“So Vuur Koning” Princess Cadenza said, taking a sip of some form of soup “why don’t you tell us your story, from the beginning?” we were all sat at a table made of crystal, having a light lunch.

“Very well then” I said, and so I began retelling my tale from when I first arrived in Equestria, right up to when we set off in the horde ship.

“Your journey has certainly been an eventful one” Shining Armour said, sipping on some wine.

“Oh, this is just the start of it” I said “we plan to visit every country, except for the Changeling Empire”

“Good choice” Shining Armour said “keep as far away from changelings as possible”

“Why?” I asked “the only reason I’m not going to their Empire is because I would rather not risk us getting into danger, if relations between Equestria and the Changeling Empire weren’t so poor then I would go in a heartbeat”

“Why would you even want to go to a country responsible for invading Equestria?” Shining Armour asked.

“Yes, but I wasn’t there, and did you ever think why they might have invaded?” I said “Changelings feed on love, correct?” they both nodded.

“Well maybe they had a shortage of love, yes it was a stupid decision to invade when they could have simply asked for aid” I said.

“How did you come to a conclusion like that?” Princess Cadenza asked.

“I like to see war from both sides, to quote Sun Tzu” I said, sipping my cider before continuing “if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles, if you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you shall also suffer a defeat, if you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”

“Where did you here that?” Shining Armour asked.

“A book called the art of war” I said “I’ll give you it before we leave”

“It’s a good book” Minion interjected “I would definitely recommend it”

“I’ll give it a read then” Shining Armour said.

“And create copies to supply amongst your barracks and to your allies” I suggested “if your allies know as well, then you can work together to defeat the enemy through superior tactics, although it does take a couple of reads to understand properly, I still don’t understand the whole ‘breaking the enemies resistance without fighting’ part” I then took a gulp of cider

“What?” Shining Armour said, looking confused.

“Exactly” I said.

“Because, my dear, younger brother” Minion said, sipping a glass of whiskey “you should pay more attention to what it says, once you get down to it, it’s incredibly simple, if a little cryptic at times”

“How can something be simple and cryptic at the same time” Shining Armour asked, my brother just shrugged whilst taking a sip of whiskey, he put the glass down

“Read it and you’ll understand” My brother said “our world’s greatest leaders read it, the worst ones read it and misunderstood it by miles”

“That’s a scary thought” Vinyl said.

“Oh, that reminds me” I said “Prince shining armour?”

“Yes?” he asked.

“I need some of your guards to investigate something, we don’t know what it is, but it’s in a very specific part of our ship, it made me very uneasy and it made Vinyl frozen with fear, and once you walk past the area the feeling just…” I snapped my fingers to demonstrate “disappears” Frostfang stood up.

“Why didn’t you tell me of this sooner?” he asked, more out of worry than anger.

“In all honesty I totally forgot” I admitted sheepishly, Shining Armour held up a hand for silence, the expression on his face could best be described as troubled.

“I’ll assemble a team to investigate” he said “we’ll go after lunch”

“Alright, this is the place” I said, leading the team of guards, led by Shining armour, to the corridor in question “Can you feel it, the sense of foreboding?” Shining armour nodded.

“Show me where it’s at its worst” he said, I pointed to the first door in the corridor “O.K. you lot stay behind my team” with that his team started to move forward, I instinctively reached for my pistol, and Scar was whining softly, one of the guards opened the door and stepped back in fear, Shining Armour looked, for lack of a better word, shocked.

“Impossible…” he trailed off.

“What is it?” Frostfang asked, walking down the corridor unflinchingly, as if the emotions of the corridor didn’t affect him.

“This…” he said, levitating over a silver helmet, the feeling grew stronger as he did so “…is all that is left of King Sombra’s original armour, but how did it get here?” he then looked at Frostfang.

“I have no idea” the dragon said “it’s possible that…” but whatever he was about to say was cut off by a sinister chuckling, it echoed through the corridors, smoke started to envelope the helmet and the guards started to back away, I drew my sword and Autumn and Minion did the same, Shining Armour released the helmet from his grasp and ran towards us, drawing his sword, the smoke started to swirl around the helmet, I could see a shape start to form, the smoke cleared revealing a dark pony, I also noticed that part of his horn was missing.

“I have returned” the Pony said.

“Who are you?” I said, stepping forward, pulling out my pistol and pointing it at the stallion, who simply chuckled.

“You are an interesting one” he said “I am King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire…”

“Really?” I said, not very convinced “because I do believe the ruler of the Crystal Empire is standing over here” the pony snarled.

“You dare to speak unless spoken to”

“Oh, what exactly are you going to do?” I asked.

“Be silent!” he shouted.

“Or what?” I asked, putting my pistol and sword away and crossing my arms, I saw Minion do the same, the stallion didn’t respond “go on then, tell me what you are going to do” I began to walk towards the so called king.

“I will make you suffer” he said, I just chuckled darkly.

“I would like to see you try” I said walking in front of the pony, my brother walked beside me, I then opened my arms “go on, I’ll give you a free hit” he seemed taken aback by this at first, he then chuckled before saying.

“Very well” and with that he went to punch me with a forehoof, just before he made contact I turned to one side, grabbed the outstretched hoof and flung him down the corridor towards the guards, elbowing him in the back using my free hand as I flung him, he sprawled on the floor.

“You dare touch me” he said, trying to get up, I started walking towards him, my brother went to follow but I motioned for him to stop.

“you lot are all the same” I said “you think you’re the best there is, but when push comes to shove, you hide behind your smoke and mirrors, anyone can take over an Empire, but it takes a true leader to rule it” as I said this I picked him up by what was let of his horn, he wrapped his hooves around my arm, trying to support himself, I brought him close to my face and looked him dead in the eyes.

“You are not a king, and you never were, what you are is a tyrant and a murderer” I then brought him so close that our fore heads touched “and I hate tyrants, your power is nothing compared to my hate for you” I chucked him at the ground towards the guards, I then walked over before kneeling down and picked him up by the throat to whisper in his ear.

“If I see you this side of a dungeon again, will hunt you down, I will find you, I will kill you as slowly and as painfully as possible, and then, I will cook you up in a stew and eat you” I then let him drop to the ground, he looked as pale as his armour, I then stood up and looked at the guards

“You know what to do with him” I said before turning and walking past them up the steps to the top deck and leaning on the railings, a few moments later I saw the guards drag the former king up the steps bound in chains, as they dragged him past I snarled at him, his terror stricken eyes were the last I saw of him before he was dragged off the ship, I heard shining armour walk up behind me, followed by my friends, Scar walked up to me and sat by my side, I patted him on the head

“Whilst I can’t say I agree with you methods” Shining Armour said, chuckling slightly “I will say that I am grateful for you helping to bring him to justice, you and you friends are always welcome in the Crystal Empire from now on”

“Trust me, if you weren’t there I would have done a lot worse to him” I said.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Ever hear of Keelhauling?” I asked, Minion winced with a hiss, Shining Armour shook his head “It’s what the sea faring pirates of my world used to do for punishment, don’t believe the ‘walking the plank’ bullshit, what they actually did was much worse, they would have sailed towards a reef or some rocks in shallow waters, and before the went through the reef they would have taken the guilty, tied a long rope to his arms and legs, dropped him off the side of the ship, pulled him underneath the ship using the rope and then leave him here as they sailed over the reef” when I finished Shining armour looked pale.

“That’s a bit excessive, don’t you think?” he said, I shook my head “Anyway, my previous statement still stands, you can stay as long as you like, and you can stay in the guest rooms in the castle”

“Thank you” I said, nodding to him, I suddenly remembered something “oh. Just a second” I then walked down towards my living quarters, I quickly grabbed a book from the bookshelf, I quickly ran back up and handed him the book.

“The art of War” he read off of the cover “I’ll read it when I have time” with that he walked off of the deck of the ship and back towards the castle, we soon disembarked from the ship and made our way towards the market.

We were currently in the Market place, Frostfang was absent as he was currently still at the docks, looking for crew and supplies, using his own horde to pay for it, Boris and Scar were currently ‘watching’ the ship so we were free to get whatever we wanted, we were mostly shopping for gifts and trinkets, so we had split off from each other, I was currently looking for a gift for Autumn, I found a nice little shop selling jewellery suck as rings and necklaces, the crystal pony stallion that was minding the shop walked over to me

“Hello, can I help you with anything?” he asked in a Crystallian accent.

“Yes” I said “I have a friend that I care deeply about and I wish to get her a necklace” the stallion nodded.

“I think I have just the one you want” he said before picking up a necklace with a red ruby encased in two metal feathered wings, making a heart shape.

“It’s perfect” I said, I passed him the necessary bits and he put it into a small box, which I put in the pocket in my cloak, I thanked the pony before stepping out of the shop and into the streets, searching for something to get one of the others, as I was walking along I saw a music shop with, low and behold, electric guitars in the front window.

“Well, now I know what to get by brother” I said to myself as I walked through the front door, inside it was a musicians heaven, most of the more well-known types of instrument were available, I saw a rather nice looking matte-black flying-vee type guitar that was being sold with a medium sized amp, for a rather good price as well, I picked up the guitar to get a feel of what it was made of, I couldn’t play for shit, but I knew a well-made guitar when I saw, and heard it, I turned to the griffin minding the shop.

“Do you mind?” I asked “I’m getting it for a friend, and I just want to see how it sounds” the griffin nodded.

“Do you play?” he asked.

“Can’t play a riff to save my life, but, I do know when a guitar has a good tone to it” I said, the Griffin walked over.

“Pass it here” he said, he then began to strum off a few different riffs, demonstrating how it sounded with different playing styles, and needless to say, it was an amazing guitar, the tone was perfect “how’s that?”

“I think he’ll like this one” I said, I took my rucksack off of my back and paid the griffin before putting the guitar and amp in my rucksack, I also bought a crystal guitar pick

“Is your friend currently visiting the Crystal Empire” the griffin asked.

“Yes” I replied.

“Send him my way some time” the griffin said “I wouldn’t mind hearing him play”

“Will do” I said “skal” and with that I walked out of the shop, I soon found another music shop, this time selling stuff like C.D.s and head phones, I bought some headphones for the four of us, I somehow doubted Frostfang would want a pair of headphones, I also bought some C.D.s with dubstep on for Vinyl, I then found a place selling things like daggers, so I now had a hunting knife, complete with a strap-on hilt, so it was now in place on my chest opposite the holster for my pistol.

I walked along the corridors of the crystal Palace, the guards nodded to me as I walked past, I was currently walking to dinner with my rucksack, I hadn’t seen the others all day and I felt this would be the perfect time to give them the gifts, I walked into the dining room to find the others all sitting at the table, chatting with the prince and princess , I sat down next to Autumn and Minion took notice of the hunting knife.

“Nice knife” he said.

“You humans and your blades” I heard Autumn mutter.

“I have to find some terrorising Sombra, don’t I?” I asked rhetorically, she just scoffed and shook her head.

“What do you mean, terrorising Sombra?” Princess Cadenza asked.

“Well princess Cadenza…”

“Please, call me Cadence” she said, cutting me off.

“O.K., Cadence, you might have heard about us capturing Sombra”

“Yes, I did hear about that” she said, nodding

“Well, Sombra is, quite frankly, terrified of me” I said “because I beat him in hand to hand combat and then used a few choice words to…encourage him to cooperate with the Guards”

“And what might those words be?” Cadence asked.

“in all honesty I picked him up by the throat and whispered into his ear saying; If I see you this side of a dungeon again, will hunt you down, I will find you, and I will kill you as slowly and as painfully as possible, and then, I will cook you up in a stew and eat you” I said, silence reined, everyone was wide eyed and slack jawed, my brother was the first to recover

“Dude, that is fucking dark, even by my standards” he said.

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” I asked.

“True” Shining Armour said “if it worked, then who am I to question the methods?”

“Still, I think I’ll pay him a visit, just to provide that extra incentive to stay where he is” I said, taking the dagger out of its sheaf and examining it “in all honesty I won’t hurt him whilst he’s here, just give him something to fear, it’s time the tyrant learnt what fear is”

“Y-you are really creepy when you talk like that” Vinyl said.

“I know” I said, shrugging, the waiters came to serve our drinks “now, who wants to see what I bought them?”

“Wait” Autumn said “now!?”

“Why not” I said “starting with you Autumn” as I said this I passed her the box with the necklace.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Just open it” I said, she took the lid off of the small box and gasped, covering her mouth with her hooves.

“Oh my, Vuur Koning, this is beautiful” she said, starting to get tearful, I took the necklace out of the box and put it around her neck, she hugged me “Thank you” she sounded like she was about cry.

“Only the best for someone as beautiful as you” I replied, putting my arm around her.

“Get a room you two” Vinyl said.

“Aww, they make such a cute couple” Cadence said, gushing over the two of us.

“Nice choice, bro” Minion said, nodding and raising his whiskey glass, I nodded back and raised my glass of cider, I removed my arm from around Autumn and went back into the bag.

“Brother, these are for you” I said, pulling the guitar and amp out of the rucksack, his jaw dropped.

“You, are a fucking legend” he said, standing up and taking the guitar, his jaw dropped further when I passed him the pick “is that actual crystal!?”

“Yep” I said “well go on, I want to hear you play, the amp has a battery” he turned on the amp and began quickly tuning the guitar to the correct tuning, he then strummed a few times

“This is a good guitar” he said “I’ll warn you, I’m a little rusty, I haven’t played in over five months” he then launched into a fast paced guitar solo getting faster and faster until he stopped, finishing with a high pitched note.

“Wait for it” I whispered into Autumns ear, he them began another solo, this time to a much slower overall tempo than before, all of the ponies began to bob their head to the beat, he drifted smoothly from riff to riff, he was truly in his element, and he seemed more upbeat than before, eventually he changed into a fast paced solo and finished off with a bow, Everypony at the applauded and he switched off the amp.

“Bloody hell, Minion” Vinyl said “if you were a pony, your cutie mark would be a guitar pick, you have a natural talent for the six-string, and also, YOU NEVER TOLD ME YOU WERE A GUITARIST!” Autumn and I laughed at that

“So” I said to Autumn “what do you think?”

“Vinyl is right” she said “he has talent”

“Please” Minion said, standing the guitar against the amp and sitting down “I’m not that good” Shining Armour looked shocked at that

“After that masterpiece?” he said “even if you didn’t write it, to be able to play with such perfect timing and precision, that is raw talent, whether you want to admit it or not” he then raised his glass to Minion

“I agree” Cadence said “you have talent, don’t give up with your skill”

“I still don’t think I’m that good” Minion said, sipping on his glass of whiskey, I face palmed.

“Mate, stop comparing yourself to guitar legends” I said, I then got out the C.D.s for Vinyl

“Oh, cheers” she said, levitating them into her saddle bag “thanks mate”

“I also got headphone for the 4 of us” I said, I then turned to Frostfang, who had, up until now, been quietly munching on a lump of quartz “Say, Frostfang, how is the recruitment process doing”

“It could be worse” he said “we now have a crew of about 50, made up of different species, there are crystal ponies, earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, some griffins, some minotaur’s, a handful of diamond dogs, even some thestrals”

“Thestrals?” Minion asked.

“They are like Pegasi, except they are nocturnal and have bat wings” I explained “they are most famous for being employed in Princess Luna’s Night Guard, but they are extremely popular with ship crews because they work at night, meaning the day crew don’t have to do all the work, so we are lucky to have thestrals among our crew” the waiters then served our food before disappearing back into the kitchen.

“So, Vuur Koning” Shining Armour said “Where exactly are you and your brother from, we gathered than you’re from a different planet, but where on that planet are you both from?” I swallowed my food before answering.

“My brother and I both come from the United Kingdom” I said “currently ruled by her majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2nd, until we arrived on Terra we lived in a large town in the north east of the country of England, called Scunthorpe, it’s one of that countries major producers of metal, such as steel and iron, and is the only metal works on our world with the facilities to create earthquake-proof steel for earthquake prone countries”

“Sounds like it’s a rather important town” Cadence said.

“It is” I replied “it’s just a shame that it’s full of chavs”

“Chavs?” Autumn asked “what’s a chav?” me and Minion looked at each other before we both said

“Council housed and violent” Vinyl snorted.

“Sounds like some rather unpleasant ponies I’ve had the displeasure of meeting” she said

“They walk around in hoodies and tracksuits acting like their tough” Minion said, sneering “but the moment you stand up for yourself they run off, they are cowards and total scum”

“Are you talking from experience?” Shining Armour asked.

“Unfortunately, yes” Minion said, nodding.

if you notice any mistake please let me know