Everyone is now on board and marvelling at the technology that the ship is built from. Imps have filled the balloon full of hot air and the ship lurches forward as the goblin engineers power up the engines.

"Ship ahead full! Next stop, Fel Haven!" The inccupony captain yells and turns the wheel to face north.

"If this is what I can get to command then I don't care about losing my ship at all..." Ironhoof says looking around the ship's deck with a grin. Harpies are on top of the balloon in the crows nests as lookouts using their sharp eyes, along with two sniper nests on each side of the balloon holding an inccupony or succupony sniper. They're using longer barrelled rifles with basic scopes on them.

"This is amazing! No pegasi needed to pull the ship... it's all done by technology! Oh I can't wait to start learning all I can here!" Twilight says with glee as she leans over the railing to look at the propellers.

"You'll find that a lot of our technology has never been heard of in your world," I tell her as I head into the planning room at the back under the steering wheel of the ship.

"What?" she asks and eagerly follows me into the back room.

Once inside, I walk up to the map table with all of known Tartarus on it. Next to it is a charcoal pencil which I pick up and lightly toss to Twilight.

"I saw you eyeing the one Mo'gra was using. It's just a stick of charcoal surrounded by wood to make a comfortable writing utensil. Less messy than quills and ink and easier to transport around," I tell her.

She stares at the pencil like it’s the next best thing. "How have we not figured this out yet! It's so simple!" she yells more so at herself with a pout.

I just shrug. "I noticed a lot of your technology was replaced with anything that magic could do or maybe you just didn't see a need to replace what seems to work?" I guessed and looked over the map. “We humans tend to not be satisfied with what we make or have as we know they can always be improved.”

Twilight walks over and also looks at the map. "This is Tartarus?" she asks and trails a hand over the map.

"That we know of. We're here right now," I reply and tap just north of Felfire. "And were heading here," I then say and tap on the city of Fel Haven seven-hundred and twenty-two miles away.

"How long will it take to get there?" she asks me.

"A day or two, this ship can move forty miles an hour at top speed but that tends to burn out the engines after four hours of constant flight. So the safest speed is thirty miles an hour, between a couple hours at max speed," I reply and sigh. Even though we're on our way, it'll still be a while before we get there.

"And what's here?" she then asks me pointing to a black hole on the map four hundred miles to the west of Felfire.

"Ah, that's the home of a leviathan class monster. She's the broodmother of the waste worms, like the one that attacked us. We leave her be since she's supplying this area with a steady supply of meat. Otherwise I would have had her killed due to the threat she poses," I tell her with a frown.

"She's really that big?" she asks with surprise.

"That's why she's a leviathan class. Last I saw of her she was nearly a mile long," I reply and walk over to the liquor cabinet. "Want a drink?" I ask her and take out two glasses and a bottle of rot wheat ale.

"I don't really drink..." she replies and nervously rubs her left arm.

"Actually, most of our drinks aren't alcoholic. This is called rot wheat ale, and despite its name, is actually very sweet," I tell her and pour a small amount in each glass. "The only difference I can remember when I last had alcohol from my world is that this still tastes just a strong, just without the hangover that comes with alcohol."

I walk over to her and hand her a glass. She takes it after a moment of hesitation and takes a small sip and winces at the strong flavour, but then her eyes widen.

"It tastes like sugared honey," she comments and takes another sip while getting used to the strength of it.

"I can't remember the last time I tried honey to be honest, but if that's what it tastes like then I'll take your word for it," I say and drink half of mine instantly with a sigh.

"So, how are you doing? Now that we're here in Tartarus, how do you feel about it?" I ask her, genuinely curious about her opinion of my home. I walk over to the couch and pat the cushion beside me.

She walks over and sits next to me and leans on my right arm. "To be honest, I was terrified of coming here, despite how you described it. It's hard to think of something one way when you've been raised with the view of another. But from what I've seen so far, it's been a fascinating experience and the demons are not what I expected," she replies and takes another sip.

"Can you see yourself living here? I promise the land looks nicer further inland compared to the wastes here. I guess you can say we're in the desert right now," I tell her and down the rest of my drink.

"I don't know, it's so different from what I'm used to and what about my mother and father? My other friends in Ponyville?" she asks with a sad frown.

"Hey, we just need to find the gate that leads to the one under Canterlot and repair it right? Then you have a way of coming and going whenever you want," I tell her soothingly.

"I guess. It'll just take me awhile to get used to this place," she says and sighs.

After about thirty minutes just sitting there enjoying each other's company, the door bursts open with a wide eyed Rainbow Dash.

"Damien! There's some flying monsters heading this way!" she tells me and quickly leaves.

I get up and head outside to see a flock of dire bats heading right for us.

"That's odd, dire bats don't come out unless provoked... something or someone must have disturbed them from their cave," I say and turn to the crew.

"RIFLES OUT! SNIPERS! TAKE THEM OUT!" I order the crew getting a cheer in response.

The sound of over twenty rifles including my own cocking their hammers back fill the air as our crew, Desire, and I aim at the incoming agitated bats.

The others yelp as a musical of gunfire echoes throughout the wastes and the bats drop out of the sky one after the other.

I barely hear someone whimper behind me but ignore them as I keep firing into the oncoming bats. It doesn't take long to shoot them all down.

"Good job fellas!" I say getting another cheer from the crew.

"That's bucking terrifying, and they hurt my ears," Rainbow says while looking at our rifles and covering said ears.

"It's one of the main reasons my forces are mostly uncontested, and probably one of the reasons Fel Haven hasn't fallen yet," I tell her and holster my rifle. "Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to take a nap," I tell them and head below deck to find one of the spare guest rooms.

"Wait for me!" I hear Twilight call out and run to follow me.

"Yes?" I ask her with a raised brow.

"I um... I'm feeling a little hungry..." she tells me blushing slightly.

I smile and pick her up making her yelp in surprise.

"Then I must look to the needs of my girl," I tell her making her blush intensify.

She uses her magic to open the door once we arrive and I walk in. There's a bed to the left at the back, a dresser to the right, and a table with two chairs next to the dresser. She closes the door behind us and I gently lay her on the bed.

"You might want to put up a sound proofing spell. Unless you want the whole ship to hear you?" I tell her teasingly. Now her neck and whole face are red but her eyes are half lidded.

"I don't mind if they hear us, it'll let them know you're mine," she says seductively. Desire has been a really bad influence on her.

"If that's what you want," I reply and start to pull her shirt up.

---

After feeding Twilight, she took a nap with me where I wake up to find both her and Desire cuddled up to me. I arch my back getting a few satisfying pops making Twilight groan and cling to me tighter.

I smile and pull her closer to me getting a sigh out of her.

"This is nice..." she mumbles and snuggles her face into my neck.

"I can't wait until we can just relax and settle back into our Castle. I'm looking forward to when Twilight becomes a true part of our happy family and has a couple of sprogs of her own," Desire tells me from my right.

"It would be nice to have a few kids running around again, you said you wanted another one didn't you?" I reply and ask her.

"Mmmhmmm, I want you to plant another foal in me. I miss holding a foal in my arms," she says and just lays there.

I wouldn't mind having a couple more children since ours are all grown up. I was about to go back to sleep when the ship's alarm goes off.

Throwing the covers off me, I roll over Desire getting a yelp from her and then a moan as I press against her chest. I ignore her and quickly put on my underwear and trousers. Foregoing my shirt and coat, I grab my rifle and make my way up to the deck.

Once I arrive, I see harpies in ragged clothing and soulless black glazed over eyes attacking my crew, but the gunners and snipers are putting them down quickly.

"Where did they come from!?" I shout out, getting a boarus' attention.

"They just appeared from a portal, my Lord!" he replies and then slams his morning star mace into the head of a harpy with a sickening crunch and a spray of blood.

"Must have been an archdemon or demonlord that did it..." I mumble to myself. These harpies are showing the symptoms of being under the influence of the master's will. "Kill or capture these harpies and go at max speed for two hours!" I order the crew and they fight more viciously to wipe out the attackers.

I notice Shining with a sword and shield fighting alongside the crew getting a few kills, along with the balrog brothers and Scarlet.

Luna and Selene are in the air taking on the harpies and preventing them from trying to slash the balloon.

I join the battle and launch multiple tendrils at five harpies, I grip them by their throats and squeeze tightly, snapping their necks and dragging them onto the deck. The crew take their time to stab them in the heart or tying them up when they can. I see another harpy try to sink their talons into the back of an inccupony, but I lash out with my tendrils and snare her tightly.

With a tug, I pull the harpy to me and jerk her head aside. I bite into her neck and flood her with my energy. She screams as my energy tries to overwrite her current mark which looks like a goat's skull with two tall vertical horns on it.

The other mark seems to be from a demonlord but it feels weak in comparison to my energy, so my energy has no problem finally overwriting the mark with my own.

Once completed, I mentally give the harpy her freewill back. She gasps and her eyes refocus and the glazed over look fades away.

I hold her out at arm's length and frown at her. "Who was your previous master?" I ask her.

She's trembling in my grasp and swallows heavily. "H-He is a d-demonlord named T-T-Tirek..." she replies terrified.

"Tirek? So he's loose and causing trouble. Where is he?" I then ask her.

"I d-don't know... H-He's always m-moving," she replies.

I frown and put the harpy down. "Very well, sit in that corner and don't move a muscle," I order her and her eyes glow.

"Yes, Master," she says and walks over to the corner under the stairs leading up to the steering wheel.

I refocus on the battle but it's already over. We've got a few injured demons but they'll heal just fine. Though they have captured a few more of the harpies, I'll claim them later though as I survey the damage done to the ship. The balloon has a slight tear in it but an arachnipony is already up there repairing it while the imps are constantly filling the balloon with more hot air to keep us up.

"W-Why did they attack us?" I hear Twilight ask as she walks up behind me.

"Tirek sent them, whether he knows I'm on board or not I don't know," I reply and look back at the new harpy I claimed. "You, come here now!" I order her and she complies.

"Y-Yes, Master?" she asks timidly.

"What were your orders from Tirek?" I ask her.

"O-Our orders were t-to disrupt any s-supplies from Felfire to F-Fel Haven..." she tells me.

"So Tirek doesn't know I've returned?" I then ask her.

"Not t-that I know of..." the harpy says. She looks as if she's waiting for me to strike her at any moment.

"Alright, hopefully that'll give us the element of surprise when we push back the forces attacking Fel Haven. You can go back to the corner now," I say and order the harpy.

She quickly nodded and scurries off back under the stairs.

"She looked terrified," Twilight says sadly.

"She must have been mistreated by her previous masters. We'll help her and the others we've captured to get settled in once we retake Fel Haven," I tell her and look to the crew. "STATUS REPORT!" I yell getting the captain to come forward.

"The Balloon had a small tear in it but it's already been patched up. A few were injured but they'll heal before we get there. Other than that? Just a few claw marks on the hull," he tells me.

"Good, now go full speed for two hours, I want to be at Fel Haven yesterday!" I tell him and he salutes.

"Yes, my Lord," he replies and looks to the helmsman. "FULL SPEED AHEAD!" he yells and the inccupony at the helm complies.

I can hear the thrusters and propellers protest at the strain placed on them but we'll give the ship some TLC once we get there.

"Keep an eye out for any more surprises!" I tell the crew.

They cheer as Pinkie suddenly pops up in front of me. "Surprises!? I love surprises! What is the surprise?" she asks me.

I just stare at her with a raised brow. "It's not the good kind of surprise, Pinkie," I tell her.

"Oh," she says sadly and pouts.

---

After seven more hours, the City of Fel Haven comes into view. There hasn't been another attack on us and I've converted the other harpies to my horde. They all say they don't know where Tirek currently is and that their orders were just to disrupt supply lines.

Sieging the walls is a large force of lesser demons and deamons about one-hundred and fifty-thousand strong. I also spot four archdemons with them commanding them at the back.

There's also our main fleet made of our Flagship, the TAF Death from above, four frigate ships, three galleon ships, and two sloop ships flying above the walls shooting down any harpy trying to fly over the walls while cannon fire assaults the ground forces.

On the walls are gunners and archers taking shots at the ground forces while also tossing grenades down at them as well.

I grin as I watch the man'o'war fire all fifty of its starboard cannons, the sound thundering across the land and stunning the ex-Equestrians.

"You weren't kidding when you said you have bigger ships," Rainbow comments but I ignore her as Desire wraps her arms around my waist from behind.

"So, my love? How do you wish to do this?" Desire asks me.

"Well, seeing as they have four archdemons and we have four demonlords, I say each of us attack them. But bring them to me, I could use more powerful souls for Thanatos," I reply.

After discussing the plan with Luna and Selene, we jump overboard and we each dive for a target while the snipers and gunners keep the lesser demons away.

Poor sods don't even see us coming as I summon Thanatos and without warning, impale the large ogre like archdemon through his back and into his heart. He is a fifteen foot tall bald green skinned muscular ogre with bone spikes coming out of his shoulders and back.

"WHAT!?" he yells getting the attention of the demons around him. He then screams in agony as his soul is ripped out and his body shrivels up slowly before crumbling.

Once he's reduced to ash. I land on the ground and smirk.

"The Overlord has returned!" one of the demons says with fear as I look at him.

My smirk fades as I adopt a grim expression. "Yes I have, and I'm not amused with what you're doing to my city while I was away," I reply and conjure six darkfire dragons and send them into the large group of about three-hundred demons in front of me.

They scream as they're reduced to ash, but I don't linger as our ship fires off a salvo of cannonballs into the horde of demons.

With them distracted, I make my way to the next archdemon.

'Time for a proper battle!' I think to myself with a bloodthirsty grin.

Next Chapter: Chapter 43: Getting settled and...  some good news? Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 12 Minutes