---

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With the order to move out given, I follow behind the juggernauts with my new sword Discord has made for me. It looks exactly like my old one, the blade nearly a metre and a half long with a golden hand guard shaped like a sun, where two long rays of sunlight stretch to the sides, the pommel also looks like a sun. The grip has black leather around it, but with some new enchantments on it.

It's near unbreakable now where only something with stronger magic can overpower it. It even reacts when I pour my magic into it, creating molten hot flames along the blade.

Since I gave my armour to Adrian, I now have a new modern set of full plate guard armour with more common enchantments. While not as good as my old armour, it'll do for now. Hopefully Discord will be able to replicate my old armour later.

We march down the path with pegasi scouts in the air, watching for any gryphon movement. It takes us a good ten minutes to reach the end of the path.

"Alright! We'll only have a good few minutes before we're spotted! Get into formations as soon as we head out and storm the city! Remember! No killing civilians unless in self-defence!" I order everyone here. They all get ready as I look out at the city.

Like Canterlot, it's a large city on the side of a mountain, but that's where the similarity ends. The houses are more like roofed bird nests with some semblance of furniture and storage. There are a few pathways carved out into the stone cliffs, but most of the gryphons just fly from place to place, it will certainly make getting around without wings a challenge. The bigger buildings are made of timber and stone and seem to have greater purpose than living accommodations. I recognise one being a 'meat storage' building Hagriff described where they keep ponies and other races alive until they eat them.

"My unit will take the storage building! The rest of you cause as much chaos as you can to keep them distracted! NOW MOVE!" I yell out.

We rush out into the more open pathways and begin to swarm the city. Gryphons begin to notice us and while some flee with their young, most cry out with roars and charge at us

Our human allies cast their Nullify spells to shatter the gryphons barriers while our gunners and archers begin to shoot at the gryphons attacking us.

I turn to my unit and point my sword at the storage building. "MOVE IN!" I order them and start running over to the building with my unit following behind me.

The human mages are proving to be a boon as any time one of our own gets wounded, they heal them up within seconds, allowing them to get back into the fight. And with the juggernauts protecting them, the gryphons can't get close enough to kill them.

Not only that, they are also using the stone around us as makeshift cannonballs with their earth elements along with our ranged units to prevent most of the gryphons from attacking us from above.

I ready my broadsword and parry a gryphon's swipe with their left talon. With a quick flick of my wrist, I sever the same talon off their wrist making them cry out in pain as they flap their wings to fly away from me. They then get a rifle shot to the chest before they could get away.

As we continue making our way along the pathway to the storage building, I hear a cry of fear as one of the humans is plucked out of our group by a fast diving gryphon. I take wing after them as the others continue towards the building.

The human mage is struggling to point their left hand up towards the gryphon as she's jostled about in its grip, her right arm bleeding from the talons buried in her arm. I look behind me to notice two more gryphons have given chase after me, I frown and beat my wings harder to catch up to the mage who finally lets off a beam of arcane magic into the gryphon's stomach.

The gryphon squawks as their fur falls off and their skin starts to bloat and blister, making them release the mage who screams as she falls. I go into a steep dive before levelling out and catching her, she grunts from the impact and sighs in relief.

"Thanks, ow ow ow..." she says and holds her right arm while channelling life magic into the wound.

"Just hold on tight, we're not out of this yet," I tell her and make a sharp turn to the left to head back to my unit.

She yelps and grabs onto my neck as I dodge a gryphon's swipe. I perform a barrel roll to avoid the other gryphon and grunt as I flap my wings to go over another one.

"Gah!" I hiss in pain as one of the buzzards manages to slam into my side and latch on. "AHHH!" the mage in my arms yelps and in a moment of panic, blasts the gryphon with a gout of flames to their face, forcing them to back away.

"Now it is my turn to thank you, my dear," I say to the panting mage.

"Y-Your welcome..." she replies and grabs back onto me.

We make it back to my unit who are already storming the building, I gently set the mage back on her feet where she thanks me again and joins the others.

So far we're doing well, I can only see a few casualties among our forces, but the whole place is in a frenzy. Hopefully this will give my daughter and the human king enough of a distraction to take out the council and their so called god.

I make my way into the building to find many races tied up and or caged, even a young white dragoness at ten feet tall who has had their wings cut off.

"Free them and escort them back to the staging point!" I order my unit as they start cutting or breaking chains.

"Sir! We have more Gryphons inbound!" I hear a human mage tell me as he runs over from the entrance.

"Juggernauts! Cover the entrance! Unicorns! Make a portal to the staging point now!" I order with a change of plans.

---

---

"So my dear, are you ready to go?" Discord asks me after we collected everything we would need for at least a three months stay at Starswirl’s laboratory.

"I can't wait! Thee Starswirl the Bearded's Laboratory! Oh to find out what else has he done since the time he was gone! I'm so excited!" I reply while hopping in place. I've already let Spitfire get a copy of my magic's signature just minutes ago.

Discord chuckles getting my attention. "Then let us be off, the sooner we go, the more likely the elves can't find you," he tells me and with just a quick snap of his talon hand, we're now standing in a surprisingly clean and inactive laboratory with many tables, pieces of equipment, and research notes lying about.

Just the sight of it all is making me drool and I rush off to what appears to be a complex and ingenious string of elven runes lined up and linked together. It would appear to be a intricate design for a teleportation grid, allowing people to go to certain points in the world if activated in a certain way. Problem is it appears to be unfinished.

"Ah yes, beardy's plan to make a world wide grid for teleporting. He was going to use it so he could travel anywhere in the world instantly to cut travel costs and time for all terrans. But, Grogar happened before he could finish it," Discord tells me with a sad sounding sigh. "If you think you can finish it, then by all means, go ahead."

I look from him back to the formula and grin, to finish one of Starswirl’s own pieces of incomplete work?

I waste no time as I put down my stuff and sit in the still sturdy chair and begin reviewing all of the notes and runes in front of me. While not happy with the reason of which I got here, I'm not complaining about this one bit.

---

---

With Sparkle now engrossed in her new research, I turn to the elite team that came with us.

"Alright, fellas! The exits are here, here, and here," I tell them, pointing my arms at two doors as a third sprouts out of my back to point at the old and inactive recall pad. While Starswirl never finished its true purpose, he still used it as a recall point should he have needed to make a quick getaway using elven teleportation crystals. He did have plenty of powerful enemies back in the day and had to bug out fast.

"Where exactly are we?" one of the mare guards asks me.

"In the middle of the Dread Wastes, no one comes here due to how toxic the surface is now. So we'll be undisturbed for a looooong time. We have plenty of supplies and Beardy had the foresight to install air filter runes throughout the place. And if we need to, I can bring in more supplies," I reply and look around the old place.

"How long are we staying down here?" a stallion then asks me.

"Until the elves are caught, which could be mere weeks to a few months! So hunker down, set up beds, and get comfortable," I tell him and pick up a couple of old fire enchanted rubies. "Though I think miss Sparkle would like to live here indefinitely seeing how into her studying she seems to be," I say and gesture to the still reading elf.

With everything I need with me I get ready to head out.

"Oh! But first things first!" I say and snap my left fingers, making all the dangerous equipment and materials get up and walk out the room and into a storage room. The guards just stare as the materials walk out single file.

"Hey!" Twilight yelps as the incomplete circle of connected runes starts spinning and flies out above the others items.

"You can read up on beardy's notes before you get into the practical stuff... remember the last time you tried to open a portal?" I tell her in a mock tone of a dad scolding their child.

She pouts and turns back to the notes making me chuckle.

"Now then, I'm off to Aires Peak as I have a feeling Celestia will be needing a helping hand," I say as the storage room locks itself. With that all settled, I teleport to Tia's location before they can say anything.

I look around and notice Tia and some Unicorn's surrounding a head sized crystal on a table and channelling magic into it. Ah a cloaking spell!

"Tia! Have you not reached Aires Peak yet?" I ask her getting most of those present to yelp, except I make my head retract like a turtle as a human archer fires a crossbow bolt at me.

"I SAY SIR! That was uncalled for!" I say as my voice echoes throughout my breastplate. I then slowly raise my head until my visor just reaches over the collar of my breastplate. "Watch where you point that thing, you could take someones eye out!" I scold him making him look nervous.

"Discord, I take it Twilight is now safe?" Celestia asks. I look to the elves present and notice the eyes of two of them widen a bit, so we might have some elves looking for miss Sparkle who came with the terrans forces huh...

"Perfectly my dear, but we'll discuss details later. I had a bad feeling about this so I decided to give you a helping hand," I reply and look out of the cabin window.

We're coming up to the top of Aires Peak and the large building which the council resides in. "So what is your game plan?" I ask and look back to them.

"The humans will remove their barriers and with the rest of our forces, subdue or remove any gryphons attacking us. Vortigan and I will deal with this Sphinx God then with the council," she replies.

"Hmmm. Alright, you deal with Sphinxy and I'll handle the council," I tell her and pull out two of the tarts I have left. "While we wait for our arrival, you must try one of these!" I say merrily and hold one out for her.

She raises an eyebrow and gingerly takes it from me. "What is it?" she asks and sniffs it.

"A delightful tart made by your kitchen's newest staff member," I reply and raise my visor and take a bite out of it. Hmmm-mmm-mmmm! Still as good as if it was freshly baked.

"Oh? When did we get a new baker?" she asks me and takes a bite.

I smirk as her eyes roll up and a rather lewd moan escapes her throat. A lot of the males stare at her wide eyed with a slight sheen of sweat on their foreheads as she takes another bite.

"By your reaction, I take it you approve?" I ask her and finish off my tart.

She licks her lips of crumbs and smiles. "Most certainly. I look forward to what else she can make, but for now we have a so called god to kill," she replies and looks back to the crystal she's still powering.

I look out of one of the windows in the cabin and see the top of the mountain coming into view. A large building decorated with crude busts of gryphons near the entrance, previous elders of the council I believe.

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After that delicious tart Discord gave me, I return my attention to the crystal and get ready to head into battle. I will test this god to see what he is capable of and if he isn't as strong as he claims to be, I will bring everything I have to bare down onto him.

It takes another four minutes before we reach the mountain peak, the large building of the gryphon council is decorated in kill trophies of pelts and skulls along with wooden heads of former elders.

The building looks old, though the roofing looks like fresh thatch. There are landing platforms near the main entrance allowing gryphons to just come and go, it also prevents land based creatures from reaching it easily.

"Bring the ship to the back and ready the cannons! We'll blow a hole in the side where our unicorns will lift you all in after us!" I say and check my equipment again. With everything set and the ship in position, we drop the cloak and begin.

"FIRE!" I yell as the starboard cannons fire into the building. The wall caves in as nothing but splinters fly about and cries of pain and confusion shout out within.

"Advance!" I yell as Vortigan, Discord, and I fly through the hole and look around.

A couple of gryphons are dead with either chunks of flesh ripped off from the cannon balls, while three others are missing limbs.

I spot a large dark brown furred gryphon with grey feathers and a pale white human like face sitting upon a throne made of bones and pelts with five seats on either side in a crescent formation, each with an elderly gryphon wearing ceremonial robes sitting on them. He narrows his eyes at us while the elders start to look angry.

"How dare mere prey attack us! Hunters! Claim their heads!" one of the old buzzards yells in offence to our presence.

I glare at him for his choice of words and without warning, cast a fireball from my horn at his head. The heat burns his face off leaving the burnt bone of his skull visible as the smell of seared flesh starts to fill the room. He didn’t even have time to scream.

"We are the hunters now gryphons, and we no longer tolerate your hostilities towards us and other races," I tell them as I look back to the Sphinx God.

Something feels wrong with him. I can't sense his presence, and his eyes look like there is no life behind them... Is he just a corpse? Perhaps Grogar is even controlling him?

"So, the prey thinks themselves the hunters?" the Sphinx God says and he slowly stands up on all fours. "Then let us see how you fair against a superior hunter." Without warning he flaps his large wings and lunges straight for me.

Next Chapter: Chapter 98: The battle of Aries Peak Part 3 Estimated time remaining: 45 Minutes