With the world so filled with diverse life and cultures, it was only natural that conflicts would spring up amongst the nations and beings that lived there. In ancient times, the Dragon Lords had established a council of sorts, where the rulers of every country could speak their mind, demand justice for the actions of others, declare war, or organize trade. The World Moot had fallen apart in the years after the fall of the mighty Dragon Empire. However, with the backing of the King of Dragons, two young Alicorns had been able to have the World Moot reestablished.
The location of the council of species and nations was upon the Treaty Island, a city built on the back of one of the last Leviathan Turtles in existence. It moved slowly and lazily through the ocean, only surfacing to hold the World Moot. It is not known how it knows when to surface, though some suspect the Dragons might, but when it does it is only for ten days. The time limit gave delegations a sense of urgency, and most meetings were finished long before the appointed time.
Princess Celestia sighed, wishing this was one of those times. With only three days left before the city sunk once more, hardly anything had been accomplished.
First, there had been cries from the Gryphons that the Crystal Empire was encroaching on their lands, even though it was not so. Yakyakistan made the same claims, though theirs had slightly more power behind it, being long time neighbors with the Empire before its disappearance, and quick to claim the empty tundra as their own. Next had been the concerns from the lords of Gaeum; Prance, Stalliongrad, Germaneigh and Bitaly were all glad to see an old ally return, but reluctant to let it have any sort of close ties to Equestria. They saw it as an insult that the Crystal Empire would be so tied to the ruling bodies of Equestria, where it had been a protectorate before the banishment. They were afraid that the Princesses might demand that their own countries be brought into the immediate fold of the Diarchy.
That alone had raised angry voices from beings that did not want Equestria to grow any stronger. And then accusations of weakness had been leveled at the ponies, the incidents with Discord and the Changeling Invasion very fresh in the public’s mind. Things went downhill even faster when the Sultan of Saddle Arabia declared that he could have done a better job than the Princesses, which had made the Sultan of Fleece snort in disbelief. And then the Pharaoh of Houndor had started demanding that Equestria should lift the trade sanctions on his country since they couldn’t even control their own problems, much less interfere with other nations, and then the Zebra Matriarch had insulted him, and a shouting match began.
And that was just on day one! Celestia sighed heavily, as things had not changed at all over the last six days. Shouting, insults, and sheer pig-headedness. The loudness of the situation, or her headache, was not helped by her sister, who was shouting out with her Royal Canterlot Voice, at all the enemies and naysayers of Equestria while Cadence shouted at the king of Yakyakistan, having to be held back physically by her husband, and the Priest-King of the Elephants was arguing with Lord Mare-decci of Bitaly about trade or something similar. Only three foreign leaders remained silent.
The Dahli Llama, which was no surprise as he rarely even raised his voice above mild scolding. He was the Mediator, a title that allowed him to direct the World Moot as needed, shutting down arguments or imposing order on chaos. Normally he would have stepped in sooner, but at the moment he simply sat there, staring into nothing with a far off look in his eyes. Next was the Emperor of Neighpon, which was odd, at least for Celestia. She had rarely attended a World Moot in the last thousand years without him screaming at her, or demanding some trade allowance, or accusing her of failure in some way. Instead, he simply sat there, his masked face firmly locked onto Luna’s form, wings twitching slightly. And lastly was the Scaled Herald. King Vargonos had slipped into his Long Sleep not long after Celestia and Luna had signed several treaties and deals with him and his people. Even now, centuries later, he had not awoken, and his voice was represented by a Dragon mystic who was said to be able to channel the sleeping mind and thoughts of their king. This Scaled Herald was a female with dark green scales and ruby red spines along her back. She lay curled around the upper levels of the Atrium, the large, circular meeting hall all of the meetings took place in. She’d spent the whole Moot just watching the squabbles, only voice a few opinions here and there, and most of them were comments like “Go for the wings!” or “Wishin’ you’d guarded your family jewels better, huh boyo?!”
The Solar Princess sighed again. This was not going well.
“Be silent, all of you.”
The words were softly spoken, but they cut through the noise without resistance. Everyone in the Atrium shut their mouths and held their breath, as a wave of pressure struck them. Swallowing their nervousness, everyone looked over at the Dahli Llama, his gaze now fiery and sharp as flint.
“I have heard quite enough bickering over these past days,” he began, rising from his seat to address everyone. “And I am sad to say that I am disappointed in all of you. So, I will be ending this all today, as is my right as Mediator of the World Moot.”
Gasps and hushed grumbles met this announcement, but all settled down to listen.
“The Crystal Empire is indeed a Protectorate of the Diarchy of Equestria,” the Dahli Llama said, his gaze sweeping over everyone. “There are no laws that say the royal family cannot marry into another nation’s hierarchy. In fact, such has been done before, as is the case with Toro and Phantine, or Saddle Arabia and Stalliongrad. If you question this, there are documents of marriage that state that the last Queen of the Empire, Steller Cut, was married to an ancestor of Princess Cadence, Loyal Flag of the Platinum bloodline. Therefore she has legal right to reign as regent of the Crystal Empire. Next, there is no basis for the Gryphon’s claims of land in the Frozen North. Their borders never stretched that far, same with the Yaks. They took land that was unoccupied at the time, as was fair, but now will either give it back to its rightful owners or arrange a deal with the current regent for purchase.” His hard, ancient eyes fell onto the leaders in question, and they squirmed under his heavy gaze, nodding hastily.
“Next is the Changelings. As they have not revealed themselves since their defeat at Canterlot, one must assume they are licking their wounds, perhaps building their strength. Therefore, security measures should be implemented. I know of spells that can destroy illusions, and that should work on the shapeshifting of the Changelings. Their attack on Canterlot was unexpected, as they hadn’t been seen for over a century at that point. Now we shall prepare accordingly.”
“And finally, I will bring up something no one else has. We need to unite against Black Phoenix.”
At this, loud voices were raised, and only the Scaled Herald’s roar silenced them this time.
“They are terrorists and rebels, what more need be said?” The Gryphon king demanded, ruffling his feathers.
“They are far more powerful than you give them credit for,” the Dahli Llama said, shaking his head. “They span the globe, have agents in every nation, and desire to topple each and every person here. Why can none of you see that they are a true threat?”
“Because they are blinded by their own hubris and greed,” a deep voice said, a dark chuckle echoing through the Atrium.
“Who goes there?! None but those of us here may enter this place!” the Exarch of Catia shouted, looking around wildly.
With an explosion of light, a slender, silver bipedal lizard appeared on the middle of the Atrium’s conference table.
“YOU! FOUL MURDERER!” Luna screamed as the stunted, crippled Dragon became visible to them all. Her voice was soon drowned out by a scream of rage from the Scaled Herald.
“VANDAL SCARBACK! HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOURSELF BEFORE ME?!” The Herald howled. Her voice was deep, booming, and unmistakeablely male.
Celestia trembled at the voice. Not since the War of Undeath had the king of Dragons spoken through his representatives, and never had the Alicorn heard such anger and hate in his tone.
“Ah, Vargonos! A pleasure to see you! And is that Scalifa I see as your Scaled Herald? My, how nostalgic.” The ivory dragon sneered, staring defiantly up at the dragoness above him.
“You must be a fool to think you can just appear before us and not pay for your crimes!” The Lord-Governess of Prance shouted, charging a spell in her horn. She fired it at the same time Luna did, but both rays of magical devastation phased through him harmlessly.
“Astral Projection is such a handy skill, wouldn’t you agree?” Vandal said, still staring up at the Dragon who was channeling his old friend and enemy.
“Why are you here, scum?!” The Emperor of Neighpon demanded, standing and charging a spell of his own.
“To issue a warning; soon, your lands will burn. I will march on your cities and slaughter all who arrogantly think to rule over others by virtue of ‘higher birth,’ and bring forth a new world order that will create true equality and harmony, unlike what the Heavenly Sisters failed to do,” the leader of Black Phoenix said, finally tearing his hateful stare from the Dragoness to let it land on the male Alicorn ruler.
“And then, once I have won, I shall finish what I started all those years ago on the Day of Righteous Murder, brat, and I promise you, ‘Emperor,’ I will not let you or any of the other Alicorn vermin get away again.”
“Just try and reenact your massacre, worm! You will find I am not the same foal who hid in his mother’s corpse to escape your flames!” The Emperor cried, drawing forth a strange, metal sword hilt, bereft of blade. However, a beam of pure light and magic erupted from the empty hilt, and it became a sword of light, an artifact of the ancient Alicorns.
“Posture all you want, it won’t help,” Vandal sneered. “I will crush you all, and have your crowns and regalia melted down and recast as a statue in honor of your deaths!”
“BEGONE!” Vangonos roared, and with a crack like that of glass breaking, the image of the white Dragon shattered, fading into shards of magic.
“This World Moot is over. Return to your lands and await further news. If Vandal and Black Phoenix move against us, we need to be ready. Dismissed,” The Dahli Llama said, his voice trembling with repressed rage. All the rulers nodded silently in agreement. This was not the time to argue.
“Why did you want to end the meeting so soon, oh Holy one? Did you perhaps have a vision that Vandal would interrupt?” Princess Celestia asked, stepping after the elderly Llama as he exited the Atrium.
“I saw a vision, it is true, but not of that. He was an unpleasant surprise. No, what I saw was I have a guest coming that I must prepare for. One who will change the course of the coming war, and hopefully towards our side.”
“Who is this being?”
“You probably know them, but perhaps not. He doesn’t even know himself.” With that cryptic parting, the leader of Ti-bit hurried off to his delegation, leaving Celestia confused.
“You may also want to talk with your pupil about the past, Princess! She is driving herself mad trying to find the truth!” he cried over his shoulder, moments before he disappeared through a doorway.
“Oh Twilight, what are you up to this time?” Celestia moaned. “And now I need to find Luna and Cadence before either of them decide to deck any of the other delegates…”