"Everything here seems boring to me" I said.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!"

Fluttershy and I turned around and saw a griffon with a dagger. Behind him were four other griffons. I looked over to Fluttershy and saw that she was cowering behind me, shivering slightly. I placed my hand on her head and she smiled before she moved to my side, her usual scared, shy self replaced with a now determined, braver demeanor.

I reached for the shoulder holster that held my Python out of habit of reaching for a weapon but remembered that I left all of my weapons that I usually carried on my body back on the airship, meaning my Python, Yin and Yan, Sparda, and Axe of Perun was unavailable at the current moment. Plus, all of my firearms in my inventory were unloaded because a few weeks ago, I found out that some things still applied to whatever was in my inventory. If I was submerged in water or placed into a heated environment, so was everything in my inventory. Everything contained in my inventory would also experience time. So if I did something like fly at the speed at sound and then suddenly stop, that complete, sudden stop would also happen to whatever I had in my inventory. So if I had any loaded firearms, there would be a lot of misfires.

However, I still had Cerberus hanging with my Equestrian star on my lanyard around my neck since it didn't look like a weapon but more like a necklace. "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Wait... You're one of the apes helping the Equestrians." I saw his one of his friends pull out a small bladed weapon. "One of the greatest fighters there is huh? Looks more like somegriffon that would get his ass kicked by everygriffon." The other four griffons walked up to the two of us.

"Look at that one! It's that coward pony model with the pink hair from some time ago" one of the other four griffons said, pointing to Fluttershy.

'Why would they be looking at pony fashion magazines? They're griffons.' I placed my hand back on Fluttershy's back. "We don't want any trouble. We are just visiting the Griffon Empire to meet with your leaders."

'You just insulted our capital and you think you can get away with that just because you're going to meet up with our emperor? The Griffon Empire isn't filled with cowards and weaklings like Equestria. I don't think you two would last ten seconds in a fight." Three of the other griffons moved behind us and the two in front of us took out a knife and went into a fighting stance. The three griffons that were behind us took out their own weapons and take their own fighting stances.

I looked to Fluttershy. "You take the two in the front, I got the three in the back" I said. She nodded back at me. "Watch for their blades."

"Careful, I saw one of them pull out a mace." I nodded at her.

I took off my lanyard and held it with my right hand, wrapping it once around my hand. The three mouths of Cerberus opened and started released mists of frozen ice. Fluttershy watched the two griffons in front and I watched the other three. Like Fluttershy said, one of them had a mace while the other two had knives. Nothing happened as the Fluttershy and I watched the griffons we had to watch. The five of them went into bipedal fight stances but they took didn't show any experience of martial arts but more of boxing.

Then a griffon with a knife started to slowly approach me. When he was five feet away from me he quickly dashed forward at me, leading with his knife at my chest and flapping his wings to increase his speed. A few seconds before his knife managed to imbed itself into my chest, I sidestepped and grabbed his talon holding the knife. Since he was still moving forward because his body still contained momentum and he was still flapping his wings, I twisted his arm quickly, flipping him into the air. Before he went out of range, I extended out my index and middle finger on my left hand and jammed both fingers into the pinion joint of his left and his right wing. This broke the pinion joint in each of his wings, disabling his ability to fly.

Since most people don't know what a pinion joint is or how breaking one would disable flight, I will have to break the fourth wall to explain what it is like usual (don't worry, the author won't be mad cause he doesn't mind). I think I might bring Pinkie Pie with me when I break wall. Should I? Yeah. If you see a Pinkie Pie or Pinkie Pies (mirror pool) walking around, run around and panic or join her. You won't be safe even if you go into an anti-Pinkie shelter. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, pinion joints. The pinion joint is the joint farthest in a bird's wing. The pinion joint is important in flight for bird/avian creatures because the pinion joint holds the outermost primary flight feathers on a bird's wing. Back in our universe before all of the zombies, pinioning would be done. Pinioning is the removal of one of both of the pinion joints in a bird's wings, permanently disabling flight.

Because he wasn't able to use his wings, he soon crashed into the wall of a store. The other griffon that had a knife I was facing carefully approached me and was holding his knife in a reverse position in his right talon. When he got close enough, he slashed at me. He didn't manage to cut me as I grabbed his knife, sandwiching it in between my two hands. Then I bent my hands down and broke the blade of his knife. Before he could do anything else, I kicked him in the face and knocked him out. The last griffon tried swinging his mace at me. Before the mace could impact me, I swung my lanyard. Instead of aiming for the griffon with my lanyard, I aimed at his weapon with my lanyard. My lanyard wrapped around the handle of the mace and before he could react, I pulled it away. Before it could drop to the ground, I grabbed the mace and looked back to the griffon. He looked like he was going to pee himself. Before he ran away, I ran up to him, causing him to cower down, going back into a quadruped standing position. Like I would usually do to Andy, I smacked him upside the head and sent him flying into a wall.

While I was fighting the griffons, Fluttershy was fighting her own. The two griffons she was facing off were wielding knives. The first griffon to charge her was the leader and he was leading with his knife. Her reaction? Fluttershy jumped into the air and did a 180. While she was still in the air, she performed a backwards kick and her back right leg impacted the griffon leader directly in the face, instantly knocking him out. When Fluttershy landed back on the ground after recovering from the reverse kick, she jumped at the next griffon, flying over his head. While she was still midair, she grabbed the griffon's head with her back legs and landed on the ground on her front legs. Then mustering her strength, she threw the griffon, still holding his head with her back legs, sending him into several trash cans.

After dispatching the five griffons, I walked back to Fluttershy. "Well, that was easy" I said while unwrapping my lanyard from my hand and placing back to its rightful spot, hanging around my neck. I walked over to the griffons that I just beat up. "You're right, we weren't able to last ten seconds in a fight. It only took us eight seconds to beat you all up."

"Tran, can you help me with this?" Fluttershy asked while pointing to her mane wrapped around her forehead. "I think it’s stuck." I walked behind her and started unwrapping her mane around her head. As I finished, her mane slowly fell back down, the long mane reaching the ground.

"Now that, that is done, what do you want to do? Like I said earlier, everything here seems boring to me" I said. Truthfully, I actually didn't want to do anything here. Everything here actually did seem boring. It was barely in the afternoon, so there was quite some time left for all of us to do whatever we wished to do.

"Want to get something to eat? There's a store over there" Fluttershy said while pointing to a store. The store Fluttershy was pointing to was a restaurant that sold food to omnivores. From here, I could smell cooked meat, coming from the restaurant.

I knew Fluttershy could smell it too as she was a pony and had a stronger sense of smell than my human nose. Most people would think that a pony would not be able to stand meat, like in most pony fan fictions but think about it. Fluttershy, an animal caretaker, being fazed by meat? In most pony fan fictions, Fluttershy always bad mouths anyone that eats meat but if that was anything close to being somewhat realistic, she wouldn't be a very good animal caretaker. She takes care of a bear for god's sake. Although, a bear's diet does consist of 90% vegetation from the environment but what about the remaining 10%? If any of you are thinking of dirt, then you are correct... Nah, I'm just joking. It's meat. Also, Fluttershy has been shown onscreen, feeding some fish to some of her animals. So in reality, she wouldn't mind anyone eating meat. Normal ponies however.... That's an entirely different story. It's still a taboo.

The two of us walked into the restaurant and almost immediately, a chef in front of a grill was immediately seen. The inside of the restaurant reminded me of old diners from the golden years of America, the 50's. Fluttershy and I sat down at a table and were handed menus by a waiter. Soon, the two of us ordered food, Fluttershy ordering a daisy sandwich and a cup of tea and I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of tea. "Fluttershy, what do you want to do in the Griffon Empire? I know that a week ago, you said that you wanted to see what animals were available in the Griffon Empire, but the forests here are much more dangerous than the Everfree Forest. Though, I do want to see a wyvern. I heard their hide makes great leather."

"Yes, I still want to go see the animals" Fluttershy said. "I already knew about the dangers of the forest. I was hoping that you would umm come with me?"

"Fluttershy, of course I'd come with you. I don't think the gods would forgive me if I allowed someone so adorable to be mauled by something like a pack of vampiric jackalopes or a bunyip." Upon hearing that, she started blushing.

"See? Right there. Adorableness." You have to admit, that picture gave you diabetes. Nah.

After we finally got our food, we quickly ate our food and left after paying. They didn't accept normal Equestrian currency but they did accept my gold bits because, well, it’s gold. There isn't really much of an explanation. Gold is valuable basically everywhere. The two of us walked away from the restaurant, the workers from them waving good bye. I think the griffons working at that diner really appreciated the 8000% tip. Then, out of nowhere, I was hit by a large buggy filled with cargo being pulled by two griffons. The entire buggy ran me over and crushed me, leaving a Tran-sized indentation in the ground and crushing me into the ground.

"HEY! Watch where you're going!" I yelled as they flew off. I sat up from the Tran-shaped hole in the ground I made and Fluttershy flew up to me.

"Are you okay?!?" she asked.

"Fluttershy, haven't you learned? My name isn't okay, it's Tran." I freed my legs from the ground and stood back up. "So, what do you want to do first Fluttershy?"

"What? How? Why would? Don't think about it. This is Tran we're talking about" Fluttershy said, massaging her temples. "Let’s go to the forest first!"

"Okay." I summoned my 870 shotgun from my inventory and started to load it with buckshot. *CHK-CHK* "Let's go."

-X-X-X-

Fluttershy and I were walking through a large forest, named The Forest of Death. Yeah. The Forest of Death. Why? I don't know why. Can you readers out there guess? Slung over my right shoulder, was my 870 shotgun. In my hands were a notebook and a pencil Fluttershy wanted me to use to record down what animals were native to the Griffon Empire. Fluttershy was carrying a saddlebag with extra notebooks and around her neck was a camera.

In comparison to Equestria, the Griffon Empire was similar to Equestria when it came to the wildlife. Like Equestria, the Griffon Empire had a lot of mythological creatures as wildlife. The strangest creature we've seen so far? A wolpertinger. You don't know what it is? Look it up.

"Fluttershy, look over there. It's an ophiotaurus" I whispered, crouching down where I was to hide from the ophiotaurus. The ophiotaurus was in a small clearing, bowing its head down to eat grass. Since you readers out there don't know what an ophiotaurus is, an ophiotaurus is a mythological creature of Greek origins that is half bull and half serpent.

I knew the danger of the creature because I've read about the creature before in some Greek stories and myths. Even from here, I could see how dangerous it was. It's body was composed of pure muscles that enabled strength rivaling even that of Nick's current strength, its horns were basically spears that looked like they could gore out a manticore, its mouth would drip poisonous saliva every time it bit down on grass, and its body grew its own body armor, snake scales covering 80% of its lower body while the remainder of its body covered in a thick hide.

"A what?" she asked.

I pointed to what I was talking about. "Flutters, an ophiotaurus is a monster that has a serpent's lower body and a bull's upper body. Careful, they're aggressive." Fluttershy slowly crept closer to it, trying to get a better look. She tried her best on trying to be as discreet as possible and avoided stepping on anything that would cause loud noises but unfortunately, she stepped on a stick. *SNAP*

The ophiotaurus reared its head up and looked at where Fluttershy was standing. Once it saw her, the ophiotaurus charged full speed at her. Fluttershy knew that the ophiotaurus wasn't an animal like a manticore but more like a monster like a hydra. Almost immediately, she froze up and fell over, similar to that of a fainting goat.

Seeing this, I ran over to her and picked her up before the ophiotaurus could reach her. "HOLD ON!" I said while putting her on my back. I quickly turned around to face the ophiotaurus and quickly aimed my 870. Instead, I lowered my 870 shotgun. The ophiotaurus was gone.

I carefully walked around, Fluttershy still holding on for dear life on my back, looking for the ophiotaurus when an eagle's shriek pierced through the silence.

"That was a griffon!" Fluttershy said. I ran to where I heard the shriek and saw two griffons with bows being attacked by the ophiotaurus. Again, I aimed my 870 shotgun at it and fired. The buckshot I had loaded in it, impacted the ophiotaurus in an unprotected area of its body, barely fazing it at all. However, the buckshot did change its perspective of attention from the griffons to me.

The ophiotaurus stamped its front hooves on the ground before it charged at me. Before it could stab both of its horn into me, I jumped into the air, going over the beast and landing on the other side of it. Since my shotgun didn't do anything to it, I slung it over my back and took out a high explosive grenade non-fragmentation grenade. These types of grenades were meant to kill with the shockwave and concussive blasts coming from the explosives of the grenade. I pulled the pin and released the spoon. By now, the ophiotaurus turned around and charged at me again. Again, I jumped over it. While midair, I dropped the grenade and it rolled under the ophiotaurus.

"HIT THE DECK!!!" I yelled as I took Fluttershy off of my back and placed her in my coat, wrapping her up in my coat.. The griffons dropped their bow and jumped to the ground. Before the ophiotaurus could do something, the grenade detonated and the ophiotaurus dropped where it was standing. When the dust by the blast of the grenade settled back on the ground, the griffons were standing back up, bows in talons. "That was eventful." I opened up my coat and reached for Fluttershy, only for her head to pop out of the neck hole of my BDU jacket, the jacket in between my assassin's robes/coat and fleece jacket (I no longer wore a vest, but I still wore a robe, a BDU jacket, a fleece jacket, and a shirt  with black pants). "Um Fluttershy, can you get out of my jacket?" She blushed as she crawled out of my BDU and hid behind me. Again with the shyness.

I looked over to the griffons. "Are you two injured or need aid?" I asked.

"Nah. We were just hunting. That little critter you kill was quite a pest" one of the griffons replied. "We were wondering if you could let us keep the carcass. We need something to feed the family with." The griffon walked over to the ophiotaurus corpse and poked it a few times. "Ah. You manage to tenderize dah meat perfectly. I need to remember how you tenderized it." I don't think he has access to military-grade high explosive non-fragmenting grenades.

"Go ahead. We weren't hunting. We were just animal watching. Although, I do want some of the meat" I replied. I went to the corpse and took out a knife. After some cutting, I had a side of ophiotaurus beef, some meat for briskets and steaks, three of its hearts (It had eight. Why? I don't know.), and a liver (It had five. Why five? I don't Why any number than one? I don't If you have any complaints, please take them to Pinkie Pie) inside of my backpack in a meat locker I had for when I hunted in the Everfree Forest (Fluttershy doesn't know that I hunt). I unslung the 870 off of my back and loaded another round into it. "Come on Fluttershy, let’s go do something else. I think we've seen enough of this forest for now." Fluttershy only replied back with a nod as the two griffons were still here.

The two of us walked away from the two griffons. Once we did, Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief and asked "Did you really have to kill it?"

"Fluttershy, it was trying to kill us, there as common as cows in Equestria, and three, it’s not an animal, it’s a monster" I replied back. "Plus, I saved those two griffons and gave them a meal." As we neared the entrance to the forest, I unloaded my 870 shotgun and placed it back into my inventory. "Where now Fluttershy?" I asked.

"Want to see what the others are up to?" Fluttershy asked. "Or if they're in trouble?"

"Sure. Who do you want to see first?" I asked back.

"How about, we see what Dash is up to?"

-X-X-X-

The forest was within a close vicinity of the city of Gryphonia so we reached the city pretty quickly. After some directions from griffon locals, we were directed to a small coliseum styled stadium where the Iron Griffon competition was being held. Inside it was, as most would guess, sports and dueling along with maybe a hundred griffons. Like the real coliseum, there were seats and yes, they were filled with griffons. Most importantly, Rainbow Dash was inside, competing with other griffons in the arena part of the coliseum. However, unlike in Equestria, she was actually getting real competition from the others. Many griffons were at her level of athletics and were actually giving her a challenge. Although she was being challenged, she seemed like she was doing pretty well.

Fluttershy and I waited for the latest event to finish, which at the current time was the 100 meter dash, so that we could talk to Rainbow Dash. Once the event was finished, the two of us walked over to Dash. "Oi. Rainbow Dash."

Getting her attention, she turned around and faced us. "Hi Tran. Hi Fluttershy. What brings you two here?" she asked.

"We're just visiting you. Nothing wrong with that" I said. "Now I have a question. Why is it that once I stepped foot in this here stadium, everyone has been staring at me? Heck, even the athletes are looking at me." I turned around and motioned to everyone that was staring at me. I stared back at some of them with my cross eyed face to put a false sense of direction. I turned back to face Dash and she looked at me in a puzzled expression.

"Tran, you're eyes are all like Derpy's again" she said. I crossed both of my arms together before I spun my eyes a few times and they turned back to normal. "Tran, why do you make your eyes like that?"

"Rainbow Dash, I've explained that before. I'm cross-eyed when I'm not focused on a task or my eyes are fixated on an image. I'm naturally cross eyed. You know, like Derpy" I explained.

"But your eyes are always normal."

"Since when am I not focused on something?" I asked back. This shut her up. I looked back to Fluttershy and saw that she was hiding inside my coat, trying to avoid contact from the griffons. "So, what's the next event?"

"The duels and claw to claw combat matches" Rainbow Dash replied. "I was hoping you wouldn't come here because they allow you to challenge anyone watching the events."

"Oh. That is really bad. My reputation obviously came here cause I've met quite a few people trying to get a few million dollars from me because they know I'm a billionaire, some trying to fight me because they want to challenge me, and or some trying to marry me which is the creepiest by far" I explained.

"Wait. There have been griffons trying to marry you? AHAHAHAHAH" Rainbow Dash said, while breaking out in a laugh.

"Laugh it up Dashie, my friend. I know you still have a little girl crush on me." This immediately shut her up and made her blush. I picked her up and hugged her. "Oh you're so adorable when you blush." Now if Rainbow Dash was blushing any harder, she'd go unconscious from all that blood going to her head. "You ponies are adorable when you blush." I set her down and took my backpack off before I dug into it.

"Tran, what are you looking for?" Fluttershy asked, peeking out of my coat. OH GOD THE CUTENESS!!!

"Gum" I replied back. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy blinked a few times before they face hoofed. Once I found a packet, I popped a piece of gum into my mouth. "Sugar free gum. My favorite and only brand of gum I enjoy chewing."

Suddenly, a loud voice came out from a speaker attached to several of the walls of the coliseum. "Attention all athletes. The next event will start in sixty seconds. Choose your opponent or challenge someone to a fight quickly or you will be disqualified."

"Dash,  do you have your opponent?" I asked.

"Yeah, he's over there" Rainbow Dash replied, pointing to a griffon that was also staring at me.

I stared down at the griffon, looking for any weaknesses. "Here's some advice Dashie. From here, I can see that he's near sighted. Go for his sides, his eyes are facing forward like mine. Make sure you watch out for his area of reach, it should be more widened than yours. Try to rely on speed Dash, he's obviously stronger than you. Watch out for his talons, they're sharpened. Good luck Dash." I watched as she walked off.

"YOU!! I CHALLENGE YOU!!!" a voice from behind me said.

Almost immediately, I thought of 'This isn't the Pokemon universe you idiot!' I looked to where the voice came from and saw a griffon. However, this griffon wasn't like any other normal griffon. This griffon was four and a half feet tall when normal griffons were three and a half feet tall, he had enough muscles to probably wrestle down the ophiotaurus I killed earlier, and his talons looked like daggers attached to his claws.

"Now why do you want to fight me?" I asked.

"I've read your story and saw your picture in the newspapers about how you're one of the greatest fighters that have ever lived but I think all of that is a load of bull shit. If you're one of the greatest fights that have ever lived, then you should be able to defeat me in a fair fight. You know, without using any of your armor or your fancy smancy weapons or any of your friends to help you or any of that crybaby magic to help you" he replied.

"I accept those terms. May I ask for your name?" I asked.

"Bloodwing" he replied.

"The next match, we fight." I took off my backpack and placed it on a nearby bench. "Come on Fluttershy, I have to take off my armor."

"Can I keep wearing your coat? It makes me feel safe" Fluttershy said, looking out from my coat and at me with puppy dog eyes. Oh god the eyes. I nodded before I took off my coat and helped Fluttershy into my robe. Now when my robe was meant for me in human form not the alicorn form, normal ponies could wear my coat as when ponies stood up on their hind legs, they would normally stand at five and a half feet tall. When Fluttershy was on her back legs, she was five foot seven inches so she'd be able to wear my coat, albeit it would still be a little too long and it would drag on the floor (thank goodness for the enchantments I placed on it that kept it clean no matter what). After she got into the coat, she stood back to normal in a quadruped standing position. The coat nearly fitted her perfectly. Even the back of the coat didn't touch the floor as I forgot that her tail would raise up my coat slightly. In the back of the coat, were holes that were usually hidden away by flaps, meant for wings. The way Fluttershy wore the coat with the hood up was absolutely adorable. After doing so, she sat down on the bench, next to my backpack.

Then I took the rest of my jackets off until I was down to a black pair of pants and a white polo. I unbuckled my belt and placed it with the rest of my clothes before I stepped in a ring meant for combat where Bloodwing was standing in. "Wearing clothes to a fight? What are you? A high royal?" he asked.

"I see that you try to discourage or taunt me with those petty words of yours. You personally think that your dainty mind would be able to comprehend the idea of beating me? Your more moronic than I thought" I said to taunt him.

"You think those big words affect me? I don't even know what they mean!" he said back, clearly angered.

"So you’re saying that you are too stupid to even know simple words?" I asked back. Instead of saying anything back to me, he charged at me, wings flapping to gain speed. Even if he could break the sound barrier, he still would be going at a slow speed, compared to what my mind could process. I watched him as my mind sped up and he seemed as if he moved at a snail’s pace. So instead of fighting him already, I spat out my gum and replaced it with another piece. Then I went to my backpack, pulled out my portable (not really) full-sized grand piano and started tuning it since it had already passed about two months since I last had it tuned. Once I finished I placed the piano back in my backpack before I took out a book I got at Twilight's and began to read it. After an unknown amount of time, I threw the book randomly behind me, hitting something a random griffon in the face. I went to my backpack and pulled out my three throwing knives and dagger the Mane Six and my six human friends gave to me. After I spent an unknown amount of time, sharpening the four blades, I placed them back where they belonged before I looked at how much time had passed since I started doing all of that, .042 seconds. I looked back to the griffon and saw that he had barely moved an inch since I started doing all of that.

Now that I had finished all of those simple chores, I went back to where I was standing and my mind slowed back down to decently normal but still fast speeds. Bloodwing started moving towards me at a normal speed again so I sidestepped and watched as he impacted a stone wall, destroying it. He got back out of the rubble and attempted to charge me again. Again, I sidestepped but this time, instead of letting him impact and destroy another wall, I slammed my leg down on his back, smashing him into the ground. Before he could get up, I finger punched him with my index and middle finger in each of his wings, disabling and possibly breaking them.

He knew he was defeated so he just stayed on the ground. I knew he had given up and was incredibly injured and in pain so I pulled out a Dead Space med pack and started applying the healing gel to his wounds. Within a few moments, his injuries disappeared and he was back on his paws/claws. I threw the empty med pack casing away and went back to my stuff. I started to redress myself up in my jackets when Bloodwing walked back to me.

"Why?" he asked. "Why'd you help my injuries?"

"Because I did, that's why. Nothing else" I replied back.

"You're military?" he asked, pointing to the patches on my BDU jacket. "What is the us army?"

"It's the U.S. Army and no, that isn't what I'm in. I'm not in the military. Think of me as a person that helps the good guys."

"Then why aren't you helping us?" he asked back.

"You griffons are attacking the Equestrians."

"The Equestrians wrongfully attacked a convoy of diplomats attending a peace meeting two months ago."

"Is that correct?" I asked back

"Yes" he replied.

"I was at that meeting. I know that is a lie on the griffon side. The griffon diplomats attempted to take my weapons after I refused to sell my weapons to them. They tried to forcefully take them and they horribly failed. Now, I don't know what lies your government is spewing out to its citizens but I will say otherwise. Now go away. I don't know why I'm talking to you for so long." Bloodwing left the coliseum, knowing he was defeated.

I faced Fluttershy who was still sitting next to my backpack and wearing my coat. "Can I have my coat back?" I asked. "Although, you look adorable in assassin's robes, that still belongs to me and it is my armor." Fluttershy soon did as so and I regained my coat. "How'd Dashie do in her fight?" I asked.

"Oh she did wonderfully. She defeated her opponent, leading with an offensive technique and several false leads. However, she did lack in defensive strikes and her opponent managed to trick her a few times. She did win though" Fluttershy replied. "Oh. Here she comes." Rainbow Dash walked up to us, sporting a bloody nose and several bruises. Also, one of her wings, the left one, was hanging limp to her side with several gashes in it. "RAINBOW DASH!! Where does it hurt?!?"

"I'm fine Flutters" she replied.

"Oi. You stole my nickname for her" I said.

"Tran, Rainbow Dash is injured and your joking around" Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy, I've actually died five times before, I've been shot several times, I've had many broken bones, I've set myself on fire before (I added in a "Don't ask quickly after saying that), I've had thousands of bruises, and I've had enough open bleeding wounds to cover my entire body several times over."

"We're not you, Tran" Rainbow Dash said.

"Touche. Now hold still so I can help you." I took out another med pack from inventory and started applying the gel to her wounds. "Anywhere else Rainbow Dash?"

"No. I'm fine."

"Are you done with this Iron Griffon competition?" I asked.

"No. I have one more event before I finish" she replied.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The rifle marksmen event!" she replied.

"Dashie, you don't even own a rifle" I said back.

"I was hoping I could borrow one of yours" she said back.

I looked at her with a deadpanned expression. Then I pulled my 870 from my inventory and started to load it with deer slugs. I was loading light 2 3/4 inch shotgun shell loads that had a decently low kick for a shotgun compared to other magnum rounds. Yes I knew it was a rifle event but the griffons didn't know this was not a rifle. After I finished loading it, I used my magic to make the trigger guard disappear so that she could shoot it. "You've seen me use this. Let's see if you can hit anything" I said. The three of us moved to a range that had several targets meant for practice. Besides us were several other griffons, firing their own guns, most being muzzle-loaded weapons. "Now you have to ho-"

"Tran, I got this. Like you said, I've seen you use this before. It can't be that hard to shoot your 870" Rainbow Dash said, cutting me off.

Oh how she was so wrong. I'd bet half of my net worth on her missing the target and the gun flying out of her hooves because of the kick. I turned to face Fluttershy and asked "Want to watch Dashie horribly fail in shooting a shotgun because she's too arrogant to take advice?"

Fluttershy giggled slightly and nodded. We watched as Rainbow Dash held the shotgun in her hooves in a stance that would only come from most twelve year old kids who play Call of Duty, shooting a shotgun for the first time. Everything about her holding it was wrong. It looked like she wasn't even holding onto the gun tightly. It looked as though she was relaxed when she was holding my gun. I knew she was copying my composure when I was shooting but I had a reason to why I wouldn't hold on to a gun tightly when I was shooting and it was because I had super strength from my demon powers. Her stance was also terrible. Also, her two hooves were planted on the ground too close together.

When Rainbow Dash actually fired the shotgun, the back end of the gun smacker her right in the face and gave her a bloody nose. To add insult to injury, my 870 flew out of her hooves and into the air as Dash was knocked onto the ground, falling back on her flank.

I walked over to her, catching the 870 midair in the progress. "Now, do you want my advice or do you want to get smacked in the face with a shotgun a few more times again?" I asked. She nodded back. "First off, stand back up and go back to how you were standing when you tried to shoot my 870." I helped Dash back to her feet and handed her my 870 after I treated her bloody nose. "You need to spread your feet farther apart, it gives you a better stance that helps you control the kick of the gun and it helps accuracy quite a bit." I moved closer to Dash and lightly kicker her hooves apart from each other. "You have to hold the gun really tight or otherwise, the gun will shoot out of your hands like that. Also, pull the butt stock of the 870 into your shoulder. It packs quite a wallop along with a strong kick." I moved behind her and pulled back on the 870. "Try to act seriously when you're shooting a gun. This isn't a toy, it's a serious tool. I know how you got that from my usual shooting but I have the strength of a demon so you shouldn't be talking. Plus I'm Tran, should anyone really be more like me?" I used my hands to position her head and her body in a correct standing position, causing her to blush a little. "I'm just helping you shoot Rainbow Dash, it’s not like I'm making love with you." I watched as Rainbow Dash's face grew redder and heard Fluttershy giggling. "Oh how fun it is to troll with you like this, Rainbow Dash." I booped her nose. "Now when you fire the gun, don't try to jerk the trigger, slowly ease into it. If you jerk the trigger, you jerk the gun." Rainbow Dash soon fired my 870 again. Instead of the gun flying out of her hooves and getting smacked in the face with the butt of the gun, she managed to decently control the buck of the gun but she did stumble a bit. This was most likely because she didn't have feet or toes. Toes are there for a reason, balance. "Good. Now use the rest of the time for you to get used to shooting my 870 and you'll do fine in the competition. You have about twelve minutes left before the shooting event starts. Here are the extra shells." I took out a box of a hundred 2 3/4 inch deer slugs and handed it to her.

As it got closer to the shooting event, Dash got better with my 870. However, twelve minutes isn't a lot of time to get used to an entirely new concept of weapons. However, it was enough time for her to get used to the gun fast enough to possibly beat the griffons. When the event happened, she managed to beat everyone in the fastest shooter category because she was one of the only ones there that had a firearm that was a repeating firearm. However, the accuracy category was what maimed her but in the end, she managed to win the event, mostly because of speed. After the event, the first place trophy was given to Dash as she won the most medals. Unsurprisingly, Bloodwing got second place and third place was a griffon named Talon.

Then Dash came to the two of us and returned my 870, I fixed the trigger guard to it, before we started to leave the coliseum when eight of the griffon athletes stopped us. They demanded that Dash surrender the trophy because they thought she cheated, claiming that she used some form of pony magic. Obviously she refused and the griffons attempted to force us to surrender, using their muskets they used in the shooting event. Again, we refused, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy knowing that they were safe with me in their presence so one of the griffons fired. However, I caught the bullet midair and dropped it to the ground. In seeing this, the other griffons fired and again, their other bullets were caught by me. When they tried to reload their muzzle loaders, I took out my 870 shotgun and loaded it up with my special salt shells, easily reloading faster than the griffons. When they did finish reloading, I shot all eight of the griffons, causing the lot of them to fall to the ground writhing. I knew the griffons wouldn't be severely injured but I knew how much having salt rubbed into a wound. Well in their case, having small chunks of salt imbedded a quarter of an inch in their flesh wherever they were shot. Although I still knew what it felt like. After we helped the griffons with their injuries (Fluttershy's idea), we left the coliseum. Almost immediately, Rainbow Dash left to take a nap in the cloud, claiming that is was a "much deserved rest for winning" while Fluttershy and I went to do our own thing. The two of us walked towards the main part of the Griffon Empire.

"What do you want to do now Flutters?" I asked as the two of us walked down the streets of Gryphonia. Lining the side of the streets were several shops selling everything from tchotchkes to weapons.

"Want to see what Twilight is doing?" she offered.

"She's reading. We passed the library a few minutes ago and inside was her reading several books. She's trying to learn about griffon culture" I said back.

"Rarity?"

"She's shopping for clothes and gems. What would she do?"

"Spike?"

"With Rarity. He's Spike. Of course he's going to be with Rarity. The only thing he did in Ponyville was either helping Rarity or helping Twilight."

"The crusaders?"

"Griffon related cutiemarks. Exactly when aren't they trying to get their cutiemarks when those three are together. You know other than when I try to train them."

"Won't they get hurt?" Fluttershy asked.

"Naw. Think of it like this. If small fillies were important enough to come to the Griffon Empire, then who are their guardians?"

"Hmmm. Pinkie Pie?"

"Parties. Do you really need any other explanation?"

"Applejack?"

"Farmer's market."

"Hmmmm. Nick?"

"Hunting and practicing his long ranged shooting abilities." Nick didn't know how to properly hunt so he wanted to learn himself through trial and error.

"Andy?"

"Eating candy and cake with Pinkie Pie."

"Austin?"

"Buying exotic teas and tea sets for his daily tea time. You know you should join us in our tea times. Every day at four, the two of us go to the meadow where I train Rainbow Dash and the crusaders and have tea. We don't talk. We don't work. We just drink tea. Well, except for the time Discord made my tea cup explode and I shot him with a sandwich but that was a Discord thing."

"I would love that. How about Logan?"

"He's buying griffon military surplus, hunting gear, and practicing his sniping. He's also looking for some exotic tobaccos for smoking purposes." The Griffon Empire was much more corrupted than Equestria. The griffons actually did partake in some things that were evil in nature, such as daily smoking. Fluttershy asked what it was and I replied by saying that they were slowly poisoning themselves.

"Alex?"

"I don't know. Probably buying exotic materials he needs to make things he wants from our old world."

"Ike?"

"He's at the local park."

"You know. Let's visit him" Fluttershy said.

"Okay." The two of us walked in the direction in the local park, courtesy of some griffons that gave us directions. Once we did reach the park, we started hearing an acoustic guitar playing a tune I didn't recognized. Once we were in view, we saw Ike playing his guitar while a crowd of griffons were around him, listening to his music. once Fluttershy and I were close to him, Ike stopped playing and looked at us. "Hi Tran. Fluttershy. What are you two doing here?"

"Nothing. We're just killing time."

Ike then turned to face the griffons that were crowding around him and started playing his guitar again. Seeing this, I reached into my backpack that was still on my back and pulled out my grand piano, placing it on a clearing of land that no one was using. Almost immediately, Ike stopped playing his guitar and looked at me, causing everyone else to look at me. I started playing the all too familiar beginning of Chopsticks for a few seconds before I stopped. Only a few claps came from a crowd. Then I cracked my knuckles and started playing Chopsticks again, except this time this song had a twist.

Once I finished my song, everyone started clapping. "Fluttershy, I have to go do something" I said before I picked up my piano and placed it back into my backpack, dropping everyone's jaws/beaks. From there, I walked off. When I was away from sight from anyone sentient, I turned myself into my full alicorn form and took flight. My flight destination? The royal castle of the griffons. Within a few minutes, I reached my destination and landed outside of a gate being guarded by five guards.

Upon landing, they all aimed their weapons at me, revolving rifles. Even though I was standing at a mere twenty-five feet away, I knew that the weapons wouldn't pose a threat to me as I had once examined their weapons before. The rifles they used were rifles that had a revolver chamber that held seven rounds. The rifles used pinfire ammunition that was roughly the size of a .444 Marlin. Despite the size of the round, the rounds didn't hold much power as the cartridges used black powder as the propellant. This meant the cartridges would, other than being a weaker round, be unreliable, prone to hang fires which made the rifles dangerous, and since the cartridges were pinfire, dropping the rifle or bumping it into something could make a premature detonation. Also, the rifles were terribly inaccurate. The rounds fired out of the rifle was .429 inches in diameter while the rifle's barrel was about .498 inches in diameter. This meant that the rounds fired out of the rifles would tumble in the barrel, making accuracy reliant on luck. Also, revolving rifles never caught on back in our world for a reason. If you tried to fire a revolver rifle while holding the fore grip or the correct way, the expanding gases coming from the inside of the chamber would reach out and it would burn your hand. From all of this, I estimated that the rifle would fire a round that carried about 1200 foot pounds of stopping power or about the same amount of power of a .223 Remington, which could hit a human sized target within twenty feet if you were lucky enough to. Standing twenty-five feet away and I felt completely safe standing with those guns being pointed at me.

"Oi. I have a pass" I said while holding out the invitation the griffon diplomats gave to me. One of the griffons slowly moved up to me and grabbed the invite before quickly moving back to where he was previously standing. He quickly read it over and handed it to a different griffon. That griffon read it over before he opened the gate and walked through it. Quite some time passed before the gate opened again and the same griffon was back. He walked over to me and gave me my invite back. "His story checks out. Let him through." The griffons lowered their weapons and opened the gate, allowing me to enter. Before I entered the castle,  I turned myself back into a human, dropping the five griffons' jaws. "It’s just a party trick."

I walked through the gate of the castle, following a griffon that was assigned to be my escort. The inside of the castle was completely different from the outside of the castle. The outside of the castle looked like any overly decorated castle, similar to Equestrian castles but the inside of the castle was an entirely different story. The inside of the castle showed that the griffons was a militaristic society, reminding me of medieval knights mixed with firearms and more military procedures. Hundreds of soldiers were constantly marching around the castle and unlike Equestrian Royal Guards, they acted and looked like real soldiers. Their armor wasn't decorative like the Royal Guard and unlike the Royal Guard, their armor actually protected everything vital. The way they marched showed experience, decent training, and real military knowledge.

My escort soon led me into a large room that held a table and about twenty seated griffons. Each griffon in the room was clothed in some form of formal wear and looked like government officials. Among the officials, I saw the five diplomats that were sent to Ponyville a few weeks ago. On each side of the room was twenty guards and guarding the door was ten guards, making a total of fifty guards. Upon entry of the room, everyone stared at me. "Oi. What do you want?" I asked.

"So this is the so called human that has been the metaphorical thorn in our sides" one of the griffons asked. "You don't look any dangerous at all. You look like more like a beast than a civilized, sentient being."

"Oh really now? Look down" I said. When the griffon that insulted me looked down, he saw that he had been tied down to the chair. In the center of the table, was his set of cloths recently set on fire. When the griffon opened his mouth/beak to say something, he found that his beak was duct taped shut. I popped a piece of gum into my mouth before I looked to the griffon. "If I am a beast, how did I do all of that without any of you noticing? It can't be pony magic as I am not a pony and I don't have a horn." I went through my backpack and took out a mined block of dirt before I placed it down on the ground and sat on it. "Here's some brain food. If I am a beast, how did that invasion force you sent to Ponyville fail when I decided to fight back? How do I have access to the most advanced weapons? Why am I one of the deadliest fighters? Why am I smarted than everyone here? Let that settle in a bit. You and I both know it’s true." I smirked at the griffons, knowing that I was degrading them. "Now what do the lot of you want with my presence?"

What happened next, I completely expected. I felt something hard hit the back of my head. When I turned around, I saw a rather large griffon guard, holding a rifle backwards like a club. I knew he tried to knock me out so I grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him in the air, turning around again to show him the officials that trying to go against me was a bad idea. Soon the griffon I held up suffocated and died and I was still holding his body in the air. Then I pulled out my 870 out of my inventory, loading a round of buckshot into it with my free hand. Before the officials could do or say anything, I shot the corpse in the head, exploding his head and covering everyone in the corpse's brain matter. I threw the griffon's body onto the table and took out my B23R and plasma cutter, loading a mag into each weapon. "Anyone want to try another smart move like that again?" The guards inside the room, instantly raised their weapons, getting ready to apprehend me.

"Try me" I said. All fifty guards inside the room had their weapons raised and were aiming their weapons at me. "Good bye." I jumped into the air and the guards started to shoot at me started shooting at me while the officials dove under the table for cover.

The weapons I was currently holding didn't hold much ammo. In my right hand was my B23R with standard fifteen round mags and since it fired in three round bursts, pulling the trigger only five times would expend the entire mag. In my left hand was my modified plasma cutter that held a magazine/battery that was capable of ten shots when a normal plasma cutter from the Dead Space series held a magazine/battery capable of twenty shots because I modified my plasma cutter to use up more of its battery to fire more powerful bolts of plasma, making each shot capable of going through half an inch of Equestria's current form of crude steel.

Before I landed, I shot three griffons with my plasma cutter and two others with my B23R. I killed three other griffon with the remaining ammo left in my B23R before I dropped it and grabbed a chair, using it to shield myself from the incoming bullets. The chair wouldn't make a good shield as it was made of wood so before the griffon's bullets could completely eat my chair, I shot four other griffons with my plasma cutter. I expended the last shots left in my plasma cutter, killing one other griffon that was trying to reload.

I dropped my empty plasma cutter and pulled out my energy sword. Almost immediately, I cut the head off of a griffon and sliced one in half lengthwise. By now, some of the griffons stopped trying to shoot at me with their guns and pulled out some form of a melee weapon, ranging from swords to maces. The rest of the guards relied on their guns. One griffon attempted to slash at me with his sword only to have his sword cut in half and being stabbed in the chest with an energy blade. Another griffon tried to bludgeon me with a club, resulting in me disemboweling him. Before anyone could try to attack me, I beheaded another griffon with my energy sword and ripped out the throat of another griffon with my empty left hand, taking his great sword. Four griffons came at me and I killed two immediately, one with a slash to the chest with my energy sword and the other with a stab to the chest with the sword, ditching the sword in the corpse's chest. To dodge the other two griffons, I jumped into the air and pulled out a throwing knife from my inventory with my left hand before I threw it at the third griffon, impacting him in the eye. The fourth one died when I cut him in him half with my energy sword, finally draining the rest of the battery in the energy sword.

I dropped the energy sword, now in its dormant, non-deadly form and pulled out the diamond pickaxe and diamond shovel. One griffon charged at me, beating his wings to gain speed so I bashed one griffon in the face with the shovel, breaking his helmet and caving in his face completely. I looked at the shovel for a second, not believing how much power it just dealt until another griffon charged at me. This, I used the diamond pickaxe and swung at him. What happened was completely unexpected. The pickaxe pierced through the griffon's chest plate and impaled itself into the griffon's chest, sticking there. Then the body disappeared and was replaced with a giant raw chicken along with a light pop.

Literally everyone stopped and looked at the giant two dimensional raw chicken floating slightly above the ground and slowly revolving. Even the officials stopped ducked out from under the table to look. "Let's agree that I shouldn't use these two weapons to fight" I said.

"Agreed" everyone said.

I dropped my two diamond tools and pulled out my PPK, quickly loading a mag into it and holding it in my right hand as I pulled out my remaining two throwing knives. My PPK wasn't able to pierce through their armor but the griffons' helmets had exposed eye holes. I shot two griffons through the eye holes of their helmets with my PPK and killed another with a throwing knife, using the same method I used to kill the first two. I threw my last throwing knife at a griffon before I used the remaining rounds in my PPK to kill three other griffons, wasting five rounds, hitting the helmets of griffons.

I dropped my PPK and pulled out Palutena's bow, the magical bow composed of two connected small blades that I borrowed (stole) from the angels (yes, I stole from angels) in the world of Kid Icarus. How Palutena's bow worked was that if you acted out the actions of shooting an bow, magic would take over and an arrow and bowstring of magic would appear, shooting light at whatever you were aiming at. Yes, you needed previous archery experience to be able to fire this correctly because if you aren't able to shoot a simple recurve/compound/training/children's bow, then how are you going to fire a powerful magical artifact. Another function of the blade disconnect the two blades that made up the bow and use them as blades.

I quickly made and notched a magical arrow, shooting it into a griffon. Five other griffons, all with swords, charged me, weapons raised and flying towards me. I immediately shot one with a magic arrow before the other four were too close for shooting so I disconnected the bow, holding the upper portion of the bow in my right hand pointed up and the lower portion of the bow in my left hand pointed down. All five griffons attacked me at one but they found that their swords touched only air. They looked around but were never able to find me. Before they could even see me, I killed them all through decapitation. Six more griffons charged at me, all of them attacking at different intervals. I immediately stopped the slash from a griffon's sword with the blade in my left hand before I buried the blade in my right hand in his chest. I found that, that blade was stuck in his chest so I left it impaled in the griffon's chest. I blocked another slash from another griffon before I buried the blade in my left hand in that griffon's chest, leaving it there. A third griffon slashed at me and since I didn't have any weapon in hand, I jumped away, moving across the room.

At the current moment, I didn't have any other weapons that was quickly accessible except for one weapon, my flamethrower. Although, I still had my lanyard, still with Cerberus integrated into it, but I still wasn't going to use it because at the current moment, I would have trouble getting the lanyard off of my neck. For the past month, I hadn't been using my flamethrower except for one thing, melting the snow that blanketed the area around my home. My M2-2 flamethrower was still shrunken and integrated into my backpack but more importantly completely hidden because each key component of the flamethrower was hidden inside various pouches in my backpack, including the gun/hose that sprayed the flames. I reached behind my back and pulled out the gun. I lit the pilot light and looked at the remaining ten griffons. "Do svidaniya." i pulled the trigger of the gun and flames shot out of the nozzle, bathing the remaining ten griffons in flames. They all screamed in pain as they slowly burned to death in napalm that was made with my own personal recipe.

I looked at the griffon officials that were hiding under the table while pointing the gun of the flamethrower at them. "You don't try to knock out an Asian. Plus, you tried to get a guard to sneak up on me. I heard him when he was five steps away. Talons aren't exactly quiet when walking on stone." I looked to the floor, entirely made of marble. i wonder why the griffons would choose floors made of marble. Standing on a polished stone surface, such as marble, is really hard to walk on if you aren't wearing high frictioned footwear.

Then the door sprang open and twenty guards were standing, weapons raised and aimed at me. The guards moved and created a slight opening, letting a griffon walk in. This griffon was by far the biggest griffon I've seen so far. He stood five and a half feet tall, two feet taller than normal griffons, on his back were two claymores, and his body was covered in muscles, making Snow Flake (you know, Roid Rage) look like a scrawny nerd. I could easily tell this griffon was king from the crown on his head and that the Griffon Empire was the type of primitive government that would be run by the best warrior.

"Impressive" the griffon king said. "You took down fifty of my guards with such ease." I just gripped my flamethrower harder. "Such devastating weapons."

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I have a proposition for you. Why don't you join me? Become one of my generals and help take over the Equestrians. Join an empire that has real citizens, real weapons, and more importantly, real warriors."

"I'm going to have to refuse that offer. My loyalty is to the Equestrians."

"So be it. Let him free. He earned it in battle."  The griffon guards lowered their weapons and went at attention.

"Your men are disciplined, unlike the Equestrians. I commemorate you on that. The Equestrians don't know the difference between at ease and parade rest" I said. I unlit the pilot light of my M2-2 and started to get to work. I placed and hid my flamethrower back in its correct backpack pouch before I collected my plasma cutter, PPK, B23R, diamond pickaxe, diamond shovel, throwing knives, and magical blade bow. I placed each weapon back into their correct spots before I walked out of the room and then out of the castle.

The first thing I noticed was that it was night time already. I checked my watch and found that it was 8:47. I walked over to a nearby street light and I looked over myself. I saw that I was completely drenched in blood, feathers, and small chunks of griffon flesh from head to toe. I even tasted blood in the piece of gum I was currently chewing. I used a cleaning spell on myself and spat out the current piece of gum I was chewing before I replaced it with a new piece of gum, letting the taste of mint flood my mouth.  I ran my hand through my hair. It was getting a bit long for my taste so I turned on the night vision mode on my glasses and looked around for a barber. Soon, I found a barber and walked into it. Inside was a griffon sitting on a barber's chair, reading a newspaper, facing away from me.

"Oi. Do you do haircuts on non-griffon species?" I asked.

"Yeah. What are you?" he asked. The griffon stood up and looked at me. He looked surprised for a few seconds until he regained his normal demeanor and asked "You're one of those humans from Equestria right?"

"Yeah. Name's Tran" I replied.

The griffon looked scared now. "T-T-Tran? As in the C-C-Cannibal?"

"Tran. The Crazy Asian. The Cannibal. One of the only humans in this world.  The most dangerous being in the universe. All that and more. Don't worry. I don't believe in killing off the innocent, just the evil deserves punishment."

This seemed to calm down the griffon. "What would you like?" he said, pointing to a large picture that showed several different types off haircuts that were done on griffon heads.

"Nothing special. Shave and a haircut. I want my beard to be nonexistent and a buzz cut. A butch cut to be specific."

-X-X-X-

"Thanks." I paid the barber and gave him a gold bit as a tip before I left. Back in our world before the apocalypse, I was in NJROTC in my high school (if any of you watch the news, our ROTC won the academic competition this year). There were several habits I adopted from it which was why I enjoyed the short hair.

I walked back to our airship and into my room, finding that my human friends, minus Austin, were eating. I looked close and saw that they were eating meat. No wonder Austin wasn't eating with them. He was trying to go on a vegetarian diet ever since he came to Equestria. I knew they missed any form of quality meat as we had been living in Equestria for quite a while. The only access we had to meat was having it specially ordered. However, this process was incredibly expensive for my friends as they worked normal paying jobs. Another way we had access to meat was hunting but only Logan and I knew how to properly hunt without completely and utterly destroying all of the good meat on the body. Whenever Logan hunted, I often joined him because I enjoyed something as hunting. Plus, I don't want him killing any more manticores and angering Fluttershy. Let's keep it at Angel is also a black belt except in Iron Paw instead of Iron Hoof. Think about it. Angel has a black belt. I walked over to them and saw that they were eating meat. "Hi Tran" Ike said.

"Hi" I said.

"How'd you spend your day?"

"Went around the city with Fluttershy, got a haircut, chewed some gum, visited the griffon suits, killed fifty guards, went to-" I started saying until being interrupted.

"Killed fifty guards?!?" Ike said.

"They're idiots who think they can take me on." I said nothing else. I took off my backpack and placed my backpack on the single, lone bed of the room. Then I jumped into my backpack, landing on my feet. Then I moved to my workbench I specifically owned for precision engineering/making things. I was going to be doing a lot of gun modifications. However, there was one thing I was going to do first. I walked over to a table where I placed my Sparda, Python, and Axe of Perun was located and immediately placed them back in their carry positions.

The first part of my gun I modified were the magazines. Originally I scavenged (stole) only about nine beta C drum magazines when we raided the military base. After getting sent to another universe and being turned into a demon/Nightmare/current self I made fifty-five more because I was physically capable of carrying more through my Minecraft powers. I was modified each of them to be more like Armatac's 150 round drum magazines. Armatac's 150 round drum mags, unlike normal 100 round beta C drum mags, doesn't need granite lubrication and were much bulkier because of stronger and bigger steel components, making it much more reliable. When I finished modifying my last drum mag, I placed each drum mag back into my inventory. This gave me 9600 rounds of ammo in reserve. If I didn't have an inventory, I would be carrying 640 pounds of loaded mags.

The next item I modified was the suppressor I sometimes used on my M4a1. I started modifying this until Logan and Ike appeared in the sky of my backpack and crashed into the ground after falling twenty-five feet from the sky. "Damn it Tran. You need to put a crash pad right there or something like a crash pad" Ike said.

"What do you two need? I'm kinda in the middle of something" I said while I pulled out the Sparda.

"What are you doing?"

"Gun mods" I replied, getting the attention of Logan.

"I'm out. Oh yeah. Before I leave, do you have that ammo making kit I asked for?" Ike said. I went over to another workbench and picked up a large box. I handed the box to Ike and he teleported out of the backpack.

I went back to my workbench and continued where I left off. "How come you're staying?" I asked Logan while in the middle of slicing off the end of my suppressor with the Sparda.

"I have some mods I want to make" he replied.

I smiled at him. "What mods do you need?"

"A few things. What did Ike need with that ammo kit?" Logan asked.

"He's reproducing four inch brass rifled shotgun slugs" I replied.

"He's going to fire those out of his sawed off?!?"

"Yeah." I picked up my suppressor and cut off the end of it. I picked up some spare parts I had previously made several days ago and connected it to my suppressor, magically fusing the parts together.  I  sealed off the end I cut off with a small perforated cap, fusing it to the suppressor. I picked up my modified suppressor and attached it back to my M4a1.

The original suppressor I used on my M4a1 was a standard four chambered suppressor. Since most of you readers here (Yes I'm breaking the fourth wall again. If you want complain, please take your issues to Pinkie Pie.) don't understand much about gunsmithing, suppressors reduces the sound of a gunshot by taking the expanding gases of a firearm and slowing it down or diverting the gases somewhere else. A typical suppressor is made up of 4-15 chambers that redirect the gases with a varying amount of sound baffles that releases the gases. A typical .223 M4a1 suppressor is usually made up of five chambers and 10-20 baffles with a length of 6-8 inches, weighing about a pound. The suppressor I made was made of twenty chambers with eighty-five baffles with a length of thirty inches, weighing eight pounds. Now, nobody in the right mind would ever use/make a suppressor like this because of its weight and length. The length and weight would make the rifle difficult to use in a short ranged combat situation, like breaching. Fully loaded with the silencer attached, my M4a1 weighed about thirty pounds. Most of you don't how difficult it is to carry and fire a thirty pound firearm. Thirty pounds is about the weight of a medium machine gun (think of the M60 or the M240 or the M1919 or the PKM or the PKP or the every other medium machine gun I can list but won't because I don't want to write down the names of several hundred medium machine guns).

I handed my M4a1, suppressor attached, to Logan. "Try shooting it Logan" I said, motioning to my backpack's indoor range. Logan took aim and pulled the trigger. No silenced gunshots were heard but instead, only the action/mechanism of the gun was heard.

"That's nice. There's no kick and I heard basically nothing" Logan said, handing my rifle back to me. "The weight is an issue though."

"Yeah. Only the only thing I heard was the M4a1's action, cycling a new round. As for the weight. I'm a demon with super strength. I don't need to worry about the weight" I said while reloading my M4a1. I reloaded the empty mag and placed the mag into my inventory.

"Do you have any, I don't know, NORMAL suppressors?" Logan asked. I held my arms out and Logan handed me his UMP. I walked back to my workbench and took out some spare parts from a nearby cabinet. A few minutes passed and I handed him a finished suppressor.

"Anything else you want modified?" I asked.

-X-X-X-

The rest of the night went by as we modified and make custom accessories and parts for our weapons, only being bothered by Nick and his brother, Alex, when they went into my backpack to go to their rooms. Logan had some trouble modifying his weapons as he didn't know everything about guns or advanced metal smithing but I helped him a bit. The story behind Logan as that he was a friend of mine who I met through NJROTC. He was one of my friends that knew a bit about militaria and weapons. He was an American of Irish and Native American descent which was one reason why he enjoyed using a tomahawk. This is also why he knew enough about warfare and weaponry to understand and know about some of the stuff that I talked about. Well, partially understand. I do know everything. He may know how to make IEDs and some home-made explosives but not highly advanced devices such as guided rockets, clusters, and motion fuses. Although, Logan was the most knowledgeable of the group if I didn't know everything. To improve his knowledge of weapons, I decided to apprentice Logan. Under my wing, metaphorical and alicorn, I would be teaching Logan on everything from advanced blacksmithing and metallurgy, making Damascus and tempered steel blades to engineering and gunsmithing, making engines and guns. However, I wasn't going to be teaching Logan anything about fighting/martial arts/weapon skills. Today was technically the first day he would be trained, but first, we were modifying our weapons. First, we modified Logan's weapons.

First, I modified was his tomahawk. There wasn't anything fancy done on it, I just took off the carbon steel blade and replaced it with a tempered steel blade, making it as sharp as a razor.

The next weapon we modified were his two Glock 18s. First, we took apart the Glock 18s and replaced every part made of plastic with parts made of steel because think about it, would you rather have a steel gun or a plastic gun? Exactly. Replacing the plastic parts with steel parts in his Glocks made them much more durable and added some weight to the machine pistols, which would help control the recoil of the weapon. Plus, turning the Glock 18s was kind of like a sense of relief to Logan because one thing he hated was plastic guns. Personally, I think steel guns were better because most steel guns were much One mod Logan made himself was that he made special 200 round drum mags for his Glock 18s. The last modification was an enchantment placed on the barrels of his guns making it that anything that was hit by a bullet that came out of one of the Glocks, was set on fire.

The next weapon we modified was his Judge and Executioner .410 revolvers. Logan stole Ike's idea and made three inch .410 brass shotgun shells that fired slugs. I made special leather shoulder holsters for his .410. These shoulder holsters were specifically made for his .410 revolvers because the holsters could accommodate the bayonets attached to the .410 revolvers. Each time he holstered one of his .410 revolvers, it would coat the edge of the blade in a tetradotoxin. Since most of you readers don't know what tetradotoxin is, I will elaborate. Tetradotoxin or TTX is an incredibly potent neurotoxin that has no known cure. It attacks the nerves and is known for being used by voodoo ritualists and shamans as a powder/liquid used for inducing paralysis/death. How much is enough to kill? Not much. Tetradotoxin is 100 times deadlier than cyanide. To kill the average size man (let's say he weighs between 150-190), it would take exactly twenty-five milligrams to kill. Since most of you don't know how much twenty-five milligrams is, let's put it in layman's terms. After some random mental calculations, twenty-five milligrams of tetradotoxin is equal to .000055 pounds or .03 drops. Yeah, tetradotoxin is REALLY toxic. Also, unlike most poisons and toxins, tetradotoxin is a really fast acting poison, usually taking seconds to activate in the best scenarios. The bayonets on Logan's revolvers were each coated in six drops of tetradotoxin. Logan would never have to worry about recoating the blades of his bayonets by hand because the insides of the revolver where the bayonets were usually held in place, was in constant stock of the deadly toxin.

The next weapon that was modified was his bow. Logan's bow wasn't really modified, more like the arrows were modified. Like the Crysis universe, several different types of arrows were now available for use. The first type of special arrows were incendiary arrows, arrows that were enchanted to set fire to a target using a mixture of napalm and magnesium thermite. The second were lightning arrows, arrows that contained lightning clouds inside the arrows that, like the name implies, carried and delivered lightning. The third were poison arrows, arrows that had a dose of cyanide contained in the arrowhead (using TTX would be overkill [not really]). The fourth type of arrow were distraction arrows, arrows that carried several timed explosives made of black powder, that exploded at different timed intervals, creating loud noises, similar to gunshots, meant to distract any nearby enemy.

Lastly, we modified his UMP... Again. The only thing we did to it was modify his standard thirty round sticks mags into fourty round sticks mags. We also added a front fore grip with a built in tactical light. The tactical light wasn't any ordinary tactical light. The tactical light attached to his UMP had a strobe mode. What is strobe mode? Strobe mode is a setting on some firearm flashlights that makes the light acts as an incredibly bright strobe light. What is the point of this? Anybody who looks at the light is blinded and stay blinded as long as they keep looking, making it hard for anyone to aim at all. Genius right? And no, I did not get this from Kick Ass. I knew about this accessory/attachment before the movie.

Next, I modified my weapons. First, was my M4a1. It was already heavily modified as it was, weighing thirty pounds, and I didn't need anything major on it. All I did was replace a few of the stock parts with a more durable titanium version, such as a new grip, upper receiver, and lower receiver. I also lengthened the tube of the under barrel M203 to accept high velocity 40MM grenades, the ones that I wasn't able to use because it was meant for a different grenade launcher.

The next weapon I modified was my B23R. I noticed that, when I was killing the griffons, that fifteen rounds didn’t mean much when I could only pull the trigger five times before the mag ran out. To counter this, I extended each mag, making the magazines, twenty-one round magazines instead of the fifteen round stock magazines. It wasn't much of an increase if I went from five pulls of the trigger to seven pulls of the trigger but it was something.

The last weapon I modified was my 870. Right now, my Remington 870 was an Express model, a standard 870 model with wood furniture that accepted 2 3/4 and 3 inch shells. After I modified it, my Remington 870 was now a Super Mag model that could accept 2 3/4, 3, and 3 1/2 inch shells.

After that, Logan left my backpack to go to his room in Andy's portable mansion in a box while I went to go walk on the deck. The next day soon came by.

Out of nowhere, a griffon flew onto the weather deck of the ship.

"Oi. What do you want?" I asked.

"Are you Tran?" the griffon asked?

"Yes?" I replied.

The griffon handed me a sealed scroll before he took off and flew away.

"Okay?" I tore off the seal of the scroll and started reading. "Yada, yada, yada." It was just an invitation from the griffon king to become one of his generals. The same griffon landed on the deck and handed me another note before flying off. "What? Why not hand me both notes at the same time?" I opened this scroll and started to read it. The scroll basically stated that I was to become a general or leave the country. The choice was obvious so I walked down into the airship, towards the captain's quarters. I talked to the captain and he started the airship. Soon, we were flying back to Equestria. When my friends asked why we were leaving so early, I told them.

-X-X-X-

Our airship was rapidly approaching Canterlot. The entire ride back to Equestria was uneventful, I taught the CMC and Rainbow Dash their usual martial arts lessons. I helped Scootaloo with her flying. I worked on some projects. Lastly, I sparred with Fluttershy.

Once back in Canterlot, Equestria, the lot of us took a train back to Ponyville, completely ignoring the princesses, much to the Mane Six's dismay, minus Fluttershy. Currently, the lot of us were sitting in a train, heading for Ponyville.

"I can't believe we completely ignored the princesses!" Twilight said.

"Twilight, you're a princess yourself, the other five of you are Elements of Harmony, six of my friends are their own form of Elements, and I'm a Nightmare with good intentions. I think we are justified in ignoring the princess like that" I said.

"But it's Celestia!" Twilight said.

"Twilight."

"Ugh. Fine. I get it."

"I can't believe we're finally back in civilization" Rarity said.

"Rarity, we were always in civilization" I said.

"Did you not see the rooms of the airship?" Rarity asked. "They were absolutely horrid.

"Yes but Andy, Ike, Logan, Nick, Alex, and I didn't even use our rooms. Andy, Logan, and Ike used Andy's mansion in a box and Nick, Alex, and I used the hotel rooms in my backpack pocket dimension" I said, finally spilling the secret.

"WHAT?!??!?" every member of the Mane Six, Austin, and the CMC yelled.

"Yeah. Andy had his giant four story mansion with a pool and hot tub in his portable mansion in a box. He has like twenty guest bedrooms that are completely unused. Ike, Andy, and Logan got their own rooms, bathroom, restrooms, and the three of them had a fully stocked kitchen, minus the meat. Nick, Alex, and I went into my backpack portable pocket dimension. We used my beach front five star hotel. Yes, I have my own beach in my backpack. It’s a tad bit small though."

"I had to spend thirteen days, in a cesspool of a room when you had your pocket dimensions?!?" Rarity asked.

"You guys made me spend two weeks with Rarity?!?" Austin yelled.

"Scootaloo was snoring every night!" Sweetie Belle said.

"Sweetie Belle moves too much in her sleep!" Applebloom said.

"The beds were small!" Scootaloo said.

"Rainbow Dash snores!" Applejack said.

"The beds are too hard!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Pinkie Pie talks in her sleep!" Twilight said.

"It was so much fun with the really long sleep over with Twilight. I can see why you didn't tell us because it was so much FUN! We should do this again Twilight. Wait, I'm getting off topic. Oh well. Let’s have another sleep over!" Pinkie Pie said.

"Why would you not tell us about your pocket universes?!?" Twilight basically yelled into my face.

"You never asked."

The sound of nine ponies, a dragon, and five humans face palming/hoofing/clawing resounded throughout the entire train cart.

-X-X-X-

The train soon stopped in Ponyville and the lot of us filed out. After stepping out of the train cart, I noticed the fresh blanket of snow on the ground. That's right, it was still Winter In Ponyville. The Griffon Empire was below this universe's equator meaning that their seasons are switched throughout the year.

"Oh. I've been meaning to tell all of you. Winter Wrap Up is tomorrow!" Twilight said.

"I know."

I didn't really care for much about what she said because I was tired. At the current moment, I have not slept for twelve days. Normal people aren't able to stay awake for that long but I was a demon/Nightmare/Tran so I was able to do so. If you become a demon, every single one of your skills you are proficient in, are increased and becomes more developed. Also, being a demon gives you some superhuman quirks too such as resilience, superhuman speed, superhuman strength, dexterity, tolerance to everything, and etc. are added. When I became a demon being, all of my skills became more developed. Since I knew everything, a lot of skills became more developed. However, going without sleep for thirteen days is still a bit extreme, even for a demon (especially that one time where I went a month without sleep" so I immediately went to my bunker home, jumped into bed, then fell asleep, fully clothed, even with my shoes and geared with every single one of my weapons at two in the afternoon.

The Next Day

I woke up in my bed and checked the time, four in the morning. "Time for Winter Wrap UP" I said, smiling.