//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Equestria vs. Japan: A Civ 5 Story // by Bateman66 //------------------------------// William the First fiercely rubbed both of his hands together, then clapped them happily and jumped back into his leather chair. Drumming his fingers against his desk, he smiled at the stunned duo sitting across from him, both in shock over the recent developments which had just taken place a few turns ago. “You two want anything?” asked the Dutchman, with a false sense of welcome. “A snack, a pillow, some water? I’m sure my secretary would be willing to fetch them for you.” Princess Celestia and Oda Nobunaga both shook their heads in unison, but still seemed unable to speak. “I mean, I know that her hours have never been nice, but it’s really her that keeps things moving smoothly. Filing papers, taking messages, bringing me lunch, it really does add up.” He leaned back in his chair. “You know, I’ve been thinking, maybe I should redecorate this office, something a bit more bright and welcoming. All these windows are nice and all, but I’m just not seeing enough color in it. Perhaps a rug or two, or maybe a few more portraits, something pink? Yes, pink would work. What do you two think?” Celestia sighed, “William…please, we understand. You’re in the right, we’re in the wrong. Is that enough to satisfy you?” He leaned forward and folded his hands onto the desk. “If by this, you’re implying that you actually want to get down to business, then yes, I’m satisfied.” Oda jumped valiantly out of his seat and flashed a heroic pose. “That what shall we do to stop this impending disaster, wise William van Oranje?” William shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, you tell me.” Oda’s chest deflated so quickly that you could practically hear the air whizzing out of him. He sullenly sat back down. “B-But you said that you could…” “I never directly said that I would. I might, but I’d first like to hear how you two would stop this war, since this is all your fault and I really should have nothing to do with it.” He grinned mischievously, cruelty dripping off every word he spoke. Celestia glared at him. “William, stop it. We’re willing to work if you are.” He clasped his hands together. “Wonderful! Then let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we?” Pressing some buttons under his desk, the screen which had displayed the frightening message from Princess Luna and Gustavus Adolphus blinked back on. The screen changed back to the view of the world they had seen earlier. The map still sat divided, all countries on the planet either blue or red, signifying their allegiance to Equestria or Japan, with no neutrality except for William himself. Black lines on the map signified troop movements that convened along national borders. War was imminent. Hopping out of his chair, William made a sweeping gesture to the entire screen as he began his presentation. “As you two know, from prior knowledge given by a certain someone’s sister, we have around twelve hours until the joint forces of Sweden and the New Lunar Republic attack France. Obviously there are other regional conflicts ready to break down as well, but it is this one in particular which is the most impending.” He pressed a few more buttons and the screen changed to a 3-D model of an emissary cart, with large hanging banners and several pieces of ornate gold. The Dutch coat of arms was painted on the side in orange. “To buy us a little breathing room, I’ve arranged this.” William reached over to his office desk, and tapped the intercom button. “Beatrice, can you please send out the carts? Thank you.” He clicked the end call button before a response could be heard. The two looked at him with raised eyebrows. “What did you just do?” asked the princess. Grinning at his own cunning, he happily replied. “Oh, just relayed a teeny-tiny task. A little countermeasure of sorts.” “Which is?” He giddily slammed the palm of his hand onto the desk. “A distraction, that’s what it is! A confusing little action that will not only buy us more time, but could possibly solve this entire problem all by itself!” Celestia looked at him with brightened eyes. “Really?” “No, I added that last part on.” Clicking a few more buttons under his desk, the map of the world reappeared with two separate green lines travelling across the map. Both originated in Amsterdam, but both split off in opposite directions, each travelling to a different corner of the world. “Ohhhhhhhhhh, now I get it!” said Oda as he leaned his head back in realization. “A distraction!” William snapped his fingers. “Exactly! With the emissaries snaking through the divided territories, either side would be hesitant to perform any sort of hostile action in the proximity of a diplomat, especially of a neutral nation.” “But the really important part is that each emissary has a course plotted for both Kyoto and Canterlot, implying that I wish to speak directly with you the both of you.” He pointed to them. “This random action, I hope, will buy us a bit more time to figure something out.” Celestia looked amazed. “William, that’s amazing! How did you come up with that?” He looked down at his cloak and began to casually pluck out frilly bits of hair on his silken attire. “Oh, I’ve had it planned for awhile. Ever since America and Egypt picked sides I’ve thought up several plans to halt progress on both sides.” “So!” said Oda as he jumped back out of his chair, “what is step two in this master plan?!?” William rubbed some emerging perspiration from his forehead. Sighing deeply, he plopped back into his chair. “That’s where things get a bit…complicated. There’s several ways we can approach this situation, but I’m not 100% that each one would be successful, even with the proper planning on my part.” Celestia smiled assuredly. “Well, let’s hear them anyway. I’m sure we can think of something worth while in the time we have.” “Alright” shrugged William. Opening one of the drawers on his desk, he rummaged through the several openings in search for something important. Feeling his target, he threw his hands out of the dark caverns of the desk, and flashed three bright manila envelopes. Tossing them down, he spread them out into a row of equally spaced squares, while drawing with a permanent marker #1, 2, and 3 on the tops. He folded his hands slowly and began to speak in a dramatic and mystic tone. “Welcome, to my office room. Before you, three paths lie in wait of being selected by those willing. Each one displays a different scenario of how one would solve the current predicament. Once selected, your choice can not be taken back, and will be permanent to those it affects. I do hope you make the right choose.” He smiled a crooked and out of character grin. “What are you doing?” asked Celestia flatly. William immediately snapped out of whatever persona he was trying to portray. “Sorry, sorry, got a tad bit carried away. But in all honesty, I’ve come up with three different actions the three of us could take to benefit ourselves in this war. This is all pretty tricky stuff, so I’d really need full cooperation on your parts, got it?” “Wait a second” interrupted Oda, “I thought you said that we were preventing war, not benefitting.” Celestia looked at him with expectation, thinking the same thing her Japanese counterpart spoke. William nervously stroked his beard. “Well…at this point…it seems unlikely with the tools we possess, that actually stopping the war seems like a bit of a false hope. I mean… peace is good and all, but…I’m not sure we really could…” Celestia nodded warmly, “I understand William. There comes a time that even our greatest hopes and intentions cannot be enough to do the right thing. Although we wish to prevent war, I agree with you that we have reached a point of no return. You have my full cooperation.” William nodded rigidly, and looked expectantly at Oda, who quickly raised his hand. “Is three options really enough? I’m sure there’s plenty of other ways we could resolve this. For example in hopes to--” William slammed his fist onto his desk. “It’s all I could think of, ok!?! You try brainstorming a diverse selection of world policies that at least partially make sense! It ain’t fun!” Oda weakly put his arm back down as William sighed. “As I was saying, full cooperation is necessary. Now, allow to me explain…” He picked up the envelope he marked as #1, “Number one!” He ripped the envelope open and pulled out a long sheet of yellow paper with very large curvy cursive writing. “Now, plan number one is what I would call the diplomacy option…of sorts. The main gist of it is using whatever political power the other nations will grant to us and use it to vocalize that you two longer wish to fight one another, thus voiding any reason of war. A massive declaration of peace for the entire world, you could say.” “Would they really stop at this point?” asked Celestia. “I mean, I doubt anypony—sorry, anybody would call the whole thing off this far in. You said it yourself, there just using our supposed conflict as a mask for their own intentions.” “This is insane!” shouted Oda, “not every nation would kneel to our word! And expecting them to do so would be idiotic on our part.” “Not exactly” corrected William, “there are still plenty of other nations that would still respect your say in the matter. Not all of them would follow through, as we’ve established, but at least we’d get some willing contestants.” Celestia frowned sadly. “That would probably just be the weaker ones who’d agree to this, the countries that are surely to sustain severe damage if they fight. They would only agree to peace in assurance that we’d protect them from any external danger. The real threat of the larger nations would not be resolved.” “So is it settled then?” asked William. “Option one is out the window?” The two nodded in agreement. Taking the fancy piece of paper, William crumpled it into a fine yellow ball, and tossed it out the nearest window. Yawning, he ripped open the second envelope. “This one friends, is a bit easier in terms of execution, but not particularly helpful to anyone.” “How so?” asked the Princess. “It’s basically the ultimate action of inaction. The plan is, we…do…nothing. All three of us declare neutrality and see what comes out of that. We could be ignored, we could be attacked, we could be hated for the rest of time, I don’t know. But us not doing anything could possibly save us from any involvement.” “Absolutely not” rejected the daimyo. “Inactivity is the worst possible thing to ever choose for anything. There is definitely something else we could do!” “I agree” said the princess “this option should not even be considered.” “Alright” said William as he burned the document with a butane lighter. “That leaves us with our last option, door number three.” He slowly opened the envelope and carefully removed the sealed document inside. Feeling the smooth paper in his hands, a rush of excitement over took him. Explaining the plan in a flurry of detail, he smiled in delight as Oda and Celestia’s eyes became wide the further he progressed in explanation. He giggled as his true level of intelligence was displayed, all in careful writing and expensive ink. Taking a deep breath, he finished his summary. “So” he asked with an edge of arrogance, “what do you guys think?” “If believe this is the very best we can muster” said a bewildered Oda with glazed eyes as if he had just been thrown through a wind tunnel. “An action like that is most startling William, but in this situation, it seems necessary” said an equally shocked Celestia with color drained from her mane. “I agree” agreed Oda, “this course of action is what any sane individual would choose. I vote ‘yes’” “As do I” announced Celestia. William beamed happily at the resolution that had taken so long to reach. For what had felt like an eternity of chatting, arguing, realizing, screaming, and quietly whispering, a solution to the aching war problem had finally been reached. He could not wait. Rubbing his palms together, he jittered eagerly. “Alright you guys…here goes!” Gently pressing the intercom button on his office phone, William spoke calmly into the device. “Beatrice, can you send out a patch to the other leaders? As soon as possible would be nice, and please do turn on my video feed. I want them to see me as I speak.” “Yes sir, I’ll get ri--” William hit the end call button before she could finish here response. Turning to Celestia and Oda he smiled once again in anticipation of what was about to happen. “This is going to be great!”