The rest of our time in Minotauria was rather uneventful, the only things of note over the next few months were, Autumn and Minion finally unlocked their mask powers, Autumn had the mask of stealth, which was like an advanced version of the mask of concealment, in addition to rendering her invisible it muted any common noises; such as footsteps or breathing, but not speech, it did however reduce the volume of her speech.

Minion’s mask power was accuracy, which is kind of self-explanatory, it dramatically improves his accuracy, to almost impossible levels, and in addition to this we gained several new Toa, all of which were existing members of the crew:

Echo: the senior member of the changeling crew, became a Toa of lightning, with blue and white armour, he was now bipedal with four arms, which made him incredibly fierce in combat. he had a mask of Quick travel and also wielded four thunder staffs, which he could use to summon storm clouds so that he could have a constant supply of elemental energy in battle.

Winter Chill: Autumns older brother, became a Toa of ice, with an ice axe and a mask of conjuring, which summoned random animals, although when they actually arrived we had absolutely no control over them, as we found out when he accidentally summoned a swarm of hungry parasprites into the sparring hall.

Midsummer Night: Autumns younger sister, became a Toa of fire with two fire Sai and a mask of Psychometry, which let her see an inanimate objects past and place of origin by touching it.

A Thestral called Sumerki became a Toa of shadows with black and purple armour, with a mask of Rahi (or rather animal) control. She also wielded two shadow staffs, at first Mata Nui and the rest of the Toa were extremely weary around her, almost bordering on confrontational, as the only other shadow Toa to have ever existed were created when an ordinary Toa was drained of all their morals and light, with their only goal being destruction, put simply, a good Toa of shadows should not exist, nor should a Toa of shadows just ‘occur’, they have to be made via draining a toa of light using a shadow leach, or doing the same to a matoran. But in time, we came to realise that she was just another Toa, like the rest of us, sure, she is slightly more aggressive and quicker to anger than most, but deep down she has her heart and morals in the right place. Mata Nui now reckons that it’s the Kanohi Ignika’s way of ‘testing’ her.

Add Natrix and Vapaa now had his own team

In addition to these, three new Toa appeared as part of a new team.

Princess Orca became a Toa of water, the leader of the new team, with a water trident and a mask of healing.

Saphyrus became a Toa of Psionics with blue and gold armour, which is mind based powers, in other words, she now had powers similar to those of a unicorn as well as powers like mind control and illusion. She also wielded two staffs of levitation and had a mask of translation.

Cloddiwr became a Toa of earth, with his hands becoming digging claws that he could use to channel his elemental energies. He also wore a mask of sensory aptitude which, when activated, greatly increased his senses and balance.

Other than that, generally not much really happened that could be written down as individual events, Ruby one day just out of the blue started calling me Dad, Garnet has opened up and now calls me Dad and Autumn Mom, I also had them learn how to fight. Vinyl and Minion have been getting really close, to the point that Aurora has started calling Vinyl Mom, I managed to get the Royal Enfield rebuilt, and Vapaa managed to get his dirt bike rebuilt and refitted with a new engine, I also managed to add all of their masks to our selection, meaning we could all switch between any of the masks in addition to the masks on our own teams

We had exited Minotauria and were well within the Equestrian border, or our way to Ponyville, by my estimate we would be arriving shortly, I was standing on the gun deck, leaning against the railing and enjoying the view when I saw a rainbow blur streaking towards the ship, I calmly stepped to one side as Rainbow Dash went barrelling past me and into the wall with a loud clang.

“Hey, Skittles” I said.

“Hey” she said, nonchalantly, still leaning upside down against the wall, she then span around until she was standing upright “so how’ve you been doing without somepony as awesome as me to protect you” I rolled my eyes.

“Well” I said, putting a hand to my chin in mock recollection “I now have an exiled changeling princess as part of my crew, we fitted a rail gun to the ship, found two new humans, busted a slavers camp, I now have an adopted son and daughter, we have a sea-pony princess amongst us, three toa teams, and I ended the war between ponies and changelings for good” Rainbow went wide eyed.

“How did you end the war?” she asked.

“By firing the rail gun at her hive and making her agree to end the war in exchange for me prematurely detonating the warhead” I said, shrugging.

“How would you be able to hit it from Minotauria?” she asked.

“it fires the warhead at Mach seven, it would have reached their hive in about two minutes” I said “a rail gun is a type of artillery with continental range, the perfect weapon, you can hit your enemy before they even have time to prepare, plus it is silent and could give you a run for your money in terms of speed, no I won’t put that to the test, before you ask” she placed her front hoof back on the ground and huffed.

“So” she said “you have two kids now?”

“Yeah” I said “two Kirins, both are about 13”

“What’s a Kirin?” Rainbow Dash asked

“A very rare hybrid between a dragon and a pony” I said “they are the only two to exist for the past 500 years, they also both have wings and magic, their mother was a dragon, and their father was a unicorn”

“Doesn’t that make them alicorns?” Rainbow asked, I shook my head.

“No, an Alicorn is all three types of pony” I said, at that point Ruby and Garnet walked outside “speak of the devil, and he will appear” the two twins heard me and looked over.

“Hey Dad” Garnet said, walking over.

“This is my friend, Rainbow Dash” I said “Rainbow Dash, this is Ruby and Garnet” Rainbow dash didn’t respond at first

“Your…wings” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, what of them?” Ruby asked.

“Open them up” I said, they both shrugged before taking a few steps away from each other and opening their wings to the full, 14 foot wingspans, Rainbow didn’t respond at first.

“How do they get such big wings?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s part of the dragon gene” I said “even if they have pegasi wings like ruby, they still have large wings”

“You do realise Twilight’s probably gonna freak out when she sees them?” Rainbow said.

“Yeah” I said, but they can be very ‘persuasive’ when backed into a corner” Garnet snorted and smirked.

“You mean we have these babies” he said, swiping his long tail in front of him and splitting the blades in the end several times, Rainbow gave a low whistle, I turned to Rainbow.

“Come on” I said “I’ll show you the other Toa” I then led off of the gun deck, once Garnet and Ruby were out of ear shot Rainbow turned to me.

“Anyone ever tell you your kids are awesome?” she asked.

“Not really” I said, shrugging “they’ve had a really hard life, we found them when we busted the slavers camp, their mother was dying and her last request was for me and Autumn to take care of them, several months later here we are” Rainbow bristled when I mentioned the slavers camp.

“How can anypony be so cruel?” she asked.

“One, they were dragons” I said “and two, there’s king Sombra for a start, and don’t even get me started on Nazi’s, the things they did would make the slavers camp look like a five star hotel”

“True” she said, we eventually reached the sparring hall and Rainbow froze a few steps in, all of the Toa were sparring with one another, I noticed that Echo was nowhere to be found. Next thing I knew I heard a massive bang and saw a flash, followed by a huge electric shock originating from my back.

“AHH” I yelled, looking up the see Echo standing on a cloud that he had generated, laughing his arse off “YOU FUCKING WANKER, THAT HURT!” Rainbow wasn’t fairing any better, it had hit her right on her back between her wings.

“My wings are numb you jerk!” she shouted at the changeling, her wings were twitching slightly.

“Oh learn to take a joke” he said, smirking “I thought the great Rainbow Dash was a prankster”

“Rainbow” I said through gritted teeth “this is Echo, warrior caste changeling and Toa of lightning” Echo jumped down, Rainbow eyed the changeling warily.

“Why do you have four arms?” she asked.

“Did you not hear the warrior caste” Echo said.

“But when changelings invaded Canterlot they all…” Echo cut her off

“Were drones” Echo said, stowing his staffs and crossing his arms “Plus I’m not from that hive”

“Right…” Rainbow said, I then introduced her to the rest of the Toa.

“I thought sea-ponies didn’t exist” Rainbow said, after I introduced her to Orca.

“Thanks a lot” Orca said, scoffing “nice to know I don’t exist”

“Well your kind hasn’t really been to the surface much since Nightmare Moon” I said “So can you blame the ponies for thinking you don’t exist”

“When you put it that way” Orca said, thinking it over, she then deadpanned “yes!”

“Well, your chance to change that will appear soon” I said “we’re near Ponyville, our next stop”

The Jörmungandr soon reached Ponyville and landed in an large empty field on the outskirts, I had all of the newer Toa switch to the masks of stealth before following me outside, Twilight and all of her friends, besides Rainbow Dash, were waiting for me, the moment Twilight saw the two Kirin twins she shot forward, ready to bombard them with questions, right up to the point where she ended up with Garnets tail blade pressed lightly against her throat, silencing any questions that she had thought of.

“I understand that you want to ask questions about us” Garnet said, calmly “but me and my sister don’t like being crowded” he then slowly moved the blade away from her throat and took a step back.

“Uh” Twilight said, before blushing with embarrassment and rubbing the back of her neck “sorry”

“Allow me to introduce my adopted son and daughter, Garnet and Ruby” I said, they both bowed to Twilight.

“WHAT!?” all of the elements, beside Rainbow Dash, exclaimed.

“Long story” I said, deadpanning.

“Did I mention we also gained nine new Toa?” I asked rhetorically, the toa took this as their cue and deactivated their mask powers, until I had a small armies worth of Toa standing behind me “Behold, the Wolfpack!” Fluttershy promptly fainted and Autumn sighed, face palming and shaking her head.

“Well done, Vuur Koning” she said “I’ll go get the smelling salts” she then turned around and walked back onto the ship.

“Oh come on!” I called to her “that was cool”

We were now in the dining hall of the crystal castle eating dinner, I was once again retelling the story of our journeys, and the kids were off playing with the crusaders.

“Wait a minute” Twilight said “are you saying you would have willingly destroyed the Chrysalis hive, for one human!?”

“What do you think they would have done with Natrix?” I said “simply ended the war? No, they would have launched into full scale war, using him as a weapon”

“But that doesn’t mean you have to destroy an entire hive” Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy” I said, sighing “not everything can be solved through kindness, I asked her to cease the war, and she refused, that’s when I brought the rail gun into play”

“Why would you even have a weapon so powerful?” Rarity asked, I pointed to Minion.

“He was the one that built it, not me” I said, incredulously “technically it’s his fault” the eyes of the elements zeroed in on him.

“Sure, blame it on your older brother” he said “nice to know the needs of others are put before yours”

“Oh, fuck off, Brother!” I said.

“Ah’m jus’ gittin’ confused” Applejack said “one minute yer best buds and the next yer trying tuh kill each other”

“It’s called banter” I said “plus we’re brothers” Twilight just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Humans” she muttered, shaking her head.

“Hey!” Vapaa said “I resemble that remark” myself, Minion and Natrix laughed at that, after that we just began small talk, at one point a turned to Natrix and Vapaa.

“Oh, guys” I said “you know how people seem to think that the Germans are still sore over World War 2?” they gave me an odd look before nodding, Minion sighed and face palmed.

“Well, Minion once met a German ex-soldier, his words the moment he met my brother were, and I quote; ‘Vhy du zee Englisch nevar menzion zee var? It ist alvays zo confusing’”

“oh, god, why that one” Minion said “of all the stories you could tell, you had to tell that one?”

“Oh, come on, it’s funny” I said “you didn’t know how to respond, you were just sat there thinking ‘shit, what do I do, someone help me’”

“He was nuts!” Minion said “it’s not like you could do any better”

“I would have turned to him and said; Rosen sind rot, mein Verstand ist verrückt, bück dich Miststück, du wirst gleich gefisted” Vapaa and Autumn choked on their drinks, as did Saphyrus, who’s mask activated as I spoke.

“I hope to god you did not just say what I think you said” Minion said, I smirked, Natrix looked confused.

“What did he just say?” Natrix asked

“Don’t ask!” Minion, Autumn, Vapaa and Saphyrus all said, I smirked before leaning over to Natrix and whispering the English translation in his ear, Natrix went wide eyed and his cheeks flushed.

“Dude!” he said, pulling away from me “I did not need to hear that!” I just chuckled.

“Of all the things you could have said…” Minion trailed off.

“You were the one who said it originally” I said “I’ll pay you 100 bits to walk outside and shout it in English”

“No” he said “I don’t have a fucking death wish”

“How did you learn that?” Autumn asked “I definitely didn’t teach you it”

“Yes you did” I said “you were very drunk at the time” Autumn proceeded to face plant the table.

“Why did I do that?” Autumn muttered, she then lifted her head off of the table “if you dare say that to Ruby or Garnet…”

“I wouldn’t dream of it” I said.

translation for 'Rosen sind rot, mein Verstand ist verrückt, bück dich Miststück, du wirst gleich gefisted' is very kindly provided by Nikolaier, who is kind of my unofficial German grammar checker, thanks mate.

although I'm probably going to hell for including it in the story, if you understand it then you will realise why