Celestia had arrived on the building about five minutes ago, she had stayed in her carriage, though, trying to muster the strength to see Him. Now don't get her wrong, she knew she could crush him in the blink of an eye, and she knew that he would never do anything to harm anypony, or as he would put it, anyone, but she had seen this day coming for the past year, and she had been dreading the decision that she had to make. The request she had to make.

Steeling herself, Celestia finally exited her carriage, the armored ponies went to unhooked themselves, but Celestia interrupted them, "No, my little ponies," she said with a calm and motherly tone, hiding her true emotions very well, "I have to do this alone." She knew they were going to protest, so she preemptively struck with a response to the unasked question "Everything will be alright, my little ponies, he is a friend." the ponie guards eventually stood down, and let their leader go in the building where [i]the[/i] most influential mortal resided: The Ember Corp HQ, previously known as The Ember River manufacturing Co.

The building itself was what some would consider beautiful, and stood at 10 stories high, very futuristic looking with very gentle curves made of steel, concrete, and glass. It also incorporated plants on several overhanging ledges. How he was able to make materials such as concrete and steel look like this, was beyond her, as most of his inventions.

Celestia started walking up the stairs, seeing many of her little ponies, all of them bowing before her. She kept walking though, she wished she could stop and greet them, after all she had not been in Ponyville in a while, but she had matters to attend to. Soon enough she reached the front door and surprisingly, it opened automatically. 'One of his many inventions no doubt' she thought as she crossed the threshold.

Inside, Celestia could see that it was as beautiful as on the outside, incorporating metal, glass, and plant elements into the design of the building. Celestia thought it was beautiful, opposite elements such as industry and nature, she thought it was impossible for them to coexist in balance, yet he proved her wrong, like in many occasions.

Celestia walked into the up to the receptionist having no idea where to locate the person she was looking for. "Excuse me" she said, keeping the hesitation form her voice "Where can I find Eli?"

The receptionist didn't look up in the beginning, she was too busy writing down something on a piece of paper "Do you have...an...appointment?" she trailed off as she saw who was standing in front of her, and as soon as her brain restarted, she jump off the chair and went around her desk, bowing deeply "Princess Celestia!" she said with her face nearly touching the floor, "Forgive me, I didn't know it was her highness!"

"Do not worry, my little pony. I just need directions" she said, a calming smile on her face, to tell the truth, she just wanted to get this over with.

"Of course, your highness!" the mare said as she raised her head again, "Just go to the elevator over there and press the Up button, once inside, press the button with with a star on it, that will take you to the boss's office" She finish replying quickly.

Celestia just smiled "Thank you, my little pony," was all she said as she turned away and walked to the 'Elevator'.

At the 'elevator', Celestia noticed a panel with two buttons on it, one for up and one for down. Making her selection, the door opened immediately, opened, revealing a metal box with the back wall made of glass. Beyond it, she could see Ponyville in all of its advanced glory.

Celestia was lost in thought. In just a few years, this person, this human, had advanced their scientific knowledge by at least 300 years, and Ponyville was the epicenter of the scientific renaissance, and it showed. There were more buildings in ponyville above 30 stories than in Manehattan, and the population we had boomed to three times it size, though it somehow still remained a thriving farming community, no doubt thanks to this man. It seemed he made it a point to emphasize how important it was to respect the farming community and nature itself.

Snapping her self out of her short day dream, she turned around, the 'Elevator having more than enough space to allow for her to fit in five times comfortably, and pressed the button with a star on it. Immediately, the door closed and the whole thing moved up, reaching its destination in less than 30 seconds.

The doors opened, and she was met with a small hallway, its ceiling was made of glass and on each side many different plants grew as happily as if they were growling outside. Exiting the small foyer like room, she entered another room, this one a lot wider and its roof was a glass dome, in its center it had an apple tree, and its branches heavy with what she recognized as apples from the Apple family.

Soon after she saw a desk, the secretary's eyes widen as she saw the princess. Scrambling to get out of her chair, she stepped in front of the Princess and gave a deep bow.

"Princess," she said, her head still bowed, "we were not expecting you" she finished as she came out of her bow.

"Yes, my little pony, it was very sudden." she said, keeping her mask of regality. "I would like to speak to Eli though, it is very important."

"I will let the boss know, your highness." with that the mare gave another bow, and turned around walking towards the big oak doors that were next to her desk and gave them a knock.

It took about 30 seconds to get a response which came in the form of the door opening just enough to see the mare. "Yes, Rolled Scroll?"

"W-well, sir, you have a visitor," rolled scroll said, motioning with a hoof towards Princess celestia.

The door was then opened completely revealing Eli, a Biped that was about six feet tall, with a goatee and mustache on his face, his skin was tan from the sun and his eyes were light brown. He wore a black suit and tie, with a simple white shirt on, a symbol of a hammer and anvil on a golden tie clip, a stylized flame on his cuff links.

Immediately, Eli's eyes widen, he was definitely was not expecting the princess to visit him. But soon he apparently noticed something on her, his eyes becoming...sympathetic? pitiful? Celestia could not tell, he was always harder to read than her little ponies.

"Come on in, Celestia. Scroll, please cancel the rest of my meetings for today" he said to Rolled Scroll and motioning with his hand to his office, foregoing the bow and the title "I was not expecting you" Eli said as he closed the door.

Celestia couldn't help but stare at his office. It was a perfect balance of industrial design and natural beauty. She would have kept looking, but she was interrupted by a hand on her withers.

"What's wrong, Celestia?" he said as he kept walking, his hand still on her withers while leading her to a lounge. As they entered, the first thing Celestia saw was that the entire back wall was made of glass letting in enough light to make her feel like she was outside.

"How did yo-" that was another thing that Celestia always found uncanny about the man. The rest of her little ponies were never able to see through her mask, but to the human it was like she was not wearing one to begin with.

She remembered the first time she saw him, she was alone with him in the throne room, and the first thing he did was look into her eyes. The next thing he said, she would remember through her seemingly endless life, "You are ancient. The things you must have seen over the eons of living. The things you must have seen". And for a moment, Celestia felt like crying, someone finally understood, some one that was besides her sister.

"Really, its not that hard to figure out. Please, sit." He said as he motioned to a sofa on one side of the lounge, to her the glass wall gave her an unobstructed view of Ponyville. "You never come to visit me at my office, that must mean that there is something wrong."

Celestia thought about this for a moment she tried to figure out how she would put this, eventually she decided to put it as simply as possible "I need your help." She said, looking to the floor, too ashamed to look him straight in the eye, she herself could not even believe what she was about to ask for.

This statement made Eli freeze for a moment. Why would, what amounts to a goddess, need his help? Eli suddenly got a sinking feeling. He didn't like that feeling.

Steeling herself, Celestia continued summoning a scroll "The griffin's took another city today, Trottingham. We lost 5,000 soldiers in that battle alone, bringing the total death toll for the war to nearly 22,000" She finished as she wiped a tear from her magenta eyes passing the scroll to Eli.

He took it in his hand, looking over the exact figures and details of the battles. Most of the time this type of document would be classified, mainly due to the fact that most ponies were sensitive to this type of information.

Eli looked at the princess, the sinking feeling increasing tremendously, and it increased even more as he opened his mouth to ask the question he knew he would regret asking. "What do want me to do?"

Silence reigned for what seemed like hours, eventually Celestia started to speak. "We are outnumbered, we are out trained and the enemy has more experience with war than we do, I've refused to ask for you help before now, but I fear that I have no other choice. I am desperate." She said as she looked Eli in the eyes, her gaze went down again as she continued to speak. "You once told me about your people. You told me of their culture and of their achievements, you told me that your technology made our most advanced scientific equipment look like toys, and I'm inclined to believe you." Her voice was somber at this point, she was getting ready to ask what she came here to ask.

Eli's sinking feeling kept increasing more and more as Celestia paused, apparently trying to find a way to word her question. Not being able to come up with something, Celestia just decided to be blunt "Do these achievements also apply to weapons?"

At that moment, his stomach finally dropped. "Are you asking me what you think you are asking me?"

"Yes, I ask of you, no, I [i]beg[/i] of you, please, make weapons for us." She said as she gave a little sob where she was sitting, keeping her head down in what almost looked like a bow, but that was impossible, Celestia would have never bow to a simple mortal.

"Celestia, I don't believe you know what you just ask of me" he said perfectly calm, containing the storm of emotions he had just below the skin

Celestia looked back up at the man standing in front of her "Believe me, if I had any other option I would have taken it in a heartbeat." Celestia said as she let out a snort of frustration from her nose "I've tried to negotiate for the last five years, since before the actual fighting started. I've offer them everything, I even tried to give them land, but apparently what they want I could not give to them. And that is why I need, [i]we[/i] need weapons, because in the face of an unrelenting foe, we need to use unrelenting force. Nothing else will work"

Eli just sat there, looking at the solar diarch, not believing what she had actually asked of him. It was true that he didn't know much about the war, he did not keep up with current events, and since that… day, his work has been his life. But still he didn't expect what the war to be so bad Celestia would resort to asking him for weapons. That made him think, why had she not taken action her self? "Why would you, the second most powerful being in the entire world after discord, need human weapons? You who control the sun. You who could obliterate an entire army. Why have you not taken action even now"

"Yes," she straightened up and looked at the human, a mixture of pride and dread was visible on her face "It is true that I hold a power like no one else, my shields are the strongest there ever were, but they can only protect one city at a time." she continued as she began to deflate "I can attack with the power of the sun, but at best everything within a 15 mile radius would die, at worse," her face was now facing the floor again, her expression that of dread "I could ignite the atmosphere on fire"

Eli gave a big sigh, "Is it really that bad?" he asked ,his eyes never leaving her since they started talking "The war, I mean".

"We will loose within the year" was all she responded as she looked back at him.

Eli just stood there, looking at the solar monarch and trying to make a decision. It was harder than most would think, as countless scenarios flew by his mind at blazing fast speeds and unfortunately all of those scenarios came back to one line of thinking: Them or Us "I will need some time to think," was his response after a minute of thinking

"How much time? we don't have much to spare" she immediately straightened up with alarm.

"Celestia," at this moment, slight outrage started to creep onto his voice "you still don't know what you are asking me. What you are asking me to do." He suddenly stood up, and started walking to the liquor cabinet on the other side of the lounge and pouring himself a glass of Granny Smith's hard apple cider "what you are asking me is to decide how horrifically they die and from which side. Do I want an untold number of gryphons to die by the thousands, or do I want the ponies to die what could be a slow and painful death at the hands of the gryphons." he continued as he savored the taste and the slight burn of the cyder.

Normally this would have been one of 100 bottles sold each year by the family, and it usually went for about 100,000 bits, but he was very good friends with the Apple family and they gave him this bottle for his birthday.

"I unders-"

"No you don't." he interrupted her as he sniffed the cyder in my hands "You won't until you see the aftermath, until its too late to turn back." He threw his head back, and finished the small glass "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to make preparations for my best friend's wedding. was all he said as he walked out of the lounge.