Author's Notes:

Hey, I'm not dead. So I have been going through some stuff and kind of having a crappy time in general. Due to my own personal issues, I lost my Job and now find myself with a lot more time to write. I have a few months worth of funds saved up, so I'm considering taking a few weeks off to work on my mental health before getting back in the saddle, but I will have to see what happens. This is shorter than other chapters which I realize is kind of annoying with it having been so long since my last update, but I am going to try to give this more attention as an outlet for the next bit. So hopefully, I will be able to work on this a bit more, Got to look for that silver lining.

Keep calm and Brony on my dudes.

and in the wise words of Bill and Ted

"Be excellent to each other."

Turns out that they were more than happy to guide us through Tartarus. After explaining the situation and that I should be able to get a new arm, the princesses immediately offered to take us. They even offered to let us ride in my trunk while they delivered us to our destination. I was a bit shocked and tried to decline the offer, instead, saying I should be the one to carry it through, but I lost the argument when Celestia used logic, “Tartarus is toxic to mortals, and besides, it would take you weeks to cross it yourself, we can have it done in a few hours.”

Not being able to argue the point further with any kind of driving force, he acquiesced to their decision. The next three days consisted of everyone that was coming with, getting ready to take a few days off. I had to work with Cheerilee to excuse Scoots from classes for two weeks. At first, she was very against her missing the class time, though after I explained that for Scoots, it would be closer to two months where she would be personally tutored by Twilight five days a week, she agreed and even smiled, figuring that it might help her grades in the long run, and maybe put her a little ahead. Scoots wasn’t happy to hear what the plan was, but Twilight was ecstatic and spent the next two days doing a general overview of what she planned to run through and the final day before we left detail planning the first two weeks.

It got bad enough that she asked if she could stay behind, for fear of the library mom. Laughing I promised to make sure that Twilight wouldn’t go overboard. To be completely honest, I expected this to be a bit of a vacation for all of us, as well as some time to decompress from everything that had happened. Time flew by, and all of us gathered at my house to leave. After helping our group haul all of their stuff into the trunk, we stood outside in the front yard. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Scoots and Spike. Rarity and Applejack couldn’t afford to miss two weeks due to the time of year, they both had massive schedules to keep to. Rainbow had a lot of vacation time stocked up, and Fluttershy had left things in capable hands of the royal groundskeeper. A favor that she turned in for that time she helped the nice mare’s pet raccoon.

Pinkie Pie had apparently never taken a vacation day from Sugar Cube Corner sans the few times she had been called away on element business, or for parties that she helped to organize, but that ended up being quite a bit of their business income, so it all worked out. Twilight ended up asking Dr. to take care of the library for two weeks. Now that we had gathered and had packed all we needed to do now was wait for the princesses to arrive. At that moment, a light breeze blew through the clearing causing my empty sleeve fluttered in the wind. “That shits still weird.” I casually observed, only to be met with a hand bouncing off the back of my head “Ow!, what was that for?!” Rubbing my head with my remaining hand.

Twilight glared at me “Don’t curse in front Spike and Scootaloo, they shouldn’t hear their father speak like that.” She was upset, but honestly, she was right to be. Over the last few days, I had been a lot looser with my language around the house. I figured it was a mix of a few things. I was on a lot of magical and medical painkillers, and I was likely mildly if not entirely traumatized by what had happened. I mean you don’t exactly get your arm eaten and bounce back without repercussions. There were going to be some scars left in my mind from this. To add to the physical ones.

“Sorry Twi, I guess I’m not really coping well right now, the sooner we can get there, and I can get my new arm the better.” I gave her a sheepish smile. Thinking about it, I guess that nickname never stook, at this point, I had just defaulted to the same thing that most of Twilight’s friends called her.

It was at that moment when a bright flash drew our attention to the two Goddesses that stood before us. “I see that everyone is ready. How are you feeling Magos? Do you have any pain?” Celestia asked with a concerned look in her eyes.

My ears lit up, “I feel fine Celestia, Let me help you with that.” I walked over and grabbed their duffle bags off the ground. As I lifted them I was surprised by how light they were. Which honestly didn’t make any sense, they both had brought standard sized duffle bags, and they appeared to be stuffed to the gills, but they weighed a fraction of what one would expect. I figured it was most likely a spell that they had added as an afterthought. Before I could move to put them down in the trunk, a dark blue glow surrounded the bags and they were pulled from my grip.

“Don’t you dare young man. You have been maimed, and until you have a new limb, you will keep your lifting down to a minimum. Take that as an order if you must.” I looked over to see the smiling face of Luna as she casually walked by, a slight sway in her hips. I blushed as I watched her walk to the trunk. Tearing my gaze away from her hind end looked back at the rest of the group. Rainbow was talking to Fluttershy and Twilight had gone over to talk to Celestia. Spike walked over to me and looked over the group as well.

“So we are about to go to a different world. Kinda weird.” He shuffled his feet back and forth. Putting my hand down on the top of his head, I ruffled his spines. “Don’t worry about it bud, things will be just fine, and you get to meet a bunch of new people that are going to think you are awesome.”

He gave me a brave smile, just as Scootaloo came over. Leaning against me, she smiled. “What kind of cool stuff is over there dad?”

I smiled as I thought about it. “Well, there is a lot of really cool stuff. We have a thing called a plane, imagine a giant metal bird that can hold a few hundred people that can fly anywhere in the entire world in just a few hours. Then there are cars, kind of like a carriage that moves without anything to pull it. If you like, we can watch a few movies during the trip that have some of the kind of stuff you are going to be seeing. How does that sound?” The broad smiles and excited whoops answered for me as they ran to the trunk. Chuckling to myself, I made my way over to the chest “All aboard whos going aboard. Let’s get this trip going shall we.”

The princesses smiled at me and nodded “Of course Magos, we are excited to see the camp that you grew up at as well. I shall have to pick up some wine from Dionysus while we are there, it had been centuries since I had any of his stock.” Celestia added with a smirk. Luna continued by including “Sister, the last time you got into wine made by him, you tried to seduce Artimus if it had not been for her vow of maidenhood you might have succeeded.”

Celestia’s ears lit up bright pink, and I couldn’t help but feel the heat in my cheeks rise as well. The idea of a drunk Celestia hitting on another goddess was a bit much for my imagination. Trying to salvage the situation, I spoke up “Yes… well then, Let’s get moving.” Celestia took the opportunity and agreed. After we had all dropped down to the bottom of the trunk, the trip began. Celestia joined us for the first half of the journey, then switched places with Luna at the halfway point. All in all, we were able to make the trip in around four hours, which I could tell made Rainbow feel competitive.

We worked our way through ‘Ferris Bueller's day off’ and ‘The Mighty Ducks,’ and I was happy to say that I had a few more converts to enjoyed the films. I wasn’t a huge lover of sports movies, but Mighty Ducks held a special place in my heart. Right as we were all getting up and stretching, Celestia shouted down, “We are here. I have us at the border of the camp. I do believe you need to go first Magos.

Ushering everyone up and out of my trunk, we all stood at the border of Camp Half-Blood. The large fir tree with a golden pelt hanging from its branches brought back a flood of memories. Crossing the threshold, I turned back and addressed the group “I formally invite you to Camp Half-Blood.” They all smiled as they walked across the invisible line. Luna’s horn lit and my trunk was lifted up and carried with her. Moments after we crossed over, a bright flash to our left drew our attention. Standing there in his Hawaiian shirt, was Mr. D.

Looking over our group, he sneered at me, but once his eyes fell on the princesses, he seemed to lose all of his annoyance. “Why if it isn’t Celestia and Luna, the most beautiful Goddesses of the next world over. What brings you here to this little corner of this world.”

Celestia must have noticed his less than favorable look at me and responded with a cold tone “We are here with our dear friend Magos. The poor dear was hurt, and we discovered that he had someone here that could help with that. We have already cleared it with Zuse. No need to worry, we should be done here within two months. Please treat us fairly while we are here.” She smiled, and her tone was friendly, but anyone with intelligence could tell that she wasn’t messing around.

Mr. D just smiled and added “Of course, you will be treated as you should be. Will you be staying in the big house?”

She smiled with her answer, “you need do not need to worry, Magos has something we can use.”

I turned my head and looked at her with confusion, the only sleeping arrangements that I had were the ones in my trunk. And they weren’t exactly the highest class accommodations. Beyond the fact that I only had the one bed. Keeping my mouth shut I waited for them to finish their conversation and turned to everyone else. “Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. The only safe haven for demigods in the west. If you look directly across from here, you will see the ‘Big House,’ ‘Volleyball Court,’ and ‘Arts and Crafts’ hut.”

The group looked out over the valley as I introduced them to where they would be staying for the next two months. “To the north is the Amphitheater, used for general entertainment, performances, and sports. We also have campfire songs and s'mores.” I grinned like a madman, a wave of nostalgia crashed over me as memories of introducing this place to new campers came back to me. “Past that is the climbing wall. Watch out for lava and falling rocks.” The girls had a shocked look on their faces as I mentioned that. Spike looked excited, as did Scoots. “To the North West is Canoe Lake, and across from that are the cabins. Don’t enter one unless you are invited, it’s rude, and you might make someone mad. The mess hall is north of the cabins. We have an arena to the west and past that is the armory beyond that is the pegasus sta...bles.”

As the words left my mouth, I felt the blood drain from my face as I looked at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. I was at a loss for words before Luna stepped in to rescue me “I remember the Pegasi of this world, they are quite strange. Highly intelligent, but they are quadrupedal and are unable to speak to most beings. At least not in the most common sense. Am I correct?”

Taking a deep breath, I mouthed ‘Thank you’ before responding “Yes, you are correct Luna. The equine race here could compare to many of Fluttershy’s friends. Highly intelligent, but lacking the ability to speak English, or Equis as you call it. They also lack the ability to build things. But if you can earn their friendship, they will always look out for you. I will have to take you to meet them while we are here. My main aim is the Forge, That is where my smith is. The sooner, the better, but first I will show you around. Is everybody ready?”

Celestia and Mr. D had finished their conversation, and Mr. D had poofed off. The group got back together, and we made out way down the hill to see where everything was. Deciding to make a loop, I started by going down to the Arts and Crafts area first. Pinkie and Fluttershy both loved it, Twilight was mildly interested but was a little let down that they didn’t have any instructional manuals. I feel like I was understandably justified in chuckling when she pouted over it.

She didn’t think so. After a quick kiss on the cheek and a squeeze with my arm in as much of a hug as I was currently capable of, she felt a little better, but she still stuck her tongue out at me. The most annoying part of showing them around had to be explaining multiple times what had happened to me. I had thought that I had asked Leo to prepare for me showing up. Kinda hoped he had thought to tell people. Apparently not though, that’s what I get for expecting a blacksmith to remember anything that wasn’t a design or project. I remember meeting Jackson’s little brother for the first time. The kid couldn’t remember people's names half the time, and he wasn’t terribly articulate. But give him some celestial bronze and a forge, and he would give you something amazing. Damn shame that his dad higher him to work in Atlantis, I mean it was an excellent opportunity for him, but Tyson was one of the best smiths here.

As we passed through each area, the girls had a bunch of questions, Spike was a bit quiet, he had noticed a few of the campers giving them some looks. I realized that we were going to have to nip this in the bud quickly before someone did something stupid like, piss off two goddesses. Dinner tonight is going to be interesting. After going through most of the camp, we ended up at the area between the Armory, Forge, Strawberry fields and Stables. Celestia voiced an interested in visiting the stables to see what the local pegasi were doing, Fluttershy was apparently curious enough to follow, Pinkie said she was going to the stables first but was going to check out the fields as well. I made sure to get her to promise before picking anything that she would ask first. Mr. D didn’t have a lot of kids, but I didn’t want to piss any of them off.

Rainbow, Twilight, Scoots, Spike and Luna joined me as we made our way down to the Forge. As we got closer, the air got hotter, and the funk of sweat and burning metal hit us like a wave. It smelt like home. As we got to the entrance, I looked in the past the other campers, so absorbed with their work, they never noticed us enter, that is where I finally found him. The massive man stood next to a forge in the shape of a dragons head. The entire thing formed out of Celestial bronze. I had no idea how a bronze Forge was hot enough to work with other metals, but I have learned not to question Hephaestus’ kids. They did things with metal work and tech that no sane person had any business being able to do. They were wizards in their own right. Walking up to the smith, I shouted “LEO! I thought I told you to prep for me coming to visit! Why did no one know I was coming!” It sounded like I was upset, but I had laced it with humor.

I must have spooked him because when he looked at me, he dropped his hammer. “Mierda!, I thought that was a dehydration hallucination. Magos! You really are alive!” Ignoring the dropped hammer, he rushed over and pulled me into a sweaty grip. The smell of a sweaty man that also reeked of whatever he ate for lunch wasn’t the best though.

“Yes Leo, I’m alive and back. I didn’t realize you were dealing with being dehydrated when I called, were in the middle of a new project or something?” He had been working on something before, so I wasn’t sure if he was actively working on something, or just letting his hands do whatever they wanted. I had seen him do it a few times before. The things he made when he did that were amazing, he would often use them as inspiration for new projects.

Chuckling, Leo responded “I am actually, Funny enough after the call, even though I had thought that it was a hallucination. It sparked the motivation to try to rework the old project for an upgrade, I got some amazing ideas that will be worked into it. Now that I know that it wasn’t something my mind cooked up, I can implement it in your new model.”

His grin kind of concerned me, but knowing his work it was bound to be amazing. Giving it a bit of thought, I pulled him over to the side to speak with him privately. The girls looked on with confusion, sans Luna who was just looking around the workshop with mild interest. Though her ears perked up a bit when she overheard his conversation. Having figured that it would be pointless to hide it from her, he didn’t try to conceal what he was planning to do from her. Though the others wouldn’t know unless absolutely necessary.

Rubbing his chin for a moment Leo came to a conclusion “Leave it to me, I will make sure to get it done and get it working for you. What is your time frame again?”

Smiling, I gave our answer “I have two months to get this made, fitted, installed and recovered from.” I knew what I was asking was a lot. Most people wouldn't be able to deal with this kind of thing as quickly. But most people didn’t have literal goddesses that had requested to aid in his recovery with supplemental healing magic that was substantially better than anything available here.

I was mildly concerned with the look that Leo was giving me, Steam was rising from his body, and his hands ignited in flames. “Do you mean to insult me, I will have your arm done in three days. It will be up to you to figure out how to use it with the rest of your time.” I was kinda spooked by him right up to the point that he cracked up and bent over laughing. “Man you should have seen the look on your face! Fucking priceless!”

He was quickly shut up when a rolled up piece of paper smacked him upside the head, quickly followed up with a smart, “Excuse me, there are children here. Watch your language please.”

This must have been the moment when he noticed the group behind me for the first time. His eyes grew wide as his memories flooded back to him from the conversation. “Oh yea, you said you were bringing some people over. Sorry about the cussing thing.” He grinned and scratched his head, “Calypso, gets after me for that sometimes as well. Says that I'm a bad role model for the younger kids.”

We shared a laugh together for a moment before we began by taking some measurements for my new arm. Leo had been working on some general blanks that he had been improving. Generally, it was easier for him to make generalized blanks that he would then go back over and customize them to the right fit per the needs of the client. It cut out a lot of the work when he needed to do a rush job, and better yet, many of the intervals were universal due to the nature of how they worked. After spending a reasonable amount of time at the forge, Leo reminded us that it was time for dinner. If you missed it, you missed eating for the night. There were no leftovers here.

We made our way over to the dining area, and the group got their first look at it. I noticed that there were a lot more tables than there used to be. Many of the minor deities that hadn’t had a place before, now had spaces reserved. I remembered what Jackson had requested and was again pleasantly surprised that the gods had kept their end of the deal in both cases. Guiding them over to the Hecate table we all sat down as I worked through introducing them to members at the table. Interestingly enough, there were no new faces there. It wasn’t uncommon for a meal to go without a member for a while, but generally, they would see a new face every couple of years.

Forgetting about that for now, I looked up to the head table where Mr. D and the rest of the staff were sitting. Standing before the crowd, Chiron spoke with his smooth, even voice. “I would like to start this meal with some introductions. Likely you have all noticed that we have some guests with us. So to cure this, I am pleased to introduce you to Lady Celestia, and Lady Luna. They are the Goddesses of the Sun and Moon of the world that they are visiting from.” The entire hall stood stock silent. Not only were there two goddesses eating with them that they had never met before, but this had just confirmed that this wasn’t the only world that existed.

Continuing forward before anyone could interrupt with a vomited question, “They are accompanied by, Twilight Sparkle, the personal student of Princess Celestia and Bearer of the Element of Magic, Rainbow Dash, Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, Pinkie Pie, Bearer of the Element of Laughter, Fluttershy Bearer of the Element of Kindness, Spike, Son of Twilight, Scootaloo, Daughter of Magos,” this was interrupted by the shout of ‘What!’ which confirmed that there have still been people that didn’t know I was back yet, “And last but not least, Magos himself has returned for a visit.”

It was at this moment that Pinkie burst out from behind Chiron, a party popper exploding from her hands as she shouted “So! Let’s get this party Started!”