2 WEEKS LATER
I walked through the docks towards the Jörmungandr, we were now fully stocked up on supplies for the flight to Gryphus; the Capital of the Griffin Kingdoms, we had been held back an extra week as, due to the fact that our ship is an armed vessel, we had to not only get a licence, but we also had to arrange with the Griffin Kingdoms to get permission to fly through their airspace, on the plus side, because we had been held back, our crew had increased from 50 to around 200, but now that the ship had such a large crew we had to divide leadership amongst the four of us;
I was the Captain: in charge of the ship and navigation, and ultimately, called all the shots
Autumn was the Crew commander and second in command: in charge of any personnel that wasn’t working on specialist jobs and if needs be, could assume command of the ship
Minion was the Defence Commander: in charge of directing the crew responsible for the shields and guns.
Vinyl was the Communications and Technicians officer: in charge of any communications and any systems vital to keeping the ship in the sky and moving.

Frostfang was back to his full size and already hitched up, I walked onto the ship to see the deck bustling with activity, creatures of all kind were rushing about, preparing the ship for launch, I even saw the odd changeling buzzing around, thick black smoke was pouring out of the smoke stacks, seems they had finally got the boiler up to pressure, we were definitely getting ready for launch, I walked onto the bridge to find the rest of command talking casually, Boris flew over and landed on my shoulder.

“How soon can we be in the air?” I asked.

“The boilers are primed and ready” Vinyl said.

“All crew are accounted for and eager to set off” Autumn said, smirking slightly.

“All weapons and shields are at 100% efficiency” Minion said.

“So we can leave whenever?” I asked, they nodded, and I walked onto the small walkway on the outside of the bridge, Scar followed me outside and stood beside me, all of the crew were currently bustling about on the decking in front of the bridge, I nodded to Scar and he let out a howl, all of the crew stopped to look at us, I cleared my throat before speaking.

“Right, first off, I would like to thank you all for choosing to sail on this ship, I would also like to make a few things absolutely clear, first off, I’m sure some of you will be wondering where your allegiance now lies, seeing as the crew is made up a various different species” I saw some of them nod “well, your allegiance is now with me, and my allegiance is to the Equestrian Sovereignty, so if Equestria goes to war, we follow them into war as an ally, regardless of what nation you come from, secondly, we have no definite route planned out, we shall be travelling the world, so we will be going everywhere, eventually we shall even be heading into the unchartered territories of the southern continent, and as a result I can’t guarantee you absolute safety, thirdly, on this ship, my word is law, and you will obey the chain of command, fourthly, forget any mis-conceptions or stereotypes that you may have heard about other species, I will not tolerate discrimination or racism, and finally, if you are unhappy with how I command this ship, feel free to step off now, I will bear you no ill will if you do” none of the crew moved.

“That’s good, NOW WHO WANTS TO SEE THE WORLD?” the whole crew cheered, I then walked back onto the bridge.

“Vinyl, are we cleared to leave?” I asked.

“Yes, I requested clearance whilst you were talking to the crew” she said.

“Good, let’s get out of here” I said, Vinyl then instructed the engine crew to engage the propellers, the whistle hooted and I saw Scar start to take flight, we slowly made our way out of the docks, turned towards the south west and made our way across the frozen tundra, we then accelerated to the ships cruising speed of 100 knots, the ships shields stopped the wind from reaching the deck, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone getting blown off, what we did have to worry about was the mountain range that we had pass through to reach the Griffin Kingdoms, I was currently looking at a navigational chart of the mountain range with the others, trying to decide on a route that was a good balance between safety and directness, some of them were relatively safe to pass through, but would take weeks to traverse, others would only take a few hours, but were impossibly treacherous, one thing we could all agree on was that whichever route we took, it wouldn’t be easy, we eventually found one that would take roughly a few days and wouldn’t be too risky, I had Autumn go over to alert Frostfang of our route to Gryphus, she soon returned and told me that he understood and had changed his course accordingly, with that done I went to see how everything was preceding.

---

I walked down the corridor towards the boiler room, steam hissed out of the occasional pipe as I walked passed, I would need to speak to Vinyl about that, I reached the boiler room to find a couple of minotaur’s shovelling coal into the furnaces, they stopped after a couple of shovelfuls.

“How are the boilers holding?” I asked.

“The boilers are working like they were just built yesterday, Captain” a female Minotaur with a thick accent said.

“Good” I said “right, carry on” and with that I went to the next section of the ship, the armoury, I had originally found it when we were staying in the crystal empire, and had made a point to have a member of each species assigned to work in the armoury and design a unique set of armour, but when I walked in I realised that it might not have been my wisest decision, they were all stood in front of large chalk board, arguing.

“I say the armour should be inspired by Minotaurian armour” a large minotaur bull said.

“Vell I zay de armour should be inspired by griffin armour” a griffin said, butting heads with the minotaur.

“Why can’t it be inspired by Equestrian armour?” a unicorn said.

“NO” the minotaur and griffin said at the same time, I had just about had enough.

“Enough!” I shouted, silencing them before it got out of hand “what is the problem?” I leaned against the door way with my arms crossed.

“If we be truthful” a diamond dog said “we not decide on armour” everyone else begrudgingly agreed with him.

“Our nations each have a different type of armour” a thestral said “we can’t just choose one particular style”

“Who said you had to?” I asked, they looked confused, I sighed and rolled my eyes before saying “why don’t you all write down all of the strengths and weaknesses of each of your species armour, and then design something that incorporates as many of the strengths as possible and as few of the weaknesses, with minor variations to accommodate things like differences in anatomy, an example would be, the minotaur’s and diamond dog’s armour will be thicker as they are strong and heavily built, but the pegasi, thestral’s and changeling’s will have to have relatively light armour, to allow them to fly without tiring too quickly, you see what I’m talking about?” they all nodded, looking a little sheepish.

“Now me feel foolish” the diamond dog said “why we not think of that?”

“Because you are all used to your own species type of armour, so you all feel that it should be the type you should all use” I said.

“And what should the design look like?” a changeling asked, I thought for a moment.

“A similar style to mine and my brothers armour” I said “our armour is unlike anything I’ve seen, so what could be more perfect, I’ll make a few sketches of helmet designs to signify things like a crew members role on the ship, you come up with the rest” I then left the room to look for the next section, weapons testing, as with the armoury I had a member of each species assigned here to create a unique type of weapon, and once again I realised I may have been a little hasty when I decided to pick a member of every species, I walked in to find a changeling and a unicorn going at each other with swords, I flung them to opposite sides of the room using my magic and fired my pistol into the floor.

“Right, sort your shit out” I shouted, gaining everyone’s attention “you’re supposed to be working together, not trying to kill each other”

“Actually” the changeling said, and then pointed to the unicorn “he was teaching me how to fight with a sword” I scratched the back of my neck nervously

“Ah” I said “right, my mistake, carry on” I then hastily exited from weapons testing before one of them decided to go after me with a katana, I then headed back up to the bridge, as I walked onto the ridge I noticed another ship that was a close proximity to ours, it also had smoke billowing out.

“Vuur Koning, that ship hasn’t moved since we first saw it, and it hasn’t responded to any of our attempts at communication” Autumn said “what do you want us to do?”

“Have Frostfang slow down and stop next to it, but to be careful, it could be a trap” I said, I then walked up to the microphone

“Unidentified airship, this is Captain Vuur Koning of the Horde ship Jörmungandr, do you require assistance, over?” no response “when we get close enough, we’re boarding that ship” Frostfang brought our ship alongside the other ship, it had angular armour, which was dented and shot at.

---

Myself, Scar, Autumn, Vinyl and Minion stepped onto the decking of the other vessel, Vinyl now had basic metal armour and levitated a spell rifle, Boris perched on my shoulder, Frostfang was watching the ship to make sure none of the crew go any funny ideas while we were gone, my brother was currently in front, using the heat vision on his helmet to look for signs of life, but he had his arm mounted gun ready, just in case it was a trap, so far the chances of us finding any one was slim, Minion suddenly stopped.

“Hold up” he whispered “I think I’ve got something” he then walked up to a door, he knocked twice and waited, after about a minute he looked at us and shrugged before he stepped.

“I’ll need help to open that door” he said to me, I nodded before putting my pistol and sword away I stood in line with him “on 3, 1…2…3” we both charged the door and it flew off its hinges, the first thing I noticed was a shape in the corner of the poorly lit room, but I was unable to properly make it out, I went to go towards it but Minion held his arm out to stop me.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“It looks like a dragon, a young one” he said, and then began to slowly knell down and lower his weapons, eventually leaving them on the ground, I saw the shape move slightly “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you”

“W-what are you?” I heard a young female voice ask quietly, the fear apparent in her voice

“I’m a human” Minion said, in a friendly tone “my name is Minion, and this is my brother Vuur Koning, what’s your name”

“I’m called Aurora” the voice said, sound a little less scared, I could see the shape move towards us.

“That’s a nice name” Minion said “do you know what happened here?” I heard a sniff before the shape lunged at my brother and…hugged him? Now that she was in the light of the door way I could now make out the dragons features, she was small for a dragon, about the size of a small dog, with only 4 limbs, just two wings and two legs, she was a dark green and she was now crying and burying her head into his chest plate, I could see tears glinting in the light of the doorway

“There all gone” she said, her breath hitching slightly as she spoke, she was just a child, alone and scared on a ship, and that broke my heart.

“shhh, it’s o.k.” My brother said, holding the young dragoness “your safe now” he then picked her up and began to walk out the door, I picked up his weapons and followed him out, he whispered reassurances to her as we all walked back to the ship, the crew thankfully gave us some space as we walked past, I turned to the crew.

“Strip that ship of all usable parts” I said, then sighed before following the others down to Minions living quarters.

---

When I got to the door to my brothers living quarters Autumn, Vinyl and Scar were stood outside, and the door was shut, the atmosphere in the corridor was like that of a funeral, after a few minutes the door opened quietly and Minion stepped out.

“How is she?” I asked.

“To sum up” he said quietly, shutting the door “she’s scared, hungry and grieving, she was the daughter of a couple of dragons that were working on a merchant ship, pirates attacked the ship and killed everyone, the only reason she’s still alive is because her parents locked her in her room.

“oh, the poor thing” Autumn said “how old is she?”

“about 10” he said sadly.

“if we come across those pirates, I’m shooting them out of the skies” I said “how long ago did they attack?”

“Aurora says it was earlier today” Minion said, I stormed off towards the bridge, ignoring my friends protests, I stepped onto the walkway in front of the bridge, and called to the crew.

“My fellow crew mates” I said, everyone on the deck stopped to look at me “the young dragoness that we brought on board is the only survivor after that ship was attacked by pirates” the crew stared to murmur.

“Now, I will not stand for the killing of innocent people, which is why we are going after those pirates, we will find them, we will exact justice upon them, and we will show them NO QUARTER” the crew cheered, anyone that was on the other ship quickly returned and we set off, In the distance I could see a ship, so I ordered the engine crew to take to boiler as far is it could go and we soon began to catch up, eventually we were within 100 feet of them, they looked like you average pirates as well, they even flew the jolly Rodger, I spoke into the radio.

“Unidentified vessel, this is Captain Vuur Koning of the dragon hauled horde ship Jörmungandr, you are to stop immediately, I repeat, you are to stop immediately, or I will not hesitate to blow your arses into high heaven” I snarled into the microphone, after a few second I heard someone reply.

“Why the hostility mate?” the voice on the other end asked in a stereotypical pirate voice.

“Because you mercilessly slaughtered the entire crew of a merchant ship, leaving only a young dragoness, no older than 10” I spat back “you will stop” the ship stopped and we drew up alongside it, I ordered the guns to be aimed at the ship, I stepped out of the bridge and onto the decking, there was about 11 meters between us, most of my crew were hurling insults at the pirates.

“Who be the captain of this ship?” a wingless red dragon that was hanging on the rigging on his ship asked

“I am!” I shouted as I walked up to the railing, just as Autumn, Vinyl and Minion climbed up the steps to the deck, the dragon regarded me with curiosity.

“You are a strange one” he said, his crew chuckled at that, he then glanced at the name of our ship “what is a Jörmungandr?”

“Shut it” I barked “I don’t answer to pirates like you, I just want to know why?”

“Why what?” the dragon asked innocently “I be just a humble captain” his crew chuckled darkly.

“I want to know why you mercilessly slaughtered the entire crew of a ship.” I snarled.

“The captain owed me money” he said with a shrug, I then pulled out my pistol and shot him in shoulder, he clutched it in pain “AHH, you bastard”

“You’ve just admitted to you crimes” I said “and as a member of the Equestrian Royal Guard, I am fully authorised to attack you vessel” I then turned to the people manning the massive guns.

“OPEN FIRE”

The guns all fired at once and the ship rocked as blue energy shot from the barrels, I turned back to the pirate ship just in time to see the captains eyes turn to pinpricks before the arcane rounds impacted the side of the ship, the parts of the hull exploded, and the ship started to slowly drift towards the ground, I quickly snapped my fingers and began teleporting back and forth between the two ships, taking the crew of the pirate ship and depositing them on the deck of our ship, left the captain till last, I teleported a couple of steps away from him, he was currently sprawled on the floor, trying to get up, I walked towards him and wen to grab hold of him but he stopped me.

“Don’t” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“Leave me” he said, trying to get up, and failing, I rolled my eyes before grabbing hold of him and pulling him up, he looked at me in surprise “Why?”

“Because if I’m not merciful, then I’m no better than you” I said “I spared your crew, I will offer them the chance to join me and redeem themselves, I’m giving you that choice as well” I held my hand out to him, he looked at me and smirked

“How do you know I won’t stab you in the back?” he said.

“I don’t, it’s called trust, something that isn’t common amongst pirates” he chuckled at that “so what will it be, die on this ship, or join my crew, and live to travel the world” he slowly lifted his hand and hesitated before placing it on mine, I nodded before teleporting us back to the ship, just as his hit the ground in a spectacular explosion, he removed his hand from mine only to be punched in the jaw by my brother, the dragon chuckled slightly whilst massaging his jaw.

“I deserved that one” he muttered, getting up.

“why my brother decided to spare you, I’ll never know” my brother spat, before getting right up in the dragons face “but know this, if you so much as look at me or Aurora funny, I WILL NOT HESITATE TO BEAT THE UTTER SHIT OUT OF YOU AND THEN KEELHAUL YOU WHILE WE GO THOUGH THE MOUNTAIN RANGE INTO THE GRIFFIN KINGDOMS!” he then punched the dragon in the snout before walking below deck.

“E’s got quite the punching arm” the dragon said, holding his snout.

“And you deserve it” I said “from now on, you and your crew are doing all of the menial jobs, scrubbing the decks, cleaning the toilets, you’ll have to earn our respect, you all do as I say, and follow my word, to the letter, then I won’t be tempted to leave you alone in a room with my brother” I noticed his eyes reduce to pinpricks.

“I don’ think me boys‘ll be givin’ ya much trouble” the dragon said, he then turned to his former crew “ain’ tha’ righ’ la’s?”

“Aye!” the shouted.

“Good” I said “treat my crew with respect, stay out of my brothers way unless you can help it, especially if he is with a young, dark-green dragoness”

“Will do” he said “And thank you, not many people would show mercy like you did”

“Not many people need a crew as badly as I do, now get to work! you can start by scrubbing the decks” I said, before turning and walking away, I walked below deck and rounded a corner only to get punced in the jaw, sending me sprawling to the floor.

“Why?” Minion said, stepping into view.

“Because” I said, getting up “if I were to kill them mercilessly then I would be no better than them”

“How do you think Aurora will feel about this?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’ll have an opportunity to confront them about it, show them the consequences of their actions” I said “I’m still pissed off at them for what they did, but anyone can be redeemed”

“That’s bullshit and you know it” he spat.

“Is it?” I asked “you obviously haven’t heard of Discord”

“You called” I heard the aforementioned draconequis say, just as he slithered out of one of the vents, confusing my brother greatly

“Speak of the Devil…” I muttered, face palming.

“What the fuck!?” Minion exclaimed, I sighed before introducing them.

“Brother, this is Discord, the reformed god of chaos, Discord, this is my brother Minion

“What are you?” my brother asked.

“He just said” Discord said, pointing at me.

“What do you want?” I asked, walking past the two of them, Discord started floating after me, my brother regarded him wearily, but never the less, walked after us, I walked up to the bridge and stared out of the window, watching the crews work, I then turned around to look at them “well then, what are you here for?”

“I’m simply here to pass on a message” he said, conjuring winged shoes and a toga.

“Go on” a said, twirling my hand.

“Expect your ship to end up teleporting to Equestria at some point, I can’t tell you the specifics, only that here will be a battle, and your destiny will become clear afterwards, it won’t be for some time, so get ready” he then disappeared in a cotton candy mushroom cloud that started to rain chocolate milkshake.

“God damn it, Discord!” I shouted, Minion took two steps away from the pink cloud, which soon started to dissipate.

“He’s weird” he said.

“Try batshit-fucking-insane” I said “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you he used to be evil, he may be crazy, but he is seriously cunning and clever, it’s almost scary, I would hate to fight him, because you can’t predict what he will do next, anyway, I suppose we should start preparing”

“Why” Minion asked.

“Because given his past history of predictions, we will be ending up in Equestria, whether we want to or not” I said, looking at the navigational charts “only Celestia or Luna have the power to transport this ship several thousand miles, and if they are going to resort to that, then what ever it is that will threaten them, doesn’t bare thinking about” I looked out the window and saw that we were heading into the mountain range.

“How’s Aurora?” I asked my brother

“Sleeping” he replied simply.

“I hope the poor girl doesn’t have nightmares” I said, looking out the window, deep in thought.

Next Chapter: Chapter 17 Estimated time remaining: 17 Hours, 4 Minutes