I walked onto the rear veranda of the carriage and climbed up the ladder to the roof, Minion and Vinyl were close behind me, I stood on the roof and my jaw dropped, flying next to the train was a colossal white ice dragon, at least 200 feet from head to tail, with a 50 foot wing span, running along his back and tail was a row if spines that each resembled jagged ice crystsals and it had a great spiny frill on the back of its head, resembling half of a giant snowflake, I could see Autumn flying around it taking pot-shots, mostly trying to distract it from attacking the train.

“Holy shit, that thing is huge!” I heard minion say, his bulky black and gunmetal armour reflecting the moonlight as he climbed up on to the roof.

“Welcome to Terra” I said “where every mythical monster is real and will try to kill you”

“So that is an actual dragon?” he asked.

“Yes, but this type usually never comes this far south of the frozen north” I raised my pistol, and Minion raised his arm mounted cannon “Brother, see if you can get a clear shot at its wings, we need to try and ground it”

“You mean we aren’t going to kill it?” he asked, a little surprised.

“If Celestia has trouble taking down an ice drake, then what chance have we got” I said, shrugging, I saw Vinyl climb up, a spell rifle held in her magic.

“Vinyl, aim for its eyes” I said “when I say, we open fire” I waited a few seconds until Autumn was out of shot.

“FEUER FREI! (FIRE AT WILL!)” I shouted and fired my pistol, hitting it in the jaw, Vinyl aimed her rifle and fired a burst of 3 shots at the dragons eye, I saw it rupture and the dragon let out a roar of rage and pain

“Good hit” Minion said, before he fired his cannon, sending a blue ball of plasma streaking towards its wing joint, the shot impacted against the joint, causing the wing to go limp and the dragon fell out of the sky towards the ground, the dragon impacted with the ground, causing the train to shake, the train gradually came to a stop and we climbed down to the ground, Autumn flew other and landed in front of us.

“Good work” she said, the air suddenly started to ripple and Luna teleported into view.

“What happened?” she asked, walking towards the dragon, who was trying to get back up.

“The dragon attacked the train, we grounded it” I said, the rest of us started walking after her.

“Without killing it!?” she said, surprise evident in her voice.

“Something that big?” I asked, pointing to the dragon.

“Good point” she said, we reached the dragon and Luna motioned with a wing for us to stop, she then walked slowly forward.

“Dragon” she said, the dragons stopped and turned to look at her.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT, PONY?” he rumbled, narrowing his eyes

“As their ruler I was merely curious as to why you attacked their transport” she said, realisation riddled the dragons face.

“THAT WAS A TRANSPORT!” he exclaimed “FORGIVE ME, YOUR MAJESTY, I HAVE ONLY JUST AWOKEN FROM A SLUMBER, WHEN I FIRST ENTERED THE SLUMBER, YOU WERE STILL USING CARTS”

“But why did you attack?” Luna asked.

“I THOUGHT IT WAS SOME MANNER OF CREATURE” he said, making a sound that could be likened to a nervous chuckle “I WAS UNABLE TO FIND ANY CRYSTALS, AND WAS I QUITE HUNGRY” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Very well dragon” Luna said.

“IF YOU WOUD BE SO KIND, COULD YOU PLEASE HEAL MY WOUNDS, I UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE JUST A RESULT OF THE PONIES PROTECTING THEMSELVES” The dragon said, Luna thought for a moment.

“On one condition” she said.

“ANYTHING” The Dragon said

“You are to transport these travellers” she said pointing to us “wherever they wish to go”

“OF COURSE YOUR MAJESTY” he said, bowing his head to the ground, Luna nodded, and her horn started to glow, soon the dragon looked as good as new “THANK YOU”

“It was nothing” she said with a shrug, she then turned to us “I will send a message ahead to all the countries that you wish to visit, just to warn them”

“Thank you so much” I said, bowing “now we just need to get our…” she lit up her horn briefly and our bags, Scar and Boris appeared in front of us, the latter two looking quite confused.

“Never mind” I muttered, I walked over to my rucksack and got my winter cloak out, I put it on with a flourish before picking up my rucksack and walking towards the dragon

“How did you get that?” Minion asked.

“I had it made for me, if ever we end up near Ponyville, remind me and I’ll take to the Mare that made it for me” I said, he nodded before getting out his tattered old cloak and putting that on, I walked up to the dragon.

“What is your name?” I called to him.

“IN YOUR TUNGUE I AM KNOWN AS FROSTFANG” he said, he then moved his head towards me until his shadow blocked out the moonlight “AND WHAT MIGHT AN…INTERESTING LITTLE…CREATURE SUCH AS YOU BE CALLED?”

“On this world I am known as Vuur Koning” I then began listing off everyone else “and this is my brother, Minion”

“Hi” Minion said with a casual waive.

“My close friend, Autumn Skies”

“Hello” she said, trying not to look intimidated by the dragon’s massive size.

“My other friend, Vinyl Scratch”

“Sup” Vinyl said with a waive.

“My hunting timberwolf, Scar, and my messenger falcon, Boris” as I said this Boris took off and landed on my shoulder, and Scar walked up to me and stood next to me.

“TRULY A UNIQUE GROUP OF TRAVELLERS” Frostfang said “WELL, WHERE DO YOU WISH TO GO?”

“Take us as close as you can to the Crystal Empire within the next 3 hours and then find shelter, we’ll continue on tomorrow” I said, he nodded before hunkering down and lowering a wing to provide a makeshift ramp.

“I’LL TAKE YOU TO MY LAIR, IT SHOULD BE CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE SITE OF THE OLD EMPIRE” he said, I nodded before climbing up onto his back, everyone else except for Autumn climbed on.

“Aren’t you going to climb on?” I asked her, she shook her head.

“I haven’t had a good long flight in quite a while” she said, I nodded and she took off, circling around Frostfang, Boris took off as well, flying by Autumn’s side

“HOLD ON, LITTLE ONES” The dragon boomed, I quickly grabbed hold of Scar just as the dragon took off, quickly accelerating until the railway line was just a silver strip in the moonlight.

“Holy Fantasia!” I exclaimed, the dragon chuckled.

“I MAY BE BIG, BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME SLOW OR CUMBERSOME LIKE SOME OLDER DRAGONS” he said.

“How old are you?” I shouted over the wind.

“ONLY A MERE 150 YEARS OLD”

“Only!?” I heard Minion exclaim, Frostfang nodded

“SOME DRAGONS LIVE TO BE WELL OVER 1000 YEARS OLD, SO I AM LIKE A TEENAGER COMPAIRED TO OTHER DRAGONS” he said

“So for reference, 10 actual years for every metaphorical dragon year?” I asked, Frostfang nodded.

“MORE OR LESS” he said, we were now above the cloud cover and I could see the stars in perfect clarity.

“Oh wow” Minion said.

“This is one thing I prefer about Terra over Earth” I said “you can actually see all the stars, it never gets old” I then went over the different constellations with him, with Autumn of Frostfang helping to explain every now and again, eventually Frostfang began to descend, when we got below the cloud cover I could see that the ground was covered in snow and in the distance I could see a bubble of some sort, with a castle made of crystal inside.

“Is that…?” I heard Minion ask, trailing off halfway through the question.

“Yep” I responded “that’s the Crystal Empire”

“That place is fucking huge!” he said.

“Wait till you see it up close” I said “from what I’ve heard, it’s pretty spectacular” Frostfang started to bank away from the Empire, heading towards some mountains on the horizon, after about half an hour we were flying in the shadow of the mountains, Autumn and Boris drifted towards us and eventually landed on Frostfang, the former sitting next to me and the latter perching on my shoulder.

“Enjoy your flight?” I asked Autumn, she just nodded and leaned against me, closing her eyes with a sigh, I put my arm around her, still holding onto Scar with the other, and leaned against her, Frostfang soon landed on a giant ledge, I nudged Autumn and she stirred with a start, having fallen asleep in the 5 minutes between her landing next to me and Frostfang landing on the ledge.

“DON’T GET OFF YET, WE STILL HAVE SOME WAY TO GO” Frostfang said in his usual booming voice, he started plodding into the cave, his footsteps echoing off of the walls, it soon grew pitch black and I was unable to see my hands in front of my face, but it only lasted a moment, Frostfang snapped his claws and torches ignited into pale blue flames, spreading along the walls of the cave, in the distance I could see the cave open into a large cavern, when Frostfang reached the cavern my jaw dropped, it was biblical in proportions, it seemed to go on for miles, and there was a massive pile of gold, I heard Frostfang chuckle.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” he said in a relative whisper, none of us could form the words to answer, Frostfang walked over to a section of the cavern that had a groove in the ground and lowered his wing for us to climb down, I walked down and placed my rucksack on the floor.

I sat on the ground with my back against a pile of gold, Autumn walked over and sat beside me, once again leaning against me, and once again I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close, she snuggled into me and closed her eyes, signing contentedly, within a few moments her breathing became regular, signalling that she had fallen asleep, I heard Frostfang chuckle, I looked up to see him lying in the indent in the ground, watching us.

“I take it you two are together then” he whispered, I nodded.

“What are you going to do with all this gold?” I asked, he rested his snout and hummed in thought.

“we might as well take it” he said, shrugging, I gawped “I have something for transporting it”

“You’re going to need a ship to transport all of this” I said, he chuckled at that.

“Actually” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You have a ship, to transport all of this?” a heard Minion ask, Frostfang nodded before getting up and quietly walking behind a particularly large mound of gold, next thing I know I see Frostfang wearing some reins attached to a colossal airborne battleship, think ‘Freedom of the Seas’ and times by 20, that sort of size, I nudged Autumn awake and her jaw dropped when she saw the ship.

“Originally she had a crew” Frostfang whispered, running his hand along the side of the ship “there were once entire companies dedicated to providing transport and protection for a dragons horde, the ship was complimentary, as long as the company got a percentage of the horde, the crew went back to their families when I settled down here”

“When you say protection you mean this has guns?” Vinyl asked, Frostfang nodded.

“Enough to blow any ships foolish enough to attack, clean out of the sky” he whispered, chuckling

“No name” I noted.

“I never got around to giving it one” he whispered “now, how would you all feel about becoming my new crew?” Minion walked forwards.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say, hell yes” he said, we all nodded in agreement.

“Then it’s settled” The dragon whispered, smiling “I get a crew, and you get to travel the world, but first, you all need a good night’s sleep, you can stay on the ship” he them walked over, picked us and our belongings up and deposited us on the deck of the ship, the decking was in remarkably good condition

“How has it lasted this long?” I asked.

“MAGIC” the dragon said, shrugging, he then ushered us towards the steps to the sleeping accommodation “NOW GO ON, OFF TO BED, I’LL MOVE THE HORDE WHILE YOU SLEEP” as we walked down the steps I heard I generator kick into life and lights started to turn on, I looked for a map, found one and followed it towards the high class accommodation, everyone else following close behind, Autumn and I ended up choosing the captains quarters at the very rear of the ship, it was more like a small house, than the room of a ship, there were several floors and rooms, and a balcony at the very rear of the ship, the bedroom was like a room fit for royalty, with an en-suite bathroom, which had something resembling a private swimming pool rather than a bath, the bedroom itself had a writing desk in one corner and a king size double bed, there was also a bookshelf with old navigational charts, some of them in better condition than others, Boris flew to a coat hanger and Scar laid down beside the bed, I saw Autumn sluggishly climb into bed so I walked around turning off all of the lights before retiring for the night.

---

I woke up the next morning to find Autumn absent from the bed, Boris and Scar were missing as well, I got up and got dressed into my armour and put on my winter cloak before walking onto the balcony, we were still in the cavern, which was now empty, I quickly made my way to the top deck, I noticed for the first time that there were massive guns all the way along the length of the ship, they had angular armour and I subconsciously noted the pot marks on the odd one or two of them.

“AH, I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU WOULD WAKE UP, LITTLE ONE” I heard Frostfang boom, I turned around to see him looking at me, along with everyone else, boris flew over and landed on my shoulder

“Is everything packed away?” I asked.

“With room to spare” Minion said, the amusement clear in his voice “the hold is like a fucking cave, and they have mobile cranes in there”

“Really!?” I asked, not even trying to hide my surprise.

“I’ll show you when we get under way” he said.

“SPEEKING OF WHICH” the dragon said “BEFORE WE SET SAIL, I BELIEVE THIS SHIP DESERVES A NAME, PERHAPS YOU CAN THINK OF ONE, VUUR KONING?” I thought for a moment before deciding.

“How about… ‘The Jörmungandr’ (read as Yormungander)” I suggested, Minions eyes lit up in realisation.

“I second that” he said, the others just looked confused.

“What the buck is a Jörmungandr?” Vinyl asked “it sounds something from griffin culture”

“Jörmungandr” I explained “otherwise known as the ‘Midgard serpent’ or ‘World Serpent’, stems from Norse mythology, very similar to griffin mythology, according to legend, Jörmungandr was a giant sea serpent that was so long it wrapped around the equator and swallowed its own tail, the Norse believed that the world would end when their god of thunder; Thor, would do battle Jörmungandr, killing both of them in the process, Jörmungandr was huge, this ship is huge, and both me and Minion feel that it suits this ship” when I finished my little lesion on Norse mythology everyone nodded in agreement.

“THEN IT IS AGREED” Frostfang said, his hands glowing with blue magic “HENCE FORTH, THIS SHIP SHALL BE KNOW AS… JÖRMUNGANDR: THE MIDGARD SERPENT” as he finished this he pounded his fists together and a wave of blue magic washed over the ship.

“What just happened?” I asked “other than the temperature dropping by about 20°” the dragon chuckled before saying.

“THIS SHIP NOW BARES ITS NEW NAME” he then walked over to the harness attached to the ship and put it on “NOW, I DO BELIEVE WE HAVE DELAYED FOR FAR TOO LONG” he then began to pull the colossal ship towards the corridor leading to the exit, he pulled it through the corridor very gingerly, there was only about 20 meters to spare on each side, we soon reached the exit and Frostfang slowly took off, the weight of the cargo slowing him down somewhat, but within a few minutes we were cruising along at a comfortable pace. I could see the crystal Empire in the distance, it wold probably take us a few hours to get there so I made my way to the captains quarters and began to unpack my stuff, putting all of my normal clothes into some clothes-draws, I then put the spell rifles into a cabinet for safe keeping, which I locked up, I then placed my laptop on the writing desk and plugged it in to charge, I was pleased to see the charging symbol display on the screen, I then put my books on magic spells on the bookshelf, with all of my stuff unpacked and in their proper places I put my spell pistol in its leather hilt on my chest, and my sword on my back, with that done I went to go and explore the ship, with Scar by my side and Boris on my shoulder, I soon made my way to the bridge.

On a Horde ship, there isn’t a helm, so the bridge is mainly used for communications and navigation, and also to direct the engine room; which control the engines to take the strain off of the dragon pulling it and for docking without the dragon, it is possible to pilot a horde ship without a dragon to pull it, but it is extremely difficult and requires year of experience from both the captain and the crew of the engine room, at the moment our total crew was 4, with 0 experience on a horde ship, Autumn, Minion and Vinyl were all on the bridge, checking things like charts and communications, Vinyl was flipping through the channels on the radio used for communicating with ports and other ships, as was to be expected there wasn’t much chatter on the radio, and Minion and Autumn were going through the navigational charts.

“Anyone need any help?” I asked, Vinyl looked up from the console.

“Go down to the engine room and see it the radio link between here and there works” she said, I nodded before quickly making my way deeper into the ship, the walls and walkways went from a clean white to a dingy gunmetal, I soon reached the boiler room, the boiler was massive, about 12 feet in diameter, I looked at the gauges to find that, as was to be expected, there was no boiler pressure, I found the communications area and turned on the radio.

“Vinyl Scratch, this is Vuur Koning, can you hear me?” I asked, speaking into the microphone, after a few moments of silence the speaker crackled into life.

“Good gods, Vuur Koning, you scared the shit out of me!” Vinyl yelled through the speakers, I burst out laughing “laugh it up, Monkey boy” I heard laughter in the background of Vinyl’s end.

“Autumn!” I shouted “I told you not to tell them” the laughter continued.

“Did the guards really call him that during his training?” I heard Minion ask.

“For fucks sake” I said “yes, they called me ‘Monkey boy’, and I can hear you, anyway, I guess this means that the radio works”

“O.K.” I heard Vinyl say before the radio clicked off into static, I then went to go and explore, I’ll admit, it was a little bit creepy down here, seeing something that should be bustling with life, so empty, I heard Scar whine, I looked down at him to see him looking down the corridor, ears pinned back.

“Easy boy” I said, patting him in the side, before walking down the corridor, Scar followed closely, actually walking with his side against my leg, he whole demeanour suggested he was on edge, and it put me on edge as well, I soon came to a corner in the corridor and when I followed it, all of the uneasiness, the sense of foreboding, just stopped, that unsettled me even more, I quickly ran back up to the bridge and burst through the doors, Minion took note of my appearance.

“Bloody hell, you look like you’ve seen a ghost” he said

“All off you need to follow me, now!” I said, they all looked confused “just trust me” then looked amongst themselves uncertainly before walking towards me.

“Show us then” Autumn said.

---

“You what?” Minion asked.

“I kid you not, I walked along this corridor” I said, pointing to the corridor near the boiler room “and I felt really uneasy, Scar felt it as well, we walked around the corner and all the feelings stopped, it’s really weird”

“I think you’ve just gotten scared from being down here alone” Vinyl said, smirking, she then reared up and waived her front hooves around “woo-o-o-oh, the scary corridor is coming to get you”

“O.K. then, if your so brave, why don’t you go down there” I said, smirking, her expression hardened and she dropped onto all four hooves before walking down the corridor.

“See, nothing to…” she trailed off when she walked past one of the doors, she stopped dead in her tracks and I could actually see her going pale.

“Vinyl…?” I asked, she didn’t answer, I walked towards her, ignoring he feeling of dread as best I could, I looked at her face to see her frozen in fear, I then grabbed her and pulled her back towards the rest of the group, once I pulled her out of the corridor she seemed to snap out of her trance and the colour started to return to her.

“Vinyl, are you ok?” I asked.

“I’m never going down there again” she said, her eyes reduced to pinpricks her whole body shivering “there’s something in one of these doors…” she shuddered.

“O.K. then” I said “no body or pony goes down there until we land at the Crystal Empire and have some guards come with us to investigate, agreed?” everyone nodded, including Boris and Scar.

“Let’s get the buck out of here” Autumn said, before turning and walking up the steps to the top deck.

---

After a few hours we were close to the Crystal Empire and the immense size of the palace was becoming apparent, we were all on the bridge when the radio crackled into life.

“Unidentified armed air-vessel, do you copy, I repeat, unidentified armed air vessel, do you copy, state you identification and intention, over?” I walked over to the radio and spoke into the microphone.

“This is captain Vuur Koning of the dragon-hauled horde-ship ‘The Jörmungandr’, reading you loud and clear, are intentions are strictly Non-hostile, I repeat, Non-hostile, Princess Luna of Equestria should have sent Price Shining Armour and Princess Cadence a message alerting them of our arrival, we are a group of four with a dragon called Frostfang, over”

“Roger that, Captain Vuur Koning, please hold you position while we verify you claim, out” the radio clicked off and I ran outside.

“Frostfang!” I shouted, the dragon looked back at me “Air traffic control wants us to stop while they verify our identity” Frostfang nodded and I could feel the ship begin to slow down and descend, I quickly ran back to the bridge just as the radio crackled into life once more.

“Captain Vuur Koning of the horde-ship ‘The Jörmungandr’, do you copy?” the stallion at air traffic control said, I walked over to the microphone.

“This is Captain Vuur Koning, reading you loud and clear, over?”

“You have been cleared for entry into the dock, but you must wait for an escort, over?” in the distance I could see several small airships making their way towards us.

“Roger that, waiting for escort, out” I said, before walking back out.

“Frostfang” I called, the dragon looked at me, I pointed to the ships in the distance “those ships are our escort into the docks, when they get close enough, follow them” Frostfang nodded and I walked back to the bridge, within a few minutes the ships were close enough and I saw Frostfang begin to take off, I felt the ship shift as we slowly started to ascend, I walked outside to see that we were being escorted by five smaller ships, each one about 25 meters long, the crew of one ship were looking at our ship in awe, I noticed that they were crystal ponies, I waved to them and they waived back cheerfully

“Good day” I shouted.

“Gothur dagur” one of them shouted back, I did a double take, I then called to the bridge of our ship.

“Autumn, I’m going to need you help with this” I shouted, everyone came running over.

“What’s up?” Autumn asked.

“Say good morning to them” I said.

“Um, o.k.” she said, before shouting “Good morning!”

“Gothur Dagur” came the response, Minion just scoffed before walking up to the railing and waiving.

“halló, hvernig ert thú allt í dag” he said, the crew on the other ship cheered and we all stared at him, slack jawed “what? I knew a couple of lasses who spoke Icelandic, which is what they’re speaking”

“You speak Crystallion!?” Autumn said “until recently it was a dead language”

“I speak Icelandic” he said shrugging “but you call it ‘Crystallion’” we soon began to pass other air-ships, some resembled blimps, such as small private air-ships built for the wealthy, but others, like those of the Equestrian Royal Navy and our ship, looked like flying battleships, some of the freighters actually dwarfed our ship by several hundred meters, but we were still amongst the larger of the ships out there, I noticed Minions expression.

“you should see the air-port at Canterlot” I said “they have ships that make those ones look small”

“How do they manage to stay in the air?” he asked, wide eyed

“An arcane generator that is enchanted to effect the mass of the ship, rendering it weightless, they can affect the altitude of the ship by ether increasing or decreasing its output” Autumn said “on the largest ones they can have up to ten of them, this only has two”

“What if they run out of power?” he asked.

“They don’t” Vinyl said “they tap into the same arcane field that unicorns and Vuur Koning uses, they still need a boiler to power the propellers, so they have to dock for coal, but they can collect water by flying through the clouds, if it runs out of water they vent the boiler and drift towards a cloud” the escort soon led us into an empty bay and Frostfang unhitched himself from the harness.

“IT FEELS GOOD TO REST mY WINGS AFTER A LONG FLIGHT LIKE THAT” he boomed as he stepped away from the ship, he then snapped his fingers and…started to shrink, soon he was about the height of me or Minion, we stared at him slack jawed.

“What, did you think I would walk around a populated city as a 200 foot dragon?” he said, his speech not quite so booming, he walked towards us “shall we disembark” we nodded and walked towards one of the bridges from ship to the docks, I could see a white unicorn with a blue mane and a pink Alicorn standing on the dock, we walked up to them and stopped.

“I am Prince Shining Armour and this is Princess Me Amore Cadenza” the unicorn said “and as the rulers of this land, we would like to welcome you to the Crystal Empire”

“Thank you” I said, walking forward and bowing “I am Vuur Koning, I’m sure that either Celestia or Luna sent a message to tell you of our arrival”

“Yes” the prince said “although they forgot to mention the air-ship”

“It belongs to Frostfang” I said, pointing to the dragon

“But you said you were the captain” Shining Armour said, narrowing his eyes.

“He’s usually a lot bigger and pulls the ship, I’m the captain of the actual ship and crew” I said “all 4 of us” the Prince continued to scrutinize me for a few moments before his expression softened

“Is that all?” Princess Cadenza asked, the surprise clear in her voice, I nodded.

“We didn’t set out on our journey expecting to be the crew of a ship” I said “in fact, originally it was just me, Autumn, my messenger falcon and my hunting timberwolf that set out with the intention of traveling the world” the princess raised a hoof, silencing me before I could continue

“Please, you can tell us more about your adventure over lunch” she said “I’m sure you are hungry and don’t want to spend the whole of your visit in the docks”

Next Chapter: Chapter 15 Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 35 Minutes