"Ahhhh!" a fell scream came from above me as a blur of blue slumped onto the floor, falling from the breached canopy above me, resounding a thump as Vesper landed beside me. "Not the best way of entering here..." he muttered out, his voice hoarse and hinting pain--a lot of pain.

I simply shrugged at him. "Unsummon," I whispered blankly, the soft winds of my breath as those words left my mouth dispersing against the soft parchment of the wide-opened Grimoire kept upon my palm. It responded to my voice, radiating a scarlet brilliance upon itself.

With a swift blink, the Grimoire flashed out, engulfing the whole room in a basking touch of red, warm light. Lasting no more than a second, the flash died out, the dimmed lighting returning.

Like fluttering cinders, the fell beast beside me dissipated into the wind, its bony frames of tipped spines and pallid skin shifting into glowing dust, nothingness replacing its presence.

'Pity. My undead army was short-lived. Was this all that they could aspire to be?' I bit my lip, regaining my sternness. 'Nevertheless, it'd be problematic should I have allowed them to linger for longer; the casualty tolls are presumably off the charts by now.'

The cringing sounds of wings beating zealously, the breaths of wither and decay hushing--they all muted. The winds returning to its serenity, there was a calming, yet perturbing amount of quietness.

There was nothing more than a muffled sound of sharp gusts of winds that formed the ambiance... other than a peculiar, muffled whirring of an engine somewhere within the corridors of this massive ship.

My stare burrowed, seething with reluctance and contempt, into the gryphon leader mere feet away from me. Likewise, the gryphon bore his glare at me, a somewhat composed and cool-headed smirk apparent upon his face.

The staring lasted somewhat uncomfortably lengthy.

Sparks, like spittle, dropped out from the many wires, that were more or less exposed as the canopy above me was partially non-existent, trickling out like drops of water. Lighting up briefly, they simply dimmed down and died out as they fell to the ground. The sight of them illuminating their surroundings as they gradually faded was... somewhat appealing.

"So," I began to speak, my mouth selective of its choice of diction, "You don't seem to be... inclined on cutting off my head to present to Celestia." I lowered my stiffened body a bit, loosening my shoulders as I drooped down a bit. Still, my mind was keen; if they were up to something, I'd perceive it.

"Celestia?" He dismissively waved around his front right talon. "She's a lost cause." He began to circle about, walking along the menagerie of radios, terminals, and wiring. Sitting upon a somewhat oddly placed bench by the corner of the right, he added, "Firstly, I'd like to tell you how this is basically all your fault. If you just hadn't come along and took everything from her, she'd still be the kind, benevolent ruler we always knew her by."

I bit my lip, my right eye somewhat twitching.

"But..." He nodded aimlessly to himself. "You see, without you," he extended his talon, pointing a sole digit at me, "I doubt that we can salvage whatever would be left of Equestria by the time this ends."

He motioned both his front legs overhead, swirling them a bit. "Come on." He tilted his head left towards the still observing spectators of fellow gryphons. "Get out of here. I'd much rather be alone with our 'guests ' than have the lot of you make him... disturbed."

The crowd of gryphons shifted among themselves restlessly, exchanging whispers among themselves. They all momentarily sneaked in glances, their eyes brimming with incredulity.

"Alright," the gryphon leader abruptly stood up, his legs flaring. "If I see one of you still lingering here for the next twenty minutes or so, I'm going to tear off your wings and throw you overboard!" he exclaimed, his mien being hostile.

I was somewhat in disbelief, my eyebrow arched at him.

The whispers and shoving stopped as the crowd has been effectively been stilled. They all stared their leader, appearing to be devoid of emotion and completely motionless, some of their jaws agape. With the faintness of talons scraping against the metallic floor, they began to hustle out, descending out of view through many hallways.

I turned my glance towards their leader once more, still questioning his... behavior.

"Sorry, sorry," he muttered out as he sat down slowly, rubbing his head with the soft stretch of his talon to appease what I presume to be a migraine. "Troubles, troubles. Troubling times indeed can crack even my fortitude."

"I see..." I deadpanned as I loosened the tension accumulating within my chest.

"Please." He gestured towards the bench parallel to his--exactly placed just at the left corner and placed facing towards his bench. "Take a seat, the both of you."

I nodded, my feet making its way towards the bench offered to me, Vesper tailing behind me closely.

Astute, my eyes examined the bench as I closed the distance between my figure and it. It looked rigid, bearing a metallic base. Its support was lined with metallic bars; truly, it looked somewhat of a torture to look at, no less actually sit upon it.

Still, I was tired, and it appeared to be safe--nothing struck me off for me to say that it was a trap.

With a relaxed exhale, I turned around, sitting upon it. Its texture was as hard as it was to look at. Its cold, stiff surface of metal was unpleasant to the touch and was uncomfortable as it was harder than the actual steel used for this ship's armor plating. Shrugging, I leaned back, feeling the equally chilling touch of the supports.

Likewise, Vesper sat just beside me, spacing off a comfortable amount of distance between him and where I sat. There was a pained expression upon his face as he sat upon the steely surface of this condemned bench; he too was experiencing the pain of this crudely, cheaply made bench.

"So, if you weren't aware of it by now, Celestia took the Elements of Harmony." He chuckled a bit. Motioning his talons towards his mouth, he suppressed his laughter. "And not only that, she actually contributed them to some sort of ancient ritual--I truly don't know--and decided to open up Heaven's Gate."

"Heaven's Gate..." I repeated in an inaudible whisper. "I've heard about that thanks to one of my comrades... who is currently, missing, mind you." I frowned a bit. "So far, all I know is that Celestia is trying to revive her fallen student--Twilight Sparkle."

"That's the majority's presumption," the gryphon leader nodded in agreement as he spoke. "Oh- look at me, I haven't introduced myself proper yet." He courtly stood up, bowing. "My name is Royce." With a flourish of his talons, he reclined once more upon his seat.

I shot him an unfamiliar glance, drooping my head in a slight tilt complimented with an arched brow.

"Um," I deadpanned with uncertainty reflecting off my eyes. I turned to face Vesper who was sitting beside me. "Who is this 'Royce' individual, exactly."

Vesper adjusted his seating, almost squirming. With a hesitant look, he exchanged glances with me. "Royce... I know him. he's part of the nobility of the Gryphon Kingdom. I suspect that since he's tasked in maintaining the well-being of his fellow gryphons, which he is failing at extensively considering the amount of casualties this war had tolled on the population of gryphons, he has since rebelled against Celestia."

"I suppose that would be the case." I furrowed a bit, a bit of agitation appearing upon my face. "After all, the reason for the lands becoming rampant with unholy things is because she destroyed the Elements of Harmony, is it not?"

"You catch on quick!" He clapped both his talons together, a ringing solitary applause echoing off the walls of this barely lit, spacious room. "Yes. That is exactly why I'm rebelling against her!"

"Not much of a point since you can't exactly recover the Elements now that they have been contributed into the act of opening the Heaven's Gate." I let out a despairing sigh.

"That won't be long, however." He smiled--almost grinning. "You recall of the prototypical replica of the Elements of Harmony that have been purposed into weapons in order to bring you down?"

I grimaced distastefully as I recalled a part of my memory during the first encounter of one of those fake Elements. "If you're implying that you plan on using the replicas, I highly doubt you."

He clapped once more, grinning widely. "That is exactly what I'm implying. Development of them are actually going smoothly in the Crystal Empire. In fact, this fleet is actually heading there and place them in the Tree of Harmony to prevent the further corruption of Equestria. After that..."

"Allow me to warrant a guess," I spoke up. "You're going to storm Canterlot in hopes to bring Celestia down for her misdeeds."

"Keen like always," he remarked. "I suppose this is why they haven't beaten you down into a pulp yet."

"I've actually been beaten into a bloodied pulp once, but that's not within this discussion here," I stated. "Besides the gryphons, I presume that those bat-pony-hybrids are part of this rebellion as well?"

"Bat ponies," Vesper interrupted with an irritated pitch in his tone. "They're simply called bat ponies. You need not to slander our name." With a sigh, he shrugged, his hooves covering his face. "And for your information, we are in fact rebelling against Celestia."

I smiled at him somewhat sheepishly.

"Well, just like your friend there said," Royce pointed out, "The bat ponies are indeed partaking themselves with this little insurgency of ours. All under the directive of none other than Luna."

"Ah... Luna." I hissed a bit under my breath. "I suppose that I'll have to make amends with her for severely injuring her many months ago. I do hope that she forgives me for the lot of trouble I inflicted upon her."

"Ha!" Royce chuckled once more, condescension vaguely laced behind his tone. "Her--forgive you? I doubt it. But I do hope that you plan on dissuading her from killing you soon."

"Yes." I nodded. "I'll have to meet up with her sooner or later-"

"She'll be seeing you soon enough," Royce grimly stated. "She's at the Crystal Empire, assuring that the research of the fake Elements of Harmony is progressing with quality."

I froze, a numbing paralysis engulfing my body whole, preventing me from moving a single digit of my hand. It's as if fear manifested within me.

"In fact, she's meeting you extremely soon." Royce grinned, his eyes darkening with the shade. "We're already here at Crystal Kingdom."

"What," I simply muttered out.

"Oh." Vesper stood up. "Her highness is here? I can't wait to-"

"Vesper." I convulsed a bit as I shot a piercing stare at him. He turned towards me, instantly flinching as he recoiled back at my menacing glare. "Please shut up. I am, more or less, going to die fairly soon."

Author's Notes:

Many thanks to Michael de Santa for being my pre-reader for this chapter.