The Jörmungandr flew over the Griffonian countryside, the weather was absolutely glorious today, and I was taking advantage of this opportunity by reclining on my deck chair located on the balcony of my quarters, drinking cider, and listening to music, I was letting Blazewing have a go at commanding the ship, I trusted him now and I knew he wouldn’t dare try and commandeer my ship, so I felt at ease, Boris was lazily flying behind the ship, and Scar was dozing next to me, ‘maybe I should get a hot tub fitted at some point’ I thought to myself as I absentmindedly watched Boris flit to and thro, about a month and we would reach Canterlot, so plenty of time to prepare for our next show, I was thinking about what songs we would play in Canterlot when I heard I massive bang and the whole ship jerked violently to one side, sending me crashing into the railing, I landed upside down, with my back against the railing.

“I gave him one simple fucking job and he goes and fucks it up” I muttered, getting up and summoning my armour, weapons and helmet, I also but on my cloak, but tied it u so that it trailed down my back like a cape, I then teleported to the bridge, surprising everyone present “you had one job, Blazewing, one fucking job”

“I’ wasn’ me cap’ain, look” I followed his finger to see a large black ship trading paint with my ship, it also had a large Jolly Rodger.

“Great” I said “it had to be pirates, of course it did” I then walked outside to find several of them already on the deck.

“Hey, What the bloody hell do you think you are doing!?” I shouted, teleporting over.

“Ahoy there, me hearty” said a Griffin “we be takin’ over this ship”

“Over my dead body” I said, the group of pirates laughed.

“I though’ you’d never say tha’” he said, drawing his cutlas “alrigh’ boys, have a’ ‘im” the band of pirates cheered before several of them charged, their swords drawn, I rolled my eyes before quick-drawing my pistol and downing the lot of them in quick succession, I then took out my hunting knife and teleported in front of their leader, pressing the blade against his throat

“You were saying?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow, he just smirked.

“Bring ‘er over, boys” he said my eyes widened in shock when I saw who they had, standing there, with her forelegs tied behind her back and a cutlass wielding pirate holding her shoulder, was Autumn, I narrowed my eyes at the leader, he chuckled.

“Give us the ship, or she dies” he said, I slowly lowered the knife and backed away “good, you did the right thing” I then looked at Autumn and winked before looking at the captain.

“when I kill all of you, I’ll make you suffer the most” I said, before teleporting behind the pirate that was holding Autumn and grabbed his head before slitting his throat with the knife, I then threw him to one side, grabbed hold of Autumn, cut her bonds and teleported her to our quarters, I then began teleporting behind each pirate, slitting their throats, I then walked towards the captain, my boots splashing on the growing pool of blood, he started to back away “you just made a huge mistake, you see that wasn’t just any member of my crew, that pegasus, was my Girlfriend, and now, I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to make it hurt” I then teleported behind him and slashed at one of his Achilles tendons, making him drop to one knee, I then slashed at the other, causing him to collapse face first into the pool of blood. He looked up at me.

“Who are you?” he asked, fear in his eyes, I knelt down.

“Vuur Koning” I then stabbed him in the neck, putting him out of his misery, I stood up and turned to the crew “I want these bodies dumped on the other ship, with a sign saying that this is what happens to anyone who crosses me, and I want this deck spotless by the time I come back up here” I then teleported into the bridge.

“Captain?” Blazewing asked, I glared at him making words he were about to say die in his throat.

“Set a course for Equestria” I said “and don’t fuck it up this time, if anyone tries to take our ship again, you blast them to high heaven”

“Yes sir” he said, before sending orders to Frostfang and the boiler room, eventually the ship started moving again, its hull grinding against the other ship as we went past, I then teleported back to my quarters and was tackled by Autumn, sobs wracking her body, I picked her up and teleported to the bedroom, I walked over to the bed and sat on it, comforting Autumn.

“Shh, it’s O.K.” I said softly “I won’t let anyone hurt you, as long as I live” she lifted her head from my chest and looked me in the eyes

“Vuur Koning” she said, her eyes full of worry “don’t make a mare a promise you can’t keep”

I stood on the top deck of the ship, leaning on the railing and watching the world go by, a heard footsteps approaching.

“Remind me never to piss you off” Minion said as he walked up and leant on the railing, I scoffed.

“You would be able to hold your own in a fight against me” I said, getting out his pipe and lighting it, he took a couple of puffs

“But you can teleport, that’s a massive advantage” he said, pointing at me with the thin end of the pipe

“You got magic yet?” I asked, he nodded and quickly flared up the magic, instead of red flames like mine, a green aura surrounded his hands “about time”

“I still can’t teleport” he said.

“I couldn’t until about 6 months ago, until then I used a quick travel spell, it only works if you can actually see the location, let’s say for arguments sake, the deck of the ship about ten foot away, I’ve got a book on spells if you want to have a read, the first three spells I learnt were levitation, quick travel and offensive blasts”

“What!?” he asked.

“I can shoot fire” I said, hurling an offensive blast off the side of the ship to demonstrate, the ball of red flame dissipated after a while “it’s not as effective or accurate as a spell gun, but it can get you out of a tricky situation”

“Where is that spell book?” he asked, a determined look on his face, I rolled my eyes.

“Those three spells are easy, you don’t need a book to learn them” I said, I then turned around, I looked for a small item that would be easy to levitate, before settling on a mop that was leaning against the wall “you see that mop, focus your magic on it” Minion looked confused, before stretching his hand out, the green aura enveloped his hand and the mop at the same time.

“O.K. what next?” he asked.

“Clear your mind” I said “then try and picture yourself picking up the mop, if needs be, move your hand in the direction you want the mop to go in” after about 30 seconds Minion slowly lifted his arm, the mop followed, wobbling slightly”

“Bloody hell, this is weird, it’s like I can actually feel the mop” he said, lowering the mop

“in time, you’ll come to use your magic as a fifth limb, and you’ll be able to move objects as if you were physically lifting them yourself, however, you won’t be able to lift massive objects, only the most powerful of unicorns can lift immense objects, when we visit Ponyville I’ll show you one who managed to lift an Ursa Minor weighing about 20 tons, as I rule, whatever you can physically lift is the limit, but, if more than one magic user works together, their combined power is multiplied by the total number of magicians helping” his eyes widened at that.

“So if you and me…?” he asked.

“If you and me both lifted the same object, our total power would be would be doubled” I said “now imagine the four Alicorn’s working together, their combined power would be quadrupled, if just one can move the sun with ease, how much power do you think they would all wield together”

“Shiiiiiit” he said “I would hate to piss them off”

“Didn’t you do that already?” I asked, smirking, he paled slightly.

“Fuck” he muttered, I chuckled

“Did I ever tell you about the time I punched a prince in the face?” I asked, his jaw dropped.

“You what!?” he asked “why?”

“Because he is a spoilt bastard, who thinks he’s all high and mighty when in reality he doesn’t have much power, no one actually likes him” I said, Minion chuckled.

“Well then, good on you” he said, patting me on the back, I winced slightly.

“Bloody hell, when did you become so strong?” I asked, rolling my shoulder to get rid of the pain.

“Forest” he said simply.

“Ah” I said.

“What about you?” he asked “when did you get so strong, and healthy” I deadpanned

“Royal Guard Reserves, remember?” I asked, pointing to the small insignia that I’d had painted onto the armour on my left shoulder, he face palmed.

“Of fucking course” he muttered behind his hand.

“Speaking of which” I said “when we get to Canterlot, you’re signing up for the reserves, you’re already trained so you don’t have to worry about that, but if Equestria’s going to war, I’d rather you go with me, we’ve watched each other’s back through the years, have we not?”

“True” he said, puffing on his pipe “you know that even though we but heads at times, even if we get into an argument and not speak to each other for months, in the end, I’ll always be there to watch your back” I placed my hand on his shoulder

“And I yours, Brother” I said, for the rest of the day we chatted, enjoying each other’s company as brothers, for the first time in far too long.

“How much longer till we get to Canterlot?” Aurora complained, resting her head on the table, I rolled my eyes.

“About one day less than the last time you asked” I said, our little group, which consisted of the band, Aurora, Scar and Boris, were all in the dining hall, eating dinner “you should just enjoy your time on this ship, you are free to go on to the top deck and fly around at any time, as long as your dad is okay with it” I looked to Minion as I said this.

“It’s fine by me” he said, shrugging before eating some of his food.

“But it’s so boring with no one to play with” she whined, I’ll admit, she had me with that one, I looked at the others, it seems they were thinking the same thing as me, sure there were ‘kids’ on this ship, but they were all in their mid-teens and older, and I don’t think they would appreciate playing baby-sitter for the captains 10 year old dragoness-niece, put simply, we were screwed, Cloddiwr perked up.

“If Cloddiwr be so bold” he said “Cloddiwr knows friends who have young ones her age”

“Cloddiwr, you are a life saver” I said “when would be the next convenient moment for them?”

“We are on a boat” Vinyl said “It’s not like they are going to go out for dinner”

“A boat that should have a crew of 70’000, and we’ve only got about 500 crew members” I said “the crew are working day and night just to keep the decks clean, let alone general maintenance, keeping the boilers steaming, manning the guns, keeping the shields running, I could go on and on”

“Okay, okay, I get it, it’s a big ship and we need more people” Vinyl said, crossing her forelegs and rolling her eyes, I turned to Cloddiwr.

“So, when is the most convenient time?” I asked

“Cloddiwr will ask them” he said, nodding “Cloddiwr will find out for Captain”

“Thank you” I said “and please, we are friends, call me Vuur Koning”

“Yes capt… Vuur Koning” he said, stumbling over his words

I climbed across the chains that stretched from the Jörmungandr to Frostfang’s harness, climbed onto the walkway on the top of the harness.

“How are you my friend?” I called, he craned his neck to look at me.

“THE CONDITIONS COULD NEVER BE BETTER” he said “WE HAVE A TAILWIND, IT SEEMS ANIMA FAVOURS US”

“Who?” I asked.

“GODDESS OF NATURE AND NEW LIFE” he rumbled “I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT AS SOMEONE WHO WORSHIPS FANTASIA, YOU WOULD KNOW OF THE OTHER TWO ELDER GODS”

“I only know of Fantasia, I didn’t think to study the others” I admitted, Frostfang tittered.

“IF YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE UP A RELIGION, YOU NEED TO STUDY ALL OF ITS DEITIES” he said, shaking his head slightly.

“How long until we reach the border?” I asked.

“WE SHOULD BE OVER THE BORDER BY NIGHT FALL, AND IF THIS TAILWIND KEEPS UP, WE SHOULD BE IN CANTERLOT BY THE NEXT” he said.

“Then we are ahead of schedule” I said “that means we can stay in Canterlot and Ponyville for a while longer than usual”

“IT WILL BE NICE TO STOP FOR A WHILE” Frostfang said, nodding “IT CAN BE VERY TIRING TO BE ON THE WING FOR SEVERAL DAYS AT A TIME”

“I’m also thinking of having a figurehead depicting the actual Jörmungandr added to the front” I said “with your permission”

“OF COURSE” he said, nodding “OUT OF CURIOSITY, WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?”

“Like a giant snake” I said, shrugging “but I’m thinking of taking some artistic license and having multiple sets of eyes and a horny crest” he looked back at me and raised his eyebrow.

“What, I want it to look cool, if it was just a giant snake then it would be boring” I said, he rolled his eye before turning his head to look back the direction we were flying, after a few hours of standing there, watching the world go by a heard the flapping of feathery wings, I turned to see Autumn fly over and called to her “Hi”

“Hey” she said, before flying over and giving me a quick kiss “love you”

“Love you too” I said, she then landed on the platform “you come here to watch the sun set?” she nodded and I turned around to face the direction of the sun, holding Autumn close to me, she leaned into my embrace and sighed contentedly.

“I wish we could do this more often” she said.

“I do too, but unfortunately, we have a ship to run, I’ve already said how low on crew we are” I said, she looked up at me.

“Then ask Celestia to lend you about ten thousand or so royal gourds” she said, I dead panned “just ask her, because then you can’t say you didn’t ask, you’re friends, I’m sure she’ll at least lend you a couple thousand”

“I’ll ask her when we get to Canterlot” I said “but I somehow doubt she just give me 10 thousand guards just like that” I snapped my fingers

“Well you plan to go into the uncharted south west at some point, don’t you?” she said, I nodded “then tell her that it’s an expeditionary voyage, it also means that any undiscovered nations that we come across might become allies with Equestria, of course the ship will technically become property of Celestia from that moment on, but that’s hardly anything to worry about, this would be beneficial to the both you and Celestia, she gets a ‘new’ ship for the navy, and you get a heck of a lot more crew, not just guards, but ambassadors, doctors, technicians, cooks, Equestria has a population of 1 billion, I’m sure she could lend you enough crew” I looked at her, smiling.

“What would I do if you weren’t around to help me out?” I said, she rolled her eyes.

“You’d probably still be stuck in the Crystal Kingdom” she said.

“How has the practice for the band coming along?” I asked.

“Great” she said “in the time between Gryphus and now, the musicians have been able to get their parts down to a tee, we just need to practice the songs together with them”

“Well then” I said “seeing as we are ahead of schedule, we better get started”

I was stood on the bridge when Aurora flew in, a letter clutched in her feet.

“Uncle, it’s a letter from the Princess” she said, dropping it into my waiting hand and perching on my shoulder, I opened the letter and began reading:

Dear Vuur Koning.

Something has recently happened in Canterlot that I feel requires your attention, a strange mask was discovered by a group of fillies and when we saw it, it turned into a 7 hoof tall metal being with similar proportions to you and your brother, that calls himself ‘Mata Nui’, the curious thing is, we showed him a picture of you, and despite the fact that he has never seen or heard of you before, he says he once created warriors with similar armour, he even said that there was one with the exact same style of helmet to yours, whilst you won’t need to rush, I feel that meeting this being must take precedence over your concert, as it could be the key to finding out why you and your brother were sent here in the first place, your concert won’t be cancelled, just moved back a few days, I await your reply.

Your friend Princess Celestia

I was speechless for the next 30 seconds, and troubled, especially since the name Mata Nui was mentioned, Aurora waived a wing in front of my face.

“Uncle, are you okay?” Aurora asked, I looked at her.

“Fetch your dad” I said “I need to talk with him” she nodded and flew out the window, after a few minutes Minion walked in.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Does the name Mata Nui mean anything to you?” I asked, passing him the letter, he snatched the letter out of my hand and began reading, his expression becoming troubled as he read further.

“That’s…” he trailed off.

“Impossible?” I supplied “we are in the land of magical talking rainbow coloured ponies, here, anything is possible, what it is, is troubling”

“She does make a good point” he said “your helmet does look like something one of those, what were they called again?”

“Bionicle’s” I said

“Bionicle’s would wear on their face” he said.

“Yeah, I kinda noticed” I said “but I assumed that whatever sent me here, also tapped into my subconscious to create the armour, hence why it looks like a mask of shielding”

“So, what do you want to do now?” he asked, crossing his arms and leaning against one of the consoles

“Get us there as fast as is possible” I said, I then began barking orders to the boiler room and we soon began to accelerate towards Canterlot, we eventually reached the airport at Canterlot, I quickly told the others about the situation, and the four of us plus Boris and Scar, started walking towards the castle, fully dressed in our armour, Minion was seriously impressed with the architecture of this city, but we didn’t have time for sightseeing.

“So why exactly did we need to get here in such a hurry” Vinyl asked as we walked up the steps of the castle, I nodded to a couple of guards before answering.

“You’ll find out when we get there, otherwise you’ll never believe me or my brother” I said.

“That totally make me feel like you trust me” she said, her voice flooded with sarcasm.

“Let’s just say that he could be the key to why me and Minion were sent here” I said, I then patted Boris on the head “not that I would want to leave this world in that much of a hurry” we eventually reached the doors to the throne room, I turned to Minion before we walked in.

“This time” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder “when you see Celestia and Luna, you bow out of respect, okay”

“Okay” he said, albeit reluctantly.

“Good” I said “right, let’s do this” I then knocked on the door, after a moment it was enveloped in a gold aura and began to open, I could see Celestia sat on her throne, with a tall golden being stood next to her, we walked up to the throne and I went to greet Celestia but the mask on the being, who I now recognised as Mata Nui, began to glow and shot out six streams of energy towards us, the last thing I felt before I blacked out was an incredible power cursing through me and an extreme heat.

So it begins

for those who don't know who Mata Nui is:

Mata Nui was the Great Spirit created by the Great Beings to explore and observe the galaxy. His spirit was later forced into the Mask of Life and exiled from his own universe by Teridax and landed on Bara Magna, later taking control of the Prototype Robot and defeating Teridax