Harmony 6: The Coming of Nightmares

by CopperTop

Chapter 8: Signs and Portents

“This is outrageous!” Ambassador Gilda roared as she stalked in front of the table hosting the other representatives of the major powers, glaring at each of the seated creatures in turn. Of course, the griffon understandably reserved the manticore’s share of her ire for Ember. She continued to wave a rolled scroll around in the air above her head to dramatically emphasize her latest reason for screaming at the room full of gathered delegates. “The dragons attacked one of our settlements—another one of our settlements!

“And don’t you dare try to claim any of that ‘they asked us for help’ shit!” The Republic ambassador snarled in Ember’s direction. For her part, the dragoness seemed content to remain in her seat and smirk back at the hen, her arms nonchalantly crossed over her chest as she watched the griffon bluster, appearing completely unperturbed by Gilda’s accusations. “This was a naked unprovoked invasion of Republic territory! Plain and simple!”

Gilda rounded on the representatives of the other three major powers. “This Council has to take action over this! You’re all about ‘maintaining the peace’, right?! So maintain it!” She jabbed a talon in Ember’s direction. “The Republic demands that the dragons be sanctioned—to the most extreme degree possible! If this Council is supposed to have any legitimacy or purpose at all, then it can’t sit idly by and do nothing while innocent civilians are terrorized by foreign soldiers!”

As the griffon’s latest tirade drew to a close, Twilight forced her features to retain a neutral appearance. It wouldn’t have done for her to roll her eyes at Gilda’s apparent complete lack of self-awareness. The purple unicorn spent a few silent moments combing her brain for the appropriate arrangement of words that she might be able to utter which would point out the hypocrisy of the Republic ambassador’s words, given the actions of her own government in recent years. Or even recent weeks, come to think of it…

Fortunately, Twilight ended up not having to bring those facts to light. Ambassador Ember was apparently already prepared to do so: “We’re curtailing raiding activity,” the sapphire-scaled dragoness said matter-of-factly, sounding quite nonplussed by Gilda’s earlier vitriolic speech.

“One of our merchant ships sailing in proximity to Rock Haven Island was fired upon by the inhabitants there,” the dragoness elaborated further, turning her head slightly to speak more to the other delegates in the chamber than to Gilda directly. After all, it was those delegates that she’d have to convince, not the griffon. “As this Council knows, under internationally-recognized maritime law: unprovoked attacks on merchant vessels by groups that aren’t at war with each other are de facto acts of ‘piracy’. The Dragon Lands are well within their rights to use any and all force necessary to seize a ‘pirate haven’ and arrest the criminals that based themselves there.”

Ember paused now and favored her griffon counterpart with a mirthless smile which showed quite a few fangs. “Unless the Republic wants to insist that this attack on our merchant shipping wasn’t an act of piracy by a rogue group of griffons, and that this was instead a condoned unprovoked attack by Republic-aligned forces? Because that would make all of this an act of war…”

“‘Merchant vessel’ my ass; that ship was a frigate!”

“It was carrying cargo intended for sale at another port,” Ember countered easily. “That’s the only required criteria for what constitutes a ‘merchant vessel’ under the letter of accepted maritime law. Hull type and armaments are immaterial.”

“Your ship fired first!”

Again, Ambassador Ember was ready with an explanation. “The crew of the DLS Fang were conducting simple firing drills. It’s something ship crews often do—as you should know, ambassador. At no point did they target Republic ships or fortifications; their shots sailed harmlessly into the water, as was the crew’s intention.” She then flashed the other ambassador a reproachful look. “The island’s batteries, however, were targeting the Fang.

“The ship and crew simply acted to defend themselves against what they perceived as an act of piracy; as was their legal right.” Ember leaned forward in her seat now, steepling her claw-tipped fingers as she stared at the fuming griffon. “Your government is free to stand behind the actions of the griffons on the island, but rest assured that if the Republic officially condones an attack on our merchant shipping, we will consider it to be a de facto declaration of war by the Republic against the Dragon Lands.

“Given that the Republic’s fleets are currently otherwise occupied elsewhere with ‘anti-piracy’ operations of their own…” Ember’s eyes darted briefly towards the kirin delegation, who had thus far not demonstrated any indication that they might sympathize with Gilda’s condemnation, given their own ongoing issues with griffon aggression. “...I would caution you about opening up a second theater of operations so far from the first.” The dragoness paused, tapping a claw against her chin as she feigned thinking. “Or would this actually constitute a third?” Ember’s head tilted in the direction of the room’s hippogriff delegation, who also seemed to be regarding Gilda with some degree of animosity.

The griffon ambassador was ready with her government’s official deflection once she recognized what the dragoness was hinting at. “That’s not an operational theater,” the hen reflexively insisted. “Our navy is simply curbing illegal fishing in our territorial waters.” The growl from the hippogriff representatives was audible to all five representatives of the major powers at the larger table at the head of the room.

“Of course they are,” the dragoness said with a roll of her eyes and a dismissive wave of her hand. “But my point still stands: you don’t have the ships to do anything to us right now if you’re going to insist that the griffons on Rock Haven aren’t pirates. We, however, have a lot of ships and dragons with nothing better to do than to take back every other island in the Scaly Archipelago that has griffons on it if your Republic goes ahead with a war.

“What was the civilian population that you have living on those islands at last count?” Ember asked in a tone of feigned-ignorance before she supplied her own answer. “Because your own census records put it at just shy of a hundred thousand a few years ago. That’s a hundred thousand Republic citizens with nothing between them and our guns and dragon fire if you give the wrong answer here, Gilda.”

A smile which contained far too much glee at the prospect of slaughter on such scale for Twilight’s liking spread across the dragoness’ face as she issued her challenge to the hen. “So consider how you want to proceed from here very carefully, ambassador.”

Gilda spent several long seconds visibly seething as she held the dragon representative’s stare. It was plain to every other creature in the room that there was a lot the griffon wanted to say…but she didn’t. Which, for the Republic ambassador, represented something of an uncharacteristic degree of diplomatic acumen. Instead, she glanced around the room, noting the number of other delegations that were regarding her with less-than-favorable expressions.

The Griffonian Republic had not exactly endeared themselves to many groups over the last couple of centuries. Except for perhaps the ponies, to whom they sold weapons during their confrontation with the zebras. That had earned the Republic considerably favorable trade agreements with Equestria as a result. But she doubted that the griffons had earned anywhere near enough good will with the ponies for them to follow the Republic into an open war with the dragons. Especially a war which the Republic would have ‘officially’ been the instigator of.

“Obviously,” Gilda eventually ground out through a tightly clenched beak, “the Griffonian Republic would never authorize unwarranted acts of aggression against another race.” The griffon somehow managed to say without a hint of sarcasm audible in her tone. She pointedly ignored the scattered outbursts from several of the delegations in the room, waiting for Colonel Twilight Sparkle to command silence in the chamber once more before she continued.

“Nor,” she managed to force herself to continue, “would my government try and thwart…” The griffon was forced to swallow down—some—of the derisiveness that sought to color her next words, lest they come off as sounding a little too patronizing for such proceedings. “...anti-piracy activities.”

Twilight took this opportunity to speak up again, sensing that the atmosphere had shifted considerably from what it had been when Ambassador Gilda began her tirade. “Is this Council to understand then that the Republic is withdrawing its demand for sanctions against the Dragon Lands?”

The griffon ambassador took a deep breath to ensure that her response was properly controlled. “...Yes. We withdraw the motion.”

Then Gilda immediately held up a talon and leveled it at Ember. “However, we demand that all of the griffon ‘pirates’,” the stress which the hen’s placed upon the label this time left no doubt now as to her own dubiousness of Ember’s claims, “be extradited to Griffonstone for trial! They’re still Republic citizens!”

The dragon representative wasn’t swayed by this argument either. “They committed acts of piracy against the Dragon Lands. Foreigners or not, we hold primary jurisdiction over them.”

Gilda’s talons balled into a fist as the hen let out another frustrated snarl before finally turning away from the dragoness and stalking back to her own seat at the curved table. It wouldn’t have been quite right to call what the griffon hen did ‘sulking’, but that description wouldn’t have been far off the mark either. ‘Fuming’ might have been an apt description too.

She didn’t say much for the remainder of the meeting that day in either case. Which was probably for the best, given that some of the other business that had yet to be addressed involved the kirin asking for food and medical supplies to mitigate the harm being inflicted on their citizens as a result of the Republic’s continued efforts to ‘curb raiding activity’. Then there were the hippogriffs asking for an impartial committee to be formed which would confirm the boundaries of Griffonian Republic and Hippogriffia Queendom’s territorial waters. For that too, Gilda simply seethed in silence while abstaining from voting.

When Twilight finally concluded the day’s session, she watched the griffon all but storm out of the room, shoving past a few of the other delegates who weren’t even quite in her path. Her gaze wandered to Ambassador Ember now, who had watched her rival’s departure with a wide smile on her snout. It was pretty evident that the meeting’s events had played out to the dragoness’ satisfaction.

The purple unicorn approached the dragon. “Ambassador Ember, if I might make a request?”

“Request away, colonel.”

“It’s hard to believe that every griffon on Rock Haven Island engaged in acts of piracy,” the mare began. “There were nearly three thousand griffons on that island, after all, including families—chicks. If your government could at least see fit to return the civilians to the Republic—”

“What civilians?” Ember’s words possessed a coldness that Twilight didn’t like. “I said that it was a ‘pirate haven’. There were no civilians there. Only pirates and griffons that were helping pirates.

“They were all dealt with in accordance with established dragon law.”

The little unicorn felt a chill grip her heart. While the mare was not intimately familiar with every law that the Dragon Lands had on their books—she didn’t even know all of Equestria’s laws—she knew how the dragons—and many nations, including Equestria—dealt with piracy: they employed the death penalty.

Twilight’s mouth felt dry as she spoke her next words, because she was terrified that she already knew what the response would be. “...What about the chicks? Ambassador, surely you don’t mean that you—”

“Did you know that Rock Haven was once home to one of our ancestral hatching grounds?” Ember interrupted. “It was one of our largest, in fact,” she went on, talking in the calm tone of one who was imparting a piece of trivia. “Rock Haven Island has extensive subterranean lava flows that make it an ideal site for keeping our eggs nice and warm while they mature.

“There was a freshly-laid clutch on that island the day the Republic invaded it.”

The dragoness’ ruby eyes now flared with barely repressed rage as she locked them onto Twilight. “Four thousand, two hundred, and seventy-nine,” she growled out in words that dripped with loathing. “That was how many eggs were on the island that day.

“You should ask Gilda what the griffons did to them.”

Twilight swallowed and said nothing. She was an expert on many subjects—and had the academic credentials to back most of that expertise up—but the unicorn acknowledged her ignorance with regards to each and every atrocity that the Griffonian Republic had inflicted on the dragons during their centuries-long occupation of the Dragon Lands. She knew that life for the dragons under griffon rule had been brutal. She knew that a lot of dragons lost their lives during that time for objectively trivial reasons.

To put things exceptionally mildly, the griffons were, as Doctor Fluttershy might say: ‘not nice’.

The unicorn wasn’t going to act as an apologist for the griffons. What the Republic had done to the dragons—what they were continuing to do to many other creatures—couldn’t be excused. Not in her mind. But, maybe, she could at least try to appeal to the ambassador to be less ruthless in the future; in the hopes that not answering atrocities in kind could avert an outright war…

“Ambassador, how exactly do you expect the griffons to react when they hear that the dragons are executing their chicks—”

“I ‘expect’ them to fly back to their fucking homeland and leave the Scaly Archipelago forever!” Ember snapped in reply. “To leave our islands and never come back! It’s what they should do, if they’re smart.” Ember’s lip curled as she continued to stare down at the smaller unicorn mare. “And if the only way for them to get the message is for some of their hatchlings to get snuffed for a change…then that’s on them.

“They came to us, Equestrian,” the dragoness all but spat in Twilight’s face. “If you want to save the lives of griffon chicks, then convince Gilda to take her griffons out of our home!”

With that, Ember sought to take her own leave, shouldering Twilight out of her way as the dragoness stomped out the same door that Gilda had. The unicorn winced and stumbled a little at the shove, but otherwise did nothing to reprimand the representative or retaliate. The ambassador was obviously at least as upset as Gilda had been. Nothing would be gained from trying to escalate matters over a rude push.

Instead, Twilight simply looked helplessly in the direction of Ambassadors Zecora and Celestia, seeking any aid or wisdom that either of the more experienced delegates might be willing to offer. Her gaze lingered longer on the towering ivory alicorn. “I don’t even know where to begin on getting them to be friends…”

It was the zebra mare who answered first. “Their pain runs deep,” she said. Beside her, Celestia offered a sage nod. “For nearly a hundred years, the dragons have not been mending their wounds; instead, they have been stoking their fires of hatred.”

“The griffons and dragons are not at a place where there can be peace,” Celestia agreed. “Not right now. That process can’t begin until one side is willing to acknowledge the wrongs.

“It doesn’t matter who goes first,” the alicorn went on, “but one side must. When that happens, then the other can be appealed to with a possibility—however remote—of success and peace can have a chance to take root.” Her muzzle broke into a smile now; unfortunately it was a wan one. “Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to maneuver a party into taking that first step when tensions are as high as they are now.”

Twilight’s shoulders slumped. “You’re saying that peace is impossible?”

“I’m saying that it’s up to the griffons and the dragons. Nothing any of us can do will affect anything at this point.”

The unicorn’s sigh was an exasperated one. “Irreconcilable differences. Great.” She brought a hoof up to massage her temple. As far as isolating the variables necessary to solve a problem went, this was one of the more complicated that she’d come across in recent memory. “Even if their nations have a lot of history though, that can’t be the case for the ambassadors themselves! Did Ember and Gilda even know each other before coming to Harmony?” She glanced between the other two mares, seeking any knowledge that they might have on the histories of the other members of their little quintet.

“It is unlikely that the two of them would have had much direct contact prior to coming here,” Zecora concluded. “The griffons and dragons do not maintain embassies in each others’ nations.”

“So then they don’t have any personal animosity—not really,” Twilight said, more to herself than to the other ambassadors she was speaking with. “If I can just get them to talk to each other—as individuals first and ambassadors second—then maybe they can figure out how to actually try and negotiate with each other in good faith.

“Like actual proper diplomats,” she added with a rueful look cast towards the alicorn and the zebra.

“It’s not always easy to get others to set aside preconceived notions that they have of others, even if they’ve never personally met,” Ambassador Celestia cautioned.

“Creatures can often be emotional,” Twilight agreed, nodding. “But part of being a professional—like a diplomat—is being able to set aside your personal feelings to get the job done.”

“Because if Gilda and Ember have shown you anything in these last few weeks, it is their ability to set aside their emotions,” Zecora quipped, doing a poor job of hiding a smile. If she was actually even trying to hide it in the first place.

The little purple pony permitted herself an eye roll. “Fair point. Still, I should at least give it a try. I doubt those two meeting would make anything worse.

“I’ll look over some books on mediation—maybe even a few psychology texts for some therapeutic techniques—and arrange a meeting with both of them,” Twilight said, floating out a quill and a piece of parchment to make some notes for herself. “I should be able to at least get them talking after a few meetings…”

Zecora exchanged a dubious look with the alicorn standing beside her. Celestia politely cleared her throat. “If I may? You might want to consider that it will take more than reading a few books to help you resolve this issue…”

“I don’t think I’ll get everything solved all at once,” the unicorn conceded, “but if I go into this with a firm didactic foundation, it should allow me to get those two headed in a more productive direction.”

“Have you ever tried something like this before?” The taller mare inquired.

“Well, no…” Twilight admitted with a small frown. “But the theories should be sound, and I’ll have those to lean on.” She finished making her notes and returned the material to her saddlebag. “Thank you both for the advice. I’ll let you know how it goes.” The little purple mare issued the other two ambassadors a brief bow of her head before turning and making her departure.

Celestia and Zecora watched her leave. The former heaved a heavy sigh and shook her head. “On the bright side: she probably can’t make things any worse between them.”

“Probably,” the alicorn conceded; though not without a hint of worry.

---

Twilight considered whether or not it was too late for her to request new quarters. It wasn’t that the lookout post was particularly far from her present suite, but with as often as the unicorn was finding herself heading for the balcony, she suspected that the trip between her rooms and the outside were going to end up consuming a significant amount of her time over the next few years. She made a note to start tracking that time to see how much it added to over the next month. Her present hypothesis was that moving her quarters could end up saving her a couple weeks over the course of a year.

Longer if the lookout post continued to be occupied when she arrived, the little purple unicorn very carefully did not think aloud when she arrived this latest time to find Ambassador Celestia standing on the balcony overlooking the island.

However, it didn’t look like the alicorn had perched herself there in order to take in the view. The towering alicorn was facing west, her head raised to its full height with her horn awash in shimmering golden light. The sky beyond the island grew steadily dimmer.

Twilight was forced to bite down on the excited gasp that fought to escape her throat, not wanting to risk disturbing the alicorn during such an important moment. It took a considerable quantity of self-control for the unicorn to not ignite her own horn and start probing Celestia’s spell to determine how it worked. Never mind how inexcusably rude such an unsolicited invasion of privacy would be considered, doing so without any sort of warning could potentially disrupt the spell being cast; and Twilight didn’t want to be responsible for explaining why sunset or moonrise had been postponed.

She’d known that alicorns were responsible for moving the sun and the moon in the heavens of course. Every creature on the planet knew that about them. That fact—in addition to their reputation as wielders of singularly powerful magicks—was a significant part of why no other nation had ever initiated hostilities with the alicorns.

However, until this moment, Twilight had never before seen the feat accomplished first-hoof. The unicorn focused her unblinking gaze on Celestia and committed every little detail to her memory. She fully intended to write down every detail later. The list of Equestria’s magical scholars who’d been in the proximity of an alicorn raising the sun or the moon was so short as to arguably not be worthy of being called a ‘list’; so Twilight knew that her own observations here could very well be worthy of being published in academic papers outright.

It was something of a shame that she’d already completed her doctorate in Theoretical Magicks, as tonight’s observations could easily have sat in for her dissertation…

The unicorn managed to—mostly—sit quietly and wait for the sky to finish dimming as the sun was sequestered beyond the horizon. A moment later, Celestia’s face was bathed in silvery light as the moon was raised in its stead. Only then did the alicorn extinguish the magic enveloping her horn.

A small smile touched the tall mare’s face. “Good evening, Colonel Sparkle. How did your efforts to mediate between Gilda and Ember go?” The alicorn hadn’t appeared to even glance in the purple mare’s direction.

Twilight flushed, not having realized that she’d done anything to be noticed. She cleared her throat and stepped out onto the balcony with the other mare, her own gaze focusing on the freshly-razed moon. “Ember laughed so hard that she accidentally set my quill on fire,” the smaller pony began in a flat tone. “And Gilda screamed so loud that she set off my tinnitus.” Twilight idly rubbed at her right ear with her hoof.

“So they wouldn’t even meet.”

“No,” the unicorn admitted with a sigh, “no they would not.”

“I suspect that you did not come out here for an ‘I told you so’, so I’ll refrain from issuing you one.”

“That’s very kind of you, ambassador.”

“I also assume that their interest in meeting ended the moment they learned the other would be there?” Celestia asked.

“Pretty much, yeah,” Twilight said in response.

“That was, perhaps, your first mistake,” the alicorn offered. “Given that their animosity is a known quantity, you might have at least gotten them into the same room by forgoing mention of the others’ attendance.”

The smaller pony frowned. “I fail to see how getting them to meet under false pretenses would help things.”

“No ‘false pretenses’ are necessary,” the other mare insisted. “You could have invited each ambassador to meet with you by making a sincere offer to hear them out and get their perspective; and just happened to host both parties at the same time.

“You would have at least gotten them into the same room together,” Celestia pointed out. “Obviously, whether they both stayed in that same room can’t be known,” she went on to concede, “but it would have represented making marginally more progress than you actually managed this evening.”

“...I guess.” Twilight was far from convinced that it would have been much of an improvement on what ended up happening anyway. As far as she was concerned, she would have just ended up with ringing ears and smoldering quills at the same time. “I still don’t think tricking creatures into talking would be any more effective.”

“Perhaps not,” the alicorn nodded. Then, in a more conversational tone, she began, “How are you getting along with your command staff?”

Twilight hadn’t been anticipating the abrupt shift in topic from business to ‘small talk’ from the other mare, and so it took her a brief moment to compose herself and answer the question. “We’re getting on well enough, given the short time we’ve worked together. I think Major Rarity and I have the best working relationship so far. She’s very organized and runs an orderly staff.” Which was something that Twilight very much approved of. To say nothing about her always being able to count on the unicorn XO always arriving on duty with a positively immaculate uniform. Being exposed to that level of professionalism first thing in the morning always helped put her in high spirits at the start of a day.

“And the others?”

Now Twilight was forced to frown a little. “Captain Applejack and I are still recovering. She took the incident with the Dominance pretty hard. Not that I was particularly happy with how Ambassador Zecora manipulated things either,” the unicorn added with a lightly derisive snort. “She’s a good mare though; and I admire her integrity.

“Captain Rainbow Dash…” Twilight massaged her brow. “...It’s not that she’s bad at her job,” she acknowledged, then the mare considered her wording and amended her statement. “Or rather: it’s not that she’s a bad flier. Her ‘job’ is to lead her squadrons—which she does…by about two leagues ahead of them during each patrol.

“Her skill justifies her rank; but it hasn’t helped her to truly understand her position, I don’t think.” Twilight was silent for a short while. “I might end up replacing her. We’ll see. Part of my job as commander of the fortress is to mentor my other officers. If I don’t at least try to make Captain Dash into a better leader, then I’ll have failed as her commanding officer.”

Celestia nodded. She then waited a moment to see if Twilight would continue. When the purple mare didn’t she ventured, “...And Doctor Fluttershy?”

“By all accounts she’s a great physician.” Which was as far as the unicorn appeared to initially be willing to go on that front. She then caught sight of the alicorn’s raised eyebrow and sighed. “We haven’t really spoken much—at all—beyond me getting her morning report. She won’t talk to me outside of those meetings.

“Frankly, after looking into her file a little more, I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.”

“Oh?”

“It turns out she spent time in the disciplinary barracks after the war—military prison, basically—for desertion,” Twilight explained. “She abandoned Equestria during the war.” The unicorn didn’t quite spit out the words, but it was a near thing. The mare didn’t begrudge ponies who had fled the invasion, if they were civilians. Ponies generally wanted to be safe, and Equestria hadn’t been during that time.

It was different for those who had worn the uniform though. Ponies like Twilight—like Fluttershy—who had chosen to serve in the military and defend their lands, they had sworn oaths not to run. They—supposedly—had accepted the risks and promised to fight until the zebras were turned back into the sea…or until nopony was left alive to fight against them any longer.

Fluttershy, it turned out, had fled during the war. When the zebras surrendered and offered peace terms, only then had the pegasus physician returned. She’d been subsequently arrested, tried, and imprisoned for several years. However, as doctors were a scarce resource after the war, the mare had eventually seen her confinement transitioned into probation and her license to practice medicine reinstated. Twilight wasn’t exactly sure how the pegasus mare’s assignment to Harmony factored into her reduction in prison time, but suspected that it had played a role in her early release.

The doctor had hardly been the only deserter that Equestria had seen towards the end of the war, when the outlook had been at its most desperate. In those final months, it had mostly felt like a forgone conclusion that everypony left in Equestria was going to die. Some had managed to cling onto faint hopes, but…it had been fleeting at best. None of which did much to change Twilight’s personal opinion of those who’d chosen to run after promising they’d stay.

“I see,” the alicorn finally said in reply. “You think less of her for running.”

“I think it’s possible there are ponies who might have been alive today if there’d been another doctor around,” Twilight primly offered. “I won’t go so far as to say that it’s her ‘fault’ that any specific ponies died, but actions have consequences; and the ‘consequence’ of a doctor not being available to treat patients is usually that those patients die.

“I’d never be able to put any kind of number to that,” the unicorn admitted, her mind already rushing through a few rough estimates based upon the casualty numbers she recalled from battles near the end of the war and comparing them to survival rates that she’d seen in reports compiled years later when the military was reviewing its procedures for evacuating and treating the wounded. There were quite a few variables that the little mare couldn’t hope to pin down with any real degree of accuracy, but she privately estimated the number of ponies an additional competent doctor on hoof could have saved to be in the low hundreds. “But it’s certainly above ‘zero’.”

“The choices that we make have consequences,” Ambassador Celestia agreed with a solemn nod of her head. She turned her head out towards the sea, making it impossible for Twilight to see her expression. “For some, those consequences are a matter of life and death.” The unicorn’s ear twitched at the faint sound of a ragged breath being taken in and let out. “We just hope that the choice we make is one we can live with. In time.”

Twilight’s lips pursed as the mare prepared to inquire if the alicorn was feeling alright. But, before she could, the towering ivory mare had turned to regard the smaller mare again, her expression was a warm one; though the gentle smile on her lips appeared just a little bit forced to the unicorn’s eyes. “It’s been a stressful day. If I might suggest: I know Major Rarity avails herself of frequent visits to a spa in Ponyville.

“Our time there tends to overlap,” the alicorn explained, shaking out her billowing mane for emphasis. “So I know that she’s not averse to company and conversation.

“You might benefit from spending a few hours in her company, colonel.”

The little purple unicorn sighed, frowning slightly at the ambassador. “I’m not usually the kind of mare who gets a lot out of a visit to a spa,” Twilight said, gesturing broadly at herself with a hoof, as though her general appearance should have made that fact evident. Her mane style was certainly the sort that loudly announced to the world that no professional hooves were involved in sculpting her appearance. Unlike Major Rarity’s own impressive curls in her mane and tail.

“But you might stand to gain something from talking with the major,” Celestia offered, to which the other mare was forced to make a conceding nod.

“That might help,” Twilight acknowledged. “I’ll think about it. If I have the oportunity,” she qualified. “Running Harmony takes a lot of my time,” the mare pointed out.

“Of course.” The alicorn turned once more and headed for the railing of the lookout. Her massive ivory wings flared in preparation for flight. “Good night, colonel; I’ll see you again at the next Council meeting.” She craned her head to look back over her shoulder, offering the other mare a smile. “Or, perhaps, the spa? If you decide to drop by…”

Celestia leaped over the railing and beat her wings, ascending quickly towards the gilded airship moored at the top of The Citadel. The fortress’ commander watched her go, until a golden flash of light enveloped the alicorn and she vanished from view entirely. Twilight didn’t spend much longer on the balcony after that, electing to return to her quarters instead.

After all, she did have some notes that she wanted to write down regarding what she’d seen that evening. A hot bath might not have gone amiss either. Now that the thought was in her head, a long soak in some warm water to help her relax sounded quite appealing.

…Perhaps a visit to that spa wouldn’t be a bad idea after all. When she had the time, of course.

---

Ambassador Gilda forced her talons to unclench. It took considerable effort to do so. The reluctant movement was followed shortly by the griffon hen shaking the shredded remnants of parchments from her hand, adding to the pile of ripped and torn reports that was steadily growing around her desk. Gabby, standing at the ready, wiped the last few pieces of scroll away from the desk’s surface with a deft flick of her wing and provided the ambassador with a fresh copy of the report that had just been destroyed. The aid held several stacks of multiple copies in her talons.

Those stacks had been considerably thicker an hour ago.

Gilda didn’t look at the unmarred—for now—copy of the latest observations that had been made of the movements of the dragons’ fleets. Instead, she took in a deep breath to try and calm herself so that she could think more clearly. It didn’t help much.

Neither had the reports that she’d seen from Griffonstone which confirmed that the Republic wouldn’t be able to reinforce their holdings in the Scaly Archipelago any time soon. Certainly not soon enough to do anything about the next incursion that was coming, given what the latest movements among the dragon forces portended to.

“Useless,” Gilda growled to no particular set of ears in the room. “They’re all fucking useless!

“We can get back to dealing with the kirin and the hippogriffs any time we want,” the hen went on, “they’re not going anywhere. But the dragons are coming for us now!”

This was a fact that the Republic’s leadership was both aware of, and apparently apathetic towards. They were prioritizing acquiring new coaling stations in Kirea and securing additional sources of fish near Hippogriffonia. In exchange, they appeared to be perfectly content to lose hold of the gem mines near the Dragon Lands—it would be a ‘temporary’ loss, she’d been assured. The ‘plan’—and Gilda had her doubts that the proposed course of action actually counted as a ‘plan’—was for the Republic’s forces to consolidate and move against the dragons once the other operations had concluded.

However, based upon what Gilda was seeing in these latest intelligence reports regarding the dragons, the ambassador was convinced that was going to be a lot easier said than done. If it would even be doable at all. The dragons were undertaking an absolutely massive buildup of their military at the moment. Meanwhile, the most optimistic estimates from the Republic suggested that the griffons wouldn’t be able mount operations to retake their holdings in the Scaly Archipelago for at least another eighteen months.

Strictly speaking, the dragons wouldn’t be able to assemble a navy that could match the size of the Republic’s even if they were granted eighteen years to do so. However, there was more to military considerations than raw numbers. The fact was that dragons were objectively larger and tougher than griffons. If a griffon wanted to win in a fight with a dragon, they needed both a numerical advantage and a technological one.

The Republic still had the former. Even after a century of independence, the dragons had not quite managed to bring their numbers back up to where they’d been prior to their occupation by the griffons. Dragons were relatively slow to grow and mature when compared to most other races. They’d also had few viable hatching grounds available to them.

However, what the Republic was steadily losing right now was their technological advantage. When the griffons had first arrived in the Dragon Lands, the residents of those islands had been mistaken for unintelligent animals because they had possessed exactly no technology whatsoever. They hadn’t used tools of any sort, hadn’t built anything, didn’t wear jewelry…there hadn’t been any outward sign at all of anything that other creatures would have taken as proof of a ‘civilization’ existing on those islands.

It turned out that this had been a consequence of ‘necessity being the mother of innovation’...and the dragons hadn’t found themselves needing to innovate anything. Their claws could rend rock as easily as Gilda’s talons were tearing through the paper reports on her desk. Developing tools to do the job hadn’t been required. In fact, it could be argued that there were few tools which existed even today which could match a dragon’s claws for toughness and digging efficiency.

Diamond dogs could give them a run for their money, perhaps.

As tough as a dragon’s scales might have been though, they hadn’t held up to cannon fire; and dragon fire hadn’t been able to match the range of griffon artillery. Intelligent though dragons might have been, living like animals had allowed them to be slaughtered and corralled just as easily as any sheep, despite their objective natural toughness.

But—despite griffon jokes to the contrary—dragons weren’t just dumb animals. They could think. They could learn. And the dragons had learned that fire, claws, and scales would only carry them so far in this modern world. So they’d adopted the tools and weapons of their oppressors. They’d learned how to use them…and later how to employ them effectively against their Republic masters.

One of the larger dragon specimens was fierce enough on its own and represented a challenge to defeat without artillery available. Facing down a house-sized dragon encased in steel armor and wielding a ‘musket’ larger than most naval guns was an utterly terrifying prospect. Any griffon who said otherwise was a liar.

No, fighting the dragons would not be anywhere near as simple this time around as it had been in the past. The longer the Republic waited to do anything about the threat that the dragons posed, the harder it was going to be too. Worse, they were getting bolder. More aggressive. More brazen. To the point that Gilda wasn’t convinced the dragons would cease their advancement once they reclaimed all of their ‘ancestral lands’. After all: what incentive would they have to stop taking Republic territory after seeing the international community do absolutely nothing to stop them up to this point?

After seeing the Republic do nothing to stop them?

The dragons had to be stopped. Soon.

However, as Gilda had just borne witness to earlier that day: the Council would not act to curb the dragons’ advances. She’s just read the admissions from her own government that they weren’t going to do anything about it any time soon either. Which left exactly no options. It wasn’t like she had any resources that she could bring to bear personally—

Her eyes darted to her aid. “Gabby, do you still know how to get in contact with those ponies you told me about the other day? The brothers?”

“You mean Flim and Flam? Yes, ambassador,” the smaller speckled hen nodded.

“Tell them I’m ready to meet with them.”

It might have all been bluster, Gilda supposed. From what Gabby had explained, the siblings had not claimed any connection to the Equestrian government. They had alluded to having a ‘powerful’ patron unaffiliated with their homeland. ‘Power’, of course, came in many forms; and not all of them directly translated into military power. But, she supposed that there wasn’t much for her to lose when it came to asking if those unicorns and their benefactor could help in some way.

If there was a chance that they could do something about the dragons—even if it was just to slow them down a little bit…

“I know what I want.”

Author's Note:

"You're trapped in a room with a dragon and a manticore. You have two pistols. What do you do? You shoot the dragon twice!" -- Old griffon joke.

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Comments

[Largefish8]

damn...losing sympathy for ember. I know embers filling the role of g'kar...but even G'kar wouldn't have killed children

Otherwise a great chapter

[Mix-up]

Fun chapter, through I feel that Celestia's involvement in the negotiation was odd and didn't really explained why she was there in the first place or what she seemed to be tying to achieve. I could also add that Twilight and Celestia's sounded pretty familiar, but there really isn't a sense that of how their interactions are characterized as, and how they had developed their regular meeting, or hear what Twilight think of her interactions Celestia, neither frustrating of enlightening, or any hint that she is trying to deciphering the meaning of her words, taking her words up front, to a very suspicious degree...

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

It's going to be tough for ember when she has to ask for sanctuary

[Javarod]

12033698
Lesser ambassador? Oh, how about Talia's role?

12030227
I think the changelings are an obvious parrallel to the shadows, and were you hewing more towards B5 than MLP with this story, it'd make sense for Luna to step into the alicorn ambassador role alá the Vorlan ambassador change as long as Celestia leaves for a different reason than being killed.

[CopperTop]

12040652
Season 1 G'kar wasn't a very sympathetic character. Heck, The Gathering had him as something of a villain! He was actually a pretty unapologetic war hawk early on too. You'll recall his proposal to Delenn about how an alliance combining Mimbari technology with Narn manpower would create an unstoppable force which could crush the Centauri with little issue. G'kar mellowed out in later seasons, but at the start...he was not a nice person.

12040778
For a race that's shown as subsisting mostly off of gems in the show, Ember's going to be eating a lot of crow, yeah...