways.

Piece by piece I slowly rip out the shards of darkness from Sombra's soul, his livid silent screams is making his face funny but I ignore it for the time being as I feel it transfer into my own being but it tastes foul and it is actually hurting me in the process. Usually I would never do this reverse process for anyone, but if I am going to be strong enough to properly protect this kingdom like I did in the past when the griffons invaded or when the changelings were first created and nearly resulted in the entire kingdom being wiped out, all because of a mare scorned.

"Sombra, remember this pain you are feeling. This is the same amount of pain you have caused this kingdom when you killed the innocent and slaughtered citizens that did not conform to your ideals. Remember this pain well because it will be living with you for the rest of your life, however short it will be." I whispered into his ears as I removed my hands from his head, pulling out the last of the darkness within his core and with it sending sharp ripples of pain through throughout his body as he collapses into a heap, his voice finally returning as he started to scream his lungs off.

Backing away from the screaming stallion one of the ponies that have assisted me with capturing Sombra stepped out from the shadows, now wearing a dull brown and green patterned cloak before stopping right behind me. I only had to look at the pony in question before it saluted at me and I knew exactly who it was, just from the lack of a right foreleg.

"You do not need to salute to me Warden Sage, I had you exempted from that rule due to your condition." I said as I turned around completely and looked down at the earth pony staring up at me, the little light grey-white pony standing at attention while saluting me with a stump of a leg.

"I know sure, but this is something I can't simply forget. You trained me to follow the regulations when needed but this one time I had to do what needed to be done." The small pony said as I looked past him and towards the steadily growing crowd of ponies gathering outside the gates and were peering inside.

While I was talking to one of my wardens, the crowd outside of the palace started to grow in numbers and along with it the loudness of their mutterings to the point where I can pick out what was being said from the growing mob.

"Hang him!" Nah, too slow and painful for what I have in mind, and besides his head might slip through the rope.

"Let him rot in the dungeons for what he has done!" Too easy and a complete waste of tax money to leave him to rot. Leaving him to starve is just inhumane and cruel, even for someone like me.

"How long have we been sleeping?" I have no idea but I can only hope for a few hundred years.

"What has he done to my brother! His eyes are empty and he won't talk back to me!" I can guess your brother is one of the centurions that I beat the ever living shit out of and knocked out.

"Bucking kill him! He is the reason why the blizzards haven't stopped!" Oh don't worry about that...wait what blizzard?

"Has anypony seen my hat?" Man fuck your hat, a hat isn't important right now unless it can see the future and bake pies and give happy endings, otherwise that hat can burn for all I care.

Looking at the growing crowd of ponies in front of the palace gates I decided that now was the time to inform them of our current situation rather then later, having an entire population rise against you in anger and fear is something that I will not have nor will allow. I did not save this kingdom from the griffons only to have everything I worked hard for to just fall apart like a house of cards.

As soon as I stood in front of everypony that was present I turned my back as my hands found purchase on the damaged gate as I hoisted myself up and climbed on top of it before clearing my throat loud enough to alert everyone that I was about to say something.

"Everypony listen up!" I shouted as loud as I can even with a throat injury, my voice managed to silence everyone that was present along with a few growing voices that tried to push through the silence.

"For those of you who do not know of my name or who I am, my name is Skolas and I am the Warden of the Wilds and also was the temporary Commander of the Crystal Kingdom during the Griffon Incursion. Many of you might know of me or have heard of me before for those of you who haven't, I was the one who fell from the sky fifty-six years ago and landed in the center market, and for those of you who do know me, I am the one who kept all of you safe from the roaming timberwolves, hydras, manticores and other hostile wildlife that lies within the woods that once surrounded our homes."

"Many of you fought along side me when the griffons came and tried to enslave us all and even more of you showed true valor and bravery on the field when we put their capital to the torch after they tried to do the same to ours. We do not know how long we have been asleep when Sombra placed us all into some kind of stasis when his spell backfired after I disrupted his magical matrix. We need to know just how long we have been in that stasis bubble, how the outside world has changed during our absence, find a way to end this never ending blizzard and to survive the coming storm."

"I will need volunteers to go out and brave the blizzard and see if the other towns and villages are alright and see if they will send aid to us. Also I will need any one of you ponies who was once a marathon runner to come forward, we must call to the others beyond our borders for aid if those within it won't or will not provide the aid we need."

"I know that I am asking a lot out of you but for the time being we must all work together because if we don't and fall into chaos, none of us will last the coming winters and everything we have ever done will be for nothing." I shouted as the ponies below me at first were silent but as I started to rally them and as I kept on talking they all started to stamp their hooves in approval and started to shout and cheer.

If we are to survive this new world that we have found ourselves in, then we must make sure that never again that will be a target from another nation.

Never again will we be defenseless and helpless because those in charge wanted to stay passive and to wait it out.

Never again shall we be subjected to poor leadership and lose everything that we worked so hard to accomplish.

And I will be damned if the efforts of fifty-six years here would go down the drain because of starvation and possibly a rebellion if I can't snuff out any possible competition for the throne.

I didn't have to wait long for the volunteers as several earth ponies and a few pegasi came up to me, the pegasi will be used for the closer villages as they are an important resource and can't be squandered or wasted but the earth ponies on the other hand, they are hardy and have much more endurance so they are my outreachers on the long hauls.

Looking at the volunteers I briefly tell them what I am expecting them to do, and from the looks on their faces I can tell that they all know that they might not be coming back if they fail in this mission that I am giving them.

"Gather here, your mission is vital to the continued existence of the Crystal Kingdom, your fellow ponies and your families. All of you must go out there to your assigned targets, see if the town or village is still standing, and ask if they will assist us. For those of you who will be going beyond our borders to ask our neighbors for aid, do be wary and cautious with those you talk to, we can not compromise ourselves and risk being attacked so soon, we will not survive another war with our current condition. If you manage to find another pony nation out there, they might be more inclined to help us as they will always help their fellow pony, but if you find the griffons, avoid them at all costs even if they may seem peaceful, they truly mean to stab us in the back like before." I said as the stares of the ponies around me hardened when they remembered exactly what the griffons did so long ago.

"Go to the barracks within the palace, gather everything you will need for your journeys and take every precaution that you think will be necessary and do not forget that every single pony will be counting on you, do not die out there. Succeed or fail, return home, if none will help us then we will just have to find other means of surviving..." And with that said the runners nodded and spoke in agreement before trotting past me and headed inside the palace as I let my back hit the gate slump down against it slightly before remembering that the crowd was still here.

"Please return to your homes, take stock of everything that you have, catalog your food stores and ration everything, indulging in overeating is now prohibited as we must search for a means to replenish our food stores along with finding other means to replenish them. Help our your fellow neighbors, assist them with anything they might need, starvation will not be the death of us and I will be damned if we do not survive the coming months. If we can survive the griffons surprise attack then we sure as hell can survive this!"

Having to ration our food earned a few grumbles from the nobility but I know that if they refused to listen to me then I might have to make an example of them, if those idiots ate all of their food and complained that they are starving then I will let them starve, that will teach those around them not to eat everything they have when I strictly told them that we have a food shortage. The grumbling died down as everyone that was here started to return home, hopefully to spread the word to those that weren't here and also to hunker down and to wait out the storm.

Once everyone was gone from the front of the palace I allowed myself to completely slump down the gate and to allow myself a brief respite and to rest and think of what to do next. The throbbing pain all over my body isn't helping me at all with the planning but it is a good thing that I can still feel pain because it lets me know that I am still alive.

My rest never lasted long as I felt a nudge to my arm, opening my eyes and looking down I saw that it was one of my wardens trying to get my attention and for a moment I ignored him but when he nudged me again I realized that I wasn't going to get the rest I needed and yielded.

"What is it Sage? Can't you see I am trying to rest?" I said as I closed my eyes again but was kicked in the shin for my efforts from the battle-weary stallion.

"High Warden, go back to your room and rest, I will try and find an apothecary and surgeons and send them to your quarters to tend to your injuries. We can't have our founder die on us just after he saved us all from being enslaved by Sombra now can we." Sage said with a frown as he looked me over, the numerous stab wounds and other injuries that I have sustained during the battle and those that have reopened from the griffon war. I swear that assassin did more harm against his country than he did to me with that poison...that shit still stings eighteen years after the war has ended.

Normally I would tell those that are trying to help me to piss off but seeing how my current condition I am injured and irrateable I decided that going against this recommendation would be hazardous for my health and grunted in agreement and picked myself up before hobbling up several flights of stairs and even more hallways before stopping at my room and collapsing in a heap on the floor, too tired and too weak to properly climb onto my oversized bed and sigh the day away.

I will deal with the kingdom when my body no longer feels like the negative feedback from absorbing the corrupted darkness is tearing me apart slowly from the inside and the pain of being perforated with black crystal swords fades away.

'Oh sweet, sweet dreamland, take me away to a magical place where chocolate milk duds and a sugary wonderland wait for me.'
> Recovering before the Storm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

One would say that sleeping the pain away doesn't always work nor is it a good thing because you just might not wake back up if ones injuries is severe enough, but for me I was able to fall asleep long after my recent surgery from the surgeons and medicine ponies that came into my room and patched me up before leaving.

With my eyes shut and my mind wandering off to places unknown, I soon found myself standing in the center of an empty dreamscape with nothing around but myself and the vastness of white space.

The landscape around me shifted and changed, cracked and bended as it transformed into a different plain of existence.

An old memory of my past, the emptiness was soon replaced a snow covered village, the landscape shifted and morphed to a village of large proportions as everything changed around me. The houses look different from the ones in the Crystal Kingdom and its outlaying towns and villages, they almost remind me of the village of Whiterun in Skyrim, except bigger to accommodate the ponies living in them.

I found myself standing at the gates of a village of the giant ponies, many of these villages exist within the north but only a few have pledged themselves to the Crystal Kingdom for both protection and trade along with bragging rights to the other clans on who is the closest to the two goddesses that rule the sun and moon.

My reason for coming to this particular village?

To cement their allegiance to the kingdom and also to see a friend. And just who is that friend that I have here in the village of giant ponies?

The chieftain's daughter, Forge, firstborn daughter of Chieftain Skull Taker and the next in line to Clan Shatterbane if she manages to defeat her father in a trial by combat.

And the reason why I am her friend? Because she is the only pony here who managed to beat me to a standstill in every single competition there ever was during the festival of the spring harvest. I don't know how she managed to tie with me in every single game of strength, but she did it and that earned my respect for her, the other thing that made her earn my respect is that she is straightforward and blunt with everything.

An example of her straightforwardness? Near the end of the strength contest, she said that if she wins the last one, she will take me to her room, throw me on the bed and claim me as hers. I don't know why but for some reason that made me laugh because out of all of the mares (and stallions) out there in this world that have tried to hit on me or proclaim that I will be theirs, Forge was the most blunt and forward out of all of them.

That and she succeeded in her proclamation.

Anyways, with me standing at the gate inside the giant pony's village I stared at everyone that was present at the time, the four guards guarding the gate, the farmers that work the terraced farmlands on the mountain, the foals playing and chasing each other and of course on this particular day, standing before me was none other than the clan chieftain himself.

Giving the giant stallion a curt bowing nod I waited for him to address me and when he did he was all smiles and smugness.

"Skolas of Tartarus and of the Crystal Kingdom, you have been a friend to our clan for a short time, but in that short time you have helped us immensely. With your knowledge you helped us stay closer to home instead of having to travel down from our mountain to the flatlands below, with your windmills it made it easier for us to make our bread, your knowledge of that special armor...what was it you called the damn thing...chainmail? Bah, whatever you called it, it made fighting against the manticores and timber wolves much safer and with our hunters coming back with less injuries and less scars you have made many mares and stallions happy."

"You did a lot for us here Skolas, and I must say for a non-pony from the seven rings of hell, you are not so bad. You may be a bit a pain in the flank, you smell bad half the time and you also broke the guest bed, but you also are one of the few outsiders that we have allowed in here and not caused any problems."

"And for that I am giving you my daughter. Treat her well and I won't have to gut you for harming one piece of mane on her head." The giant said with a gravelly tone, this stallion has been alive for a long time, and seeing how Forge told me that the giants could live for almost three hundred years so as long as no one rams a sword into anything of importance that is.

"Don't worry, I won't let any harm come to her, but I can't say the same for any harm coming from her. We both know that your girl is feisty and also short-tempered when annoyed." I know this from experience when we first met. If I stood two inches to the left that spear would have hit something of utmost importance to me and I would not be pleased.

She still owes me a new pair if trousers, those crystal ponies put in a lot of time and effort to sew that thing together for me.

Shaking my head of the thought I turned back to the chieftain and continued where we left off.

As we started to talk back and forth as to why I have to take Forge with me, for the most part it wouldn't be so bad but I know Forge, she wants me and she has a mean streak on those that she thinks that are her competition. If she insults somepony its alright, but if she hurts them or worse outright kills them, this will be a diplomatic situation and it might not end well.

"So let me get this straight, when we leave for home today, you want me to take your daughter with me? Any particular reason as to why you want her to come with us?" I asked as I shifted my weight on my feet, I don't exactly like the chieftain but then again the two of us never saw eye to eye.

Hell, when I told him of the ideas to better his village and to be more self-reliant he scoffed at my ideas and told me to shove it where Celestia's sun doesn't shine. I had to prove him wrong several times when it came to the terrace farming, the windmill and the other crap I told him, that pissed off expression on his face, the redness of it all, it was worth it.

What was not worth it was Forge constant throwing herself at me whenever another female pony was around, be they giant or normal size.

"Is it so wrong that I just want my beloved daughter to go out there and see the world as it is instead of relying on secondhoof stories and through books? Nay! I want her to learn the world as she travels with you and your little ponies, that and it will do her some good to get out of the village and go knock some heads elsewhere." Skull Taker said as he motioned one of his trusted guards to go fetch his daughter.

I couldn't help but ask this one question before she would show up and go with us back home.

"Are you sure she isn't just obsessed over me? I already had to exile one crazy mare for obsessing over me to the point of declaring possession on me and also for assassinating any possible competition that may prove a threat to her. And to let you know that same mare is also stuck in the Misery Mire for her heinous crimes and for the abomination that she became." You brought this on yourself and may your life forever be in a maelstrom of hellish proportions Lilac Moonbeam.

"Aye, I know she isn't obsessed over you, all she ever talks about is you, she is mighty smitten with ye and I must say, if you were a stallion like myself then I would have told her to go all out and claim you as hers through fighting prowess, such is our customs. But seeing you are a demon of tartarus and well...I don't exactly know of your demon rights and customs for such thing...just don't ruin her." Oh please, like I am ever going to have sex with a horse, I may have been here for seven years now but I haven't fallen into depravity just yet!

Well...okay I might, a man could only live on his hands for so long before he gets that craving for female company...I just wish it was a woman with a more humanoid shaped body...well beggars can't be choosers.

"Skull Taker, that is the last thing on my mind, and besides she actually has to beat me and so far she is no where even close to beating this beast of the underworld." That and I am still on the fence on such things with a sentient animal.

Before we could continue our little debacle I saw Forge coming up the rear with one of Taker's guards, all sunshine and smiles, a saddlebag filled to the brim with her things, and a big fucking axe strapped to her back. I don't know why she will be needing that but if she wants to carry it fine, I just better not hear a peep out of her complaining about how heavy it is.

She stopped  in front of me before turning and gave her old man a hug, I can't even remember the last time I gave my dad a hug...oh right, eight years ago.

"Ready to go Skolas? I am just itching to see what lies beyond the woods and whatever else is out there!" The giant mare said with a shit-eating grin as she jostles her battle axe wiggles a bit on her back.

More like her intentions is to start fights with new people beyond the forest and get drunk at the same time.

I'll let her have her fun, if only for a few moments at a time.

"Yeah, I am ready Forge." I said to the happy mare as she trots beside me and as innocently as possible, wraps her tail around my waist.

Rolling my eyes I separate myself from Forge before telling Skull Taker farewell, and with a nod from him the twelve of us plus Forge left the mountain village behind, the walk down the mountain and back to Providence will take a week or two at most.

I wonder how long it will take for Forge to try and put her moves on me.





I woke up from my rest, my eyes blurry and unfocused as I let out a yawn and looked around my room, making sure that nothing has been taken out of it or is out of place, and although my vision is distorted I could tell that nothing has changed while I recovered from my injuries.

Letting out a groan of pain I slowly sat up, my lower left hand immediately clutching across my chest as I felt a stinging pain in my abdomen and regretted it as I felt new pain lancing through my shoulder.

"Take it easy sir, you've been out for a while and your injuries still haven't fully healed." A voice spoke to me from the blurriness and for a moment I couldn't for the life of me remember who it belonged to, but after a few moments more of  fish-eyed lens vision I turned my head to the source of the voice only to see my medic from the war.

"Tell me Patchwork, how bad is it?" I asked in a semi-serious tone, the only time I ever had to see him was when I took a ballista bolt to the chest when I stormed the fortress city of Sky Talon. That siege lasted for two years, we had the griffons on the run and the supplies to keep it that way, but to actually take that fortress from them though...that was hell on earth for me.

So much blood...

"Well, with the numerous lacerations, punctures, blood loss, blunt force trauma to several locations across your body, concussion and also a popped testicle." The retired field surgeon said as he trotted over to me and started to change out the bloodstained bandages around my forearm.

I only could look at the doctor when he said that last one, really? A popped nut? God damn it Sombra, bad enough you hurt my body to the point of me needing actual medical assistance, but now you actually managed to pull of a nut shot? Forge is gonna be upset when she hears this news.

"Are you sure Patchwork, I mean I know you are hardly ever wrong when it comes to these things but are you absolutely positive that my testicle was destroyed?"

"Skolas let me be blunt with you, if you were a stallion I would have told you that having any foals would be harder for you but seeing that you are not a stallion and are something else entirely. Your body regenerates at a far better rate than anything I have ever seen before and seeing how I once saw you regrow a severed finger, I can safely say that your ruptured ball will either regenerate the damaged tissue or it will recycle and regrow it. That or it won't happen at all and you would be having a harder time to have foals."

"So are my balls alright?"

"Yes, they are alright, just next time you decide to...enjoy yourself with Forge, do go easy on yourself and come tell anypony in the hospital wing of the palace about any irregularities you encounter." Patchwork says as he prods one of my injuries with a hoof, for an earth pony he sure knows his way around a scalpel and bandages.

Nodding at the good doctor I waited for him to finish his diagnosis of my injuries all the while checking on them and replacing the bandages, normally I would have requested an actual doctor but seeing how Patchwork helped me out in the past before...

"So do I just keep on resting till the pain goes away?"

"Eeyup, and don't agitate your injuries or else imma knock you out with nightshade extract." The good doctor said before tightening the last of the bandages on my torso before leaving the room.

With Patchwork gone I laid back down on my bed and closed eyes, it was time for me to relive more of my memories, better to remember the past than get condemned to repeat em.





"Hmm...this place could use some more color..." I thought out loud and almost immediately the blank scene imploded on itself and transformed into a frozen tundra, hundreds of tents aligned themselves into haphazardly neat rows as ponies started to appear, all of them huddling together near campfires to keep warm.

My memory of the war with the griffons almost twenty years ago, and not a single thing looks out of place.

Turning my gaze from the freezing ponies I moved my eyes towards a massive war tent and walking out of it was none other than Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, both of them wearing their battle armor as Luna waved me over to begin the war meeting.

Walking towards the command tent I walked by a group of ponies prodding a griffon prisoner, its beak tightly wrapped and its wings tied up and bound, its eyes glaring into my own for a second before realizing exactly who it was glaring at and backed up as much as it could before being pulled back by its chains. The griffons feared me because they knew that they couldn't stop me with physical pain nor with their wind and lightning magic and they then declared me among their highest priorities to kill when seen on the battlefield and behind the lines by any means necessary.

Strutting past the captured bird I pushed open the flaps and stepped in to see several ponies standing around the table with an enlarged map of the region and on it was multiple different colored blocks that also came in different shapes. Currently where we are located there are only two lines and neither side could budge or move in the current weather condition along with what has happened to our side specifically.

Our supply lines have been halted by rapid griffon strikes and because of that we are slowly starving out along with our wounded succumbing to their injuries and before long their won't be enough fighting men and women to stem the tide of griffon claws from engulfing the southern lands and that of the Crystal Kingdom.

Looking at the map I spotted the vast griffon army that sat before us and with each red block with a griffon head on it I saw two thousand griffons and with each pony head I saw two thousand ponies...and we only have nine thousand ponies left, less than a third of that are wounded and immobilized while the griffons have well over twenty thousand. The numbers are not on our side and we are also running out of time with our wounded keeping us in place and further weakening our position.

We didn't have the high ground, the griffons had it and now they were taking full advantage of it by occasionally sending thunder clouds our way and having them explode right over our positions, injuring those that couldn't get away from the blast zone in time.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, did you have an update on our current predicament or is this just a house call?" I said which earned me a few scoffs and glares from the surrounding officers, many of them hate me for what I have done on the battlefield for the past four years, but they also know that if it wasn't for me then the war would have ended four years ago back in the Crystal Kingdom's capital city. On the first day of the siege no less if it wasn't for my intervention.

"High Warden Skolas, we called you here because we just received word from our caravans to our north. More than half of them have been destroyed when a griffon raiding party flew around our position and burned the caravans along with the supplies we so desperately needed and those few that managed to arrive are of no real use to us as they are merely materials to repair our arms and armor along with few medical supplies and food. None of it is enough to go around and if these attacks keep happening, we will be starved out before the cold kills us all." Celestia said as she placed her hooves on the table, her weight causing the table to tilt slightly towards her as the ground wasn't entirely stable as the legs sunk in an inch into the dirt.

"And you called me here to deal with that?" I said as I placed my hands on the opposite side of the table and pushed down, evening the table out as my side sunk into the dirt as well.

"I would say no but your aim with your massive bow would surely help stop these raids in their tracks and give us some respite long enough to come up with a plan on how to beat this griffons back and out from our borders." Rolling my eyes at this I placed a note down to bring my dragon-slaying metal bow and a few dozen javelin arrows.

I just have to hope that they back off when they see one of their own get impaled on a two meter long arrow would make them rethink on their raiding plans.

"Anything else princess or will that be all for now?" I said as I rolled my shoulders, getting them ready for a long day of killing griffons and hanging their corpses on the trees to rot as deterrent against any spying griffons.

Gazing up at me from the map I saw that her eyes are heavy and tired, my guess is that she was in the thick of it a few days ago and the fighting is taking its toll on her badly.

"Yes...that will be all, go forth and do what you do best." And with that said I was dismissed, turning my back to her I left the tent before walking to my own sunken tent, the tent itself blending into the pony camp to avoid being firebombed first by the enemy.

The walk to my tent was slow as I had to sidestep several ponies from varying towns and villages along with the few giants who took up residence with many of the others, one such giant was in my tent who was busy rubbing herself against my bedding.

Again.

Sighing explosively I stormed over to the heavy-duty cot before turning it over, tossing the massive mare onto the floor in the process before throwing the cot sheets back where they belong while hearing the mare in question curse and shout at the sudden surprise attack.

"Ah, what the seven hells Skolas! I was sleeping there!" The giantess shouted at me while I moved away from her and towards a weapons rack that I had placed beside the bed, dislodging the massive bow from its hooks along with the equally large leather quiver from its housing before sliding it on my back, the bow to my left hands as I turned back to look at the mare lying on the floor, too lazy to pull herself up and properly glare at me.

"You were on my bed, go sleep in yours." I said while pointing at it with my right hands as I looked down at her.

In her current position I could see everything on display, and although I am a man of honor and integrity (NOT!) I couldn't help myself but stare at the goods on the store front and when you see melons as big as those ones mind tends to wander places and what can I say. I have been here long enough to know that I will never know the touch of a woman again and must now get what I can from the locals...no matter how strange it might be knowing that back home they are nothing but mindless beasts.

But sadly I have things to do and I can't let the temptation of hot mare flesh and teats distract me from my current objective...maybe another time.

"God damn it Forge, what did I tell you about rubbing your scent upon my cot?" I reprimanded the giant mare as she stayed on the floor, one of my sheets firmly underneath her rump and I know that I will have to boil that in snow water to get the possible stains out.

"Hey! You said not to make a mess on your sheets, and I didn't!" I call bullshit on that because you made a complete mess of my cot and my tent...why is my helmet partially buried in the dirt?

"Then what the hell is that smell?" I asked as I started to notice a new scent in the air, this one was much sharper, spicy even and it was making my body feel hotter than it should be...and antsy.

My eyes opened wide as I put two and two together and came out with the only logical explanation other than a drugged keg of wine.

"Umm...surprise?" Was all that the large mare said with a sheepish grin as she slowly spread her hind legs while I let out a sputtering cough and retreated back to the tents entrance, opening the flaps to let some fresh cold air in to hopefully dilute the rapidly growing scent of heat brewing inside the tent.

Coughing up a storm while also trying to give an armor-piercing glare at Forge for pretty much hot-boxing my tent, if I was one of their stallions I would either become a mindless rutting beast or be passed out on the floor on my back with a raging erection...neither of the two I would ever want to imagine in my head.

"Oh come the fuck on Forge! Seriously?" I shouted while airing out the tent, I would have been frothing at the mouth in anger but seeing how the tent wasn't completely hot-boxed I couldn't exactly be totally angry at her, but I was damn near it though.

Before she could utter a word out I watched as her horn glowed an eerie orange and I knew exactly what was going to happen next. Pulling the tent flaps shut along with latching the cover to prevent the warmth of the tent from leaking out.

"Oh Skolas, I am sure that you can make some time in your busy schedule for me, can't you?" With a flutter of her eyes and a warm smile I knew exactly what she was planning.

While she was busy trying to seduce me with her looks and over-powering scent, she was busy with her magic trying to undo the armor locks and harness but to no avail as her magic keeps sliding off of the alien alloys and magnetism-based locks.

Shaking my head at her with nothing but a wry grin I pull back to let her magic fall off of me as I activate my protective shielding and undid the tent flaps before turning my head back to look at Forge one more time.

"Sorry Forge but your husband has to go out and kill some bird-brains that seem to be plaguing our supply line. I will be back soon with a few more skulls to add to my collection and some of their armor and weapons to study." I said but as soon as I take a step out of the tent I felt something grab my hand and turning my head to see what it was I found it to be Forge's mouth.

She was biting my hand to prevent me from leaving.

Spitting my hand out of her mouth I waited for her to chew me out and did she use the wife card.

"Oh! So you have time to follow those two royal whorses around and act at their beck and call! But whenever I want you to do something for me it is always later! What do those two have that I don't that makes you listen to them over me!"

"Well, first off Forge they are assertive when they need to and that they don't keep trying to seduce me in the middle of a war. Also when we got married it was a complete accident, how was I supposed to know that when I tried to force you to comply to my orders that it was to your clan a freaking mating ritual!"

"So now you don't want this binding then?" Forge says as she picks herself off the tent floor and is sitting beside my cot, staring at me with angry eyes.

I know what she is doing, and boy does she know how to really twist my screws into place.

"I know what you are doing Forge, and although I seriously hate that you are doing this..." I said as I stepped right before the giantess and kneeled down before her, my left hand creeping up her hindleg as I cupped her cheek with my right hands.

"When I get back from my mission...you are so going to get it." I said with a toothy grin, my left hand trailed up her spine before stopping on her other cheek and gave her a fat, sloppy kiss right on her lips. The resulting whinny of delight and also the increase in the heated-spicy scent came as a side-product but if it can calm down the horny mare sitting right before me, well then it is a calculated risk that is well worth it.

Pulling back from Forge I watched as she let out a sad, needy whinny, her eyes glistening a bit with tears of want as I moved back and I knew what was going to happen next.

"Damn it Skolas your such a bucking tease! Here your mare is all horny and rearing to go and you just bucking tease me like that! I swear when you get back your pelvis will be paying for it!"

With a smirk on my face and my helmet closing up I step halfway through the flaps and smugly looked at her one last time before leaving.

"I know, and you better have the salve ready just in case you go overboard!" I shouted the last part, earning me several passing glances from the ponies that are outside my tent going their own ways, a few whistled or even gave me congratulated me for pretty much snagging a mare and about to get laid.

Shaking my head at the behavior of the soldiers around me I pushed myself through the steadily growing crowds of ponies as I made my way to the back of the army and headed towards where the supply line is located. I swear what would these ponies do if I wasn't around?

Oh yeah.

They would have surrendered to the griffons and been either made into slaves, livestock or second-class civilians with no rights or any say in their new griffon-ruled society.

Trudging through the thick snow that is outside of the pony camp, the snow is at least two feet thick from here and as I go further away from the camp that isn't on the dirt road it only gets deeper to the point where I can stand on it without sinking an inch due to how tightly packed down it is. Pulling out my massive bow and relieving an arrow from its quiver I notched the arrow into place before stopping beside a slow rising hill that resides beside the road towards the camp behind me.

I didn't have to wait long for the griffons to arrive as I heard the war horn from the camp a few miles behind me go off, and I just barely heard it as the wind started to howl in my direction. The exact opposite direction the griffons just so happened to be flying in.

The griffons that are coming to raid our supply lines are going to be paying dearly for their persistence...

As soon as the first griffon came into view through the biting wind, I let loose my first arrow, the javelin length projectile spun like a serrated drill and after a few moments I watched as a body fell from the sky, and although I can't see it from here I can tell that the arrow almost went all the way through the body and is sticking out of its back. The other griffons in the battle flock didn't see where exactly where the arrow came from but soon after the first griffon was killed another one was shot down but this time the arrow went all the way through them.

The rest of the flock scattered in an attempt to search for me but for me I was just standing in the snow, bow in hand and another arrow ready to let fly. Out of the fifty griffons that came to destroy the supply convoy, half of them separated themselves from the group to search for me while the other twenty-five went straight for the convoy. 

Seeing what was going on I started to quickly fire at the griffons hunting for me, twenty-five of those flying bastards might not be able to completely destroy the convoy but it is still enough to damage our efforts. The hunt for me didn't last long as I lit a fire next to me, the sight of an illuminated target immediately alerted every single griffon that was in the sky and near the ground to my location and for a moment I thought this might be bad, but then I remembered one thing.

They don't have protective shielding, and I do.





The blood of thirty-six griffons soon painted the snowy fields around me, their bodies already locking up and freezing in the frozen wastes as I ripped my bow from a griffon's skull, the grip was firmly embedded in his cranium and for a moment I thought I would have to drag the corpse back to camp but after a few shakes the body relented and fell off my weapon. I swear its almost like corpses are fond of hanging onto my weapons and just refuse to let go of the very thing that killed them.

Thirty-six griffons lie dead all around me, their bodies destroyed and ruined, limbs severed and wings chopped off, everything that was theirs laid bare upon the snowy plains. The winds and snow already began to cover the dead and dying with their fluffy deposits, those that dying desperately try to staunch the blood loss but it is no use as one by one they succumb to their injuries, they are not worth saving or wasting a single bandage wrap.

Once the deed was done I turned around and started to trek back to the pony camp and along the way I crossed paths with the caravan and they greeted me with a warm smile and hoof waves. Many of them thanked me for keeping the griffons off of them and for also saving their hides from getting killed out there.

The walk back to the camp was quiet as the wind started to die down, I don't know which side is responsible for the constant shifting of the weather around here but for the moment it worked out well in our favor for the moment. It was during this walk back that I eventually found myself standing back in front of my tent and the flap was only partially open but it was all that was needed for me to catch the scent floating in the air and for me to push aside the flaps to see Forge exactly where I left her. This time though she had set herself up in some strange legwear that reminds me of something from back home, I just can't remember what it is but from what it looks like it is meant to cause arousal.

"Remember what you told me before you left big boy?" Was all Forge said before I tossed aside my bow and quiver and pounced onto my mate, and just in time to because with flap barely open we both heard an applause from outside our tent.

Totally worth the pelvic pain and bite marks.





One would say that angering your wife is a one way ticket to sleeping on the sofa for a long time.

One would also say that angering your wife would also result in getting your balls cut off.

But for me, I ended up with a sore pelvis and back, my tongue is aching from overuse and from being chewed on, and my body is smelling like mare musk, sweat, and shame.

My walk through the camp was constantly met with stallions nudging me and asking me how it went and my response was "Worth it", and as for the mares who asked me who had it in them to take me for a ride and I told them "Forge".

You know as they say, angry sex is best sex but not without its downsides, one of them being that you will be in pain during and after, your partner or yourself will want more, or maybe it might lead to something else entirely.

During my limping walk through the camp I bumped into a runner who then told me to go to the war tent, that I was needed immediately. Turning about face and limped toward the war tent I overheard a conversation between Celestia and Luna, I stopped just outside the tent so I could listen in on what was being said.

"If we can't march forward and we can't fallback, what can we do?" I heard Celestia speak loudly to somepony, I don't know who she was addressing it to but I can fathom a guess.

"We agree Sister, what can We do?" And my guess was correct.

"I don't know, our provisions are low, our soldiers are freezing, weak, and wounded. We won't survive the retreat back to our supply lines nor would we stand a chance if the griffons realized our weakened state and attack." Celestia said as I heard a hoof get placed on the war table, pointing to something that I couldn't see.

"So this is it than....isn't it?" I heard a dejected Luna say in a somber tone, the sound of a defeatist.

"I would think so...our last stand." Celestia said with the same weak tone.

My god, just cause you get your teeth kicked in doesn't mean you can't fight back to the point where you can't fight on anymore!

"No." I said as I walked into the war tent, Celestia and Luna looked up from the table and stared at me while the rest of the military leaders looked up from the map and were giving me a glare, most of them hate me for my brutal non-pony tactics but they can't argue because it worked so well so far.

"No? I am sorry to say this Skolas but how is this not our last stand? We are trapped here, we have no means of escaping nor fighting back, so how is this not our end?" Celestia said as she reminded everyone in the room of their current dire situation.

Stepping towards the table I placed my hand on the map and pointed at the griffon lines and our own.

"We are a fair distance away from them, I know that they keep their supplies in the rear away from the fighting but they also keep it unguarded and it is also highly flammable." I said as I pointed a bit further behind the brown colored lines, my leather covered finger pointing at a cluster of squares.

"And just how are we supposed to reach such a target? Our unicorns are exhausted from keeping the worst of the snow at bay, our pegasi are weak from pushing the snow clouds away from us and keeping the griffon scouts away and our the earth ponies can't make the trip and back without passing out or dying from exhaustion!" Luna shouted at me as she pointed a hoof at me, apparently she didn't like my idea.

"Simply, none of you are going." I gestured to the map again but this time pointing at the cliffs covering their flanks and giving them the best defensive position in the region.

"What do thou mean? Thou come up with a plan and nopony is going? Then who is doing it? Thee?" Luna said, clearly confused by what is going on.

Rolling my eyes although they can't see it I pointed it out immediately.

"I am saying that I am going to sabotage their supplies." I kept my finger on the map, moving it from the cliff on the southern side of the camp and made a wide arc around the camp before stopping at the supply area.

When they looked at me then to the floorplan that I just made they were confused until they realized what I was planning.

"That's suicide!"

"Nopony is that stupid to scale a cliff in the middle of winter!"

"You will die from hypothermia before you'll even reach their camp!"

"If you can even reach the camp then those griffons will tear you apart!"

"Ten bits says that he dies before he even makes it to their camp."

"Skolas..." Celestia started to speak but I stopped her with a hand covering her muzzle.

"Princess Celestia, it is winter, I know these lands because I have been hunting the beasts that once roamed this land for the past twenty four years. I know exactly what I am getting myself into let alone knowing what will to happen to all of you if I fail to set their supplies to the torch and cause enough chaos and disarray within their ranks then all of you will die." I grunted as I pushed myself away from the table, the murmurings coming from around the table was loud and I could hear everything that was being said.

"But Skolas, if you do this then you might not be coming back!"

"Celestia, I signed up for this didn't I? I knew exactly what is against me. And besides, this would be great for the history books right? A foreign entity fought alongside the Crystal Kingdom and won a war for them. I just hope I get a statue for this because this goes beyond a suicide mission." And by goes beyond suicide, I mean easy as pie. I mean sure my real armor is back in the crystal palace but this thick iron plating that was made for me can easily handle whatever comes my way, just as long as it doesn't penetrate the thin sections and get me in the armpits, behind the knees and other articulated joints.

"We agree with him Sister." Luna said as she sat down and looked at the map, her horn glowing and bringing a quill over to it.

"Luna?" The white alicorn turned her gaze from me to her sister, I guess she wasn't expecting her to agree with me.

"Celestia, if the Warden of the Wilds can pull this off and kill as many of their knights and officers as thee can, their forces will be disorganized and crippled like our own. But if he can pull this off...Skolas, are thou sure that thee can do this?" Luna said as the tent grew quiet, every single pony within was waiting with baited breath.

All it took was a nod from me and with it they all breathed a sigh of relief.

They all knew it was a suicide mission, but they also knew that I was pretty much the only one that can do it and do it successfully.

I just wish they would stop throwing me to the griffons to solve their problems. The griffons are starting to get wise to my appearance and have started to use acidic urns on the ponies and myself, the casualties are stacking and are only getting higher and higher with each passing engagement in the field.

Without uttering a single word I reached under the table and hoisted out the sealed container that Celestia and Luna carry with them. Pressing my hand on the flat crystal gemstone I watched it split in half as the lid folded in on itself and laying within it was the weapon that took from me when we first met.

Reaching in and grabbing my familiar weapon, I pulled out my shrapnel launcher and with the flick of a finger the ignition flame at the very end of it sparked to life as I turned around and exited the tent. I had a job to do.





Or I would had, if something hadn't changed the memory and made it more lucid than it should have been.

Without warning a blur of midnight blue flew in front of my vision before spinning on itself, I don't know what this is but from as far I can tell this thing is a threat that needs to be expunged before it can do anything to me.

I drew out my shock blades from sheaths that weren't there before and with my upper arms a shrapnel launcher in my right arm and the most hated weapon the Guardians has used against their enemies, the Gjallarhorn. This rocket launcher has been stylized with totem-esqe carvings and I have seen the damage it could do to people first hand.

And by first hand I mean watching my guardian die and see his body ragdoll off the side of a cliff.

The mysterious midnight blur slowly materialized into a familiar form of a pony, whoever this being is, seeing how I am asleep at the moment, is clearly a dreamwalker and only unicorns or alicorns that is sufficiently trained and is powerful enough can freely leave their own dreamscape to wander the void and enter someone else's. I waited for the form to be more clear and as I waited I saw that it was indeed a unicorn but it was much larger than the crystal ponies I have seen along with the regular ponies that lie beyond the empire's borders to the south, maybe it was one of those ponies that hailed from across the ocean? Those ponies are taller than the average pony but are much more slender in form and more delicate looking.

And also better at tricking someone out of their belongings with that silver tongue of theirs.

Waiting with baited breath I watched as the form slowly grew itself out, it was as large as the ponies from the oversea lands but its horn was longer than theirs, but what quickly caught my eye was the fact that wings were spewing forth from its back and in an instant I realized at this was no average pony nor an average dreamwalker mage.

This was an alicorn, and I only knew of one such being that had any kind of dreamwalking experience.

The mysterious figure finally materialized to reveal a tall, six foot tall midnight blue alicorn, a female alicorn might I add as I could tell her exact gender by recalling on the key fact that there was ever only two alicorns that I know of, and this one matches the exact description of the younger of the two.

For the life of me I couldn't really think of anything to say to her, well...maybe these words could be spoken to her in my stunned surprise.

"Luna? Is that you?"
> Enduring Reunions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I couldn't believe my eyes.

For the longest time that I have spent in that damnable crystal prison, I had always thought that she had died along with her sister when they fled the capital, that they wouldn't be able to survive the several hundred mile exodus to our southern neighbors for asylum. But to see one of them standing before me, older, taller, better looking and just as shocked as I am...I guess I can say that their exodus to our cousins in the south was a success, as far as I am concerned for both of them that is, for all I know Celestia didn't make it and Luna was the only one alive.

I looked at the lunar themed princess and stared for the longest time, I couldn't believe that she was here, how was she here? I thought that she was just a simple ascended pegasus and not an all powerful alicorn, but here she is in the flesh, alive and well...unless this is just a trick of some kind.

'This has to be some kind of trick...some kind of mental intrusion by Sombra somehow...Luna can't possibly be in my dreams! She just can't!'

With this thought in mind I slowly walked over to the possibly-fake Luna, my weapons still pointed at her but as I got closer I could tell that this one of Sombra's hexes that has he regularly placed on his things, this was the real Luna.

"Luna? Is that you?" I asked cautiously as I took another step closer before finally stopping right before her.

I watched the dark blue alicorn slowly crack a smile on her muzzle, and for a moment I thought that this was a trap, but instead I found it to be the exact opposite of a trap.

"Nay! We are nothing more than a figment of thine imagination!" And for a moment I thought she was telling the truth, that is until she came right up to me and embraced me in a hug, wings included and I knew that this was no illusion, Sombra would have stabbed me in the back by now if it was one.

Discarding my weapons onto the floor I kneeled down and hugged the alicorn, I couldn't believe that after all this time (even though I don't know how long it has been since we were trapped in that stasis field) that she stills remembers me, and how to properly talk back to me with enthusiasm and snark.

"It has been too long Luna! Surely for a moment I thought you were you dead when you and your sister fled with Starswirl and the others!" I said as I hugged my old friend tightly.

For the longest time the two of us were nearly inseparable, while I taught her how to fight like I do even though many nobles said that 'I don't fight with honor', it is so stupid, fighting with honor. Why should I make the other guy feel bad for losing? If I am in a fight then I will fight to win and make sure the other guy doesn't get back up to keep on fighting me.

"Thee thought We was dead? How preposterous! It is We who thought thee was dead! It has been nearly two thousand years since we last saw thee let alone saw thee alive!" Luna said with a bit of a teary-eyed smile as she continued to hug me.

But I stopped hugging her when I heard that I (and by extension the entire empire and its outlying towns/villages/forts and ports) have been missing from the world for almost two thousand years, I just let all four of my arms fall to my side as I started to think of the implications that this will have.

The entire crystal realm has been gone for so long that we have been erased from history, nobody knows about us, nobody probably even remembers us, we are no one, we are nothing. We have been locked away and left to gather dust while the world marched on without us.

Looking at it now, I can tell that the ponies have obviously survived without us, just without the entire population of the crystal ponies so whatever problems the normal ones have, we won't have any of it, the griffons on the other hand though, they have had more than enough time to lick their wounds and recover along with acquire new weapons, armor, siege weapons, and many other things that I can't think of at the moment, they are a threat that can't be left alone. I can hazard a guess that the minotaurs might have finally pulled their heads out of their collective asses and finally united their clans together to form a kingdom or empire of their own with a sizeable military with q. The yaks...they were nothing but nomadic tribes and clans to our west, so the possibility of them forming a clan is up there...

And as for the zebra tribes that I only heard stories from the few sailors that dared to travel far from our shores to foreign lands, I can say that they might have also banded together or just stayed apart to live their lives as tribes. Dragons on the other hand, knowing that those beasts tend to stay away from each other and that they don't like one another so well, the odds of a dragon empire is abysmally low. Which just leaves me to think about the diamond dogs, the deerfolk, and lastly...my biggest mistake...the changelings.

From what I know about the few skirmishes between my wardens, the crystal guards and the diamond dogs, they are purely nothing but clans ranging from size and prestige but they all had a few things in common with one another. They were stupid for the most part and only their alpha had enough brain-cells to rub together to get a proper coherent thought running. What they lacked in brain power they made it up for their ambushes, creative traps and numbers. Diamond Dogs breed like crazy and always threw their runts at their enemies like cannon-fodder, and in most cases if they come back they are either promoted to miner for coming back alive or are killed on the spot.

The deerfolk are peaceful, ponylike in most ways but they are more attuined to nature then their pony counterparts. They quite literally are like the elves you might find in Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons, they live in forest with their homes magically constructed into the trees themselves, from root to the top branch that is their home. Although they may look like they shouldn't be able to use magic I saw a few use their antlers to perform their magical deeds although it seemed like it was the females who are the primary spellcasters while the males were more frontline fighting with a few being adept at magic. I met a few deer and stags in my time, they aren't a bad folk to talk to but they will patronize me for either chopping down trees to fuel our industry or to destroy a monster nest, or get mad at me for killing the feral beasts that roam my lands instead of calming them down and setting them free elsewhere. In the end I had to tell them to stop sticking their nose in my business or else that we are going to have a problem, that got them to back off and to stop pestering my wardens.

But the changelings...my greatest failure and my biggest mistake.

I couldn't have known that Lilac would have ever found that shard of Discord's solidified chaos, she desired to be able to transform into anything that would suit my desire and to claim me as her mate for life. It did both of those things but twisted it around to the extreme. It made her body insectoid like so it could be easier to transform through chaos magic to have her body become anything she can think of within reason. And as for her extended life, she didn't know that I can live forever just like the alicorns and she too gained that long of a life but her immortality was flawed, she had to die every thousand years before being reborn again. And when she couldn't have me she instead started to claim the lives of any males she could find to help her reproduce her children and seek vengeance against me...

Her children, changelings, they have her shapeshifting ability but it is weaker, can be easily disrupted with the proper counter-spell or just by knocking them of their concentration. Even though they have wings and a horn, they are not as good with them than the unicorns and pegasi that use them on a daily basis. In essence changelings are spies, assassins when necessary to keep their masquerade up, but most of all they are doppelgangers that replace anypony be they adult or child and assume their lives to feed on the emotions of the captured and the unknowing.

"Luna, I need you to tell me exactly how much the world has changed since the empire disappeared from the world." I asked the lunar princess this one request because I know that if I don't know what the political weather is before I step out into it, then I just might accidentally start a political shitstorm the likes that have never seen before. Well...back home we had political shitstorms brewing on a daily basis but this one will be global.

With a nod from Luna I pulled apart from her hug and waited patiently as she told me everything that has changed during our absence.

"Skolas, the world has changed much, even more so than I care to admit even during my own absence from this realm but I can tell you a few things that has happened before and after I have returned." Luna said but I could tell she was purposely leaving something out, something of extreme importance but I will let it slide this time, I can guess it is something personal.

"After the Crystal Kingdom has vanished Equestria became our home for Celestia, those that came with us and myself. They took us in and gave us asylum, after a century of staying within Equestria's borders we eventually united the three tribes and was crowned yet again. After that we ruled for the next four hundred years with prosperity that matched what the three of us have accomplished for the northern realm but sadly Celestia and I had some differences and...I was banished to the moon for a thousand years." Luna said and for a moment I couldn't quite hear what she was saying.

Did she just say that she was banished to the moon for a thousand years?

"Well for someone who has been banished for a thousand years, you look pretty good." I said as I tried to make her feel better, if she is getting self-conscious about her age then she needs to go find a hobby or something. I mean look at me, I arrived here when I was like what, twenty-one? Yet look at me now, I led an entire kingdom of ponies who were once pacifist but they are now aggressive isolationists, nearly destroyed the entire griffon kingdom alongside its race, got into a fight with a powerful necromancer and killed him (four times), defeated a minotaur chieftain that threatened my wife/mate/best friend/drinking buddy with rape then death, kicked in the crotch by Celestia on accident, befriended a dragon after being set on fire by said dragon and lastly overthrew a tyrant whose reign only lasted a day.

All in all I can say that I have lived a full life, if I was human, but seeing how I am not human anymore I can say that this is something that is only a life half lived. Now if only I can have children of my own and raise a family, then that will mean my life has been fully lived.

The look on Luna's face though when I told her that she looks good for her age was adorable, she was blushing up a storm and was hiding behind a wing. As I said, cute.

"Thou thinks us cute?" Ah, and now she shifts back to ye olde English...lovely.

"No, I am just saying that to get a rise out of you." I said with a flat expression and with my arms crossed.

That ruined the good mood as Luna came out from under her wing and gave me a blank look as she sighed and shook her head as she stood up and started to walk around me.

"Thee just has to ruin the mood, didn't thee?"

"Well, yeah, after all you ruined my mood when you interrupted my honeymoon with Forge."

"That was just one time! One! Time!" Luna shouted as she threw both her hooves into the air in anger, apparently she thought it wasn't so bad of a thing that she did.

"Luna, you not only teleported into our room right when the magic was about to happen, but you then suggested to Forge that we should have a threesome, right on our night and not only did Forge say no (which was a big fucking shocker cause she suggested such a thing a year earlier and Luna was the one who said no) but you then tried to make a decree on the spot just so we couldn't refuse and it was only because of your sister that I didn't remove your horn and wings for interrupting us." But in all seriousness I thought it was pretty hilarious, just the timing of it all, sure Forge wasn't happy and neither was I, but I just couldn't help but laugh at it all.

"And besides, it was only afterwards that we found out that you were drunk off your ass and was merely joking (even though Forge would have accepted the agreement a week or two after the honeymoon) and had apologized profusely. I still won't let it down because I can use it to remind you that you can't always have your way." And that you can't be propositioning me or Forge on our special night.

Maybe if it was any other night prior to our wedding day however...

"Yes, yes, We get it, you won't let Us forget about our mead-fueled shenanigans. But foolishness aside..." and she continued on where we left off before we broke into our little back and forth.

"The griffons have rebuilt what was once their continent spanning empire a three hundred years after the kingdoms disappearance but it quickly crumbled in onto itself when the emperor you spared was executed by his own councilmen before It deteriorated into a colossal civil war that not only engulfed the griffon realms but it also spilled over into Equestria, diamond dog territory, the minotaur lands and even into the Badlands guarding Equestria's southern border. The griffons almost destroyed themselves with that civil war to the point that if it wasn't from some outside intervention the griffons would have wiped themselves out into extinction." I saw absolutely no problem with the griffons dying out, those bastards invaded the Crystal Kingdom, killed several dozen citizens from the capital along with several more from the outlying towns, villages and what few cities we had at the moment, they raped, murdered and pillaged their way north and when we turned the tide of the war we did nothing in kind and yet they saw us as the aggressors?

Fucking hell, if I had my way then the griffons would have died out, not simply be on its last legs...but god damn I wish I was there to see the griffons kill each other because they realized that their leaders are not so powerful, all-knowing beings like Celestia and Luna pretend to be, the griffons are flawed, aggressive assholes that raid and attack anything weaker then them.

"But for the griffons upon our return, they have become reclusive, they barely leave their homelands and from what I understand their current king is..."

"He is what, mad? Crazy? Warmongering?"

"No, he is calm for a griffon. He is also calculating and if what my spy says is true then he also might be a direct descendant of High King Gerimul which is disconcerting when one realizes that the High King was an excellent strategist and this distant offspring is even better than he ever was or ever will be."

"So we might have a potential war on the horizon if he sees any bit of weakness in anyone or anything." Well...this will suck if he does declare war on us right now.

"Yes, although I doubt it would ever happen because of the treaty that has been signed by several sovereign nations along with Equestria that if the griffons were to ever raise another sword again against another nation, we would all retaliate back in kind." Luna said proudly and for a moment it stayed there until I poked a whole in that flawless idea of hers.

"Wait, so Equestria has a mutual defense agreement with how many nations?"

"Five, we have the support of the Zebra Republic, the roaming Buffalo tribes, Saddle Arabia, Clan Bowdon of the Griffons and lastly the Yaks of Yakyakistan." I mulled the information over in my head but that came to an abrupt halt when I got caught up on the words 'Clan' and 'Griffon' and immediately started to worry.

"Uh, I see a little problem with that pact of yours."

"And that is what Skolas?"

"That you have griffons in it. You do know that the minute they find anything of real use to them, anything that can be used to terrible effect on your allies or yourself for that matter, they will leave the pact and return to the griffons as a whole and use what they learned against you all. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened either, if you can count what Sombra did as an example." He will die a traitors death.

"Skolas now you are just being silly, the griffons have calmed down considerably since you last saw them. They are no longer the warmongering beasts they once were, now they just keep to themselves and only trade with others when they have something that they can't produce on their own."

"Well...that is good, at least for the moment." I said even as I mulled it over to myself. The griffons remaining in their own lands, not coming out unless they are leaving it behind or for trading reasons...this could work to my advantage. Assuming they have forgotten what I have done to them in the past.

Looking back at the freezing lands around us both, I saw that we are the only ones here, I guess this meeting has interrupted my dreams and instead made it into a lucid reality, I wonder how Forge would react here if she was present?

Probably either to tell Luna to fuck off and stay away from me, or try to get that threesome she once asked her for...I don't know which could be worse though, Forge is a handful enough but with an actual goddess? I fear that it might kill me let alone reduce me to bits and pieces...

But what a way to go!

Shaking my head I returned back to the matter at hand.

"So the griffons are no longer on the war path, but what of the others you have mentioned? If you can ever recall we had no dealings with those beyond the sea as our ships have never charted a map to what lay beyond the horizon. We have never encountered the zebra's nor with this Saddle Arabia, but from what I can guess they are another group of ponies that are different in appearance and characteristics and probably a different political system and standards." But if it is anything that I can remember, zebra's are zebra's, look like horses except they are black with white stripes...or is it white with black stripes? Eh fuck it, and as for Saddle Arabia, probably are just like normal horses so nothing to worry about.

"You are correct, peace has reigned for well over a thousand years, even during our absence it has remained."

"I see...but I don't think that peace will last long though." I said as I started to recall a few things I have been doing on the side, something that Celestia and Luna would not have approved of but I did them anyway.

For the good of the kingdom, I had to do it.

"And why not?" Luna asked me as she tilted her head, not understanding what I was meaning.

"Because we have returned Luna, have you not forgotten that?" The things I was researching back then, with the help of some rather scrupulous people that helped me recall a rather certain formula compound...

"We are not following you Skolas...what are you talking about?" The confused look that is clearly written on her face is all that I need, she doesn't know what I was doing as I had previously thought.

Good.

"Luna, do you not recall anything about what I was doing after the war with the griffons? Have you not seen what was going on at Port Shallowtide and Black Harbor or what was happening at Saint Nova?" 

Watching the mare of the night shake her head no I continued to talk.

"Those three places, the two ports was where I was getting a special black powder from foreign shores where it was properly refined and stored, and Saint Nova was where I was getting my sulfur from the mines near the dead volcano and the charcoal from my wardens at Ferovale, with those three ingredients I was creating something...volatile in the event the griffons come back for a second round." And just what exactly was I brewing with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal?

Something...explosive.

"And what exactly were you going to do with these alchemical ingredients for? I know that none of those would work together as they would all turn into a blackish sludge that is utterly useless." The moon goddess said as she thought of what those three ingredients could be used for, apparently she tried them before but the combination was ruined when boiling water was used to bring the mixture together.

"Well that happens because you are doing it wrong. No water is needed for those three because it is meant to be in a dry powder form. And I must say that I am lucky that I remember such a thing because without them then my next plan would have failed spectacularly."

"But what does it do?"

"It explodes, rather violently might I add." I said as I recalled exactly what happens when gunpowder explodes, and if my time watching wily cartoons and also from watching dad watch the military channel.

How many times can one man watch the same world war one and world war two episodes and not learn anything?

"I take it that this was supposed to be used as a weapon somehow, yes?"

"Eeyup, a rather effective weapon if used correctly, otherwise it is nothing more than a very destructive weapon that can easily destroy buildings and other fragile targets, like griffons and ponies alike." And myself if I didn't have any armor on or my protective shielding.

"I see...and will you be showing me how you can create such a weapon?" I saw the hopefulness in her eyes, sadly I can't let that happen.

"Sorry, but no."

"And why not? Are we not friends?"

"Oh, we are friends Luna, but the problem is that this is a weapon that belongs to the Crystal Empire, not the southern equestrians nor anyone else out there that lie beyond the border."

"What! How dare thee-"

"Ah ah ah! Remember Luna, you abdicated the throne when you fled the empire along with your sister and those that decided to go with you at the time. You have no power or saying within my lands especially seeing how you couldn't even defeat a single unicorn who had the power that matched Grogar but still you couldn't defeat him! I had to do your job and not only distract him while you fled but also in the end defeat him!" I cut the alicorn off as she got offended.

"You abandoned everyone because you could not kill your own friend! Do you know how many ponies here want to see you either hanged or beheaded for leaving them behind with a power hungry maniac!" That right there deflated whatever counter-defense argument that she was gonna use against me, making her take a few steps away from me as if I struck her.

"And to top it off if it wasn't for me then you and your sister would have been slaves to a bunch of griffons, doing god knows what to the two of you while they either kill, eat or enslave your precious little ponies! I must say that a whole lot of things wouldn't have been created or even been improved upon if it wasn't for my intellect!" Without me we would have lost the damn war also, I created the siege engines, trench lines, spike pits, shield wall, staggered firing and field medicine. I pretty much saved the lives of so many ponies because of my human knowledge and yet this pony princess has the gall to try and use the friend card when she left ME behind with that traitor!

Sighing to myself I walked away from Luna towards no-pony's-land, I needed to clear my head of this before I accidentally to something that might cause a rift between us that wouldn't be able to be repaired.

The distance that spans the desolate gap between the two camps was a fairly large one and for the first time in a long while, I don't have to overlook this field without having to see the sea of red that decorated the snow and the numerous amount of dead bodies that litter the landmass.

"So beautiful...a field untainted with the scent of death or the putrefaction of war. Such a shame that it took twenty-seven years for the damage that was done here to heal itself. I always wondered what it was like here, the lowlands leading to a foothill before coming back down into a desert, to Equestria's desert border and beyond that, the griffon lands." Such a path the griffons used to reach my home, sadly for them they made the mistake of invading in the summer and was halted in the fall before it turned to winter.

They were not prepared for the kingdom's winter weather nor its fall weather as well. The sudden drop in temperature really wrecked havoc with the griffons bodies and their morale, I have never seen such anger and desertion before and I am glad I raided their camp at just the right moment, if I hadn't...well then I wouldn't be here now would I?

"Skolas, I didn't mean to yell at you, it is just that you are pushing away a friend because you do not want to divulge a project of yours?"

"That isn't the only reason I am pushing you and your sister away, I am doing it to keep the empire safe from your failures." I said sharply, turning around rapidly enough to let my heavy cloak to get some lift off the snow before coming back down.

The shock on her face when I said failure is clear, so is the impression of shock and confusion as well.

"What do you mean failures? The only thing that we have failed was when we couldn't kill Sombra when he rose against us-"

"Luna, while I was working for you and your sister I have uncovered corruption within the council, a slave trade that was being operating right within the capital behind your back, a cabal of necromancy within the mage's tower outside the city, the smuggling ring at Bilgewater Bay that nearly brought in illegal drugs, and lastly if not the most important mistake I had to clean up for you, stopping you and Celestia from signing that surrender treaty." I had many more things that went under their noses during my stay with them but I rather not waste my breath by speaking their names, they knew what they did and will never be mentioned again.

"We know that wasn't our proudest moment but if you could just give us a chance to explain ourselves-"

"How could you explain that? They penetrated deep into our country, raided several towns and villages along the way and when we finally got a report that they were coming the two of you outright ignored it until the day of the Summer Sun Celebration that nearly caused the entire city to go up in flames when they attacked at midnight! Because of you several thousand ponies lay in the ground dead because of your weakness!"

"But...I...We!...you are right..."

"Ya god damn right that I am right! Without me you and your sister would have your horns removed, your wings clipped and be nothing more than a private sex slave or a personal pet to the griffon king and his children and your precious ponies would be either slaves or food to the rest of the griffon populace! What gave you the right to rule when you were too busy enjoying every luxury item that came into the kingdom on a weekly basis while the rest of us had to live either hand/hoof to mouth in poverty or only had enough to spare from working themselves damn near to the bone!"

"If it wasn't for my sudden appearance and intervention then the crystal ponies would have either wasted away due to how hard it is for anything to grow up here without the Crystal Heart terraforming the land to make it more habitable, or they would have revolted when they have to keep seeing the very nobles they envied be the only ones to have access to better healthcare, protection and lastly your ear in court."

I let that hang in the air for a while, to whittle down Luna's confidence and pride, if it wasn't for those two alicorns sitting back and doing nothing then the empire wouldn't have lost so many ponies and would have expanded outward into a true city of greatness that would have been the envy of the world with the plans I had for it.

The silence was broken when Luna started to speak up but I heard a bit of a stutter, I guess if what she said was true about being banished to the moon, and seeing how a banishment probably hurt her reputation along with her power over the ponies she lords over and only to find out that the ones she first ruled over hates her guts...maybe being a crap ruler doesn't do one any favors.

"Is there anything that We can do to make it up to them?"

"In all honesty, probably not. You left them in their darkest hour and for that they probably want your head on a silver platter alongside with your sister's as well. Otherwise they just might throw rotting food at you as you walk by and say shit to you, but other than that not really much one can do when one abandons their subjects to a cruel fate. But in the end it is up to them if they want to forgive you for leaving them behind to suffer at Sombra's hooves."

"My advice, give them time, take small steps to appeasing them, ease their anger, that's what I am doing now that I am sitting on the throne although it is taking time for anything to work let alone make sure every single pony is alright, have food to eat and are safe within the walls of the capital." I said as I sat down in the snow, the blizzard that was slowly approaching from the north was starting to kick in and make its appearance known to the both of us.

I watched as Luna slowly trotted up to me before laying down directly in front of me, I can see that the things have said have hurt her, but these are the things that I had to get off my chest. For me I just couldn't keep it bottled up, I am blunt when it comes to telling people exactly what I think. Not sure if that makes me an asshole but to a few ponies that work with me, they all say that it is nice to know that I am truthful to them, although they hate it sometimes when it is something bad.

"But back to an old point I was trying to make, when the Crystal Empire wasn't around the balance of power was there, no one was better than the other, everyone was on an equal playing field or as equal as it can be what with some being unable to fly while others unable to cast magic. But if we come back, the Empire has weapons and armor that can easily change how warfare is done, you may not think so because you never saw what I was trying to recreate but if you did I know that you and your sister will be sending spies to try and claim them for yourselves or at the very least find a means of counteracting against it." And like hell I am going to let that happen, I will not have our trump cards so easily removed from the playing field.

"Those that know of our return will surely see us as a weak target and declare war on us while we try to regain our bearings but when they come to the field of battle and see what happens to their soldiers, they will say that we have weapons that can kill all life or if they are being a bunch of pretentious pricks then they will say we also have developed terrible poisons and plagues and will be willing to unleash them onto our enemies. If that ever happens more will rally against us and then it will be all over for the empire."

"Now Skolas you are just being foolish! The other nations won't declare war on you because of some strange new weapons that you have invented on your own, they might demand that you turn a few over so they can recreate them for themselves but seeing how adamant you are against that idea they may think that it is truly a horrendous weapon that can slaughter thousands on its own." Luna said with a counter but I know that it is weak, if I know anything about politics, which isn't much sadly, it is that those that feel insecure about their position will try and look for anything or anyone to test themselves against and show others that they are not to be messed with.

Threaten those with war unless their demands are met, most commonly ask for gold and land if they are neighbors, gold and other pricey resources if they are far away...what could I ask for if war was declared on the empire? Probably tons of gold...maybe a nice bed, the old one is a bit lumpy and a bit broken after years of abuse and use.

"Do you really think so Luna? I know that the griffons would probably hop on the first chance to get even with us after I razed their capital to the ground along with a few of their towns, the minotaur's might join the fray if they have something to gain from it but seeing how our lands are far apart they probably won't, the zebra's are on an entirely different landmass and would take too long to get here along with the Saddle Arabians...I don't know where the changelings are but if I can hazard a guess they are everywhere. And as for the diamond dogs and dragons? Those two can be bribed or be paid to join either side, those two are greedy as all hell so they can be easily counted as a possible enemy against me." I know who could possibly be my enemy, I just don't know who truly is my enemy just yet...for all I know it could be someone or something close and dear to me.

"I see that your time in that crystal has made you fearful of those that you see as a threat to the safety of those you care about and those under your charge. You need to rest, the world isn't as dangerous as you once thought of it to be, it has changed much and is now peaceful and safe although the occasional beast from the wild that comes a little too close to a town or village but other than that everyone is at peace!" Huh, I'll believe it when I see it.

Shaking my head with a sigh I let myself relax as the blizzard finally hits us in earnest, although it doesn't affect me one bit because my armor is keeping me insulated and warm, the same can't be said for Luna. I watched as she lit her horn as she created a bubble around herself, the snow going around it like water goes around a rock in a river, looks like a reverse snowglobe from where I am sitting.

"Whatever you say Luna, just know that if you enter the empire, my subjects would do anything they can do get revenge on you and your sister for abandoning them, anyone else that comes from your lands however will just be for the most part ignored unless they do something that catches their attention."

"I see...well this has been productive but it would seem that the sun is rising now and I must take my leave."

"Aye, go do that, I have to start rationing whatever food we have into proper portions along with setting up patrol routes along with reworking everything from the ground up." I said as I realized that I still had a lot of work to do before I can even jumpstart the empire into a growing industrialized civilization that will outgrow and overpower its rivals and become a superpower unlike anything the world as ever seen before.

"Ah, the same thing I had to go through except relearn how to talk, learn what has changed over the millennia. We both have a long way to go if we are to get back into normality of the world once more." And it looks like Luna has homework to do as well, I guess many things change over a thousand years when you are gone.

As she said that I watched her form flicker and blink in and out of my dream, it looks like her time is up and that she is either waking up or it is the other way around and I am waking up.

"Farewell for now Luna, maybe next time when you visit my dreams you can get Forge in here as well, get that threesome that she always wanted between us." I said with a cheeky smile on my face before it was slapped off with a hoof.

"You are such a horndog Skolas, but I just might have the two of you together in a dream...maybe if you are nice." the moon goddess said with a giggle before fading away, now I am all alone in the middle of a blizzard.

I wish Forge was here, at least with her here we can finally get something scratched off our bucket list together.





Opening her eyes after a good nights rest, the young moon princess slowly pulled herself out from the comforting warmth of her bed to greet the day. While she was slowly shuffling out and away from her bed, her mane was a complete and utter mess as strands stuck out in every direction imaginable while waving in place and if anyone was to see her as she currently is, they might think that she got into a fight with a statically charged pillow and lost.

Dragging one hoof in front of the other the young princess mumbled to herself, the words not forming any semblance of it being even a word but nonetheless she said them anyways as she shuffled herself into the royal bathroom to freshen herself up. Upon entering her bathroom the young princess trotted slowly to the sink and with the flick of her horn the sink handle twisted itself into an open position as cold water comes rushing out of the open faucet.

Dunking her hooves into the cold water before splashing herself in the face, the princess of the moon woke herself up as she looked herself in the mirror as her tired eyes returned the favor and looked back at her.

It was when she splashed herself in the face a second time did she wake up fully and remember what had occurred earlier at night while she was out dreamwalking.

"Oh. Sweet. Faust! Sister!" Luna shouted as it all sank in and settled down, everything that had happened that night actually happened and that it was all coming to a head.

"Sister!" Galloping out of her chambers with all possible haste while her mane still looked like she was caught in a tornado, her two personal guard watched as their princess left her room with as much speed as she can muster into her legs. The two guards looked at each other for a few moments before shrugging their shoulders and chased after their princess without uttering a single word.

Upon reaching what is the dining room the lunar princess forced the twin doors open just as her older sister is sitting down in her seat and takes a solitary sip from her steaming tea cup only to sputter and spit it out when her younger sister came charging through the main doors.

"Sister!" The lunar goddess shouted from the threshold of the open doors, her mane slowly worked itself into its original shape and form as it wavered in an nonexistent breeze.

"Yes sister, is something the matter?" Celestia said in a calm tone, she knew that Luna had certain days where something threw her through a grinder and she thought that today was one of those days.

"Celestia! He has returned!" Luna shouted again but this time this got her sister's attention immediately.

"Who? Discord?" Celestia said as she quickly turned her head and looked at the garden to see if he was still there and to her credit he still was, just with a few splashes of white specks from passing birds.

Unknown to her, a scream of agony and anger came from the statue as another white speck landed on his statue.

"Nay!" Luna said with a smile on her face, while Discord was not on the run she did miss his pranks and gags with the exception when she was the target of such things.

"Grogar?" The goat necromancer overload has been put down four times, the fourth being the last one was also the hardest for a young warden of the wilds that served them closely for several years.

"Neigh!" Luna smiled at that, if he was ever to rise again then it would look bad on a certain warden of the wilds track record.

"Sombra?" Celestia asked, a hint of dread in her voice as she thought to what had occurred so long ago in the past.

"Yes! Along with somepony else!" And that was all that was needed to be said as the solar goddess put the pieces together.

"No...it can't be, but I thought he was dead or-"

"He was banished, along with the rest of the Crystal Kingdom but just last night I spoke to him! He is back!"

"Our friend, I can't believe he is finally back! Oh such joy! Quickly Luna we must assemble a detachment of guards to reclaim the northern realm from Sombra and save our friend and subjects! Send a letter to Twilight and her friends and tell her to come to Canterlot with all possible haste!"

And before Luna could even get a word in edgewise to her sister she was already gone, preparing herself for what might be a battle against the mad tyrant of the north.

Sighing to herself she turned around returned to her chambers, it would seem she would have to tell her sister later about what had occurred in her friend's dream.

But for the time being she had work to do, she had to prepare herself for battle, had to prepare herself to recue her friend from another's evil grasp.

It was the least she could do after failing him and the rest of her subjects the last time she was up in the freezing north.
> Necessary Preperations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Luna left my dreams I stood up during the middle of the raging blizzard and just as quickly as it came it left, leaving behind for me to see a grim reminder that war is a gruesome affair and that no one is a true winner in any given war.

Walking through the frozen wastes, stepping gingerly over the corpses of ponies and griffons alike, body parts strewn everywhere in every which way and in varying states of motion, the looks of shock, horror, pain and agony forever marked on their faces. Swords, spears, axes and arrows littered this mass graveyard and for a moment I thought I saw someone that I could recognize but instead it was just a random pony that I never saw before.

This battlefield, so many died here but it was the griffons who for the most part paid the price in the end. Without a structured leadership to take the reins and lead the common foot soldiers, the remaining griffon army charged into battle with no formation, no plan and no means of ordering a tactical retreat or surrender, they all ran towards our lines in a reckless charge and for their recklessness we cut them down with a hail of arrows and thunder.

When our lines collided it turned into a bloody melee that went for two days without end. The griffons fought on until finally they had enough and retreated, leaving behind their wounded and dying as they retreated south.

So many were screaming in agony and in pain, all of them were screaming for help, crying for someone to ease the pain but in the end we let their cries of anguish go unheard.

We simply left them to die while we grabbed our own wounded and dying and did all that we could to either ease their passing or to try and save them from death's door. Some of them we managed to bring back from the brink of the abyss, others on the other hand were not so lucky as them.

Crossing the frozen wastes I strode into the griffon camp, my eyes catching sight of numerous scorch marks and piles of ashes that was strewn about, the untimely remains of numerous griffon officers, their food supplies, their war drugs and other concoctions were set ablaze along with their supplies of javelins and arrows. I made sure to burn as much as I could before I got caught and I must say it was amusing to see the griffons running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

But enough of the past for the time being, I have to wake up and tell the empire that we will be having company soon, and they must prepare themselves for any kind of eventuality.

Closing my eyes and concentrating for the slightest of moments I forced myself to awake back to the real world and with my eyes opening I saw Forge sleeping on my chest, her head resting underneath my chin and with her sleeping came the snoring and drooling.

I love Forge to death but the few things about her that irks me is that her snoring is far worse than Celestia's and if you have ever heard that mare snore then then you would think that is easy to sleep through when compared to Forge, its like a god damn manticore nest of sleeping beasts! And don't even get me started on her drooling, when a little pony drools it looks adorable, cute even, but when Forge drools its like a freaking leaky faucet that reeks of morning breath!

Although I love this mare to death this is one of the few things that irks me, the other being the constant rubbing against me whenever we are walking outside the palace, her sleeping on top of me and leaving me unable to move without waking her up, her constant attempts to fight me to see who is the dominant partner and lastly that she always gets into a fight with the ponies I work with.

And speaking of her getting into a fight with the ponies I work with...

With me awake and being unable to move to see what is going on, I heard the door leading to my chambers slowly get pushed open I saw nothing but Forge's horn glow its luminescent orange color just as I heard her ancestral battle axe rattle off the floor before being tossed at the door, a meep of fear as I hear the blade sink into the wall beside the crystal pony's head.

"Go away, give us five more minutes..." I heard my giant mare mutter out as she snuggles more onto my chest, her mane falling onto my face as I try to blow her greasy yet floral scented mane off of my face.

"Forge, get your lazy fat flank up! It is three in the afternoon already! We have to go and address the ponies out there that everything will be alright and that we will be passing out the rations soon." A dark silver pony slowly trotted into the room, a hum of magic filled the air and for a moment the axe that was thrown into the wall wiggled in place before detaching itself from its prison in the wall and allowed it to drop to the floor with a clang before trotting closer to the bed.

"You know you should really stop leaving your things lying on the ground, somepony might trip on them and seriously hurt themselves." The mare said with a huff before placing the large weapon off to the side, leaning it against the wall so it doesn't fall down and accidentally hurt somebody.

"Oh piss off Quill...your cheery voice is annoying me and I rather not buck your skull into pieces so early in the morning..."

"Forge, you have been sleeping on your husband for the past four hours, it is time to get up and greet the day! Or in your case, greet the afternoon with a smile on your muzzle and some pep in your step!"

"I hate you so much sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bother to talk to you..."

"You bother to even talk to me because if it wasn't for me then your precious mead from your clan would still be stuck in some warehouse in the city instead of sitting in the kitchen cellar." I hear the mare say as she looks down at me with a smirk before shaking her head.

Looking up at the silver grey mare I can tell exactly who this was, Glittering Quill, Celestia and Luna's secretary before they left the palace when Sombra usurped the throne. She stayed behind because she wasn't going to leave her family's home for the past two centuries.

"Morning Skolas, sleep well?"

"Yeah Quill, I slept well...would have been better if a certain mare would stop drooling on me though." I said while snickering to myself before getting clocked upside the head with a horn.

"I heard that."

Laughing to myself I pat Forge on the flank with my small hand, making it feel larger than it actually was but I don't care, that flank belongs to me and I am going to abuse the hell out of it! Or until Forge decides to try and fight for who gets to lead next time in the bedroom.

"Easy there little lady, remember last time you touched me with your horn in such a manner?"

"Yeah, it ended up in your mouth."

"And do you remember what happened after that?"

"No, was too busy enjoying it to really pay attention." Well at least she was being honest about it, guess I have to remind her at a later date and time.

Looking back at Quill I can see her cheeks tinted red and that she was still standing there hearing everything that was being said between the two of us.

How lovely...

"Erm...Skolas, Forge, I know this is private and intimate and all but...can you please at least wait for me to leave the room before you start the heavy petting? I rather not get caught in the crossfire unlike last time..." Quill said as she shivered in place.

I don't exactly recall when she was even near the two of us when Forge and I last had sex but if she is shivering I can guess that she was stuck in the room and couldn't reach the exit in time when Forge placed a muffling spell on the room along with a magical lock on the door to prevent anyone from interrupting us.

"Sorry Quill, you know how it is."

"Yeah, I do, Chisel and I used to do such thing but ever since the griffons attacked...may his soul rest in peace." The dark silver mare said, bowing her head low and letting out a sorrowful sigh before resuming her old chipper self.

"Anyways I need you Forge to come with me and help out the others with the rations. And you Skolas, Bastion needs to have a word with you regarding your wardens, apparently one came back with news."

"Is it good news or bad news?"

"If I may speak freely about the matter?"

"Go ahead."

"Er hrm...The news is up shit creek without a paddle and the canoe is sinking."

"Ah, I guess the warden found it than...perfect." I mumbled to myself as I recalled one of two things that can only be declared 'shit creek without a paddle' and I know for a fact that one of them is in this very palace, rotting in a prison cell.

The other is in the main warden fort off in the wilderness far outside and away from Providence.

"And what did they find exactly?"

"Something that needs to remain buried and forgotten, there are things of this world that shouldn't be released upon the world ever again. I had to kill this beast four times and each time he got smarter and more accustomed to my tactics until finally I had to bring a damn mountain on top of him just to keep him from coming back." And I lost several wardens trying to track and trap him the other three times.

Fucking goat bastard, may his ass forever rot in hell.

"I see, well I won't prod you any further for any information, just get Forge to get up somehow and tell her to meet me in the foyer. Have a good day, sir." Quill said as she gave me a short bow before leaving my room and closing the door behind her, leaving me alone with Forge once more.

Looking down at Forge I can see that she shut her eyes once again and was clearly faking the appearance of being asleep while making fake sleeping sounds.

Shaking my head in amusement I gently shook the sleeping mare resting on top of me, hoping that it gets her attention but it instead made her let out a snort and went back to nuzzling into the crook of my neck and resumed her false sleeping.

"Forge, if you don't get up now I will zap you somewhere that hardly see's the light of day!" I said the thinly veiled threat as I prepared myself to vanish out from underneath her.

"No you won't...your too nice to do such a thing...go back to sleep, your so warm..." My mare said as she snuggled even more into me, and before I could enact my plan to escape and greet the day I felt a pair of hooves securely wrap themselves around my back.

This isn't going to end well.

Before I could stop myself from teleporting we both vanished in a distorting blink of blue light before reappearing above the bed, but this time with me on top of Forge.

'Uh oh'

When gravity returned to the two of us we fell back to the bed and for a moment I thought this was going to end well but instead when we made contact with the bed with our combined weight along with the fall broke all four legs holding the bed up.

Perfect, now I need a new bed.

Looking down at Forge I saw that she was glaring at me weakly, mumbling obscurities at me as I manage to pry her hooves off of me before getting up and out of bed. The mare in my bed eventually grumbled some more before finally getting up and letting out a yawn before wiping the line of drool from her muzzle with a hoof, her eyes blinking owlishly just as she lets out a yawn.

"You suck Skolas, you know that right?"

I could only snicker to myself before nodding at her as I got myself dressed, the bandages on me haven't been replaced yet but that could wait until I have made my rounds and checked in with the guards patrolling the city, securing it from any would-be usurpers that might still be around and are under Sombra's orders to retake the city in the event that he is unable to get all of it under control.

Putting on my battle armor and cape and giving my mare a kiss on the cheek and wishing her good luck I left my room and made my way towards the war room, the wardens and I called it the Hive and not because it reminds us of the changelings. No we called it that because during the war and whenever the wardens were using that chamber it was always bustling with activity and ponies going to and fro places along with carrying sensitive documents about operations and other things that we have been doing.

Ever since we won our war against the griffons the war room sort of fell into disrepair, Celestia and Luna thought that this was going to be the only war that would ever threaten their kingdom but I knew that was just nothing more than a pipe dream and wishful thinking, war is inevitable and that it will happen again eventually, it was only a matter of time which the three of us have but they refused to heed my words.

Now look what happened Celestia, Luna, you had a hidden war brewing within your kingdom with ponies taking sides on who should rule the kingdom because of how incompetent you two are, and guess who finally just won? It only took us a thousand plus years to do so but hey, I still won in the end.

Soon I stood in front of the war room, I had two of my wardens in their tactical armor, chainmail with padding underneath to prevent the chains from pinching their fur with hardened hoof guards so they can stand on objects that would normally pierce unprotected hooves with ease along with the ability to strike things much harder. My wardens also had a variety of weapons to chose from but they were all required to carry with them a standard issued set, a gladius for slashing flesh and other soft targets, a mace to break heavy armor or hardened bone and scales and lastly an axe to either behead their target and/or to gather firewood during their missions in the wilderness. Along with what they usually carry I had them also carry with them some other things that I think are important, torches, flint and steel, medical bandages and alcohol to disinfect, a small telescope and lastly a single blackpowder urn for emergencies only.

The two I had posted to guard the war room however, they were given six of the blackpowder urns and all six of them are meant to kill crowds of armored targets, especially effective if they are in a hallway like this one, with no windows for them to jump out of to escape the impending death of the explosion and its proxy effect on them.

Getting caught in an explosion sucks because of the concussive blast and the heat and pressure from it. Getting caught in an explosion while also getting pelted by molten hot round metal balls? Excruciating pain if you manage to survive the initial blast and shrapnel.

I nodded to the two wardens as they returned the nod with a crisp salute before returning to what they were last doing which was keeping their eyes on the hallways for any sign of intruders.

Pushing the doors open to the war room I saw that the few wardens that were here have been busy for the most part. I watched as several of my crystal ponies trotted to and fro the room from one end to the other, passing reports, giving sealed letters to one my letter readers to see who is a credible threat to the empire and who is just a bystander.

Looking at each and every single individual pony in the room, some of them are still recruits but a few I can easily tell are seasoned soldiers, one of them was even a veteran due to taking out a dragon that was terrorizing one of the outlying villages on the border. Naturally he got hurt when he fought it but the dragon got it worse, it doesn't have a head anymore.

Walking over to the old stallion who was coordinating everything going on in the room I watched silently as he told the ponies around him what to do even though none of them should but they are doing it anyways to get their work done in an orderly manner.

"You two over there! Set those letters down over there beside Blank Scroll so she can see if any of them are from Sombra's subordinates, only she can find the hidden messages within his letters. And you over there! Help Bronze Widget put those crates down over there by the corner then go back and help Crucio remove the curses on those tomes! We can't let anypony read them while they are cursed and they might contain more evidence on Sombra's illicit actions against the kingdom along with his motives for turning to black magic!"

The old codger, He was once so spry for a pony pushing sixty but when you have your life force drained to test someone's resolve in their cause only for it backfire completely when I ended winning after our hiatus in stasis. For a dark brown stallion that has seen his prime years far behind him, this guy can still kick somepony's ass and do it with a grin on his muzzle, a veteran of the griffon war along with several incursions against the changelings whenever they try to set up shop within the towns and villages.

I already have his retirement party ready for him, I have to pick the date and time for it but other from that I am sure that Bastion Wall will be able to enjoy the rest of his life with his wife and children without having to make his wife worry about him never coming home whenever he goes out on a outer-city patrol or if another war happens.

"I see you are keeping the young ones busy Bastion, anything to report?"

"Yes sir, I do have something to report but it is not meant for the rank and file to hear."

"Hmm, let us have this talk in the inner room."

"Yes, let us, sir."

The two of us left the war room behind us as we walked into the inner room, the same room where Celestia, Luna and I made our discussion to have the wardens placed into the army as a special operations division. Luna had some reservations on putting ponies that didn't have the princess's at the top of their priority list along with the fact that they have killed wild monsters and ponies before.

Once we were in the room I heard the doors close behind us before locking, the two of us were now alone and secured in here.

Turning around I looked down at the captain of the crystal guards as he looked back at me and started to explain the situation to me.

"Sir, we have yet to locate the Crystal Heart although we know it is somewhere within the palace. You and I both know that without it that the kingdom will be doomed to slowly slide back into an endless winter that will consume everything that we have worked so hard to secure and keep safe from Sombra and the griffons. Finding that artifact is the only thing that matters at this point, if we can find it and place it back onto its pedestal then everything will resolve itself in time." Bastion said as he pulled out a map from his militarized saddlebags and placed it on the table before rolling it out flat.

Walking to the table I looked down at it and saw that it was the palace schematics, it listed all the floors along with every single room and where they are located on each floor.

"We have already checked every single room on all five floors, from top to bottom we looked high and low and yet we couldn't even find a single fifty pound heart shaped chunk of pure arcana crystal!"

Yeah, how does one somehow manage to lose a massive crystal shaped heart in a palace that always has ponies and myself walking through it on a daily basis?

"Hmm...so you and the guards checked everywhere, correct?" I said as I looked at each floor, my eyes looking for places where Sombra has frequented on a daily basis, taking note and leaving little widgets where he has been for the longest time.

The throne room, his room, the public bathroom on the second floor, the archives, the alchemical storage rooms, the dungeon and the library...hmm I wonder...

"Bastion, I think I might have an idea on where Sombra might have hidden it."

"Where?"

"I don't know precisely per say but I know that he must have used dark magic to hide it somewhere so it wouldn't be found by any conventional means so easily."

"Dark magic?"

"Yes, dark magic, there are only five people in the entire world that is capable of it, one of them has been de-horned and is rotting in the dungeons below, the other two have fled the empire when Sombra staged his coup, another is dead and frozen deep beneath the earth and the last person is me."

"But what is dark magic? I have never heard of this school of magic before."

"Bastion, Dark Magic is a forbidden school of magic because of how corrupting it is. What it does is that it channels your anger and hatred into a single spell before unleashing it upon your enemies, this was how curses and hexes were created. Although to you ponies it will slowly corrupt you from within and whittle away at your sanity to the point where you go mad from either the power going to your head or from the things that you might see when you gaze into the darkness."

"Why would you create such magic if you knew what it could do to others and yourself?"

"Because my people were mutilated when we were betrayed by our gods. They abandoned us to an unfortunate fate and because of it we're permanently scarred and in our anger we made it as a means of lashing out against the ones who made us who we are. The things I am capable of doing is in its own right a horrifying thing to behold."

Looking down at Bastion I saw his face scrunch up for a moment, probably imagining the things that could have happened to someone that might have angered in the past before shuddering, probably that imagination of his turning against him.

"I would hate to see what you did to the griffons and I would absolutely hate what you do to anyone that would dare insult your wife in your presence."

"Bastion, if someone insulted my wife with me there I am more than positive that Forge would tear the offender a new one before giving me a turn to do the same thing before she takes over and tears them another asshole." I said in confidence and for a moment I could only imagine the offender being verbally abused by Forge with me scaring the shit out of them and just when the person in question thinks it is over, in comes Forge and the resulting mess is deeply amusing.

I married one hell of a dynamite gal.

"Yes, I do believe that Forge could easily handle anything that comes her way but we have gone off topic and away from our task. Why is this dark magic important to our search for the Crystal Heart?"

Looking back down at the map I placed a finger on the throne room and started to wonder if it was there of all places.

"How long can the empire last with its current stock of preserved food rations?" I asked my friend as I looked at the other places that Sombra has periodically visited in the past.

"Three months...maybe four months if we really stretched it, why?"

"...wondering...hmm...seems like I have no choice in the matter then..."

"Skolas, what are you planning?"

"Nothing Bastion...nothing...just thinking on the choices I have at the moment and when I see what lies before me, almost all the options are bad or worse with one exception. I am afraid however that if I pick that particular choice than it might either cause an incident or another uprising from the ponies still living here." I mumbled for a moment before clearing myself up, I don't know which to pick that is the lesser of two evils.

Do I let in the equestrians from the south come into my lands, providing medical aid and emergency food supplies at the cost of allowing Celestia and Luna back home, or do I try to hold out as long as we can, find the crystal heart on our own, restore the land back to what it once was and make it fertile again for farming and pray to whatever god that is listening at the moment that nothing bad happens to us, or some combination of the two happens.

Looking at it now I can say that I know for a fact that when I made contact with Luna in my dream a while ago, I know that she has probably told her sister that I have returned and probably that Sombra is back as well, which would mean that they are assembling an attack force to accompany them in order to put him down and to reclaim the empire for themselves.

I am not going to stand here and watch as I lose everything that I have worked so hard just to acquire and defend to a pair of idiots who didn't see Sombra turning against them.

If I have to I will allow them to enter the empire, help with the relief effort, watch Sombra pay for his crimes before going home. I will not surrender the throne to them even if they use that 'We were friends' card on me.

I earned this throne and crown, I will not watch it slip from my fingers and slide to a pair of hooves.

"Bastion, gather a detachment of guards and meet me in the throne room."

"For what sir?"

"To find the crown, I do believe that if my hunch is correct, then we just might get through this after all with relative ease."

Gazing back at the map, my eyes casting a glare at the throne room, I could only see the throne itself sitting at the very back of the room, almost like a beacon shining bright in the coming darkness with a single prismatic crystal sitting at the top of it.

Is it really that simple?

Was it hidden there all along?

Only one way to find out now...nothing ventured...nothing gain.

Pushing away from the table I left the chamber after pushing the heavy doors open and walked out of the war room, my destination was my seat of power and the crystal sitting on top of it. If my theory is correct then I will only need to worry about magical traps and climbing flights of near-endless stairs.





Far from the Crystal Empire to the south, a division of ponies wearing gold armor a hundred strong stood at attention, all of them waiting at a train station for their ride to arrive. Waiting beside them was both of their princesses, Celestia and Luna, and both of them are wearing armor that hasn't seen the light of day in over a thousand years let alone used in over a thousand years.

As the division of equestrian royal guards wait for their ride and their rulers stand beside them, another pair of ponies stand beside them, recently married and just came back from their honeymoon in Las Pegasus, Cadance, the Princess of Love and her husband Shining Armor, the Captain of the Royal Guard. The two were happily talking to one another as they trotted beside princesses of the sun and the moon, unaware of what they are talking about when they arrived.

"...Now sister I know you are happy that our friend Skolas has returned but we mustn't worry about him. We must take care of Sombra first before we can worry about whatever else is wrong with the crystal kingdom." The older sister said to the younger sister as they both shuffle on their hooves, restless with what that is about to happen.

"But sister We can not let Skolas fight him alone! Have you not seen what Sombra has done to us when we last fought us? We know we are far stronger than he is but We fear that he might have gotten stronger in our absence and in his vanished state." The younger sister said back, her thoughts clouded with what was said between herself and her long lost friend earlier that day.

"I know that but...what if he turns against us? We have already sealed Discord in stone and he too was once our friend before his unfortunate madness. I just don't wish to see you sad if we have to fight him."

"We know sister...we kn-"

"Who are you talking about? Is it an old colt friend of yours?" A much younger voice said from behind them and with a turn of their heads they saw just exactly who was talking to them.

"No neice, it isn't an old colt friend, well for me anyways but my little Luna? I should think so." Celestia said with a wry grin as she teased her little sister.

"Sister! I thought we decided that Skolas was not my coltfriend! He is a happily married stallion and that my time to earn his affection has long sinced passed!" Luna shouted as she bopped her sister upside the head with a wing, earning a chuckle from Celestia ana Cadance as Shining Armor could only shake his head and silently laugh himself at what was going on.

"Oh come now Luna you know I am just playing with you!"

"Well stop! It is embarrassing enough that you have to remind me of my chances with him...if only he hadn't went with that mare..." Luna mumbled as she crossed her hooves and to her older sister and her neice, the two thought she looked adorable while pouting, even with a set of ancient looking armor strapped to her frame.

"Anyways is everypony ready to go?"

"Not yet Luna, we have to wait for my student and her friends to arrive and once they show up we can board the train and head north. Or as far north as we can go seeing how we haven't finish the railroad leading that deep into the north yet." Celestia said as she shuffled on her hooves, nervous for what will be happening soon.

As the four of them conversed with one another, off in the distance a steady plume of smoke made its way towards them, small clouds of the stuff approaching them at a steady pace and before long a train comes into view. The Friendship Express in all of its glory, and aboard its cars was six ponies and a young dragon, all of them talking to one another as they disembarked from their train raide to Canterlot.

"I hope they are ready Luna."

"We hope so as well, although they have faced Discord and Chrysalis relatively unharmed, I fear that Sombra will not be so merciful or gentle with them."

When the six mares stopped in front of the royal sisters they bowed down along with the young dragon, showing respect to the princesses before standing back up with the exception of one mare who stood up and hugged ther solar alicorn.

"It has been a while Twilight since I last saw you." The solar alicorn said as she hugged the young lavender unicorn with her wings.

"I know Princess Celestia but it is good to see you again! What is happening if you had to call all of us here along with the Elements of Harmony? Is Discord on the loose again? Is Chrysalis back? Some other evil at hoof?" The young lavender mare said as she looked around, praying to Faust above that none of the ponies in question that she listed off was on the loose once again.

"No my faithfull student, nothing of the sort. For the time being we must discuss with you a matter of utmost emergency, but not here, let us go onto the train so we can talk about this matter in a more...private setting." Celestia said as she directed a wing back at the train and for a moment it was lost on them until they saw the massive gathering of royal guards along with their princesses wearing battle armor for the first time in ages.

And with that said all ten ponies plus one baby dragon went onto the Friendship Express, soon following behind them was the division of royal guards, their mission clear and their goal within sight for as long as they have their princesses beside them, anything is possible.

Saving the Crystal Kingdom from a mad tyrant.

If only if they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.
> Drastic Action
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'To think that this room once held nothing but my boredom during hours of listening to nobles complain about their problems to the princesses, a ball during the Summer Sun Celebration, my knighting as the Warden of the Wilds, Sombra's coup attempt and his downfall all started in this very room.'

'And now here I am, standing at the foot of the throne with nothing but myself, my captain of the crystal guards, ten reliable crystal guardpones on standby, and my wife looking at me like a piece of meat...at least that explains why I felt a shiver run up my spine a few moments ago...'

Looking at my throne I first saw nothing out of the ordinary, every piece of crystal is in place as it should be, its color remains its ever pale blue palette, still the same size, nothing out of place. But when I kept looking at the throne I noticed that the key centerpiece crystal at the very top of the throne directly above where a headrest would normally be, it is pulsing slightly, humming with a foreign magical signature that wasn't there before. The magic in that crystal has been there for untold centuries, long before Celestia and Luna were even placed on the throne, the crystal ponies said some other race once ruled these lands before dying off but that is just a legend they tell each other but I know that the throne was made of the same arcana crystal that the Crystal Heart is made from, both pure in form and stature and are powered by positive emotions for the greater good of a kingdom.

What the people here don't know is that the crystal heart and the throne are corruptible, almost as seen with what Sombra has done to my friends when he froze them in place along with making the throne pitch black and sharp with the area surrounding it just as black.

The Crystal Heart and the Crystal Throne are not just symbols of power for the Crystal Empire, they are also powerful artifacts, artifacts that I have...kept my eye on for countless years as well as studied them and I must say, there are some thing that must not be known by the general public let alone those that once sat next to the throne or grazed the heart with a light touch.

Placing my hand on a hoof rest on the throne I watched as the throne reshaped itself to better fit my body shape and for a moment I could only smile and ponder as to why the throne would do such a thing before remembering some text I have read in a book before having it destroyed to prevent that particular knowledge from being found out by a certain alicorn.

'...artifacts of olde will one day return to the world and with it the power of the world itself...'

And somewhere in this damnable palace is one such artifact.

"Skolas, although it is not my place to question you but I do not think the Crystal Heart is in here. This was the first place we checked and we could not find any type of hidden compartments other than the hidden passage behind the throne." Bastion said as he trotted up beside me, looking at the throne just as it finished shifting into a shape that would fit me perfectly.

Turning around to face my captain of the guard I waved a hand at the throne while my hand was pointing at the one crystal at the top of the throne that was humming with resonance.

"Tell me Bastion, what do you see different about that crystal sitting right on top of the throne?"

"I see...hmm...well this is odd...the crystal is some sort of resonating switch. With the correct type of magical resonance being used in tandem with the crystal it will open a secret passage that has been created with magic...how strange that I have never seen that before up until just now..."

"Exactly, you have to be actively looking for it to even notice it and even then you have to know the right magic to even have any kind of effect on the resonance crystal. Observe closely because I am only doing this once." I said just as I turned back to face the throne as I lifted one of my arms and pointed a hand at the crystal and for a moment nothing happened.

But in that split second my hand erupted into a sphere of black and green as it bled into the air around it, wisps of green and black flames licking at everything around it before fading away into nothingness. The sudden appearance of the corrupted-looking sphere of magic made the crystal guards take a step back before standing their ground, their weapons at the ready, seems like their training to take out beings that have been corrupted by black magic or have been overloaded by the natural magic of the world is finally kicking in.

With my black magic ready to be discharged I focused my mind on the target of my choice, the resonance crystal and flung the devouring essence at the crystal and it immediately was absorbed into it, turning its color from its pale translucent color into a pitch black gemstone with glowing green waves emanating from its core.

The black gemstone started to hover over the throne and for a moment I thought that was it was going to do but instead it started to rotated in place before pointing itself at the center of the room and shot out a beam of green energy at the floor for five seconds before slowly falling back down and landed back onto the throne, its dark color vanishing completely as it returned to normal.

Unfortunately the same thing cannot be said about the center of the room.

"And that is the right type of magic to use." I said as the center of the floor in the room slowly began to open up in a circular fashion. I don't know where one would hide such a hidden compartment in a normal castle, but seeing how magic was involved in the creation of this particular hidden section then where this could have been hidden doesn't matter. Although I would love to have a few of these for myself, I wonder if I should have a secret pool or maybe a hidden bedroom so no one can interrupt me when I really need to rest.

As soon as the center of the room stopped moving we saw that in its place was a flight of stairs spiraling down into what I think is the basement of the palace. Looking down at the flight of stairs I saw that it would be a while to reach the bottom without jumping down the middle and freefalling but seeing how the guards and Bastion can't do that, I guess I will have to go with them down there.

"So who wants to go down the creepy dark tunnel first?" I asked and for a moment there was nothing but silence and when I looked up and away from the hole I saw that all eleven ponies were staring at me.

'Well, shit.'

With that said I made my way down the flight of stairs, Bastion following right behind me who was then followed by the ten guards behind him.

The twelve of us slowly made our way down the stairs and with each step we take I saw that the bottom was not getting any closer to us, my guess it was something that Sombra did to make those going down the stairs give up on hope and go back up the stairs. I don't know why but this guy has some serious skill in annoyance seeing how he has created what looks like an infinite staircase.

I wonder, if I jump in the middle will I fall forever or hit the bottom?

'Lets find out!'

Without looking back at those following me I took a step to the right a little too far and immediately felt the onset of gravity and started to fall into the abyss below. The fall into the abyss wasn't as bad I had thought, it wasn't even that deep of a trap because after five seconds of free falling I eventually found the bottom and as soon as I hit the ground it didn't even leave a dent in the ground, just a soft thud and an echo and that was it.

Dusting myself off after hitting the bottom I saw that there was nothing down here, well nothing besides the long flight of stairs that now clearly only goes three stories down and that Bastion and the crystal guards are in the middle of the stairs trotting in place.

Now that is a hilarious use of dark magic, a curse that alters your perception of reality around you that makes you think that you are making progress even though you are not.

With me at the bottom I saw the reason why Sombra used dark magic to hide this passageway, he and a door down here and that it was being powered by a dormant corrupted crystal gem. Obviously this is a trap but to know exactly what I am dealing with I would have to either trigger the trap myself or have someone else spring it for me, and seeing how they are still stuck up there I might as well get them out of that trap before possibly placing them in another.

Looking at this trap now I realized that this has been here for a long time, six years to be exact. I don't know when Sombra had the time to even have this area constructed let alone even have the privacy to enter the throne room to get here in the first place but seeing how this trap has been waiting for six years he must have been planning his little coup attempt far longer than I had anticipated or even realized. Seems like Sombra was in this race for the throne for the long haul, I wonder if he has any more of these traps just waiting for someone to trigger hidden away somewhere...

Raising my arm at the section of stairs where Bastion and the rest were currently at, my hand glowed for a few seconds with black and green energy before fading just as quickly as it appeared and just in time as well as I watched Bastion and team resume their trot down the stairs, acting like nothing happened. I wonder what their expressions will be when I tell them that they have been trotting in place for the past thirty minutes while I was watching them the entire time?

Once they made it to where I was standing they looked up and saw that instead of seeing nothing but a pinprick of light showing where the throne room once was, they instead saw that they could clearly stare at the ceiling but without being able to see the chandelier sitting above the hole. Bastion was shaking his head in shame, I was laughing like an asshole, the guards were in varying states of shock and surprise and lastly I was laughing like an asshole at their misfortune.

"Having a good laugh there eh Skolas?"

"Yes, in fact I am having a good laugh. I can't believe that we all fell for an optical illusion that was placed on the entire staircase." I said as we turned away from the staircase and was now looking at what appears to be a simple wooden door with a black gemstone embedded at the top of the frame.

An obvious trap if I have ever seen one, right next to a shiny golden idol at the end of a hallway or my favorite, a candy bar underneath a box with a stick holding it up with a piece of string attached to it.

"So Skolas, if the stairs was nothing more than optical illusion what do you think this door will be?"

"No idea, we have to test it with someone to see what it is. I guess I will do it because dark magic has less of an effect on me and I fear what it would do to the rest of you." I said as I stepped toward the door, sadly the door has an idea of its own.

The somehow and without any reason moved from where it was rooted to on the wall and started slide around the wall. Now I know that the correct method to corral the door and figure out what is on the other side is to station guards on either side of it and plant my swords above it so it would not be able to escape but sadly that plan was put on hold when one of the guards managed to grab the doorknob with a hoof and twisted it but as soon as he touched said knob he got blasted in the face with black magic.

For a moment I thought it killed him because he immediately fell to floor like a sack of potatoes but I was proven wrong when he got back up and was acting as if nothing happened. That is until he opened his eyes and started to scream at the top of his lungs.

"Somepony hold him down!" "I got his legs!" "I got his hoof!" The voices from several crystal guards came and went as they bumrushed the screaming guard but what I didn't know was that the magic that the affected guard would spread onto anyone that would touch the affected.

One after another the crystal guards started to scream out not in pain, but in terror, like they are facing their worst fears right before their very eyes and that they can't fight it.

Wow Sombra, dick move, made a curse that showed the affectee their worst nightmares and they can't even resist it. Gotta remember how this is done, might find a use for this later in the future.

As I watched this all unfold I saw out of the corner of my left eyes Bastion use his magic to grab one of the screaming guards and managed to yank him away from the rest of the chain, the guard in question was still screaming but it was lowered to a much more manageable level. The guard in question slowly came back to reality and started to shake in fear as her body refused to move from her place on the floor.

I don't know what she was afraid of but all I could make out from her mumbling and fast talking was 'alone', well it looks like someone is afraid of being alone or being left alone, abandoned. If this keeps up then I will have to send all of them out for a mental evaluation to see if all of their marbles are still present.

One after another Bastion and I started to remove the affected guards from each other, the curse hitting them breaking as they are removed from the chain of idiots. Seriously, why the hell does this keep happening to me? Why do these damn ponies keep touching things that doesn't belong to them? First it was Luna touching my shrapnel launcher, setting it off and nearly burning her wings off, then there was Sombra reading Grogar's journals, Celestia touching the same journals for a second before setting them on fire, Celestia again but this time poking me while I was sleeping and I fell on top of her, and lastly Forge sneaking up on me and poked me in the back with an unmentionable object that I will never speak of ever again.

When it was just the lone guard who was still holding onto the knob as if it was rail preventing him from falling to his untimely demise, I decided to handle this one while Bastion tended to the addled and shuttering ponies.

Grabbing the pony holding onto the doorknob I was immediately zapped by the black stone and was facing my worst nightmare.

For all of one second before the spell broke on me.

"Really Sombra? You create a trap that plays on your worst nightmare and you thought that it would work against me?" I said as I removed the stallion's hoof from the knob and pushed him aside before opening the door before quickly plucking the black stone from the doorframe and walked through the threshold to see what lies on the other side.

Growling at the trailing parade of guards picking themselves up, the removal of the black gem has cut the connection of the curse with its victims thus saving them from its power while also at the same time leaving them shaking in fear from its lingering effects.

When I stepped through the door I was expecting some sort of barrage of arrows and javelins to be shot at me because the door was successfully opened. What I was not expecting was to step off the side of a fucking second staircase leading upwards.

A staircase leading upwards, that is somehow outside.





The train ride to the northern region of Equestria is a boring affair for almost every single pony present. Six mares sitting at a table all huffed out in boredom as the lone dragon on board rolled a pair of dice on the table before moving a set piece around the board before picking up a paper card and in a bored manner read what was written on it before placing it back down and move his piece to the other side of the board, directly to jail.

Letting out a sigh of boredom one of the guards that was standing besides the door slowly starts to lower his head against the side of his spear, and after a few moments he started to snore quietly, falling asleep while still standing.

"How much longer till we get there?" Spike said as his head slumps onto the table.

"I don't know Spike, the Crystal Kingdom was located far to the north. So far north in fact that the train will only take us so far before we will have to disembark and continue on hoof." Celestia said as she looked up from her book '101 ways to make Cake by Head Chef Gustav' to look at Spike before returning to her book.

"Ugh this is so boring! Why can't something exciting happen right now instead!" Rainbow Dash shouted from her spot near the table as she slumped back in her seat, snorting a tress of mane from her face.

And with the magic word said, the train suddenly came to a screeching halt, the wheels halting all at once as the screeching sound of metal on metal forced all of the ponies inside of the train to cover their ears lest they bleed from being ruptured by the sound alone.

When the ungodly sound finally stopped along with the train coming to a complete halt, Rainbow Dash silently muttered to herself to never wish for something exciting to happen ever again, or until extreme boredom sets in. 

"Hey! Somepony is out on the tracks! You! Get off the bloody tracks already! Come now move it!" The conductor shouted as everypony on board the train slowly pulled themselves out from their seats and steadied themselves from the sudden stop.

"What the hay is going on out there?" A guard said as he opened a window and stuck his head out to see what was happening outside.

And what the guard saw astounded him, standing directly on the rails was a lone pony wearing a cloak and hood, the howling winds going on around them was doing nothing against the lone pony besides making the cloak rustle in the wind.

"Hey you! What in Celestia's name are you doing out here! Identify yourself now!" The guard shouted at the pony just as several more guards stormed off the train to surround the mysterious pony in question.

Seven guards got off the train and after a few moments surrounded the cloaked pony, spears pointing at said pony as they circled around to prevent any avenue of escape.

"I will not ask you again! Identify yourself!"

"You are trespassing on sovereign land, leave now and go back to Equestria." The mysterious pony said in a flat and even tone, none of the guards were able to tell which gender the pony was due to it sounding so androgynous.

"That is it! You are coming with us!" The lead guard said and for the moment all eyes was on the lone pony in the middle, the six mares that was bored out of their minds were now looking out of the windows as well as their little dragon friend, Celestia and Luna was also watching but they had stepped off the train to see what was going on.

As soon as one of the guards took a step towards the unknown pony, it sprung into action, pulling out a small yellow crystal before throwing it at the ground and in an instant it exploded with a loud bang and a bright light, both blinding the equestrian guards and those nearby while at the same time deafening them in the process.

The lone warden pony took the chance and took off into the blizzard, losing the guards in the white flurry of snow and was out of sight in mere moments while the equestrians tried to remove the disorientating dizziness all the while the mares inside were rubbing their eyes from the bright flash of light.

Luna shook her head at the sight of the guards failing to apprehend a lone pony in the middle of the blizzard, fully knowing that they would have failed in their task to capture said pony. Celestia on the other hand was having a bit of a hard time believing that her guards were so easily defeated by a lone pony wearing what looked like nothing but a hooded cloak.

"But...how!? I felt no magic from that pony and yet it was still capable of using a thunderclap spell to escape? How!" Twilight shouted as she stared in star struck awe at the spot where the lone pony used to be standing.

"Quiet casting and fast casting...and here I thought that only the battle mages of Ancient Equestria could do such a thing but to see it before my eyes. And to think that they last few remaining ones are here in the Crystal Kingdom..." Celestia said as she trotted over to her guards and helped them get back onto their hooves, a few are still holding their heads as the ringing in their ears still rages on.

Trotting to where the lone pony was once standing the moon princess used a hoof to wipe away the snow, looking for anything that could give her a clue as to what happened and when she saw the dull yellow crystal fragments she immediately knew who they were dealing with. And just as quickly as she found the fragments she buried them beneath the snow, the knowledge of this gem was all that is needed for what she was about to tell her friends and sister.

As soon as she returned to her sister's side she nudged her with a wing and nodded back to the train, the silent messaged received Celestia nodded back and helped her disoriented guards back onto the train and after a few moments it began to move once more towards their objective in the north.

Once everypony was on board and sat down, Celestia and Luna took their seats besides their students on their opposite side and discussed what has just occurred.

"Well it would seem we are on the right trail towards the Crystal Kingdom, if that crystal pony was of any indication." Celestia said as she ruffled her wings of any loose feathers before relaxing into her seat.

"Yes, and a warden at that." Luna said as she looked outside the window, the blizzard was still going strong, resulting in them being slowed down by the sheer force of it.

"Wardens? Who are they?" Twilight said as she looked at Luna, a small notepad and quill now hovering beside her.

"If We can remember them correctly, they were or in this case are the Crystal Kingdom's elite soldiers, trained by an old friend of ours and seeing how We was able to talk to him through the dream realm We can tell that he is still alive, although a bit displeased with the news that We told him on being frozen for nearly two thousand years." Luna said as she snuggled herself into the sofa, the soft plushness slowly lulling her asleep but she kept herself awake for the sake of and answering any questions that might be asked.

"Oooooo and just who this friend of yours?"
"Is it an old flame that you are hoping to reignite?"
"Oh or maybe is it an old friend that you wish to reunite with after being gone for so long?"
"Is this friend of yours cool?"
"Well tell us!" 

Luna was assaulted by questions and for a moment she sat their shocked at what was asked but in an instant she was back to her old self and started to answer each question with a smile.

"My old friend is Skolas and he is...well he isn't from around these parts and sadly no he isn't an old flame although my chance with him came and went I highly doubt I would ever get a second chance with him. And yes We do wish to reunite with him, it has been far too long since We have truly spoken to each other. We would hope so that our friend is cool, if it wasn't for him then many of the advances we have made would not be here if it wasn't for him." The lunar matriarch said as she laid her head down onto a pillow, letting the train rock her back and forth to sleep but was pulled away from it all when she felt a hoof poke her side a few times before pressing deep into her flank.

"Luna, did Skolas say anything that is happening within the kingdom? Is Sombra on the loose or is he trying to deal with it on his own, as usual?" Celestia said as she looked at her sister, there was fear in her eyes and for a moment Luna also saw the fear shift into something far worse, the fear of losing their friend forever.

"Yes sister, Skolas did say something...but for the life of me I don't understand why he is acting paranoid all of a sudden. Usually he is always so composed and sound, not this paranoid mess that was standing before me in his dreams." Luna said with a huff, glaring at her sister for keeping her out of doing her duties as a dream walker and protecting her ponies from the occasional nightmare.

"Is it because he was trapped for so long that his mind couldn't handle being alone for so long?" Twilight said as she adjusted herself in her seat and leaned against the window and glanced out of it for a moment before spotting the lone pony that had escaped for the slightest of moments before it vanished from her sight by being absorbed into the blizzard.

"What is it Twilight? Did you see something out there?"

"I just saw the pony that escaped the guards just now!"

"Where!?" Rainbow Dash said as she got up from her seat and started to fly to a window before being pulled back down.

"Simmer down there Dash, Ah don't think ya should go out there right now. The cold will freeze your wings solid an I rather not see you flop to the ground and that we are already on a train headin' north so just sit back down." Applejack said, not even looking up from her spot on the sofa.

"But I could catch the little spy and-"

"And what? If that crystal pony could escape from seven guards while surrounded what chance do you have?" Applejack said as she went back to trying to fall asleep, her rainbow headed friend let out a snort before frowning and crossed her hooves before staying in her seat.

Little did they know that the pony that they let escape was indeed one of the wardens that was sent out with those few crystal ponies who volunteered, and as the lone warden waited for his two companions to meet him he started to set up the warning beacon with the kit he was given before his departure.

When the other two arrived they questioned what was going on until they saw the beacon was fully set up and with a single hoof pressing down on the center of the enchanted gemstone it lit up like the sun and shot a ball of red light into the sky, punching through the blizzard before exploding in the air.

The three looked up at the sky before looking at the horizon, expecting to see something deep in the blizzard only to see nothing, but after a few minutes of waiting a red dot in the beyond lit up before it too shot up into the sky.

The warning has been sent out and it has been received by those closer to Providence, now it is only a matter of time before the city itself can be warned and the proper response be made.

With the girls and the rest of the guards now resting within their train their ride further up north soon came to an end when they felt that they were slowing down and before long they came to a complete halt in the middle of no where with a raging blizzard going on.

"Why did we stop?"

"Because Rainbow Dash we are here, the tracks could have gone only so far with how much time we had to lay down the rails." Twilight said as she got up and crawled off the sofa before grabbing her saddlebags and put it on before snagging her scarf and earmuffs from the coatrack and placed the scarf around her neck and her favorite earmuffs on her ears before trotting off the train.

Once she was off the train she was soon followed by her friends and the royal guards, Celestia and Luna got off at the same time as Shining Armor and Princess Cadance trotted off behind them. Everypony is wearing winter-related clothing and other means of keeping warm as they got into formation, the royal guards surrounding the six mares, baby dragon, the celestial sisters, the captain of the royal guards was leading the formation while Princess Cadance stood between her aunts.

When every single pony was ready for the long march to the heart of the Crystal Kingdom they all began to trot a t a brisk pace, the royal guards have their eyes peeled for any more signs of the warden ponies, if one was able to easily escape capture while surrounded then who knows what else they might be capable of doing.

Luna knew of what the wardens are capable of doing because she saw them in action several times, including the razing of Griffonstone and the slaughter of High Talon Ridge, and she must say that if the solar or lunar guards ever fought against Skolas's wardens, the guards would lose because they are so out of practice as the changeling invasion proved it several times over.

Celestia on the other hoof for the life of her can't remember anything about the wardens nor could she remember exactly why the wardens are so powerful or so prepared for any situation.

"So how far away is this place exactly?" Pinkie asked as she bounced slightly in the snow, the snowflakes landing on her nose as she blew them into the air only for them to be blown away into the blizzard.

"If the weather doesn't let up...a few days at most and if the weather does give us a clear sky than only a few hours at most." Luna said as she looked at the horizon for a moment to see a lone pony-shaped figure disappear beyond her sight.

A warden was watching their every movement, and it knew where they are.

"Sister."

"Yes Luna?"

"They know we are here."

"How do you know?"

"Because if I know Skolas the most out of any pony out there besides his wife...he would have sent out his eyes and ears as soon as he came out of the stasis spell."

"So how many of his wardens are watching us?"

"From what I saw earlier...just one."

"Just one? Pfft we can easily capture one pony, especially in this blizzard!" Rainbow Dash said as she flapped her wings and started to fly only to be pulled back down to earth by her friend.

"Dash, we told you this already, you can't fly in this weather without freezing your wings solid!"

"Oh come on Twi! It is just a short flight to the mysterious pony! That is all that I am asking!"

"No means no! I swear one of these days you are going to bite off a lot more than you can chew!" Twilight said and for a moment she thought it got through her friend's thick skull but sadly that isn't the case this time.

With the flap of her wings the rainbow-headed pegasus took off and took chase after the lone pony in the distance, much to the distress and displeasure of the ponies she came with. 

"Hey get back here!" The group of ponies heard before losing sight of her, the blizzard concealing her as she faded away into the distance.

If only they knew what kind of trouble she is going to get into.





I don't know what is with Sombra but he has a strange obsession with stairs...stairs and cruel pranks.

I wonder where he gets this from?

Holding onto the edge of the staircase I let out a series of unkind and unspeakable words out in anger as I tangled over the side like a worm at the end of a fishhook.

'I am getting far too old for this shit...and just how old am I anyways?'

"Skolas! Are you okay!" I heard Bastion yell me as he came galloping towards the edge before stopping himself from going over the ledge along with me, he skidded to a halt and was looking down at me as I looked down at the ground beneath us.

Right below me was the city of Providence, which is strange because every time I look at the damn palace from the outside I never saw these stairs so he either has an invisibility spell on the entire thing or they are so well built that they blend in to the side.

"Yes Bastion, I am fine...just wondering how I never found these stairs whenever I am outside going for a stroll." I said with a bit of snark thrown into my voice, I don't know why but I am starting to realize that Sombra is a bigger asshole than I am. I just get things over with and my grudges don't last long, Sombra on the other hand just loves to drag things out all the while taking his grudges presumably to the grave.

This guy seriously needs to get laid.

"Oh, okay. Was just wondering if you need me to pick you up but it seems like you got this one, I will go back with the guards back to the throne room and wait for you to finish with your hunt for the Crystal Heart." The captain of the crystal guard said and just before he could turn around I stopped him as I pulled myself up.

"Leave two of your guards with me, in the event something traps me I could still send a message out on my failure or my success, whichever of the two comes first for me." Please give me two of your more competent guards, I don't need any the stupid ones like the ones who touched the door when we told him not to or the few that grabbed him even though they saw the black magic aura was clearly on him.

"Fine, just make sure that they don't get hurt. I rather not send all of my guards to the infirmary today so make sure that those two come back to me in one piece and not screaming from some madness inducing spell.

Nodding his head at my request he calls out to anypony who is still standing and didn't touch the cursed guard and three hooves raised into the air. He picked two of them told them to follow my lead and to not get hurt or to do anything stupid, stood at attention and agreed with him before following me out the door, standing right behind me as I looked up the curving flight of stairs.

Staring back at the two crystal guard ponies behind me, I recognized the pair, Orange Rivet and Frothy Brew, and they looked as competent as a pair of stooges. These two somehow barely passed the requirements to even join the crystal guards and yet they still somehow manage to both fuck up and unfuck up their situations they get in. Someone up above must really love these two idiots cause I sure as hell don't.

"Alright you two, stay behind me and whatever you do, do not touch anything until I tell you to. Do you understand all that or do I need to say it in a much slower manner."

And so began our march up the winding flight of stairs. I honestly don't know why would Sombra would even create such a thing, I mean I know he hates stairs because he used to complain about them all the time! What made him change his mind?

I wonder...




Flashback




Standing at the top of a flight of stairs was a dark unicorn wearing a flowing red cap, a grin firmly plastered on his muzzle as he raises his hoof into the air, a strange cylindrical object is on his hoof.

Ever so gently Sombra placed the cylindrical object on the ground and with a gentle nudge from his hoof the object tilted over the side before bending in such a way that it was acting like a gelatinous beast.

"What comes down stairs, alone or in pairs, it makes a slinkity sound! A spring a spring a marvelous thing! Everypony knows its slinky!"

"Sombra, what are you doing?" I said as I looked down at him from the third floor foyer, the unicorn in question was standing right beside the metal toy before it slinked on past him.

"I uh...nothing?"

"Uh huh...right...and I am going to pretend I didn't see you playing with that foal's toy just now." I said before snickering to myself and walked off, having a report to deliver so I went back on my merry way, ignoring the fuming stallion at the bottom of the stairs as he screamed obscenities at me as I left him alone.




Flashback Over




'Oh, right, I totally caught him playing with that slinky a few years ago. Who knew that he actually loved those things so much that it would make him create so many flights of stairs?'

Letting out a snort of hot air the three of us began our ascending climb up what I can only hope and pray to be nothing less than a flight of stairs four stories high instead of an infinite staircase leading to heaven.

I was hoping for this climb upwards to be quiet with nothing to hear but our footsteps and our breathing but unfortunately the two guards that came with with me are complete and utter chatterboxes.

"So Orange Rivet, you got any plans for once this is all done and over with?"

"Well I know that I am planning to go down to the Retching Manticore for a few pints of ale, maybe find a nice mare to have some fun with, you know, the usual thing I do at the end of my shift. What about you?"

"Well when I am done with my shift I am going to go home and be with my wife."

"Ah yes, I forgot that you are married, you are not allowed to have fun with the boys anymore hehe. You've been whipped!"

"No I have not! It is just that I have responsibilities at home, I just can't go around having a drink with my buddies when my wife needs me at home to watch the foals!"

"You have foals?"

"Yes, I do, two of em and both are a hooffull."

"Really?"

I let out a loud groan as my eyes rolled up into my head, for a moment I wanted nothing more than to just jump off the side of the building and land head first just to stop hearing those two talking about their daily lives. I am not their therapist nor their buddy, I do not need to hear any of this right now.

"Can you two talk when this is all over? I need to concentrate on spotting any traps or pressure plates on these stairs!" I turned my head to shout at the two guards and for a moment I thought it was working but then I was interrupted when my foot struck something and I nearly fell forward and eat shit but I caught myself when my arms grabbed onto something that just so happened to be the top of the palace.

'Huh...I figured this would have taken us longer, seems like the stairs aren't cursed...'

"Is that what I think it is?"

"I thought it was just a myth and that it was those two alicorns that was keeping the blizzard away from us?"

"Well you are both wrong, it took years of meticulous research, trial and error, and a few failures but what you see before you is no myth nor the work of two alicorns. This is the work of those that came before us all during the reign of Discord, the Crystal Heart and with my knowledge and the assistance of several powerful unicorns we managed to recreate this sacred relic and gave it to the other towns and villages to both protect them from the hostile weather and the savage beasts that lie beyond the walls."

"Are you sure this this the Crystal Heart and not just a trap?"

"I don't know, I have to get close to it to see otherwise it might as well be a fake that has been rigged by a curse." And with that said I looked around the top of the palace, there was nothing up here but the Crystal Heart resting on a pedestal, the eight prongs on top of the palace pointing skyward and myself with the two guards.

It looks to easy to get, there has to be some sort of catch.

Taking a cautious step towards the heart I expected to be fired at me or some spell to be casted on the heart to teleport it away or a fireball to blast an unwary intruder. Instead nothing happened, there was no teleportation, no fireball, no spell of any kind, just me, the two ponies behind me and the floating heart on a pedestal, what could possibly go wrong?

Well a lot can go wrong actually...

First I stepped onto the raised floor where the heart was located and as soon as I grabbed the heart several things happened at the exact same time. A cage made out of black crystals sprang out of the ground, surrounding me in the process, then my guards panicked and started to bang their hooves on the cage and they were sucked into it when the cage opened up partially, then off in the distance I saw a red dot glare brightly in the sky and I knew exactly what that was because it wasn't the sun due to it being behind me at the moment.

"Well...this fucking sucks...thanks for not listening to everything I just told you two idiots. Not only did we get trapped in here but now I can't send either of you two to go back down the stairs, get Bastion, come back up get us out of here but noooooo. You two tried to play the hero and bang your hooves against the cage and instead of leaving a dent you instead got just as captured as I did. Thanks for screwing up." I said as I banged my head against the bars in anger, seriously do these ponies even think before going into action?

"Sorry boss." "Sorry sir."

Shaking my head at them I turned my attention back to the heart and for a moment I thought it was a fake but when I placed my hand on it I felt it zap me before stopping. Me being me I touched it again but this time instead of zapping me it just stopped rotating until I took my finger off of it as it resumed its rotation.

"Hmm...I wonder..." And with that wonder in mind I grabbed the heart and for a moment I thought that my plan won't work due to interfering dark magic but instead I managed to teleport the crystal heart out of the cage and onto the floor. I do not understand why that happened but now I have a new idea.

Flaring the darkness into my hands I placed each hand at a different point on the black crystals, forming a rough square shape before pumping my brand of darkness into the two corrupted pillars and for a moment nothing happened but that was immediately changed when the crystals themselves reverberated and started to crack and crumble before outright exploding outwards.

But just as they exploded outward the two guards immediately left the prison cell and it sealed itself up right behind them, leaving me inside and alone. Fucking typical...the guy rescues the idiots in distress and he gets put into a trap...whats next? A damn dragon kidnaps the prince charming and the damsel has to rescue him?

Staring at the two guards who are on the floor outside, blinking at me as they stare at where they once were I instantly got an idea.

"Orange Rivet, Frothy Brew, go downstairs and tell Bastion that we have found the Crystal Heart, just pass it back to me, I can use it to both break myself out of here and also destroy any other remaining curses that reside within the palace."

"But umm...we were told to bring the heart immediately to its cradle if we ever find it."

"And you would leave me up here? Alone and trapped?"

"I am sure you would be able to think of something."

"If you leave me up here I will send you two on on deep range patrols to the farthest reach of the empire for the next five years." And with that threat said the two immediately did as they were told and handed the heart over to me.

With the heart in my hands I concentrated on tapping into its power and for a moment I was able to glimpse into it and I saw eternity before succumbing to its strength. The power of the Crystal Heart was coursing through my veins and for a moment I felt invincible! I felt like that nothing could possibly stop me! I could do anything that I can set my mind to!

And I set my mind to getting myself the out hell out of this stupid cage! Slamming my upper hands against the crystal cage the magical boost I have received from the heart broke the bars holding me explode into a black mist. Unfortunately the part where all the curses on the palace are lifted, the only thing it did was helped me escape but that is all that is needed at this moment.

Looking down at the two guards who are staring at me in awe as I gave off a godly aura of light blue energy waving off of me and their jaws were on the floor before they pulled themselves together and galloped back down the stairs to tell Bastion the good news while I took a short cut.

And by shortcut I mean jumping down the flight of stairs and landing one flight beneath the other before stopping at the door leading back inside to the throne room. I beat the two guards to the door by several minutes and when they finally caught up to me they were huffing and puffing and looked like they were about to collapse from exhaustion.

Seems like they are still suffering from the stasis spell, being stuck in place for a thousand plus years that was immediately followed by moving after being stationary for so long. Either muscle mass has shrunk or they are just unused to doing so much in such a short amount of time.

Going down than going back up I returned back to the throne room, Crystal Heart in hand and when I took the last step back into the throne room I saw as every single pony that was in there, Bastion, those that got zapped by the cursed door, Glittering Quill, Forge and several other guards and wardens that were patrolling the halls at the time were all looking at me.

Well, they were looking at the damn heart than they were looking at me, small victories I guess.

"Is that...what I think that is!"

"Yes Forge, it is what you think it is. Damn thing took a while to find."

"And its about damn time this thing goes back where it belongs. To the front gate!" I said before marching out the throne doors and down the stairs to the foyer at the bottom. There was a few servants and guards waiting at the bottom of the stairs, even a few random ponies were milling about in the foyer but when they saw me cradling the crystalline heart in my hands they immediately started to stomp their hooves in jubilance and joy. The mere sight of their beloved Crystal Heart has been found and is returning back to where it returns is making every single pony that sees it burst into tears of joy.

'I guess when it went missing for that entire year all the way to now must have really put a lot of strain on them, an artifact so powerful that not only controlled the weather to form an almost literal 'Garden of Eden' that allowed things to grow here faster, in greater amounts and also for some reason are crystalline in appearance but still retain their juicy insides. I am so glad I found that artifact locked in the grubby hooves of a frozen necromancer.'

Walking through the front steps of the palace I stood at the center of the palace directly beneath it and with the pedestal now raised and waiting for its long awaited missing piece to be returned I placed it down and watched as it started to spin slowly in place an inch off of the rune-etched crystal surface.

For a few moments it just floated there, slowly rotating on the pedestal but when the crystal ponies started to see what the commotion was all about and saw the Crystal Heart with their own eyes, they all got emotional, happy and crying their eyes out in joy as they started to cheer at the return of their precious heart.

And in that moment it glowed the bright shade of blue I have ever-





The equestrians have set up camp for the night, they have been trotting for well over five hours and with the blizzard growing in intensity they have decided it was best to hunker down for night. It was when they finally got their camp set up did their missing friend returned, no worse for wear other than her wings are stiff and are partially frozen and steaming in anger.

When they asked her what happened she said that the pony she was chasing led her into a trap and that the pony knocked her out and left her in the snow with a warning that if she keeps this up than this would be seen as an act of war against the Crystal Empire.

The color was drained completely from the faces of every single pony present.

She was promptly chewed out from almost every single pony present and to only make matters worse she wouldn't be able to fly for a while due to her wings being frozen and had to be warmed up again.

Sitting around a campfire the ponies talked to one another, a few still were chewing out their foolish friend for making such a brash and almost costly rushed decision.

"We can not believe you Rainbow Dash! Not only did you ignore what Twilight Sparkle has told you but you also have failed to think of what could happen if things went south! Equestria hasn't had a war in well over a thousand years and you almost started one by chasing a that warden as far as you went! What were you thinking!" Luna shouted as she placed a marshmallow on a stick and placed it over the fire, her eyes glaring at the foolish mare.

If looks could kill than Rainbow Dash would have been erased from existence in an instant.

"I thought I could catch him! Get him to answer some questions, it wasn't like I was going to hurt the little coward or nothing!"

"Rainbow Dash, if that warden wanted to he could have killed you without batting an eye. They are trained to kill any threat that might make its way to the Crystal Kingdom, be they feral beasts or sentient beings they will be put down, and put down hard if they resist."

"R-Really? But ponies don't kill other ponies...right?"

"Rainbow, you have to understand that back then it was a different time. We were under the constant threat of the monsters that stalked our lands while at the same time from persisting raiding parties from the griffons, diamond dogs and even the minotaur's at the time. We were constantly living in fear and if it wasn't for Skolas we would not be here right now, the kingdom would have been conquered by the griffons and we would have all been slaves to them and back then we were not as powerful as we are today." Celestia said as she took a sip from her tea cup, the tea kettle was steaming from its place near the fire as she looked at her sister, trying to see she could try and calm her down.

"How come I haven't heard any of this before? None of this was in the history books back in Canterlot and I read through them all!"

"Because dear Twilight it wasn't recorded. Anything that we had on the Crystal Kingdom was lost when Sombra ousted us from power." Celestia said with a sigh, she could not believe that back then she was bested by a simple unicorn with access to magic she would never dream of ever learning let alone using it against a fellow pony.

With that answer said the bookworm nodded before going back to roasting her marshmallow.

Off in the distance while they were all busy chatting away a blue flash went up in the sky as it went unnoticed due to the raging blizzard but as the flash ended a wave of light rushed towards them and in an instant the fires were put out, plunging the camp into darkness and with it caused panic as ponies started to put the fires back on just as the blizzard around them started to die down and fade away.

"What the hay was that?" Applejack said as she looked around and noticed that it was still considered day time, the blizzard was just blocking out the sun to the point where they couldn't see it.

"It would seem that either somepony was manipulating the weather to the point that the blizzard got out of control or somepony managed to stop the blizzard, either of those two choices doesn't sound good because of how much magic or wingpower it would have required to do such a thing." Shining Armor said as he stood up and looked around, trying to see what has changed around them only to see what has happened.

The wave of light removed the blizzard that was around them and with it came the sun and decent weather.

"Woah...would you look at that..." Shining Armor said as he pointed at the horizon, a massive sight to behold was just beyond his hoof.

"What is it big bro...ther...oh...sweet...Celestia..."

"Indeed, Luna."

"We have returned." Luna said, a sad smile on her muzzle as she looks at the sight of the capital of the Crystal Kingdom, Providence, and it was a sight to behold.

But what marred that sight was the banners that has long replaced the banners of the sun and the moon.

It was the banner of a house that Celestia and Luna approved of after the war with the griffons.

"So...it would seem he has defeated Sombra."

"Yes Celestia, it would seem so."

"The House of Wolves now sits upon the throne...I never thought I would see the day when he would take the throne."

"Who are you talking about Princess Celestia?"

"I am talking about our old friend...I hope he is willing to listen to reason, the Crystal Kingdom needs to return to the fold and join Equestria in peace. Both nations have much to learn from one another and it would be nice to see him again after being gone for so long." Princess Celestia said as she put down her tea cup and stood up, the capital was several miles away and from where she was standing she could just barely see the wall surrounding the city let alone see the shimmering dome surrounding it.

'It has been almost two thousand years since I last saw this place...I am now finally home. I just hope the ponies here can ever forgive us for leaving them behind.'





Being blinded by a bright flash of light was not something that I wanted to happen to me today but with the amount of power that was coursing through my veins early I can say that it was a decent trade off, if only I could keep that power for a bit longer.

Pulling myself off the floor I saw that the world around me has become a hell of a lot more brighter, the ponies were sparkling and they looked a hell of a lot more adorable then they previously were. That is including Forge because when I got back on my feet I was immediately swept off of them when she tackled me to the ground and started to kiss me.

"Forge do give your stallion a break from your affection, it would look like you are killing him with your hugging." Glittering Quill said with a laugh as she trotted past me and towards the Crystal Heart, eyeing it for a few seconds before smiling to herself and trotted back to my side as my wife continued to crush me with her weight.

"Oh push off Quill, he isn't complaining and besides, he needs a reminder of my love, don't you schmoopy boo." Forge said with a smug smile on her face, oh the humiliation...she could have said anything, ANYTHING! But no, she had to say the one thing that I know that easily emasculates me.

"Schmoopy boo?" Quill said with a raised eyebrow and for a moment I saw Forge smile at me before talking to our assistant.

"Oh god please kill me!" I shouted while trying to wiggle free, it would seem that the ponies that are all sparkling and crystalline are much stronger than their normal counterparts.

"Well Quill, I call him that because of what he is capable of doing with that tongue of his when we kiss and our...other favorite activities." Forge said with a shit-eating grin while I was bashing the back of my head against the floor in hopes of getting brain damage so I never have to hear this conversation again.

Before this conversation could get any worse we all heard something galloping right at us. Lifting my head to see who it could be I saw that it was Warden Branding Iron, it would seem that he is severely out of breath, as if he has been running for hours on end without a break.

"High Warden Skolas...I-I have news to tell you!"

"What is it Warden Iron?"

"The exiled princesses! They are marching this way with a century of guards and what looks like civilians as well!" The warden said as he fell over, exhaustion finally creeped its fingers into him and took him down. Seems like he earned his rest and then some, an extra tankard of hard ale for this stallion.

Casting my gaze at Forge I watched as her smug grin turned into one of partial anger and annoyance. Poking her underbelly with a finger she got off of me and helped me before I turned around and motioned for her to follow me as I walked toward the bulwark protecting the city from the outside world.

When we got to the wall we ascended the stairs and stood at the top, overlooking the rolling green fields with the snow melting all around us, and off in the distance, several small lines of smoke rising.

"Forge."

"Yes schmoopy boo?"

"I hate it when you call me that, you do know that right?"

"Of course, I say it because I love you and I like it when you get all flustered when I say it in public."

"You are a troll."

"And you suck eggs."

"Well I wouldn't say eggs...but I do suck on something alright."

"Up here?"

"Oh gods no, it is not even night time and I didn't even reroute the paths of the guards so they don't find us! You are unbelievable sometimes you do know that." I said in mock horror, Forge just looked at me with an unamused flat stare before bumping me with her flank.

"Duh, and besides, with those two exiles coming home we will have all the time in the world to make them uncomfortable and hopefully send them back to wherever they came from so they can leave us alone."

"I doubt that it would be that easy Forge." I said as I recalled that Luna would probably play along while Celestia would just ignore our attempt to get them to leave.

"So should we get Quill involved?" Forge said as she patted my back with a hoof before grabbing a rock that was on the raised section of the wall and chucked it over the side.

"I think she will be involved whether or not we bring her into it. You and I both know that she has a score to settle with Celestia." I said as I recalled the fit of anger she had when she entered Celestia's room and started to trash the place.

"Oh, right, that...well may the Old Gods have mercy on that poor mare's soul."

"Indeed."

"Sooo...wanna have some fun?" Forge said with a smile as she got into a pouncing posture.

God damn it Forge you are insatiable sometimes.

Rolling my eyes I conked her at the back of her head before stepping away from her for a moment to collect my thoughts.

Sadly my thoughts were broken when my wife tackled me yet again.

I swear she will be the death of me sometimes.
> Equestrian Presence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dusk has come, the moon has risen over the horizon and with it came for the ponies that were working during the day were now returning home as those that are part of the night shift get themselves ready for the night.

I was sitting in my throne room with the all of the heads of the noble families, all of them swearing their fealty to me as their new king. With my wife on my left and Glittering Quill on my right, I know on this night will be the beginning of a new kingdom, one that will not bow or bend to the demands of another nation nor will it allow any transgression against us go unpunished.

Looking down from my throne at the noble ponies standing before me I saw that all of them knew that I was rightful heir to the throne if the crystal crown on my head was of any indication along with the fact that I was the only one around that has the knowledge and experience in leadership along with the experience in dealing with foreigners.

Casting my gaze to my loyal wardens who stand at the ready along the perimeter of the chamber as the crystal guards form a line along the dark blue carpet leading to the throne, facing inward to see behind the guard in front of them. The nobles that are in attendance nervously shift from hoof to hoof, I know for a fact that a few of them don't like me because I am not a pony but the other reason why they don't like me is that I tend to...be rough with those that I play with.

Tilting my head to my left I saw Forge let out a tired yawn, she had been busy since we left the walls many hours ago to prepare herself for what might be a pre-emptive attack from the Equestrians, she was sitting beside me wearing the armor I had commissioned for her, it was form-fitting, protected key points on her body and it still allowed her to have full mobility to be a threat to anything that moves.

Looking to my right I saw Quill was busy writing down the names of those that are swearing fealty along with the names of those within the family of each noble house. My friend looked happy to be writing all of this down, I guess whatever it takes to keep her mind off the things that has happened in the past, it isn't healthy for her and I will be having a talk with her when this is all over with.

Returning my attention to the nobles I thanked them for their time and dismissed them, in the coming days, weeks, months and years I will have to establish trade with foreign nations, make peace deals, grin and smile as some parties try to make demands on us all the while I make demands of my own. Ruling a nation is a cutthroat business and if it is anything like leading my Wardens during the war and during the peace time in between, I will be forced to stomp out any opposition or problems that may arise on occasion.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice, you may all return to your homes now. Have a pleasant night and remember, only together can we ensure a greater tomorrow for the empire." I said to the nobles as they bowed their heads at me before they left the grand chamber and only when the door to the throne room was closed was I allowed to slump into my throne and let out a dejected sigh.

"I hate dealing with those pretentious pricks..." I muttered as soon as they were gone.

I really hate dealing with those snobs, all they care about is themselves and their money. Unless we force them into doing something than they will gladly let everything burn and fall apart around them so as long they get to keep their gold coins and their status above the common pony and those beneath their station.

"Love, I know you hate them, you tell me every single day because of how selfish and self-centered they are. If this were to happen back home the clan would have the selfish little snobs doing double the amount of work the rest of us do." Forge said as she rested her head on my left hand as my upper left hand started to stroke her mane as she let out a happy sigh.

"Sadly Forge we need those nobles if we are to get things done in a timely manner, we wouldn't be able to do much without their assistance in several matters and they all serve their purposes well enough." Quill said as she rolled up the scroll she was writing on before placing it in her saddlebag pocket before standing up to get the sleep out from her legs.

"Aye, they do accomplish their jobs but they complained whenever I was the one who made the request in the past and now that they see that I am in charge they are starting to think twice on saying 'No' to me along with giving me a proper response instead of calling me a monster on a leash." Dealing with these assholes in the past sucked balls, I am still wondering on why I never killed any of them in their sleep and placed the blame on the changelings or griffons.

Thinking back on it all I still remember that every single one of those nobles hated me because I was given the title of Warden of the Wilds and was given the authority of both princesses to act in their stead in any situation that would dare to threaten the tranquility and harmony of their kingdom. I abused that authority to root out any who would dare undermine their rule, hunted down those that committed atrocious crimes of the most heinous sort, all the while committing a few crimes myself.

Blackmailing a few ponies, selling relics and other artifacts from a bygone era to collectors, making illegal alchemical mixtures that can alter the pony's mind and thoughts, broke a few bones and killed a couple ponies who knew too much.

I did it all to ensure that the Crystal Kingdom would keep running and not cave in on itself and in the end it almost didn't matter because of Sombra and the bullshit he pulled in the last year.

That asshole almost ruined my plans, I couldn't believe that he thought that if he had the power of the Crystal Heart on his side along with the power of the Darkness that I had taught him over the years. If I had failed to beat him than I can very well tell that he would have turned every single pony within the kingdom into mind-controlled slaves before spreading out from the kingdom to enslave the rest of the world.

Sighing explosively I stood up from my throne and took a few steps off of it, my spine cracking as it hasn't move a single inch since I started court and I must say that although it was needed it was also incredibly dull and boring.

With the sun in the middle of the sky and court is adjourned for the day I went down to the barracks to check out the guards and wardens that are still here and are not out checking on the villages and towns to see if any of them have returned. The barracks was a few floors below the throne room and with a quick walk and a jog to it I found that they are getting back into shape with their practice sessions.

Apparently the body while in stasis will suffer from a form of muscular atrophy, all of them are suffering from it and as a result they are beating themselves back into shape, the wardens are mostly doing the beating while the guards are busy trying to duck and dodge well timed thrusts and sweeps. And as for the centurions that I have beaten into unconsciousness, most of them are in the infirmary for broken bones, concussions, internal bleeding, busted teeth, dislocated legs, bruised tailbone and a cracked hoof, but for those that are in good condition they are helping whoever is available however they can.

As I stared at them I saw Bastion doing his best to instruct and teach everypony present, I need that old stallion here now more than ever seeing how we have the Equestrians at our doorstep. They are just a scant three miles away from our front gates and if what my scouts are saying is true than they brought both princesses and who I can only assume are the new element bearers.

Celestia and Luna tried to hide the elements from me but when I found them within the vault hidden underneath their thrones I had immediately assaulted the archives in my search for any information regarding them and what I found made my skin crawl.

The elements of harmony pre-date both Celestia and Luna, they were discovered during Discord's reign of terror and fear, not much is known about them other than that they imbue its user or users with unimaginable power of harmony that when used against those that are chaotic, disharmony or those that are evil and wicked, they would be purged. When I had asked Celestia what it meant by purged she said that it had turned Discord into stone, and back when the last king and queen alicorns was alive it was used to banish Tirek to this world's version of hell.

For me to guess I can say that the elements punish you depending on how evil you are, for a being like Discord who threw everything about the world out of whack with his chaos he was imprisoned and stone and forgotten where he was petrified, and as for Tirek he tried to steal the world's magic to make himself a god and the elements banished him to hell and turned him into stone.

Seems like the common outcome is being petrified, a fate worse than death and if it turns out you are still conscious and can see and hear everything while you are encased in stone, you just might go mad from the isolation.

I couldn't believe that the ex princesses would bring the elements along with their new bearers here, did they really have little faith in us? And who do they think they are, coming here with a century amount of soldiers and armed to the teeth, I will not surrender my kingdom without a fight the old fashioned way.

'They want my throne, they want my crown and kingdom? Then they are going to pay the blood price for it, and I know that those ponies out there are too cowardly and thin-skinned to risk their own lives for the crown.'

Leaving the barracks behind I went straight to the armory and entered the large room, swords, spears, shields, axes, hammers, crossbows and throwing spears lined the walls and holders but what I was looking for was in the back of the arsenal. My weapons and armor, the very things I had forged to fit my physic and fighting style.

This armor is not as strong or as durable as the armor that I came here with but I had it specifically built to go over my true armor so it would fool those that think I am wearing bulky and unnecessary armor. I wonder if the ex-princesses still remember this little ploy?

Strapping on the Bulwark I slid the pieces onto their corresponding spots and had the straps hidden as best as I could before grabbing my four swords and their sheathes.

While I was equipping myself for what might be an inevitable battle I heard the loud clopping of hooves before it kicked open the door and I didn't have to wait to hear who it is as I heard the pony in question speak up.

"Skolas! The equestrians have started to move toward the main gates!" a warden shouted, one Skirmish Strider, a bundle of piss and vinegar who has a thirst for battle and seeing how we might be getting into a war just as soon as we have returned, naturally it would have been him to tell me this news.

Turning around I faced the lemon yellow earth pony and smiled, this warden was strapped with his longsword, this guy is already prepared for battle.

"Tell the guards, wardens and centurions in the training hall to suit up and to meet me at the main gate, tell the trebuchet operators to get to the front gate tossers and to load it immediately. We will not be taken over by a mere century of soldiers!" I said as I left the armory and already there are wardens leading the crystal guards outside, all them galloping in formation as they headed towards the ramparts.

"Aye sir! Should I alert Crucio as well?"

"No, he will find out on his own, I would rather not disturb him when he is busy reading the tomes of the past."

"But isn't he blind? How is he reading?"

"He doesn't need eyes to read Skirmish." I said as I ended the conversation before heading out the front door of the crystal palace and started to march towards the front gate, my handpicked wardens surrounding me as we all went together as one.

As we marched towards the gate I watched as the citizens ran towards their homes and barricaded themselves inside while a few others started to grab their own weapons and setting up defensive points by knocking over patio tables and using them as barricades.

Marching past the market district we soon arrived at the outer residential district and out here was where the guards were already telling the citizens to barricade themselves inside while also assembling themselves on the ramparts. Scaling the stairs onto the ramparts overlooking the main gate I saw that the equestrians were indeed moving towards us and immediately called for the shield wall to form up and the crossbows to aim over them.

I am not taking any chances with them.

Before long I was able to see the equestrian banner they are carrying with them and with them I saw that they were in a box formation around both princesses and the new element bearers, but something else about the group caught my eyes.

There was a pony amongst them that was taller than the rest, I know it was a giant because those are as big as Celestia, sometimes taller, and that this one looked unarmored while Celestia and Luna were wearing their battle armor. Whoever this third pony is, I sure hope it isn't another alicorn, if it is than Celestia and Luna will have some explaining to do if they are breeding alicorns.

Soon the equestrians were three hundred meters away from the gates before stopping, their formation opened up as both white and black alicorns stepped out and trotted between their forces and the wall.

Looking from my position on the wall I watched the alicorn sisters trot across the field before stopping just a hundred meters from the wall, the crystal guards had their crossbows out and were aiming at the princesses while I stood in the shadows of the bunker on top of the main gate before leaving it behind with Forge in tow.

Leaning down to a crystal guard standing by the mechanism that opens the gate I whispered into his ear to open the gates and to keep them open long enough to let the two princesses pass but to close it immediately as soon as they cross the threshold.

I then whispered into the ear of another guard that if any of the equestrians tried to get into the city without my permission that they have the authority to shoot them down and arrest them if they surrender, kill them if they resist to the point that they won't surrender no matter what.

Forge knew what I was going to do as I have told her when we were on the wall last night about the plan so now was the time to set it in motion.

Leaving the gatehouse behind me I went down to the main gate and waited as it slowly opened up, my wife standing beside me although she seemed a bit antsy as she shuffled around, her armor was a bit tight on her as she grew a bit when she last wore it.

As soon as the main gate was open I slowly made my way out and walked with stride towards my two old friends.

Both of them were surprised to see me that I was still alive and was not a apparition of their own design, they galloped right at me and I stood there as I was toppled over in a heap of legs, feathers and hooves.

While I was in the pile of equestrian princesses it took me a few seconds to pull myself up and out from them as I looked down at the both of them.

"It has been a while since we last saw one another, under much better circumstances."

"We haven't seen you in almost two thousand years and the first thing you say to us is that?"

"And what did you expect me to say? 'Oh I am so glad to see the two of you! It feels like it has been ages since I last saw either of you, oh wait a minute...it has been ages huh? I wonder why is that the case.' Because if you were expecting me to welcome you with open arms then you came to the wrong place." I said as I plucked a white feather from my shoulder before flicking it aside as I stared the two down.

Neither of the two said a word as they took in what I said with stride but I can tell that it hurt them as their eyes winced from the biting words that I unleashed.

Turning my back to them I took a few steps toward the gate before tilting my head to the side so two of my four eyes can see them.

"I take it that you came all this way for something, might as well invite you all inside to keep warm from the biting cold. Just don't anything stupid and follow the laws of common sense."

"Thank you for your hospitality."

"Just keep your ponies in check, last time I checked the equestrian ponies they were fighting each other over the very land they migrated to and they hated the others guts so badly that they nearly committed genocide on one another." and with that said I resumed my walk toward the bulwark and as soon as I walked through the main gate I told those that were there to be on alert and to let the equestrians in and to also tell everyone inside to stand down but to also be on alert.

That and also to get the Crystal Festival up and running for it will not be put on hold or postponed any longer.

I didn't have to wait long as I walked back into my city to hear the sounds of several armored and unarmored hooves following behind me, my wife was trotting beside me on my left as Celestia and Luna were right behind us along with the rest of their group and protective detail. My own guards were standing on our left and right flanks, keeping their weapons at the ready and pointed right at the equestrians as Luna told their little group about the rules I had laid out for them to follow as long as they are here within my city.

It wasn't long before I heard the chatter coming from the equestrians, mainly from the six unarmored mares that was surrounded on all sides by equestrian royal guards, I was able to clearly hear everything that was being said and at the time they were talking about me. They couldn't get a clear look at me and they don't know who the mare beside is, but for the time being they can keep on guessing as to who the two of us are.

While we were walking through the city the group of ponies behind us were looking at the crystal ponies and were too busy looking at the stands and games that were being set up, a few of them were already ready to be played with but when one of them, an all pink earth pony tried to leave the group all it took was a hand motion and the crystal guards put her back into the group.

We all soon made it to the crystal palace and from the stunned gasps, apparently they never saw a castle made completely out of crystal and make it look fabulous although the metal gate slightly makes it look less regal, gonna have to work on that one sooner or later.

Walking through the front gates I watched as my wardens snapped to attention, one hundred specially trained crystal ponies and they were all under my command, the other nine hundred were throughout the city and the outlying lands as they checked on the other towns, outposts and far-flung areas to see if they too have returned to this realm.

Turning around I faced the assembled ponies, both equestrian and crystal, and announced what was going to happen now.

"In two days time the Crystal Festival will commence! I want all of you to enjoy yourselves! Drink! Laugh! Play! Enjoy yourselves and spread the cheer to your friends and neighbors and remember to have a good time! And as for our visitors from the south, our equestrian brothers and sisters who made the journey to reconnect with us and to finally bring word of what has been going on in the outside world since our sudden absence!" The sound of cheering ponies from my own guards and citizens can be heard just as I also hear the cheering from one pink earth pony as well, apparently that one is here for a good time instead of whatever part of the diplomatic mission that she is a part of.

Looking down at the equestrians before me I said only one word as I walked through the large double doors.

"Come."

And come they did, they followed me in as my guards lined the halls to ensure that they follow me and not take a detour.

Stalking the halls we made our way to the guest wing and told the equestrians that tomorrow in the morning we will discuss whatever they came here to discuss but for the time being they will be confined to their rooms and will only be allowed to be taken to the dining hall or to each others rooms and that is it.

But before Luna or Celestia can enter their appropriate rooms I got their attention and directed them to follow me, we had some things to discuss in private.

The three of us walked back to my chambers, we were exhausted from what was probably the most amount of administrative work I have ever done since I first created the Wardens, and that amount of paperwork was almost not worth it. Opening the door to my room I let the two alicorns in and as soon as they crossed the doorway and I let myself in I immediately closed the door, locked it and I immediately started to vent my frustration on the two.

"Celestia." I started as I poured myself a glass of what these crystal ponies call 'Bitter Root Ale' but to me it tastes more like brown piss water and took a gulp and immediately regretted it as I remembered why I stopped drinking it.

It tastes exactly like piss.

"Skolas." Princess Celestia said as she sat down on a cushion that was resting in the corner away from the fireplace, her sister following suit as the two made themselves as comfortable as possible.

"Celestia, it was because of your failure back then all those years ago that we are here right now." I said as I took another swing and shuddered at the revolting taste. Why would I keep drinking it even though it tastes so god damn awful?

Because it was either drink something that has the effect of keeping me from flying off the handle or take nothing and almost kill the two behind me in blind rage.

"Are we really doing this right now?" The white alicorn said as she stares at me as if I just grew a second head.

"Yes, yes we are. You know how blunt I can be and you are going to stand there and take it because I am going to be venting my anger on you until I am well and done." And also that it was about damn time that I let them hear what has been chewing me out while I was employed in their service.

"But I-" I immediately cut her off as I got started on my ranting.

"I had to get rid a third of the nobles in Providence because they were all trying to dethrone you, I have their bloods on my hands while your hooves were kept clean of the matter." I started as I recalled the first of horrible things I had done in my employment to Celestia and Luna.

"If you hadn't done that particular deed than the gryphons would have attacked sooner and laid waste to the entire kingdom!"

"That is bullshit and you know it. I did my homework on those stallions and mares and none of them had any connection with the gryphons let alone had any connection with the yaks that raided the western mountains, Chrysalis's feral changelings or even the diamond dog raiders of the south." Only one pony was responsible for the gryphons breaching our security, and his skeleton is still being picked clean by the rodents in the dungeons.

"But-"

"And then there was me cleaning up the mess with the Wendigo's, how the hell did you honestly expect me to fight them when they are nothing more than hostile spirits that creates an unnatural winter wherever they go. You should be lucky I was able to lure them into those caverns and locked them away at the cost of a magister and four wardens, those five ponies will never be forgotten." The sheer fact that the equestrians somehow managed to get a few of these fuckers to come north is frightening enough, I had to send them a message and it was loud and clear.

Send us your evil spirits one more time and we will poison your water supplies.

"I am sorry that they had to sacrifice their lives but if the Wendigo's weren't sealed away than all of the kingdom would have either starved to death or froze over!"

"And lastly we get to Sombra and the shit he pulled." Technically this one was somewhat my fault but it wouldn't have happened if that foolish mare didn't order me to spread my knowledge of the dark arts to those that weren't truly prepared for it.

"That one was actually your fault you know."

"Oh really? Did I ask you to teach one of my best mages the ways of an unknown school of magic, unsupervised by my own spies and mages, never check up and see how the lessons are going and finally decide that my own sister is ready to learn that same school of unknown magic when the results of said school of magic looked promising against our enemies both at home and foreign? OH that's right, you did the exact same thing that I was talking about! You ordered Sombra to learn about the Darkness, harness its power and use it against the gryphons and the nobles that plotted against you and when you finally decided that if it was safe for a normal unicorn to use you than it would be safe for an alicorn to use! You then told your little sister to learn the Darkness from the creepy pale gangly creature in strange armor. Surely it would not end terribly!"

"Okay I get it."

"Do you!? Because you failed to even properly watch, study and analyze the Darkness that was being used in the training room in the palace, it corrupted Sombra to what you saw when you were exiled and from what I heard from Luna that it eventually corrupted her as well! You risked everything for an advantage over the gryphons and any enemies that might arise from the ashes of the war. And oh how the mighty has fallen because of your foolish actions, the gryphon empire may have crumbled upon itself when I executed the king and his entire family with the exception of the children but in its wake we created several dozen raider camps, created distrust between the kingdom and several others that we have contact with and lastly the death of a few of my friends."

"This war gave us nothing more than a broken peace between us and the gryphons, several hundred ponies with severed limbs wearing my prosthetics just so they can go on with their lives, we lost the entire Boreal Valley region due to the gryphons 'Scorched Earth' policy and lord knows how long it will take to become fertile and safe again. Then after the war we then had to deal with Chrysalis and her feral changelings, her desire for revenge for me standing up against her advances when I first appeared her made her go after a chaos shard and it warped her body and mind into what she is today, how many ponies did we lose to those ferals until you finally made up your mind to hunt them down? Ten? Twenty? How about two-hundred and fifty-one, the entire population of Glittering Heights. My wardens found nothing but drained husks, dried blood pools and bleached bones there and it only took us a week to find where the feral hive was located, but you wanted there to be peace between us."

"Peace! With feral beasts! Were you out of your fucking mind you dumb whorse! You don't make peace with wild animals that has killed an entire town of your people, you put them down! What the hell was the matter with you!" I shouted at Celestia as I threw the by now empty piss water glass at the wall, it exploded into fragments as it scattered everywhere all over the wall and floor as I wheeled around at glared at the alabaster alicorn.

"And lastly we have you bringing with you a third alicorn! One I have never seen before and that is also younger than the two of you and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what you are planning here. You plan to install her as the ruler of the Crystal Empire to be your puppet so you can have a strong hold over your northern approach."

"I will not allow it nor will I let this happen."

"I am sorry but you have no say in the matter."

"Oh really? Have you forgotten about the laws that govern the Crystal Kingdom during its absence?"

"No I did not forget...I may have a little..."

"She can try to take the throne, but there is always a price for it." I said with a slow spreading shit-eating grin as I opened the door and let the two out of my room and told the guards waiting for them to take them back to their rooms.

With them gone I looked at the fireplace, but more specifically the ceremonial swords that was resting behind a normal crystal guard shield.

'Does she have what it takes to do what is necessary for the greater good? We will find out soon enough.'

> Reviving the Festival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as both alicorns were gone from my room I immediately went to work by heading straight to my table and pulled out several rolls of parchments, inks and quills and simultaneously wrote down on them new orders pertaining to our equestrian guests.

It only took me a few minutes to write down my orders along with the guidelines on how to deal with our guests along with plans on how to watch over them, what to do if they are caught in an area where they aren't supposed to be and so on and so forth. Wrapping the four scrolls into cases of etched iron I placed them into the delivery tube and sent them on their way.

With my orders sent out I waited patiently for dinner time to roll around before leaving my chambers and headed for the main dining hall.

But as I walked to the dining hall something felt off in the air, like 'someone aired some foul smelling dirty laundry in front of you' type of off, with these disturbance running through me I went to go find the source of it all and sure enough it was within my dining hall. Whatever is causing this unfavorable feeling is beyond these doors and I am about to find out what it is!

Placing my hands on the door I began to push on it but as I did so I saw through the crack and peeked inside to see that it was the entire equestrian entourage with both princesses and the new alicorn. This new one is pink in fur color and is a mare if the gentle curves and feminine form was appealing to the eye but seeing how I am already spoken for all it does is make me run to the end of my chain and bark. 

She is sitting between Celestia and Luna and from what I can see she is looking mighty pleased, almost like she has been trained for this moment.

Time to spoil her little parade and ensure no foreign princess rules this kingdom ever again.

Pushing the doors all the way everyone inside turns their heads and soon enough all eyes were locked on me, the equestrian guards tensed up, realizing that the pony walking in wasn't a pony at all and is towering over them all, including their princesses.

Walking across the room I slowly pass our guests, my ears picking up everything that is being whispered behind my back, some of them are afraid of me while the rest are intrigued, but most of all the pink one is staring at me and for damnedest reason I can't seem to put my finger on it but this pony feels familiar...like I have seen her before.

Getting to my seat I sit down beside my wife, Forge was busy laughing up a storm next to Morning Star the two were talking about their exploits they have undertaken back in their clans and the battles they have been through during the war, but as soon as I sit down next to Forge she excuses herself and immediately scoots closer to me to the point where she is pretty much rubbing up against me.

"Awfully affectionate today aren't you." I said with a chuckle as my upper left arm wraps itself around her back, rubbing her side as she nuzzles underneath my chin, making sure to avoid goring me with that spear of a horn of hers.

Daintily laughing which almost seemed out of character for her I watched from the corner of my eyes as she kissed me on the neck before removing her head from my chin and started to look around the room, absorbing the jealous stares that is coming our way.

'Huh...seems like after all this time one of the two sisters still has her eyes on me, maybe if she was a little faster and wasn't such a puppet.'

"And why shouldn't I be affectionate towards you? After all you beat Sombra to a bloody pulp, slayed High King Tryffing the Great with your bare hands, destroyed the griffon capital of Griffonstone with nothing but fire, saved the entire empire when those two princesses nearly got us all enslaved or worse to those same griffons and to top it off I get to rid your dicks."

I promptly place my head in my hands as I let out an explosive sigh of shame as every single guest at the same excluding those that knew that this was going to happen stared a gasp at Forge for what she just said.

Shaking my head in shame and disbelief all I really could do at the moment, I mean what else could I do? She just waved that out there without a care in the world but then again I bet she did this on purpose to make the mares in the room even more jealous of her.

"Really now Forge...really? You could have said anything else, anything that we have done in the past, and you had to pick that one?"

"Hehe, don't like it when others know that you can rutting prowess is far superior than any other stallion out there? And besides making all these other mares jealous of me that I got somepony that they can never have or ever match up to fills me with joy."

"Why?"

"Because it belongs to me and no other mare can have it you daft fool!" Forge laughed out loud before grabbing me by wrapping a foreleg around me neck and brought my head low enough to meet hers as her horn glowed its orange-ish brown color as it lowered my breathing mask and planted a fat, sloppy, wet kiss across my lips.

I knew this was going to happen because she always does this whenever some mare tries to make her interests known that she wants me for herself. That and she loves to show me off, especially to her friends from her clan.

Once we part lips I placed my mask back on for a moment before taking it off and lowering it to my neck as I relaxed in my seat just as the chefs came in with their carts full of food and brought them to the table as the unicorn chefs levitated them to the table and revealed what lay underneath the lids. The ponies at the table were staring at the food in awe as all of it is something they have never seen before with the exception of Celestia and Luna, the two just couldn't remember any of it because they have been gone for so long.

"I am just glad that you learned to not leave any slobber on my mouth, unlike the last few times."

"Oh please, we all know that you love it when I do that. And besides it gets you ready for the main course." And like magic the amount of blushes faces spreads like wildfire as almost every single pony in attendance either looks away to try and fan themselves down or just stare at the two of us in shock.

Yes that's right, your ruler and his wife are fucking freaks in bed. And then some.

"Oh for Faust's sake Skolas! Can you please keep that type of affection in the bedroom, for all of us because we do not need to see any of it here before we eat let alone before the day of our peace talks." Celestia said, her face burning red, I bet she is daydreaming that it was her being on the receiving end of this kiss.

"But Celestia, we do keep that kind of affection in the bedroom...and in the throne room...the armory...the bathroom...what used to be your room...Luna's room as well...this table...hell even on the stairs going up and down this castle." As I said that the ponies from Equestria quickly scooted back from the table, acting as if its corrosive acid to their delicate fur and hide.

"Really sir? On the table? Please tell me you had the decency to clean up after yourself." Crucio said as he backed up a bit from the table, looking a bit disgusted seeing how he eats here.

"Of course I do, who do you take me for? That one guard and maid that decided to rut on my bed while they were on duty?"

"Oh right, those two. Didn't they leave you a present when you chased them out?"

"Aye, they did, and I am disappointed that they left me a mess to clean up when they did. Bastards could of had the decency to clean up after themselves."

As we talked about well, my conquest throughout the castle the head chef open the dining hall door declaring that dinner is now served.

With food coming in and being placed on the table we stopped our little chat and began to eat, for the most part the room was quest but the equestrians were staring at me and the others, but for the most part it was mostly centered at me. Well the purple unicorn was staring at me, I saw a quill scribbling down on a scroll while she ate her seasoned salad.

While she was looking at me while eating I only gave her a sharp-teeth filled toothy grin before I raised the lid on my plate to only reveal a cube-shaped crystal that glowed brightly with magical energy.

And naturally the equestrians were looking at me or more specifically the glowing cube. Even their pet dragon was staring at it in awe a chunk of sapphire falls out from his mouth.

Before I could grab and suck on the cube I looked up to hear that the sounds of chewing has stopped and that everyone was looking over at me.

"Uhh, what? It is just an Ether crystal. Why are you looking at me as if I am eating with the wrong fork or spoon?"

"Love, they have never seen a being like you bother let alone know of your eating habits. That and usually its dragons that are eating gems so this may come as a shocker to them."

"Then it looks like that these girls have a lot to learn then if they are going to be staying here for a few days for the diplomatic meetings and to enjoy the festival." With that said I went back to my crystal and latched my teeth onto it before making the weakest of suction sounds.

The crystal cube glowed brightly for a second before dimming down and gradually growing dimmer and after five seconds the cube's energy reservoir ran out and it's luminescence died down before disappearing altogether.

As soon as the cube lost all of its power I took it out of my mouth and placed it down onto the plate and went back to resting myself against my wife who also finished her meal which was a diced crystal trout that was imported from the port town of Duskfall. A strange town that built itself on the side of a slanted cliff that gave it the appearance of several tiers and it was naturally defendable as its top tier was placed underneath a rock shelf that formed above the cliff.

Now this shocked the ponies, the fact that a non-pegasus ate a fish was enough to make plenty of them go slightly green in the face. I guess for these equestrians they are a lot more herbivorous than I last thought they were, maybe being gone for a thousand years and then some allowed them to alter their biological makeup just a tad over the long years.

The silence was broken the purple unicorn sitting beside Celestia coughed a bit too loudly to draw my attention and when she did I cast my hard gaze onto her small form and watched with glee as she shivered and withdrew herself from my withering stare. She pulled herself together, calmly did a brief breathing exercise before finally looking me in the eyes and spoke in a loud, commanding tone that immediately faltered when she realized exactly who she was talking to.

"Excuse me! Sir! I am wondering if I-I may ask you...some q-questions? Please?"

Looking at the purple pony I waved my large right arm at her and she took as a sign to ask and she did, just without the stuttering that I was enjoying.

"I am wondering what exactly are you...not trying sound rude or anything but you are not in any of the books on sapient or even wild animals and creatures that room the world and I am just trying to figure out where you came from."

"Why, my dear Twilight, our friend here...he comes from-"

"Tartarus, to you ponies anyway but there we simply call it Hell." I said with a straight face as I struggled on the inside to not laugh.

I always wanted to say that line, 'Where did you come from?' 'Hell.'

"T-t-t-t-Tartarus! Then t-that means your..."

"A demon, yes." And with it now known every single equestrian guard drew their weapons and pointed them at me.

Such an amusing sight to behold.

"Stand down everypony! Oh Skolas I am so sorry about this, it would seem my good captain is still on edge since the changelings attacked him and his wife at their wedding last week." Princess Celestia said as she gave a glare at her captain before passing it onto her guard who immediately disengaged from their mildly threatening pose and stood back at attention.

"Don't worry little princess, there is nothing apologize for, after all their toy weapons wouldn't have done me any harm let alone get through my armor and thick hide."

"A surprise isn't it good captain, that the king of the Crystal Empire is a denizen of Tartarus? A demon that worked for your princess long before you were born let alone your ancestors were even born. The very same demon who worked for your princesses, fought for them, bled for them and even bent the knee to them."

"Back then I was trying to get used to the surface after how do I say this...my sudden appearance onto the surface world, landed me in a prison cell before being led to these two princesses, who back then were a lot smaller than they used to and did not have their ethereal mane and tails, let alone their darker and lighter colored coats."

"You know Princess Celestia when she was just a young filly!?"

"Yes, and oh the little misadventures these two used to go on." I said with a grin as the two alicorns fidgeted in their seats, realizing that I now had the capacity and the will to spill their dirty little secrets and naughty escapades to their citizens and most of all a dear friend.

"Oh you have to tell me one! Please tell me, tell me, tell me!" Twilight chanted out as she bounced in her seat, the look of wanting in her eyes, the need to know everything about her mentor that was probably never written in any book, I could use this to my advantage.

"Now Twilight, I am sure that our gracious host has more pressing matters to discuss than moments in the past-"

"I remember when little Celestia over there used to be more happy and easy-going, she always walked among her citizens, talked to them, laughed with them, hell even sang and danced with them. But of course she was a terrible dancer back then, not sure if she even improved much after all these years..."

"Does the princess dance just like Twilight?"

"How does your friend dance?"

"Well, its very cringy to watch and when I watched it unfold I wanted to laugh but I couldn't so I just held it in. It looked like she was having a seizure."

"Yup that sounds just like Twilight." Applejack said and with this I started to laugh.

Hard.

"Holy shit! Like mentor like student, you taught her how to dance? Why? You knew that you were a terrible dancer back then and it would seem that you still are a terrible dancer!"

After that everything went back to normal, or as normal as possible as Twilight and I continued our little discussion, the two of us talking about each other, and my oh my is this little mare a well of information just waiting to be siphoned and used at my pace and time. This girl just talks and talks about all of the adventures she and her little friends went on and I must say, good move Celestia, get your student to solve your problems for you, but a few of them nearly backfired and would have resulted in her death or worse implemented your nation in an unsavory light to the point that a war or two might be declared.

Sending your student and her friends, without an armed escort or even backup of any kind to dislodge a dragon from a top a mountain to stop it from breathing smoke that would have lasted for 200 years. They could have been burnt to a crisp and eaten or worse, pissed off the dragon to the point where it goes on a rampage and burn down the entire country side.

The thing with that gryphon that came to town...if that hen was a noble's daughter or lord forbid the king's heiress then your little Equestria would be in a world of hurt right now. Probably in chains as well, and possibly being eaten.

And then we got the incident in the desert far off from Equestria that borders are deep south...the buffalo there if unchecked would have easily crushed that town underneath their hooves and heavy bodies. Not much can stop a buffalo stampede with the exception of a massive hole in the ground or a big gun...well my big guns. And maybe some spears and pitfall traps.

But none of those even compare to what they did...

Those girls managed to stop Discord, the very same bastard that tainted my friend and made her into the demon pony that she is today, a chaos abomination that had turned her very friends against her and eventually herself, but managed to overcome the corrupting influence that Discord put onto them. I don't know how she managed to do just that but because she managed to free herself from his control she managed to not only rescue her friends from the very same fate she was in, but then she confronted Discord and sealed him in stone.

Now that is what I call commitment to the job, you failed once at your princess's castle and lost your friends in the process? Doesn't matter just kept on trucking. Lose yourself by wallowing in defeat? Pushed on through and broke free from the chains that bind and freed your friends as well before fighting the demon one last time and succeeding. How is this girl not the captain of the guard for these ponies?

And finally it brings us to what happened apparently two weeks ago for these ponies.

A royal wedding, for the captain of the guard and this...new alicorn...even Twilight doesn't know where she came from, just saying that this...'Cadance'...is supposed to be Celestia's niece which by their right made her into a princess. But this wedding, this one mare knew something was wrong with the groom because she was acting like nothing she was supposed to and when her friends, her mentor, even her brother abandoned her when she tried to tell them that she was evil and something was wrong with her.

For her efforts she confronted Cadance on her own to realize that she was indeed an imposter but also was the one who was orchestrating the entire invasion against Equestria, the changeling queen herself, Chrysalis. This changeling queen led her entire hive to Canterlot to suck it dry of its emotions and love to just sustain themselves, but to lead her entire hive in the invasion? A very desperate gamble and one that failed it would seem.

Being trapped under the capital in what was once lost crystal mines, she eventually found the real Cadance, after almost killing her in the process by choking her with magic, and the two escaped from the Mines of Moria...I mean the crystal mines. The pair eventually made it back to the wedding to crash it, crashed their own wedding, who knew they had it in them to do such a thing? Anyways the two crashed the wedding which threw everyone off guard, which in turned allowed Chrysalis to reveal herself and in turn kicked off the changeling invasion, Celestia tried to stop her but because she was lax in defense and martial training she got her ass handed to her on a silver platter.

So much for raising and lowering the sun and having unlimited power when you get your ass kicked by a pony that was once mortal and weak.

After Celestia got her ass whooped she told her friends to go get the ancient artifacts that she and her sister ran off with when Sombra and I were duking it out, and it is safe to say that they failed to reach it because between them and it was an army of pissed off bugs. Even the starship troopers would have had a problem with an army of bugs when it was just six people against a near endless flood of bodies. They eventually got captured by the changeling army and while the evil queen was gloating, karma decided it was time to cash in that check and in a sudden turn of events, this new princess kissed her mind-raped fiancée and that broke both the hypnosis spell placed on him and it also created a sort of cascading effect that threw all of the changelings out from the city and scattered them to the four winds.

I still think it is utter bullshit that somehow love managed to save the day and liberate an entire capital city from enemy occupation.

The rest of her adventures with her friends  though were boring, they seemed trivial for the moment but seeing how their bonds strengthened over what she says is two years...this made me think that it might be harder to bring her over to my side and to get the inside scoop on Equestria as an agent.

As we talked it soon was put to an end when the dawning of the ninth lunar bell rang throughout the halls, signaling that it was now nine o'clock at night. All of us parted ways, I stayed behind to keep talking to the purple unicorn as she joyfully talked about her little friends and the things they got into, of course we were accompanied by the princesses, their guards, Captain Shining Armor and his wife Cadance.

"And you are saying that you actually went to a Gate of Tartarus by yourself to lead its guardian back to its post?"

"Yup! And to think that all it took to do so was a red rubber ball!"

"It would seem that your gate needs a new gatekeeper if it can be so easily distracted by a mundane object."

"Not really, there luckily aren't any red rubber balls in Tartarus."

"As far as you know of?"

"Well...yeah. But Tartarus is so hot and from what I saw it was just rocks and fire! You need latex and stuffing and they don't even have trees to get the latex nor vegetation for the stuffing, so by all means they can't re-create the object of their freedom!"

"Look at me, I managed to escape Tartarus and I am wearing metal, leather and a cloak. The first two can be easily acquired but the cloak on the other hand, that actually took patience and time and since we were in a prison, that is all that we have to work with."

"I see, but what is it like down there?"

"Its hot, its rocky, and it sucks. Water is a precious resource and anything that is grown that can be considered food was worth more than all of the gold and rare metals in the world. My people...we were just lucky to be made to have brains and brawn."

"Interesting...but how did you get out when the rest of your race didn't?"

"What we did to get me out is not important, just know that it was incredibly risky and many lives were lost. The House of Wolves may be no more but with my solemn vow it will rise again, better than it ever was." I said as I led Twilight to her room which just so happens to be across from where Crucio is staying.

Motioning for the young mare to step into her room I waited patiently for her to cross the threshold but as soon as she did she turned around to hug her mentor and as she did so I graciously returned to my room unnoticed. As I rapidly phase-shifted my way through empty rooms and derelict hallways until I finally made it back to my private chambers, my wife was already in bed but instead of waiting for me as she usually does she was snoring like a manticore.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of the construction of the festival, everything must be set up right and not a thing out of place or missing.

Let us see if these equestrians can listen to what I have told them and not disturb my new charges.


The Next Day


Waking up in this world has become a routine thing for me, it usually starts with me waking up underneath a mass of fur and mane, a pool of drool on my chest, and my body being overheated because of the heavy mass on top of me and the blankets around me. Usually I would slowly pry myself free from her limbs and I would try not to wake her up so she doesn't try to get into my pants so early in the morning. 

There are days for that and she knows that too, but it doesn't stop her from trying anyways hehe.

Lets just say that her desire for children haven't stopped her from being overly flirtatious and alright rubbing herself against me to the point where all it would take to set her off was for me to rub her ears and then bam! Like magic she is in mood and we are teleported to an empty room and we make sweet, sweet love.

Hot, sweaty, unadulterated love that is capable of feeding a changeling for a week.

But not today, no this morning is different. Forge was awake before I was and I knew why, she was in charge in setting up the jousting coliseum and making sure that the lances were in proper conditions.

Waking up all alone and with the blankets not on top of me I found myself not freezing to death as the insulation of the palace along with my thick hide doing its job to keep my blood warm and my body loose and limber. Rolling out of bed and shuffling to the bathroom to give myself a hot shower, stripping myself of my leather undersuit and tossing it into the sink as I strode into my porcelain rectangle and with the turn of a crystal knob, scolding hot water splashed my flesh only to feel like warm water is cascading across my chest. 

The good thing about having a thick, strong hide instead of spongy pink skin? I can take the weather like a champ and hold water does jack shit to me that I have to make it almost hotter than the sun to feel it. The downside? I won't know if something is digging into my body until I either notice it or someone points it out, I can barely feel anything with it unless I focus on the area being touched and lastly I can't tell if I have a six-pack or not.

Scrubbing myself down with what is essentially steel wool and soap I cleaned myself up before drying myself off and strapping myself back into my leather undersuit and then my armor. Pushing open the front door to see two centurions standing guard I closed the door behind me before lumbering through the hall towards the stairs, my duty for the day is not to hold open court, but to actively participate in the construction of the festival.

My role for today is to carry the large and heavy pieces of lumber to serve as the main support beams for the stalls, tents and other buildings that are being set up. I know that the few unicorns here can do the same job but they will be busy doing other work such as moving the smaller pieces of wood and tents to form the structures. 

Everyone within the capital has to do their part for the festival and I'll be damned if a single pony tries to skimp out and not help!

Striding through the halls and down the stairs I left the palace behind me and went to the assembly area of where the center of the festival will be taking place, it also serves the dual purpose as also being the storage area where all of the lumber and tents are being placed before they get scattered to the four winds to be set up.

There was dozens upon dozens of ponies in attendance for the festival construction, earth ponies were talking to each other, the pegasi were lazily laying on clouds or flying back and forth between crowds and the few unicorns are milling with other unicorns as they got themselves ready to lift the heavy materials.

As soon as I arrived all of the ponies stopped what they were doing before standing up and started to stomp their hooves as I got closer until I stood beside the pile of lumber which the stomping turned into a deafening rumble.

Raising my hands to silence the masses, the ponies slowly stopped their hoof stomping as the noise from it all began to die down and as it came to an end did I speak up.

"Greetings everypony and today marks the assembly of the Crystal Fair! Tomorrow marks the beginning and we must make sure it starts on time so all of today or until it is finished. Now my precious little ponies, let the construction begin!" And with that shout the ponies around me started to cheer before quickly grabbing pieces of lumber while others grabbed the instruction manuals to properly put the stations together, scattering to their designated areas to set up shop.

Ponies were humming and singing as they worked, some were even dancing while they were setting up decorations and other frilly filigree on shops and homes.

The city was receiving a light sprinkling of snow and as it started to lightly come down ponies were enjoying themselves by either making small snowballs or were gathering it up to make snow ponies.

I was moving from place to place, moving several one hundred pound poles of maple and oak lumber from one end of the city to the other, street to street and building to building I lugged around the heavy wood for the festival.

I bumped into quite a few ponies that I recognized, a few friends from my time when I was the only warden of the wilds and it is funny that the few ponies who are still alive that knew me at the time were saying hello to me. I still thought that they might hate me because of the incident with that one noble mare that kept on following me into the woods to help me slay feral beast only to end up a monster herself when she made a deal with the devil himself. And to think they still feared me back then, but now after countless horrible events that occurred one after another and I helped lead them all through the encroaching darkness and back into the light.

What an ironic twist of events...me, a being of darkness and evil, leading a species not my own out from the twisting tendrils of shadows and evil and back into the light of peace and prosperity. 

Looking at the ponies as they go from place to place, assembling tents and stalls for the festival to come, all of them doing their part for the annual event.

Sparing a glance behind me I saw a few of the equestrians standing around, watching the crystal ponies working on their assigned duties, a couple of them trying to ask them questions but only to be turned down because they are busy. It never fails me to wonder why people would always try to talk to someone when they are busy doing back breaking labor, they need all the energy they can muster and talking takes away from it, that and running out of breath could lead to one dropping a heavy block of lumber on top of oneself.

Shaking my head at the equestrians for their inquisitive minds I went back to work, helping the weaker ponies move the larger pieces of lumber around with occasional bucket full of nails and rolls of fabric for tarps.

Hours started to roll by and not a single pony got injured during the entirety of the construction effort and I must say that these ponies are highly proficient at putting this festival up. It wasn't long before the festival was set up and as soon as it was the crystal ponies assembled themselves back at the heart of the city as I announced to them all that for all of their hard work that it is finally done.

"Crystal Ponies! For all of our hard work, for us all toiling away in the sun and cold snow we have finally built the festival! Now go home, rest up, enjoy the time with your family, and think on things to remember for tomorrow our hearts and minds goes out to those that can not return to us, for those that fell in battle for the defense of the empire, and for those that have been claimed by the ravages of time."

"Tomorrow we will remember those that are no longer with us and remember them as a guiding light through the darkness that is our future. We have returned to an unknown time, we have no true allies, we don't know if our enemies still remember us or even hold their grudges against us, but what we do know is that they all thought that we are dead. They will eventually find out that we are alive and that we are weak and afraid of everything around us, if they dare to prove this to us then they will feel the power we hold without our hooves."

"Now go home, rest, drink, play and enjoy yourselves for tomorrow, we remember the past to embrace the future!"

The thundering herd of an applause was truly deafening to the equestrians but to me it was loud enough for me to concentrate and tune out the noise but for the most part it wasn't that bad.

But for the equestrians though quite a few of them were covering their ears from how loud it was.

Heh, seems like they never had to deal with loud festivals and family events.

Soon my crystal ponies left the jousting coliseum where we gathered and returned to their homes, the sun was cresting the horizon as this entire construction project has swallowed up countless hours to just finish but I can say that it was worth it.

Tomorrow these equestrians will enjoy the fruit of my ponies labor along with the surprise at the end of it all that I have in stored for them.
> Seeing a Piece of the Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the ponies left for their homes and the equestrians returned to the crystal palace, I returned there as well but not before delving deep under the palace to visit an old friend.

It has been a while since I had last visited him but seeing that this festival will be going off exactly as planned, I had to make sure that our prime guest of honor was going to be there, after all one can not forget those who played a pivotal role in the empire's future.

That and it was time for the devil to collect his due, one doesn't simply betray everything you hold dear for a grasp of power and authority. No this stallion will pay the ultimate price for his act of treason, two accounts of attempted regicide, several accounts of attempted murder, several accounts of mind-control and brainwashing, and the list goes on and on but I digress, he needs to die.

Walking down into the darkness that is the Fel Hope Prison, I ventured deep into its core bypassing empty cells and scurrying vermin as the light from my armor guided the way to the very back.

Upon reaching the very end of the prison I stopped in front of a heavily sealed and barred door. There was fourteen steel bars securing the door in its place, all of them slide into the walls on their left and right before finally the door itself lifting partially off the ground so it can swing outward into the hallway. This particular cell was made for the most dangerous of criminals and enemies of the empire, and it is currently occupied by the very stallion that fit that description to a T.

Chained to the floor, wrapped in aether-enchanted chains and bindings, his horn sawed off at the base to prevent any use of magic and his body being kept weakened through the application of medicated herbs mixed into his twice-daily gruel, was Sombra, ex-magister of the Crystal Kingdom and traitor of the entire Crystal Empire.

Staring down at the weakened stallion I could not help but feel a slight pang of pity for his situation because I knew that I had helped him down upon this path but it was he who decided to grasp for what was not within his reach. I taught him how to grasp and use his inner hatred and darkness, I taught him how to control it and bend it to his will, but I failed to truly teach him how to balance the light and dark within one's self to prevent the overflow of energy and because of my failure to properly teach him he then fell into darkness for his ambitions led him there.

"So...is it time?"

"Not yet. Soon, by solstice's end."

"I see...and word of my daughter?"

"Gone."'

"Then where-"

"With our brothers and sisters to the south, they have takin her while we fought."

"Are you certain?"

"Oh yes, I am positively certain that she is there. I know not of what her appearance is nor do I know what her name is, but I know for certain that she is long dead. One does not simply survive for a thousand-plus years without either undergoing petrification and being freed or by becoming an undying-race."

There was silence between us as I said that and for the moment I thought I broke him but instead all he did was lower his head as he could no longer look me in the eye. I didn't have to wait for long as he started to weep, for the lose of his wife, for the lose of his daughter, all because of his lust for power and the darkness-induced mania that he was under.

What a horrible way to know that everything that he has done was all for nothing.

And with that said and done I closed and sealed the door behind me before walking slowly back through the darkness, feeling the tendrils latching onto me like seaweed does to a swimmers legs. I can still hear the echoes of those that died down here all those years ago, the gryphon prisoners that we brought back with us, the true criminals of the war, and we left them down here to rot to death. I left them down here to starve and be eaten alive by the rodents that run to and fro.

The bones of the damned line this dungeon, so many gryphon bones, so many foul deeds that have condemned them to their prisons. How many innocents have they sent to their deaths on their behalf? How many young sons and daughters will never see their mothers and fathers because they were sent off to war for greed and power? And for what? The only source of pure crystal that sits perfectly on a ley line? It would have been useless to them but they instead fought for them anyways so it only proves that they had found a way to either cast magic through an apparatus or catalyst, or that they have instead decided to sell it to someone else that is capable of magic.

But who?

I will never learn the answer to that question because I burned Gryphonstone to the ground during the war. My private army of wardens sealed the gryphon capital off by forcing the gates closed and barricaded them from the outside, before unleashing a never-ending volley of flaming arrows, incendiary clay pots and fireballs over the walls and into the city. For a whole month we laid siege to that city, and for a whole month we set fire to its inhabitants as they pled for mercy from our savage brutality, but never gave them the mercy they oh so desperately craved. When they turned to their leaders to end the siege by surrendering their cries fell on deaf ears as their stubbornness refused the shouts and demands of peace with the enemy, and so they burned.

They all burned, every last man, women and child burned within their stone walls, they could have flown out but after so many were shot down by me and my rangers, they decided to weather the storm but how does one truly withstand a maelstrom of fire and stone?

The correct answer is you don't, you either give into your fate and die or find a way into the eye of the storm but sadly that eye was outside those walls and there was no way out.

When the siege was over we walked on inside after taking down the blockade and once we stepped in, the smell of burnt flesh and fur was so overwhelmingly powerful that we had to wait a full day just to air it out let alone be able to walk in without gagging, except for me and my breathing mask.

I saw first hand what my siege tactics have brought onto our enemies, how it left so very few survivors in its wake.

From the outer wall all the way to the castle, there was nothing but burnt out buildings, charred bodies and molten metal from gryphon arms and armor. I walked through the remains of countless gryphons that didn't find shelter within their homes, not that it would have done anything to stop the raging inferno from taking their homes and their lives. From the outer gates to the castle doorsteps there was nothing but death and cinder, that is until I reached the inner section of the city.

The walls were scorched to the point that there are outlines of those that claw at the wall who begged to be let in to be spared the coming flames but they were rejected and were fed to the all-consuming blaze, and I strolled right on through, the gates were weakened by the fire and I blew it apart with a well placed shot from my Shrapnel Launcher. The few gryphon soldiers that were inside who saw me coming either fled inside of the castle or gave their lives to bid for time, but it wasn't enough as those who fled died on the steps as they too died from the flames that licked at their paws.

But for what happened when I walked in, that is a story for another time...

Now back to what I was doing, walking back to the surface to check up on the equestrians and to see if Sombra's daughter is truly gone from the palace.

Sombra's daughter, a pink horned filly that had a multi-hued pink mane and that she was the apple of his eye. This little filly was his world and he did everything within his power to keep her safe and sound, to give her anything she would ever want and gave her the best education gold can offer. Sadly for all of his power and wealth it wasn't enough to stop a rare disease from clinging to her and rendering her with nothing but a few years to live.

We called it Stone Skin and what it did was it slows down the body by stiffening the muscles first, then calcifying your skin in patches so it hardens up and eventually your organs start to solidify as your flesh and muscles turn to bone, but in this case we called it stone because of how smooth and flawless it becomes upon death of host.

She had this disease and we did everything we can to slow it done.

We tried tonics, powerful healing spells, healing spring waters, we even tried to remove the infected flesh from the body but all that did was slow it down until finally we ran out of ideas to save her life. The only option we had left was to put her into a magically-induced coma and put her into a stasis bubble and pray that we find a cure in time to both reverse the damage that it has done to her along with cure her of it entirely.

We left her in isolation before we were sealed in a temporal displacement field and now that we are free from its effect I had thought that she was still in there.

Climbing out from the depths of the prison I stalked through the palace's front doors and up to Melodic Cadance's room on the third floor, we had to use magic to seal it off so no one else might accidentally contract the plague and to my surprise and fear when I stopped in front of it that the wards and charms that have been placed on the door are gone.

Pulling out my pistols I slowly crept up to the door and pushing it open as slowly as humanly possible I scanned the room, clearly noticing that Melodic was gone but to make it worse whoever took her away from this room also clearly took everything from the room minus the bed and its sheet along with the dressers and other little knickknacks that one would find in a room.

There was only four people in the entire world that knew about Melodic's condition and where she was located.

Me, Sombra, Celestia and Luna.

I am right here, Sombra is in prison and the two sisters are now here with a third alicorn of unknown origins and it looks like Melodic but...

No

No way.

There is no god damn way...they wouldn't do that...would they?

It must be a trick or something, it can't be real, there is no way that they managed to ascend a filly into godhood all the while curing her of that accursed disease. Unless its a trick, a piece of deception to sow chaos into my mind? But if they did cure her...

I have to make sure, I got to make sure that it really is her and I just know how to go about doing it.

But before I could leave the empty room, I spotted a small scroll on the nightstand, perfectly rolled up and coated in a light layer of dust, I don't know how long it has been there but it must have been there for at least a day or two.

Unrolling the scroll I saw that it was a note and I immediately began to read it and I immediately came to regret it.

"To whom it may concern."
"I know that it will be you Skolas that will be reading this scroll because you and I both know that Sombra will either be too busy running the Crystal Kingdom into the ground with his tyrannical reign. If you are reading this then you will have discovered that Luna and I have escaped the kingdom in hopes that we can find others like us along with those that are magically inclined to help us stop Sombra before he can cover the world in darkness. I know that we are leaving you behind to protect the kingdom but we both know that it is only a matter of time before Sombra either overwhelms you with his mastery over the dark arts or that you join him in his endeavors, but we are holding onto hope that you will be the one to stop his reign of terror before it truly begins. We are taking Melodic Cadance with us along with her mother to keep them safe and to shelter them from the knowledge that it was their husband/father that almost brought ruin to the world. I hope that someday you can forgive us for abandoning you and our subjects to a fate that you would deem a 'fate worse than death' but I saw no other alternatives. Pray forgive us, for we have failed to keep our subjects safe from harm."
"From the office of former Princess of the Crystal Kingdom, Celestia Dawnbringer"

After reading the scroll I could only look at the piece of paper for a few seconds before quickly re-reading it a second time before it finally sank in.

The princesses kidnapped a filly and her mother along with several dozen ponies and ran off to Equestria with them because they were too weak to stop Sombra and left me to do it for them.

Those fucking cunts!

Rolling up the scroll I placed it within one of my numerous pockets that I had lining my armor and sealed it up to prevent it from falling out as I turned to leave the room.

I calmed myself down, letting my anger get a hold over me will accomplish nothing at this point for it has already been done a millennia ago in the middle of a conflict. There is nothing that can be done to bring her back nor is there a way I can convict Celestia in a legal court...but a court of public opinions on the other hand...revenge can be earned that way as well.

Leaving the door to Melodic's room wide open I proceeded to the throne room to set up my little ploy to draw out the truth from the equestrian princesses along with their new alicorn in hope of finding out the truth. I may not like Sombra, hell I hate him for the treasonous act he unleashed on us all but if I can find out that she has been spared a cruel fate and lived a fulfilling life, maybe it will give him one last smile before he meets the headsman block.

So it looks like that I was right about that Sombra's wife and child did escape the night all shit hit the collective fan at the same time.

Bad news indeed...for Sombra anyways, aggravating news for me though.

Striding to the throne room as I passed by several maids and guards, all of them giving me a head nod as I pass them by and as I walked down a flight of stairs I saw a purple unicorn reading a book while floating around her are several more, some closed while others are open. This must be Twilight Sparkle, Celestia's current student and also my best means of gathering information from.

Trailing behind her is two crystal guards and two equestrian guards and both groups don't like the other, I wonder why?

Walking up to her I get in her path just in time for her head to bonk into my right thigh and as she does so she comically collides into me while dropping all of her books, especially the one she was reading as it was sandwiched between the two of us. As she lands on her flanks and rubs her head to wonder what she walked into and when she looked up, oh its like a little puppy is sad because it did a bad thing!

"S-sorry E-Emperor Skolas, I didn't see you there. It won't happen again, I swear!"

Kneeling down to help her up, concealing my lower arms in the process I watched as the young unicorn's horn flickers to life as a lavender glow surrounds the books she brought with her as she gets back onto her hooves.

"It is alright little Sparkle, and do not call me Emperor while you are a guest here, I believe a more informal approach to dealing with friends." I said with my best tone of voice that didn't sound like I was threatening or yelling at her while at the same time putting the word 'friends' at the end to hopefully get her to open up and make it easier on me to pry even more information from her lips.

In an instant her features changed from worried to excited, my guess is that she thinks she made a good enough impression on me for me to consider her a friend and thus that I would divulge important information in her thinking that she wouldn't tell anyone else behind my back. But seeing how she is Celestia's student and lapdog...she would turn to tell her everything in a heartbeat.

Here is hoping that my years of gambits and deceptions pays off or at the very least provide some manner of success.

"We're friends? I-I mean yes! Of course we are friends!" Twilight shouted out happily as she pranced in place, apparently it was enough to make her very happy for us just to be friends, I bet she doesn't get out much to experience what the world has to offer.

"We are, and by the way just what are you reading?"

"Oh these? These are just books on the Crystal Kingdom's history and I must say that it is intriguing, I never knew that there was such a thing as the giant pony tribes let alone that they wielded magic unlike anything we have today! Did you know that they are more attuned to the land than even the earth ponies are?"

"Yes, I did know that, I have seen what it is capable of doing in action on several occasions." Seeing how I am married to one and that I had to fight her father just to marry her...I know exactly what they are able to do with their undocumented magic.

As Twilight starts to enter rapid-fire mode and starts to talk about how the giant ponies can help Equestria by teaching them their magic and their history and culture, but what this girl fails to understand is that they don't teach anyone that is considered an outsider. And seeing how Equestria as a whole is considered an 'outsider' along with the fact that it was Equestria's fault that they had to move this far up north to begin with.

Letting the purple mare talk I looked at the books that are being held in her arcane grip and to my surprise they were old history books and even a single tome on the wildlife of the Crystal Kingdom that has been documented and recorded. I am happy that she is trying to learn more about my kingdom but I am absolutely elated that someone is reading a book that I wrote, getting mauled by a manticore sucked and getting almost buried alive in an avalanche when a damn wyvern slammed into the mountainside I was climbing sucked even more when I found out that it knocked me all the way down the mountain I was climbing up.

I got both of their heads sitting in the hunter's lodge near the main gate.

"To think that timber wolves are magical constructs that act as guards who protect the forest they are created in! I always wondered why they hated everypony that entered the Everfree Forest and now I know why! They think we are going in to chop down their home and they are just defending it, if only there is a way to make peace with them and show them that we mean them no harm..."

Easier said than done Twilight, easier said than done...finding the Heart of the Forest was a bitch to do and brokering a peace with the dryad that acts as the forest's caretaker is well... it is something that I regret and my wife is pissed at me whenever I have to go into the forest just to renew the deal.

Speaking of which I think I am way overdue to renew that deal...I just hope she doesn't try to kill me the moment I step into the forest because I am at least a thousand years late.

"Don't worry about it Twilight, sometimes there are somethings in this world that are just not meant to be known or made public. We all have secrets and we also have a few that are meant to stay with us to our grave."

"Oh please, nopony has secrets like that! You are just making that up, nopony would ever have something so dark or so evil of a secret that if it were to get out it would destroy the pony's reputation and possibly their livelihood."

Shaking my head and laughing softly I kneeled down to pat the young unicorn on the head, the notion made the young mare pull back a bit and shake her head, clearly not liking what I was doing.

"What an innocent little pony, you clearly never seen what dark secrets lie in wait within the shaded corners of ones heart. You don't know how many ponies both here, out in Equestria, and beyond both of our borders lie the innumerable masses that hide their darkest secrets and desires from those they consider friends and kin alike. Hiding those feelings and secrets is what everyone does, and do not play me for a fool Twilight for I too know that you too have secrets and desires that you do not want anyone to know about just like how I have my own secrets that I do not want getting out to the world."

"We all got skeletons in our closets, Twilight, but just know that my skeletons are numerous, of different species, and some still have meat on their bones." I said with a sharp grin on my face as I stood back up and started to walk towards the northern balcony, the whispers from my wardens told me where the three alicorns are located and I had a few words to spare between the lot.

Walking with purpose and also with a sense of foreboding doom I moved through my halls with the clip-clopping of hooves right behind me, the bookworm must be following me or was one of the maids that was on her way to her assigned work area for the day, either way we were both heading to the same direction it would seem.

During the walk we went back to talking about skeletons in our closets, and sure enough Twilight kept insisting that ponies don't keep secrets from each other, but I eventually got her to admit that ponies do keep secrets, just not the ones that would be as terrible as I am making it out to be believed. But in all seriousness some ponies do have that dark side to them, that urge to do the unthinkable and feel no regrets for doing it.

Soon enough we reached the northern balcony and sure enough there was the three alicorns standing there.

Celestia was lowering her sun as Luna was raising her moon with Cadance sitting between the two, watching it all unfold and as they had their little moment of moving the celestial bodies around in the sky.

I gave them their peace and quiet for the duration of their little transfer ritual and as soon as they were finishing up I decided that now would be a good time to make my presence known to the three and to tell them something important.

Coughing into my left lower hand to alert them to my presence I waited a few seconds as their ears moved to slightly face my direction as they remained still and facing the balcony and for a moment I thought they haven't heard my cough of attention so I was about to repeat it when they finally stood up and turned to face me, all smiles and happiness.

One of it was slightly forced and it wasn't that hard to figure out why.

I think I'll hold onto the information regarding the princesses kidnapping a foal and her mother, use it for blackmail later.

"Hello Celestia, Luna, Princess Cadance, enjoying your time here?" I asked the three princesses at the same time, hoping to hear good things.

"Verily!" "Indeed I am, it has been too long since I have been here and I am simply happy to see it once more." "Its alright, a little cold but I can handle it."

All three mares said and I couldn't help but smirk under my mask, even though I don't entirely need it on due to the amount of magic in the air which is capable of acting as a substitute for Ether but it still isn't enough for me to subsist on. Every few hours I had to reattach my mask to my face and let my body recycle the Ether and magic in my body and lungs before being able to take the mask off and resume myself.

Giving the two royal alicorns a once over I then turned to look at the new alicorn and I must say that she looks just like Melodic Cadance, just take away those wings, give her a stubbier horn, and an adorable stutter and then we will have a spot on match but this...

If this Cadance is actually Sombra's daughter but somehow ascended this mortal coil into immortality than they have done the impossible, they have found a way and possibly the means to turn any equine into an all powerful alicorn.

"I am just coming to check up on my old friends and to remind you two that tomorrow is the Crystal Faire so be sure to get plenty of rest because for the next three days it will be an exciting time." I said as I returned my gaze to the two celestial sisters and to my pleasure they took my words to heart and said that they will only up for a few more hours before returning to their quarters while the pink one will be joining her husband for a chat about something.

What they will be talking about I do not know but it better not be about trying to usurp my throne.

Leaving them to their own devices I left to get ready for tomorrow morning, the three-day long festival begins at dawn and I must be well-rested to give the opening speech before letting the masses celebrate.

Climbing down stairs and passing numerous sentries and maids I soon found myself at my room being guarded by two female centurions holding halberds as they gave me a stiff salute which I returned with a nod but when I turned the doorknob and walked in I saw that there was a pony sitting on my bed.

And creating a very noticeable dent in the thick mattress in the process.

Laying on my bed in a seductive pose, or as seductive as she can get seeing how she is usually so blunt and forward with her demands, was my wife, Forge Shatterbane, daughter of Skull Taker the Chieftan of Clan Shatterbane and also the biggest mare I have ever seen besides Celestia and Luna as they currently are.

Staring at my wife I could only wonder why she was laying on her back with everything on display and that she was giving me a very clear 'Come Hither' look.

I recognize that look anywhere and it fills me with impending dread.

It was the very same look she gave me on our wedding night.

Before I could even back out of the room and make an emergency escape, the door closes itself behind me before the sound of magic seals it shut and locks itself down tightly.

Looking at it now I should have realized that this was going to happen, it was clearly the winter season, the giant folk's heat season is attuned to start during winter, and that it was a day before what was also the winter solstice...wow I should have seen this a mile away.

Uh oh...I am going to be sore in the morning...I just hope none of our guests can hear what is about to happen.
> Awakening the Festival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever had that moment when you wake up in the morning and instead of waking up to see a beautiful morning and feeling absolutely refreshed you instead feel like someone just ran your happy ass over with a truck and came back to finish the job only to botch it completely?

Well, that is how I feel right now and I must say I did not miss this feeling at all.

I woke up to stare at the ceiling of my private chambers, my eyes seeing nothing but an off-white surface as the weight on my chest and right leg as I only had to cast my gaze downward to see Forge resting her head underneath my chin as her horn was rubbing against the side of my head. She was sleeping rather soundly for a mare who rode me so hard that I can't even feel my pelvis let alone the surrounding area is just as bruised or worse.

Thinking on it now I can say that Forge is clearly on her estrus cycle and that she will be like this for the entire week, which means that I should be expecting this to repeat for the next six days or until I finally decide to get her pregnant. Something that I know that is straight up impossible for numerous reasons, but the main one is being that we are two completely different species. 

Genetics doesn't work like that so the odds of me an alien who was once a human being who now has an unknown genetic structure putting a bun in Forge's oven is pretty much never going to happen and even with an intervention from a god, still doubt it would even happen. Unless of course Discord somehow is still alive and decides to fuck me over by making me shoot live rounds instead of duds.

But that hasn't stopped Forge from trying or even stopping. Hell it even encourages her to try even harder to get pregnant and I have seen her take tonics made by her people, fertility spells by some of the ponies in the palace's infirmary, hell she even tried asking the spirit of the forest for a means of getting what she wanted.

I don't even want to know if she made a deal with her or not but all I do know is that at the rate she rides me I am going to be winding up in the hospital with a shattered pelvis, broken back, and possibly a destroyed penis.

Death by Snu-Snu, that will not be on my tombstone if I can help it but man what a way to go!

Moving my left arm to the edge of my bed I grab a firm hold on it and ever so slowly dragged my weak and battered form to the side, all the while gently picking my wife's body off of my own and placed her back down onto the bed as to not wake her up. Grabbing her gently by the neck I lifted it up before moving that was soon followed by grabbing her foreleg and chest, working my way downward in a slow, methodical fashion until finally I was free from her clinging grasp and as soon as I was free I did what any normal person would do in the morning.

Take a shower to get the stink and evidence off before going out to greet the masses and to usher in the beginning of the Crystal Fair.

As I crawled out of bed by sliding out of it and landing onto the floor I quietly stepped through my room, stepping around the armor that lay on the floor in haphazard piles along with my weapons laying on the floor. I nearly blasted my foot off as I accidentally kicked my Shock Pistol, making it charge up a shot but because the trigger wasn't squeezed it simply hummed to life and stayed off.

For the moment anyway, for all I know it is just waiting for me to take a few steps in front of the barrel before finally discharging and blowing a neat hole in the back of my foot or leg and forcing me to use a crutch or a wheelchair for the remainder festival.

But luckily for me, that wasn't the case, it eventually turned itself off after the charging sequence faded due to not being fired at the moment of charging. With that danger out of the way I immediately went to the bathroom as fast as I could but due to me being in a state of a bruised pelvis and partially drained of bodily fluids, I am in a bit of a trouble.

That situation was rectified when I took a shower, I got rid most if not all of the smell of sex from my body when I used the harsh yet powerful body wash that the medical staff uses on wounded ponies when they are unable to properly clean themselves off. And as for my lack of liquids in my body, standing under the shower head with my mouth wide open to trick all the water that was coming from the spout and although the water tasted bleh, I still managed to rehydrate myself in the process.

Stepping out of the shower and patting myself down with the heavy towel that was made especially for me I then left the bathroom and put on my second skin that I wear underneath my armor before putting on the heavy metal plating. I looked at my cloak that I usually wore when on duty or when I was traveling deep in the wilds but on this day I decided against it because I didn't want it to get dirty during the festival along with it getting damaged from the events that will be taking place.

With my attire donned and my body now less aching than it was a few minutes ago I exited my room, leaving a snoring and thoroughly satisfied wife behind I shut the door behind me and made my way towards the dining hall to get some food in me.

When I closed the door to my room I turned around and saw that across from me was two ponies were also exiting their room and they were just like me...well, one of them was just like me.

Shining Armor, he looked just as drained and tired as I do with the exception that he looks like he is suffering from lower back pain. His wife, on the other hand, Cadance, she looks all sunshine and rainbows, a wide smile on her muzzle, eyes shut and she was skipping down the hall with glee clearly radiating from her body.

The equestrian royal guard captain and I shared a look that spoke volumes and we were silent before we both gave a shaky nod as we went on our way.

"Long night?"

"Yup...you?"

"Yeah..."

"Can't feel your back?"

"You have no idea little pony...at this rate I think my spine will snap in half before I die."

"Hehehe, I think we need a break from them."

"You and I know that we can't get away from them."

"I know."

"We are so boned...aren't we?"

"Yup."

"Come on Shining! We don't want to be late for breakfast!" The pink alicorn shouted at us as the two of us just groaned in lower back pain as we shuffled our way towards the dining hall.

Which of us will break first, the captain of the guard who married an alicorn, or me?

Probably me...

Shit...







All was quiet in the dining hall as the two lovebirds and I were the only ones to be in here this early in the day, everyone else was either still asleep or they were busy getting themselves ready to greet the day.

Normally I would still be asleep at this early hour but when I gained the position of Warden of the Wilds and now Emperor of the Crystal Empire, I have to wake up at the ungodly hour of five in the mourning because at eight o'clock that is when practitioners start showing up asking for requests, assistance in their trivial matters, things that can be easily solved amongst themselves but they want to seek the highest authority in the land to settle their disputes...

Well, that is the thing that Celestia and Luna usually had to deal with when they were in charge but the moment I took charge I began to implement my own infrastructure to the court system.

Now my duties as the crown are much simpler and easier, only the highest cases will reach my ears such as murder, corruption, and matters that concern the entire nation such as laws, regulations, and trade.

But at the moment I was busy sitting in my specially designed and crafted chair as I waited at one end of the table for our food to be served and as I sat there in peace, quietly staring at the ceiling as I breathed through my respirator, the ventilation units built into the sides of it making soft clicking sounds as I inhale and exhale. The two lovebirds sitting on the other side of me are talking about something that I currently could care less about but as I continued to stare at the ceiling I started to grow bored and decided to eavesdrop on the conversation.

What they were saying was...boring.

As it turns out they were on their honeymoon after getting married recently but they had to cut it short because we returned back to the world of the living. I can only speculate this but it would seem that one of them, if not both are not entirely happy with having their private time alone for a few weeks, was rudely cut short.

With them talking about what they should be doing or how to go about doing it, I turned my attention to my own thoughts on what direction I should be going in since the kingdom's return to reality.

'It has been what Luna says was two millennia of absence and seeing that everyone probably, for the most part, has forgotten about us than we are probably in the clear from any kind of retribution or retaliation for any wrongdoings we have committed in the past.'

'I wonder if I can now implement those technological advancements I have been meaning to put in use, airships, gunpowder weaponry, better metallurgy techniques...the list of shit I have in my head can go on forever but I know that I can't use them all because of what they need is something we don't have at the moment.'

'So I guess first things first, I will need to gather my forces, find out what I have available to me, expand my sphere of influence, reclaim the lands that have been lost to us, set up new contacts with the outside world and lastly see if the other cities and towns of the empire have survived throughout the years or if they have been put into stasis like us.'

With those thoughts circulating in my head I then came back to my senses to find myself in a not so empty dining hall.

The rest of the equestrians is here with the princesses sitting together along with their six civilians and baby dragon, and as for those that are from here, Forge was sitting beside me with Crucio on my left, the others, on the other hand, are not here with us.

My guess is that they are either still asleep or are elsewhere within the palace doing their duties for the festival.

With just the three of us and the rest of the equestrians here I decided that now would be a good time to ask a few questions just to see if the outside world has changed if at all from what it was in the past.

Casting a glance towards Celestia I began to open my mouth but I was beaten to the punch when Twilight started to talk.

She was talking about the Crystal Kingdom and all of the information she was getting this from was from an old history book that she found. I am pretty sure that Celestia knows all this because she used to live here in the past.

Another thing she was talking about that Celestia already knows is that back then the gryphons were nothing more than savages and bandits until they all united under their king before he was slain by a pale demon encased in grey armor. Of course, that was referencing to me because at the time I had to wear that crappy pig iron that the natives had access to at the time even though the steel-making techniques I had introduced to them at the time was just barely being picked up and used by the locals.

I guess the equine race is a bit slow on picking up on advantageous technological advancements that can prove beneficial to their race.

As the lavender scholar talked to her mentor about what she found within the old tomes of the empire, the kitchen staff entered with our food. We all ate together, talked about what we are planning to do today but for me, I had to go give a speech before the opening day of the festival can begin.

Shoveling down what food I could manage at the time I finished in record time before dismissing myself and headed straight for the balcony of speeches and to my amazement, there was already ponies gathering down below.

I only had to wait roughly an hour for the entire city to arrive for the festival, thousands of crystal ponies were all standing together, almost all of them being shoulder-to-shoulder with one another while their foals were on their backs, giving them a height advantage to see what was going on.

"Ponies of the Crystal Empire! Lend me your ears! Today we remember those who are no longer with us, those who fought to keep the beasts of the wilds at bay and the clawing talons of the griffons, for those of us who gave their lives to keep those of us who could not defend themselves safe from harm! On this day we remember those who we can no longer speak to, no longer embrace, we remember them and celebrate their sacrifice for the kingdom! On this day we will sing, dance, cheer, compete and spread joy so those who no longer are beside us did not go to the afterlife early in vain! Now go my fellow ponies! Go and enjoy yourself for the coming days we are the masters of our destiny!"

The shouting and cheering from the entire city were deafening, the equestrians were with the crowd and one of them, the pink earth pony with the untamed mane, she was cheering as well. I guess she is a party girl at heart and is just waiting to tear up the food stands.

As the crowd scatters to attend to the festivities and enjoy themselves, I too was planning on joining them but first things first I have some errands to attend to.

Turning around I motioned for my two wardens to follow me, my plans having to be accelerated due to the equestrian princesses being here.

'If only I had more time, I could have kept the equestrians on their side of the border and sent them a missive as soon as I have consolidated my power and had a firm grip on the kingdom. All I have is a city and its occupants, we have no means of resupplying ourselves other than what little food we can farm, our mines are closed, lost or overrun by either foreigners or feral beasts...god damn it! I am being left with so very few options and almost all of them are humiliating at best and down right terrible at worst...'

Going down the stairs I headed towards the communications room and as soon as I entered it I saw that it was unoccupied and derelict. Whoever was in charge of this room has fallen behind in their duty to keep this place clean but I can reprimand them another time, for the time being I have to see if we are alone in this new era or if they followed us.

The communications room was a fairly normal in size, thirty-two by thirty-two feet, on one wall was the map of the Crystal Empire at the height of its power, several cities, towns, ports, mines, outposts and forts were clearly marked with a solid crystal stud. The studs on the map was a signal that those areas had a communications room of their own that was mainly used for military use to send out orders to the officers stationed there, but at the moment the wall was colorless...

Except for a handful of lights.

At first I thought it was just a trick of the light, that they were just messing with me because the light from my armor was bouncing off of them but when I deactivated them and used a torch that was brought with us by a warden, I saw that it was no trick or illusion.

It was real.

We are not alone after all.

Turning to my two wardens I started to give them their orders, I have a lot of work to do and not enough time to get it all done.







Walking among the citizens of the Crystal Empire I saw that every single one of them were happy and content beyond belief, it is almost like they have completely forgotten that they have been stuck in a stasis field for nearly two thousand years. They are probably putting that memory in the back of their minds so they can enjoy themselves and forget all that has happened to them, after all ignorance is bliss and this festival is doing just that, making them forget their worries.

The young colts and fillies were running around, some of them were wearing what looked like wooden masks depicting timber wolves, manticores and even a hydra was being worn by the younglings. Ever since I made the deal with the Forest of Whispers dryad the wild beasts that call it their home have become docile to the empire's citizens, allowing us to come close to them without having to fear of getting mauled or killed, another boon that was bestowed upon us was that our harvests was more bountiful than it should have been and our lumber mills produce finely cut logs with no problems.

But the price for the deal with the dryad...

A pound of flesh and blood, but not the way I thought of what it meant until the time came for me to pay for it.

I still got the scars to prove that the price has been paid.

Enough about my problems though, today is supposed to be a joyous one!

The younglings are playing their own games, the teenagers are out playing the carnival attractions along with the honorable games that the old pony tribes used for competition and glory.

To my left I saw the jousting coliseum was in full swing, a pegasus and a unicorn were squaring off, their armor was set, their lance ready to bluntly injure its opponent, I must say this one has won my heart when I first saw it. Watching the ponies being knocked around, their eyes wobbling around in a dizzy state, sometimes they even say if they caught the number of the carriage that ran them over, so funny but sometimes I wonder if they are alright afterwards. I rather not have to worry about a pony getting killed in this game because they suffered from broken ribs and punctured organs in silence because they didn't want to say anything.

Enforcing the rule of a medic must always be in attendance for the jousting game is a blessing, in the past whenever the Crystal Faire came there was always somepony getting injured, a few times there was even a death or two. But now that I have enforced this rule to the faire and all games that are possibly dangerous, the amount of those getting seriously injured have dropped dramatically and those that would have died would now just be bedridden and be out for a few weeks to recover.

Grinning at the sight of ponies jousting got a chuckle out of me and I went back on my merry way, walking carefully as to not bump into any of the crystal ponies as I kept my eyes peeled for the equestrians along with my friends that are mingling with the citizenry.

'So many happy ponies, this is what Celestia and Luna had to deal with whenever they go out into the public light. They know that I am keeping them safe, their happiness is paramount to my rule and I'll be damned if they take it away from me without a fight!'

It was during my thoughts that I was interrupted when a young pony was tapping on my leg who was trying to get my attention and when I turned my head to look down at them I saw that it was a young unicorn colt.

Kneeling down to get closer to the young pony I saw that they had a rolled up scroll being held in their mouth, this little pony was still too young to reliably use magic.

Taking the scroll from the colt's mouth I broke the wax seal on it and read its contents, it was a message Lord Cog of House Arcana, he said that the project I have given to him back before stasis spell was dropped was back on schedule. When I first came to this world the only use of magic was from unicorns and from the two alicorns, but when I introduced the idea of Magitek I was laughed at because they said it would never work.

But now, they street lamps are powered by magitek, fire-elementally charged crystals encased in a metal and class cage, the refrigeration cabinets now keeps food from spoiling with the assistance of ice-elementally charged crystals, and soon enough I can rule the skies with the airship designs I sent to Lord Cog.

Patting the little colt on the head before reaching to my waist to grab a small coin pouch and passed to the colt a few coins for service rendered. The happy colt trotted off with a bounce in his step as he trotted off into the crowd, a few coins richer for his troubles.

Some would say that conducting my private business in public is a stupid thing to do, but the only thing I am doing is passing along messages and paying the couriers they proper due for their services, and I made sure that no one can properly figure out what is written on the parchment by giving different ciphers to those I work with. I give them the cipher and the coded message, and they send me an equally coded message using the cipher I gave them.

Only once did my messages get intercepted by an overzealous guard captain, and when he couldn't decipher what was written in the scroll did he pass it along to me, hoping to get me to decode it for him. All I did was have him...removed from his position in New Providence and sent to the port city of Fetlock Deep.

Last I heard from him, he was having trouble dealing with unruly sailors who get drunk on the mead they sell in their taverns. Not a problem for a warden to come out and solve.

With my business concluded I went back to participating in the faire, playing games of darts, a brief round of Tug-of-War, that strange game where you try to throw hoops around a plastic/wooden duck's head and you get a prize according to the color painted on its bottom, hell I even went and tried to do a round of jousting but well...

"I am sorry sir but you are just too big to be a part of the competition." The referee said and in all honesty I had to agree with him, I am like, easily four times his size and I don't go down so easily so for all intents and purposes, I would have the home field advantage.

"It is alright, I guess I will forever hold the title of 'Stonewall'." I said with a smirk as I remembered that in the past when I was actually allowed to participate in the jousting tournament, nobody was able to beat me.

Of course my smirk caught the referee's attention as he snapped me out of it.

"Last time I checked sir, Princess Luna was able to knock you over so you don't have the title anymore."

"The only reason I was knocked over was that the equestrian princess was flying at me from a high angle and at a high rate of speed, that she used magic to yank my feet out from under me." And she was using a battering ram instead of a lance.

That fucking battering ram exploded on me but it still did its job.

"Whatever you say sir." The referee said with a chuckle before going back to joust.

Shaking my head at the stallion I left the jousting tournament and kept on going around checking on everything, I had to do my rounds as the day went on.

Eventually the sun was beginning to fall towards the horizon, signaling to the empire that nightfall was imminent and that the night festivities was going to be beginning soon.

Ponies were still playing with some of the games that the faire was providing, but now that it was night time the crystal ponies were now setting up for the astrology teachings along with a class on teaching the citizens on to find their way around by using the stars as a guide.

In all this not only was good for the citizens to learn but it also made the princess of the moon teary eyed as she watched this going on. From what I could gleam from her the few times we spoke, it would seem that the ponies of equestrian have all but forgotten about the night and what it entails but with a few well-spoken and well-placed words I had the lunar diarchal ruler embracing me in a hug as she cried into my shoulder.

It would seem that a thousand years on the moon paying for her sins and being forgotten by pretty much the world has done more damage to her than anyone could have guessed. By telling her that the crystal ponies haven't forgotten her duty of protecting their minds at night from those with malicious intent and also to help them fight of their night terrors when they couldn't do it themselves.

Sure the entire Crystal Empire hates the both of them for abandoning them to Sombra's mad brief reign but most of the ponies, especially the young ones, they have not forgotten that it was her that kept them safe from nightmares.

With the night portion of the faire starting to go into full swing I went back to participating in some of the games, even going so far as to playing a role in a puppet show.

I don't know ponies can do it but with a sock on their hoof they manage to somehow make the head of the puppet do that whole yapping head motion.

My citizens were amused, the pink equestrian seemed to be ecstatic, the rest seemed to be only mildly amused with it with the exception of the cyan pegasus who looks like that she is asleep. Rolling my eyes at the sleeping rude mare I left my spot from behind the stage and went over to meet the crowd and to ask them if they have enjoyed themselves this night.

Once my citizens have finished talking to me, thanking me for participating in the puppet show and also for helping with the festival I retired back to the palace with my entourage. The equestrian delegation followed closely behind me, the six young mares talking amongst themselves, the three alicorn princesses were oddly silent and for a moment I thought that they weren't behind us but they were, they just weren't talking.

Like at all, they were just staring forward and trotting, probably they were speaking through the assistance of telepathy to keep their conversation private and secret.

'Whatever you three are planning to do, please do try to upset it, give me a reason to use this as leverage against you and your nation.'

Tomorrow, the day of blood and true contests will begin.

I wonder if any of the equestrians will be foolish enough to partake in any of them.