I stood, leaning on the railing of the bow of the ship, watching the stars with Boris on my shoulder and with Scar sat next to me, it was fairly quiet, aside from the thestrals and changelings that were sweeping the deck and doing general maintenance of any equipment that was located on this deck, but other than speaking amongst themselves in their languages, they kept to themselves, I was trying to find the different constellations when many winged, wraith like creatures started flying around the ship, Scar growled quietly

“Night vitchez” a Slavic sounding female voice said, I looked down to find a middle aged thestral mare holding a mop “vorgive me capitan, I vaz zimply enjoying de night zky and…”

“Don’t worry about it” I said, she visibly relaxed at that “are they hostile?”

“Only if you provoke dem” she said “juzt leave dem be, and dey’ll do de zame to you” I nodded.

“What exactly are they” I asked, the mare just shrugged.

“Who knowz, no ponies ave been able to ztudy dem long enough to figure out” she said “we theztralz believe dat dey are de zpiritz of de anzeztorz of all zentient beings”

“That’s a nice sentiment” I said, watching them.

“I know dat look” she said “you look like zomepony who’z lozt zomepony dear to you” I hummed in acknowledgement and nodded

“My father” I said sadly “it would have been his birthday today, he’s been gone over two years” the thestral gasped.

“I’m zo zorry” she said, stumbling over her words “I never meant to bring up any bad…” I cut her off.

“Don’t worry about it” I said, chuckling slightly “I would have told you if you were touching on a sensitive subject” one of the night witches drifted towards us and placed its hands in the railing, they were like skeletal claws, the look in its face could almost be called ‘curios’ it had wide, black eyes, a reptilian face with withered skin, and looked like it was wearing a cloak of some sort, with just a tail sprouting out of the bottom.

“It doezn’t recognize your zpeciez” the thestral said quietly, slowly walking over and resting her front legs on the railing.

“It looks like some kind of draconian” I heard my brother say, the night witch’s head jerked to look behind me, I followed its gaze to see my brother, Aurora, Vinyl and Autumn walking over, the night witch took off and flew onto the decking, hovering in front of my brother.

“It won’t harm you” I said, noticing my brother reaching for his sword “just don’t attack it” he relaxed but didn’t let go of the handle, Aurora hugged Minions leg, shaking, the night witch looked down at the young dragoness and reached out a claw, placing it on Auroras cheek, I noticed Minions hold on his sword tighten, the night witch lingered for a few seconds before slowly drifting away, joining the countless others flying silently alongside the ship.

“Those things are creepy” Vinyl said, shuddering slightly.

“As long as they aren’t a threat, I don’t have a problem with them” I said, resting my back against the railing “I actually find them rather fascinating”

---

Today was a milestone in our journey, we had finally made enough armour to start equipping people, to start off we only equipped the senior officers of each species and those serving under my brother’s command, Autumn got a totally new set of armour and Vinyl final had her own set, I also had a set made for Blazewing that matched mine, minus the helmet, seeing as I had promoted him to my advisor and senior navigator, as a result his former band of pirates had gained more respect amongst the crew, they were now on equal standing with my crew, and they were shaping up to be good sailors, and Minion was finally starting to go easy on them, we had one week of travel left before we reached Gryphus, and it was starting to show, we would occasionally passed another ship, or the occasional patrol.

I was stood on the bridge, as was now the norm, when the radio crackled into life.

“Oidentifierade beväpnade fartyg, är detta en kunglig grip patrull fartyg uppge identitet och avsikt, eller att vi kommer att använda dödligt våld” they said, in what I assumed to be Griffonian, I looked out the window to see a large battleship flying alongside us, a griffin that was sat at the communication area turned around to face me.

“Captain, it’s a royal Griffin patrol ship, they vant to know our identity and intention”

“Tell them that this is the Jörmungandr and that we are simply travelling around the world, and that the armaments are a necessary precaution” I said, the griffin nodded before relaying my message in Griffonian, the patrol ship responded and the griffin turned back around.

“They vish to come aboard for inspection” the griffin said, I had Frostfang stop the ship and I walked onto the deck with any documents they might need to see, the patrol ship pulled up alongside and a walkway of some sort stretched across, several armoured griffins walked across, a griffin in slightly more showy armour stepped up to me.

“Är du kapten på skeppet?” the griffin said.

“I don’t speak Griffin” I said.

“Ar. Du. Kapten” he replied, I only just understood what he said.

“Yes, I Kapten” I said, nodding “I only speak Equestrian” I then pointed to a pony that was walking past, and then to my throat whilst mouthing random words”

“Ah, du speak pony, ve need see papers” he said, I handed him the documents and he took them in his talons, he flicked through the documents quickly, he then looked at me “vhy, guns?” he pointed at the turrets and shrugged.

“Pirates” I replied, he just looked at me, confused, I sighed before turning towards the bridge and shouting “Autumn, I need a little help here!” I gestured to the griffin to hold on and eventually Autumn trotted out.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“Dearest Autumn” I said “please be so kind as to translate for me, we are just confusing each other” she scoffed and rolled her eyes before turning to the griffin.

“Jag kommer att översätta för honom” she said, the griffin quirked an eyebrow “vad var det du ville veta?”

“Jag vill veta varför han har så många vapen på sitt skepp” the griffin replied, pointing at the turrets.

“He wants to know why you have so many guns on your ship” Autumn said.

“Tell him it’s in case we run into pirates or a rogue dragon” I said.

“Det är i fall vi stöter på pirater eller en skurk drake” Autumn said, the griffin nodded before saying.

“Allt verkar vara i sin ordning” he handed the papers back to me “ska jag låta dig på vägen nu, tack för att samarbeta med oss” he then recalled his troops and left our ship.

“Well he was nice” I said, watching their ship pull away from ours, Autumn just scoffed and walked away.

“You obviously can’t read Griffin body language” she said, walking towards the bridge.

“What?” I asked, following her.

“He was practically ready to ransack this ship, things work very differently here, ask Baldric, I’m sure he’ll tell you exactly the same” she said, rearing up and placing her front hooves on the chart table, I absentmindedly studied the map, tracing our route from the Crystal Empire.

“I’m still new to this, remember that” I said, she looked at me, her eyes full of worry.

“Yes, and that’s what scares me” she said “I’m scared you make a mistake and end up rotting in a cell for the rest of your life” I placed a hand on her cheek and she leant into it, a single tear rolling down it and onto my hand

“But you won’t let that happen” I said “and if it does happen, they’ll have to deal with Minion, he’s the most loyal friend I’ve ever had, besides you, and if anyone double crosses him, his friends, or his family, they better be prepared to get the hell off of the planet, because he’ll stop at nothing to bring justice upon them, which will probably involve beating the shit out of them” Autumn laughed at that.

---

I walked along the corridors towards mine and Autumns quarters, I was just passing Minions quarters when I heard electric guitars, as in more than one, I stopped and knocked on his door, as I expected they didn’t hear me, and I rolled my eyes before opening the door and walking inside, when I entered I was surprised to see my brother in the middle of a jamming session with the blue and gold dragoness from the armoury, who was playing a bass guitar similar in style to a Stratocaster, at that point I had a eureka moment, my brother noticed me and stopped playing.

“Oh, hey brother” he said “what do you think” he gestured to the two of them.

“I’ve had an idea” I said.

“Did it hurt?” he asked, smirking.

“Vorpissen” I said, rolling my eyes “Anyway, I’ve just thought, why don’t we form a band, you two as lead and bass, me and Autumn can be vocals, Vinyl can be keyboardist…”

“She could make always make a Keytar” Minion said.

“Bloody hell, that’s genius” I said.

“What’s a Keytar?” the dragoness asked.

“It’s a keyboard that can be held like a guitar, so the keyboardist isn’t stood in one place

“We just need a drummer” I said.

“I know a diamond dog that is skilled with a drum kit” the dragoness said, grinning

“Perfect, go get the drummer, I just need to talk to Autumn and Vinyl about it” I said “hold on, I’ll be right back” I then bolted out the door.

---

I ran down the corridors towards the bridge, where I knew Autumn and Vinyl would be, I burst through the doors to the bridge, startling everyone.

“Bloody hell, Vuur Koning” Vinyl said “what’s got you so worked up?”

“Vinyl, Autumn, I need you to come with me, Minion and I have got a genius idea” I said, the two ponies looked at each other uncertainly, before shrugging and following me back towards Minions quarters.

---

“So let me get this straight, you want us to form a band, and play in every country that we visit?” Autumn asked, the four of us, the dragoness and the diamond dog, who would become the drummer, were gathered in the meeting room

“Yes!” my brother and I both said.

“Well I’m all for it” Vinyl said “it’ll provide a neat source of income”

“Not yet” I said “we have to show the world how well we can play first, we have to get to Minotauria via Equestria, I say we ask for permission from the king to play a couple of free shows in Gryphus, then we head to Equestria and play in several places, Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Ponyville, Manehatten, Stalliongrad and finally Trottingham, the first day is free, but we only play a limited set, the days after that are the complete set of whatever songs we chose, but we charge, then we head to Minotauria and play in a few cities before heading back across Equestria, play a few shows, then follow the continent down south to the Ibex Empire and Neighpon, then across the ocean to the southern continent and Zebrica, Camelu and Cervidas, playing in the capitol city of each, then we head into the uncharted territories of the lost world” Autumn looked at us all before sighing.

“Alright, I’m in” she said, me and Minion high fived.

“Ok then” I said “let’s get preparing” in the next week we managed to covert part of the absolutely gigantic hold into a makeshift stage, with Frostfang’s permission of course, and I was able get permission from the griffin king and Celesta to play in Gryphus and Canterlot, with the other shows depending on how popular we ended up becoming, whilst I was doing that, the other band members were practicing the songs that we had chosen to play, thankfully Vinyl had a spell that detected the individual instruments of a song and put them onto separate music sheets, so everyone could start learning a song pretty much straight away, she also managed to build a Keytar, using a keyboard that she randomly had amongst her stuff, just in time for our arrival in Gryphus.

---

It was the morning before the concert, The Jörmungandr was moored up in a large field often used for music festivals, just on the outskirts of Gryphus, that we had arrived at late last night, so we had plenty of space, I was currently in the dining hall, drinking a mocha and trying to shake off my tiredness.

“You spent a year training with the royal guard and you still have problems getting up in a morning?” Minion asked, he was sat opposite me, eating a full English, with Aurora sat next to him, eating a bowl of cereal.

“I’m not a morning person” I muttered, before eating a piece of bacon, and it was real bacon “and you know I have trouble getting to sleep”

“Autumn as well I’m guessing” Minion said, smirking, I had to bite my tongue at that point, Aurora looked at him, confused.

“What do you mean?” Aurora asked innocently.

“Nothing, dear” Minion said, pulling her close and kissing her on the forehead, she squirmed in his grasp.

“Daaad!” she whined, trying to pull away from him “I hate it when you do that” that got my attention.

“What!?” I exclaimed “when did she start calling you dad?”

“A couple of weeks ago” my Minion replied, tussling the soft spines on her head.

“Oh damn, I’m now an uncle” I said, spacing out, Minion waived a hand in front of my face and Aurora giggled, I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

“Welcome back” my brother said, smirking “uncle” I face palmed.

“That makes me feel old” I complained.

“What does?” Autumn asked, I turned my head to see her and Vinyl walking towards the table with their breakfasts.

“Guess who is now officially Aurora’s dad, you get bonus points for guessing who her uncle now is” I said, Autumn gasped.

“That’s wonderful!” she said, her pupils then shrank “hang on, that means I’m…” she trailed off, having only just realised where she stood in this.

“Aunty Autumn kind of has a nice ring to it” Minion said “don’t you think so, Vinyl?”

“I think that sound awesome” Vinyl said, sitting down, Autumn was still stood up, her breakfast tray balanced on her back and a blank expression on her face, the two hyenas burst out laughing.

“Thanks a lot you two, you’ve just broke my girlfriend” I said, I then got up and kissed her on the lips, snapping her out of her trance “honey, you were spaced out for a moment”

“Oh, sorry” she said, blushing slightly before walking up to the table and tilting her wings so her tray of food slid onto the table.

“But still” I said, sitting back down “being called an uncle makes me feel like I’m 50 or something, I’m 19, who’s ever heard of a 19 year old uncle?”

“There are probably plenty in Scunthorpe” Minion said

“That make me feel even worse” I said.

“But” Minion said “I can guarantee that none of them have a niece who is a dragoness”

“True” I said, shrugging “so, are you all ready for the concert tonight?” they all responded with varying positive answers, Minion then looked at Aurora.

“Aurora, tonight, I’m letting you stay up late to watch the concert” he said, Aurora’s eyes let up “but, you have to promise me that if either Vuur Koning or Autumn swear, you won’t repeat what they say, is that understood”

“Yes, Dad” she said, hugging him “thank you”

“You’re welcome” he said, he then stood up, lifting up Aurora and placing her on his shoulders “now let’s go and get ready, we going to be sightseeing around Gryphus and I want you looking your best” he then walked out of the dining hall, Aurora squealing with laughter at being given a piggy-back ride.

“Cute kid” Vinyl said, finishing up her breakfast “right, I better go and get ready as well” she then stood up and walked out.

“I suppose we should go and get ready as well” I said, downing the last of my mocha.

“Armour or not?” Autumn asked, standing up

“Armour of course” I said, walking out of the dining hall, Autumn by my side “we’ll be wearing it during the concert, so if we wear it whilst we’re walking around Gryphus then we’ll practically be a walking advertisement, we still need to decide on a name”

“We’ll think of something” Autumn said “don’t worry”

Next Chapter: Chapter 19 Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 40 Minutes