> Our Lands
>  by Bronyofcuba
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Briefing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the first hints of spring approached the land, fear controlled Celestia's mind, fear caused by the love she had towards her subjects, for who she would give her own life if necessary. God forbid her of being that way ever.

The four kingdoms, Griffonstone, Equestria, the Skydive Hippogriffs and the nameless Dragon Lands would have their yearly congress. It ussually wasn't that big of a deal, but that very year, the dragons would decide, by their traditional methods, their new leader. As usual, the dragons that desired the title would have to fight one another until only obe remained standing, the new king. Pretty barbaric in Celestia's opinion, but it was their tradition, she was in no position to judge them, or so she thought. 

Many Dragons would join the fight, but only two had the chance of winning. Lance Bloodscales, known to have taken away hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in the previous wars against the Dragon Lands, hence the name. Prince Whitefire was the next (and preferred) option. Son of the actual king, proven to be very skillful both in politics and battle. His father made sure he was the best at both, training him in two battlefields. One of them were the front lines of the war between the Griffins and the Dragons fifty years ago in which the Dragons made the Griffins surrender thanks to Whitefire's participation. The other one were the classes of politics he imparted his son (the hardest in Whitefire's opinion). Lance, however, wasn't born in royalty, meaning that he had no sense of politics or relationships with other nations. He was driven by the same ideals of every common Dragon, treasury. If he won, he would most likely start a war with both Griffonstone and Equestria, for one had innumerable amounts of gold, and the other too many gem mines.

The Dragons are very strong, and their greed even more so, but even then, they would most likely lose the war due to the combined effort of two strong kingdoms. They would however, leave a scar in the land. Towns and cities would be burnt down and corpses of Griffins, Ponies and Dragons would be found everywhere, feeding the trees as they rot. The war would be written in the history books and in the minds and bodies of the survivors, most of who would probably end up in asylums or hospitals for the rest of their lives.

The actual king would have been another option but he wad too old, he wouldn't fight. His son was the only hope for Equestria and Griffonstone.

If Whitefire won, he would avoid the massacre and maintain the so wanted peaceful relations with the rest of nations, saving thousands of lives and, even if it wasn't remotely as important, save the economy of the three kingdoms. Besides, Dragons, Ponies and Griffons would then agree to make an alliance to eliminate the Griffin bandits, who had been harassing Griffonstone and Equestria for the last fourty-five years.

You see, the Griffin-Dragon war mentioned before had left Griffonstone with a great damage to their treasury, mostly from the surrender conditions. The first five years they tried to reestablish their economy but failed to do so. Many then turned into bandits, stealing coin from citizens and themselves, tired of waiting for a change. The situation was dire for their species, the little money they had was being stolen by bandits, there wasn't an obvious way out of those problems. That's when miracles tend to happen, as if life gave a second chance, wanting to keep its work of art intact, for three years later, king Grober would find the idol of Boreas and the Griffins would be restored to their former glory. The bandits would have returned to society, but after committing several crimes you can't be forgiven that easily, not in Griffonstone. So they kept stealing and murdering, and at some point they extended their range to Equestria as well, Ponies were very much easier to steal from. The Dragon Lands were left intact though, they once made the mistake of stealing from Dragons, resulting in serious damage to themselves, it wouldn't happen again.

To make it all worse, some of them decided to help each other and became an organization, they were currently the biggest threat in the bandits side. They called themselves the Black Paw, and their leader, Fur Beak.

What about the Hippogriffs you ask? They would remain neutral at all costs. They didn't have anything of value to the Dragons nor had a proper army. They had and would keep living through commerce, their pearls were desired by the richest everywhere (Except by Dragons and mostly by Ponies). They also exported water, the purest and cleanest ever been, for they lived next to lots of lakes, worked by themselves. No one knew how they made it but they weren't questioned either.

Summarizing, there was no reason to worry about them.

The ones Celestia had to be worried about were the Dragons. She hoped that Whitefire won, but she had to prepare for the worst scenario. She had already lost her teacher and her beloved teacher. She wouldn't lose anypony else.

For this congress, she had chosen the best of the best in terms of politics. If there was anypony capable pf stopping the war in case Lance won, it was him.

The princess rose from her throne and walked out of the throne room, headed to the castle barracks. Out of the gigantic doors there was a big corridor, the walls were of white marble. More doors could be found, made of mahogany wood, chosen by herself, with a noticeable separation between each one. Torches, who weren't on fire since it was still midday and the light came from the sun and entered through glass windows, were present as well, one on top of each door. The guards had silver armor and spears made of the same metal, shining brightly. It all looked like it was painted by a very skillful artist since everything was unnaturally still, even the guards, who moved even less than the walls, Celestia was the only thing moving through the hall. She entered the last door to the left which inside had a square staircase leading to the basement where the castle barracks were located. It was grey coloured and very spacious, up to at least a mile long and half a mile tall.

Although the place had lots of weapons in display, enough to gear up more than fifty soldiers, there weren't either long swords, spears, battle axes nor bows. 

Several ponies, all pegasi, were training. Some practicing hoof to hoof combat while others were training in the art of the sword or daggers.

As soon as Celestia entered the room everyone there gathered together and saluted the princess, awaiting orders. She simply called out a name.

"Blade Blur!"

The answer was almost instant.

"Here!" Shouted a grey mare, she had a robe with a hood, the same colour of her fur, which hid her tail and cutiemark. The only hole existent in it was for the wings. A part of her mane could be seen though, it descended from the hood to her neck, it was black and wavy. Blue eyes accompanied her inexpressive face, facing forward, only wanting to receive her mission and complete it.

"You will go to Manehattan and bring Policy here, Soundless John will ecort you both in the train back, with so many bandits around you can't take any risks. Is that understood?" When she said she wouldn't lose anypony, she meant anypony.

"Yes Princess!" She shouted back.

"Good. The rest of you don't have a mission. Dismissed!"

Blade flew out of the castle towards her destination, while the rest of the guards stayed and kept training until further notice.

Celestia then returned to the throne and sat once again. She closed her eyes, wishing that everything turned out the way she wanted.
> The diplomat.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In Manehattan, in the penthouse of the highest building, there was a troubled stallion who was walking back and forth in his living room, clearly worried.

There was a coffee table between the couch and the fireplace, full of papers of all kind. Newspapers, top secret documents and more. Those papers were the cause of his worries, for the newspapers told about the Dragons “elections” and the secret documents were about the same topic, but also explaining in detail the possible winners and the results it would have on Equestria depending on who won.

Policy knew this meeting could go wrong if there wasn’t a good delegate to stand for Equestria in case an undesired Dragon was “elected”, so he was already preparing himself for the Congress, weighing his options on what to propose and how to approach the Dragon’s leader on each case.

He didn’t have much time to think about it though, for a certain hooded pegasus quickly landed on the yard walked towards the door and knocked it twice, while the wind softly levitated the part of her mane that could be seen, imitating the movement that a mother would do to help her baby fall asleep.

It didn’t take her more than half an hour to go from Canterlot to Manehattan, never getting tired nor slowing down on the voyage there. A feat that would have impressed even the Wonderbolts.

Policy saw the mare and realized that his time had run out. In a matter of seconds, he packed all of his papers in a suitcase, got his keys and dressed with a tie and a hat. He then walked out of his house and locked the door behind him. It almost looked like he had practiced for that moment. He seemed rushed, but also sure of what he was doing, he had clearly done that in the past more than a few times.

The orange stallion wanted to get the job done as fast as he could, he almost didn’t pay attention to the mare as he spoke.

"Meet me at the train station." Was the only thing he said to her while walking fast to the elevator.

"There’s a change of plans sir." Returned Blade coldly, her voice soft but imperative.

The stallion stopped dead in his tracks, the wind having less effect in his brown mane since it was very short. 

With a shocked face he turned around, any change could drastically ruin his schedule to success, and in such a sensible matter it could be catastrophic. "How so?" was the only thing he managed to ask. His facial expression similar to the one anybody would have if you told them that their girlfriend is pregnant.

"We are headed towards Canterlot; her highness wishes to speak to you." answered the grey mare, unamused by the face.

"Of course! How could I be so blind? She will probably speak to me about what should I propose or defend there! Anyway, a carriage would be too slow and we would be late for the congress so we are still taking the train right?" His tone instantly morphed from worried to exited when guessing all of that.

"We are indeed. Here." From her robes she pulled out a train ticket and offered it to the politician, who gently took it with his left hoof. "Train number two, Soundless John will be waiting for you alongside me. Do not make us wait." Stated Blade, as coldly as before.

"Don’t worry, I won’t. If anything you should worry about being there late." said the stallion joking. Almost as if they were longtime friends, which, although she never expressed it by any means, made the pegasus uncomfortable at first. She then remembered who she was dealing with. Policy. One of the most intelligent minds of Equestria. He could memorize anything in a matter of minutes or even seconds. He graduated as a lawyer and climbed his way up to the top of Canterlot, ending up as Celestia’s favourite delegate and diplomat. All secrets were shared with him and he knew everything about everypony. Job, routine, leisure time activities, showering method, favourite colour, and more. One of the reason he had stayed single his whole life, no one was comfortable around him. It was only normal he acted like that towards her. 

Another, less interesting, and obvious, fact about him was that he had a slightly longer chin than most ponies.

The mare flew to the station while the stallion walked to the elevator, being unable to fly he would have to take a cab to reach the arranged place. 

He entered the elevator and marked the ground floor, again, with his left hoof. He had a confident face on the way down, with his long chin up, similar to how the rich always have it, especially in Equestria and the skydive kingdom. Midway down, the machine stopped and opened its doors, letting a red mare inside. She seemed tense, but he knew why. He never wanted to make any evil, he had been born with the wrong skills, so he had to bear that life. He felt awful for making everyone feel that way towards him, but he also comforted himself, saying that, in the end, he was helping everypony. 

They both remained quiet all the way down, the feeling of proudness of Policy had gone away the instant that the mare had entered the elevator alongside him, replaced by sadness and regret. There wasn’t time to worry about that though, as soon as the doors were open, they both walked inside the lobby towards the front doors. The mare was trying to speed up and get away from him as fast as possible. He noticed it and slowed down to let her go out of the building first, not wanting to make her suffer any longer.

The mare turned to the right after leaving the building and left his field of vision. Immediately afterwards, Policy quickened his pace and got out the front door. A normal Taxi was waiting outside facing right, and its driver was an old friend of his, the only one who didn’t feel bad when being around him. Policy liked to be driven everywhere by him instead of his personal transport, and his friend enjoyed it as well. They always talked a lot I their trips and helped each other when they required it. If there ever was a true friendship in Equestria, it was this one. The driver had beach fur and his tail was black, it looked like a long cylinder that curved down. His hair, though, was hidden by a cap.

The driver noticed his friend approaching and called him out while waving.

"Poll! How you doin´?" said the beach pony with excitement from seeing his friend.

"I’m doin fine Ren, in a bit of a hurry now though." his words almost bumped into each other as he spoke and got inside the cart.

"Okay then, where is it?"

"Mane station. I have a very important meeting and I must get there ASAP." Said the orange stallion, emphasizing the last word he uttered.

After putting his suitcase aside, he looked forward and saw the elevator mare who was still on the same block. He felt awful once again, he couldn’t help it. 

"Got it." Answered Ren, completely oblivious to what his friend was feeling at the moment. Probably for the best, it would avoid some drama and help the diplomat forget the problem. He turned around the car before starting to run with great speed to Poll´s destination. 

Along the way many ponies looked at Policy briefly, before turning to another direction with frowns on their faces, not wanting to know anything about him. That time it also affected Ren, he noticed how everyone to look at his friend with a sting eye or tried to avoid him. He wanted to comfort him but he couldn’t; he was running, and speaking could cause pain to him, rendering him unable to move as fast as needed. Both diplomat and taxi driver felt awful the rest of the ride.

Fifteen painful minutes passed before they arrived to their destination. It was a quarter to three in the afternoon when they arrived. They wished they didn’t get there though. It had more citizens than the streets themselves, all mirroring the previous ones. His friend, whose heart was broken by the reaction of the public, then spoke to him.

"Five bits."

Or that’s what I would have liked he said actually, but ponies aren’t that heartless.

"Hey, look at me." He was devoted to spark a light in that sad soul, who was very special to him.

"Yea?" Answered Policy without much spirit on himself.

"Whatever they think of you doesn’t matter, what matters is the truth, and the truth is that you are saving all of his asses right now." There weren’t limits when it came to cheer up a friend, even if it meant saying the word fuck, which was a big deal to ponies.

"The truth is also that I know every single fact about them." Answered Policy, a sad tone to his voice.

"You can find that in the birth records of any main hall. They just don’t read them; their information was available to everypony before they were even born."

Those words improved the diplomat´s mood a bit. A small smile could be seen already on his face.

"Well, off you go! A very important meeting is ahead of you!" Poll then retrieved his suitcase and hopped off. Ren was about to leave when Policy stopped him.

"Wait! I need to pay you!" Said Policy while handing some bits to his friend.
Ren looked backwards.

"There’s no need for that, this was a life threatening moment." He said with a smile, before returning back the bits.

"No way, you deserve it, I visited you at yesterday night after all, I probably woke you up, so accept this please, for the troubles." After all of his feelings getting crushed he just wanted to feel good with himself in any way.

"Again, you don’t have to pay me." He had never accepted money from him, his company was enough payment to him, they both knew that. If only Ren knew about Poll´s feelings he might have accepted the money. "Well, you’re going to be late for the ride so I’ll leave now." He started trotting away, the orange stallion tried to call him but he didn’t listen and kept running further away.

The diplomat then turned around, and ignoring everyone he walked to the train named number two. In the entrance door there were two ponies, he knew them both even though he had only met the pegasus that very morning and never seen the other in his life. The other one, Soundless John, was a white earth pony, bigger than the average, who had wrinkles in his face. They made him look old, yet young at the same time somehow. He also had a long shield on his back and was wearing the same silver armor as every common guard, the only difference was the helmet. It was still made of silver but it had a pointed end at the top, shaped like the fin of a shark. He also lacked a weapon like a sword or a spear. He was the captain of the royal guard back then.

The pegasus made a gesture for Policy to go inside. He flashed his ticket and did as told. He sat next to Blade who was in the window seat, and opposite to John, who had taken his shield out of his back and placed it next to him, to sit more comfortably.

The same pitiful situation repeated itself, everypony there had frowns and was trying to avoid him. He would have felt bad once again, but, ironically, something unsettled him instead.

There were around six griffins in that very part of the train. He didn’t like to be racist but good people didn’t live long back then. He whispered his concern to the grey mare at his side. She just nodded and looked at her partner, who was staring out the window, directly into his eyes until they made eye contact. He took a glimpse of her at first, then looked at her again almost instantly and established eye contact. She blinked several times, changing the speed of the blinking several times and stopping completely at some points. It was Morse code, Policy could tell what she was telling John, Morse code was in his extensive database as well after all. She had said to him. "there are griffins here, get ready for action."
Soundless just nodded and slightly grabbed his shield, ready to act at any given moment. Poll simply gulped, hoping that he was just being racist, that the griffins weren’t bandits. He found it funny how someone, himself in this case, could do good to the ponies around him while being bad himself. The thought of being bad so that everyone could be happy instead of sad when he died also crossed his racing mind. He actually wasn’t too far away from it. Was his life really wor…

¡Clang!

His train of thought was interrupted by John, who, in order to protect him from a flying axe, jumped in front of him and blocked it with his shield who he held on his left hoof. The sound of clashing metal grabbing his attention. Blade didn’t move at all, like if unaware of the situation.

For some reason, even though the shield was made of metal, the axe glued to it. Probably for magnetism magic of some kind. The captain took a standing position, grabbed the axe and wielded it in his right hoof. His opponents, the six griffins Policy had informed of. Three opposite to him, in the front part of the wagon, three behind him, on the rear of the wagon. They were all standing, some had scars in their faces, others in their bodies or paws. Some had swords, others had axes and some had both, but one of them had a crossbow, she was standing opposite to him as well, in the far end of the front part, weapon aiming straight for the right eye. In the same direction there was another one, also different from the rest, who only had a cape with a hood, very similar to blade. Lastly, on the same side, the griffin who had thrown the axe drew a sword. There was something they all had in common though, an angry face, and their target, Policy.

For the first twelve seconds none of the two sides performed any action. Ponies were running and screaming everywhere, trying desperately to leave that wagon, their fear bigger than ever before. 

When there was nopony left except for blade, Poll and John, the battle started.
One of the griffins charged from behind while performing a battle cry. John simply spun around and hit him with his shield, making him fall unconscious and with a few broken bones, it fell just in front of the exit of that wagon. John kept facing the rear part.

The next two came from both the rear and the front of the wagon. The one in his back swung his sword at him and the other one hold his ground, he nailed his shield behind him, staggering the attacker, to the point of falling on his back, then threw his axe to the one who stood still, which couldn’t avoid it and was buried on its forehead, killing him. He afterwards brought up his shield and nailed it again, this time on the hip of the staggered one, dividing him on two pieces. 

Both of them screamed when they died, a lot of blood was also spilled, yet the diplomat wasn’t affected by it.

John took the sword of his last victim which was next to the upper half of the body and swung it in a one hundred and eighty degrees’ radius to his right. It caused the divert of an axe thrown his way, which changed its direction towards a window and exited the train breaking it.

It was his turn to charge, he did so towards the last attacker on the rear. The griffin swung his axe vertically upside down, John simply lowered his head and let it hit his helmet, which staggered his opponent again. He then imitated the griffin´s attack, but in the opposite direction, from below. The creature tried to avoid the attack and it managed to do so, more or less. The swing didn’t kill him but instead sliced his arm and the creature fell, alongside his limb, screaming in pain all the way down.

It held strongly its injury to not die of blood loss and managed to mutter some words.

"Pl… Please…"

"I don’t even want to hear it." Interrupted John coldly, with a voice whose qualities matched the wrinkles he had, old but also young. In addition, his voice was very low pitched in tone.

"NOO!!!" Yelled the griffin. 

But without mercy, he buried the sword on its neck, interrupting its pleas once again.

"Shhh."

John slowly rose up, then looked back. Blood covered the whole rear of the wagon.

He walked towards his shield, which was still in the middle of the griffin´s body, and lifted it to his side. Immediately after that an arrow was shot at him but he avoided it with his sword the same way he got rid of the flying axe. Through a different window this time, and without spinning around, but to the same side as before. 

Then, the hooded griffin took two knives from its cape and dashed to John, blocking the crossbow´s line of sight. He didn’t have time to block with the shield so he tossed it to his left side, it landed on top of a table that had some train treats, the shield made them all fall as it slide through it. The captain and the hooded bandit clashed sword and daggers several times, John was always defending himself, never having a chance to retaliate.

Poll looked at Blade with a concerned face, asking her to save her partner. She, however, didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge him.

Poll looked back and his train of thought left the station once again.

"Should I try to do something? Try to help him? What help could I be anyway? I should at least take an arrow for him, sacrifice myself right? That could earn him time. But what use is there if he is fighting to protect me? I must get to the congress in case Lance wins."

He looked at the battlefield.

Both fighters were struggling to overpower the other, Soundless having advantage.

"Perhaps I don’t have to interfere, perhaps he will win." He thought with hope. 

But that hope was crushed after some seconds; the fight took an unexpected turn.

The bandit jumped backwards and ducked, an arrow was shot above him. John barely had time to duck, and when the arrow threat was gone the bandit dashed towards him again. He managed to use his sword to block the bandit just in time, with very limited room of time. 

"I will be honest with myself, if Lance wins not even me will be able to stop the war, the outcome of this battle here is only who lives and who dies. And I’m willing to die to save the life of him, who risked his to save mine even though he must hate me as well." 

That was the last thing he thought before he stood up and run through the seats he was facing, towards the front part of the wagon, where the battle was moving to. Blade kept being quiet and still like a statue despite all the action.

The daggered griffin jumped over John and landed behind him, leaving a line of sight for the crossbow to shoot once more. He wasted no time and started running towards the crossbow user. after a second he did a barrel roll, to avoid the arrow. However, it wasn’t shot, instead, the griffin pointed it at him along the way, ready to take a shot. The other one jumped, looking down, ready to stab. John could kill the crossbow user when he finished rolling but the other one would then kill him. There was no way out of that situation, and still, he didn’t look afraid nor concerned.

That’s when, suddenly, he noticed Policy jumping on top of him, surely to sacrifice himself in order to save him. That’s the only moment of the whole trip where he showed an emotion.
A smile formed on his face, a tiny one, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Policy landed on Soundless, stopping the roll, both backs ended looking up. The arrow was shot and the other griffin was already halfway down. Policy was happy with that death, at least one pony wouldn’t be happy on his funeral. 

In less than a second later he shot his eyes open and shock enveloped his face, replacing the smile, as if feeling enormous pain.

Back in Canterlot:

Celestia was laying in her bed, having some cake and tea, just minding her own business when, unexpectedly, she felt a tingle down her spine. 

It was a horrible tingle, it went through her whole body, like a warning of some kind. She questioned it with a concerned face but let it slide shortly after, she was probably just being paranoid. 

That wouldn’t be the only thing that would surprise Celestia in that couple of minutes though, for a pegasus guard, who was grey coloured, slammed her bedroom door open, sweating like if he was on a grill and breathing heavily. A commoner wouldn’t expect any less since he was in front of a sun princess, but you aren’t one, and Celestia definitely wasn’t one either. 

"What happened?" Said Celestia frowning. If he had run to the point of sweating that much then it had to be important.

"The train has arrived, but there has been an… Incident."

Celestia rose up from her bed at the speed of an asteroid. Her frown bigger than ever before.

"What… Kind… Of incident?"

She was escorted by that same guard, who despite his previous run didn’t get tired, the pride he felt for the task he was doing kept him from fainting. 
It didn’t take them more than fifteen minutes to reach Canterlot’s train station. There was a yellow tape surrounding a certain entrance of the train. The words, Royal guard, do not cross were printed on it. There were many guards surrounding the scene, keeping the curious ponies out of it and avoiding panic. Policy’s escort was there as well, but there was no Policy.

The sun princess looked at what little she could see of the inside of the train from the outside. It was completely covered in blood and a dead Griffon could be seen. She then, almost panicking, (though hiding it pretty well) walked to Blade, who was as unexpressive as ever, and asked. 

"Where is Policy?"

Moments before:

Blade blur watched the diplomat run to "save" her partner. As always, she remained in her seat, still unamused by any of the events that were unfolding right before her. She was trained to act a certain way only, when there was no other choice. Those where the orders that Celestia had given her the same day she finished her five-year training to join the S.E.U.P. (Special Earth, Unicorn and Pegasi, or SOUP as its members jokingly called it) which she had to stick to for the rest of her life. Resigning from it would be considered an act of treason, once you enter that branch of the Royal Guard you can’t get out without killing the rest of its members. It was a way to ensure peace, for all its members where terrifically strong and could cause problems if they weren't controled.

When Poll landed over John she stopped thinking, sighed, and drew a curve sword from beneath her robes.
At first there were two griffins, two ponies and an arrow in the scene. Half a second later, there only remained two ponies and two slashed necks. The one who was in the air was also kicked to the floor by her.

When she was over she landed beside the only griffin who was left alive, the one Soundless had knocked out, without sheathing her sword. 

"You got a little sloppy there Cap." Mocked the living blur.

Policy looked around him and realized what had happened. He swiftly rose up, blushing and avoided eye contact, very embarrassed of himself.

"I took four of them myself, you barely got two." Said the captain as he stood up as well, not giving any attention to what the diplomat had just done, which he thanked Celestia for.

The bandit next to Blade moved slightly and groaned in pain. She buried her sword directly into its heart, without hesitation, at an enormous speed. Indeed, a blur replaced her arm when she performed that action. The griffin grabbed the sword with the little strength he had left, coughing blood, trying to get it out. As he died he said "I failed you all."

To which the pegasus answered "Yes you did. You didn’t fight bravely since you barely stood a second, you couldn’t keep your honor."

When it was finally dead she retrieved her sword and mocked John.

"You were saying?" she had a confident smile clearly visible.

"Whatever, let’s get out of here, the train has arrived Canterlot, leave the mess to my subordinates."

Indeed the vehicle had stopped, it was already a quarter past three in the afternoon. 

Both soldiers started to walk to the exit but Poll just sat and stayed inside. Blade took notice of it and called him, but he didn’t answer, he just stared at the bodies of the criminals. Her orders were to avoid his death, nothing more, so she simply walked outside, leaving him inside.
> The end of the day.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the grey mare had done the story telling to Celestia about the events inside the train, she stared at her, as emotionless as usual, waiting for new orders from her. She was simply dismissed by her through a wave of her hoof. Blade flew away, headed to… Somewhere. Most members of the S.E.U.P. were hard to find.

As for the captain, he simply ordered the soldiers who were in the scene to clean the mess inside that wagon once the stallion inside exited it. 

The sun monarch unexpectedly walked towards the vehicle and entered it. Leaving everyone left in the scene shocked, they never could have thought that the princess would ever walk into a place full of blood and dead bodies.

She peeked inside, looking to the left. There were two corpses, one had an axe incrusted on its face and was holding another on its left paw. The other one still had blood pouring from its open neck, its weapon next to its right. 

Looking to the right, ignoring the griffin who was slashed in half and the one right below her in the entrance, she saw another two. A hooded one whose wound couldn’t be seen since it was facing the floor and whose weapons were missing as well, and, on the far front of the wagon, another one, female, with a crossbow in the floor to her left. Opposite to where she was facing was Policy, sitting and looking down, as if thinking deeply.

The alicorn walked to him, still worried.

"What troubles your mind?"

Poll then acknowledged that she was next to him, scaring himself in the process.

"Aah! Err, nothing, I was just thinking." Poll was speaking nervously.

"What were you thinking then?" She said as she sat next to him, she had to ensure his well-being, even if it meant invading his privacy.

"Nothing important to her majesty for sure." Answered the stallion, his tone didn’t change.

"It won’t interfere in the congress right?" She hated being objective in such a sentimental time for the diplomat but the fate of Equestria, no scratch that, of all the kingdoms, depended on it.

He got back on all fours before speaking again.

"No, it won’t. You have my word." He said with a reassuring smile.

"I pray that you are speaking the truth." Replied the tall mare while standing up herself, still worried, not about just another subject, but the most important of them all.

"I am, don’t worry." Was the last thing he said before they both walked outside, headed to the castle.

The trip to it wasn’t as painful to him as his previous one. They were transported by royal carriage so nopony had the chance to see him besides the guards, and they wouldn’t cast a sting eye on him, hell, they wouldn’t even breathe if it wasn’t an order. I’m not joking around; they weren’t allowed to do anything if it wasn’t ordered to them before while in duty. Celestia had indeed ordered all of the guards to breathe when the E.U.P. was first created. That strict were the rules for every branch of the army since then. And that’s why Poll preferred being around soldiers to standing near citizens.

Around ten minutes it took the carriage to reach its destination. No one had uttered a word along the trip, instead, the orange stallion looked to the city which was very beautiful to see from there, or so he thought at least. Celestia, on the other hand, stared blankly at the sky. She was in that moment when one tends to be not asleep, but not awake either. A weird place between both, where the craziest and inconsistent ideas are formed for no reason at all. She thought of the randomness of the shape of the clouds. "Wouldn’t they look better if they had a certain form?" She thought. The idea of sending the wonderbolts to make them cake-shaped crossed her mind. Her castle was the next in her mind. "How would it be if it was made of glass? Despite the fact that it would be beautiful, it would probably break down pretty easily, and gluing it back together would be really hard and tiring."

Her half-dreams were interrupted without warning with the bump that came along the carriage´s landing, which also made her forget everything that she was thinking just moments ago. 

They had landed in the west courtyard, the sun deity knew how Policy felt around the citizens so she had ordered to land there, not wanting to disturb him in any way.

"Here we are." She said as she got off the vehicle, the stallion followed close after her. 

He looked around and noticed the statue of Discord. He chuckled as he remembered his thoughts back on the train. For doing evil stuff he received a statue of himself for everyone to admire. Sure he was trapped inside but the facts were still the same.

Just like in the way there, both ruler and Diplomat stayed quiet as they entered the castle. Once in the hallways though, the silence was broken. 

"The congress date has been changed." Said the princess, she had the plan to update him as they walked towards his bedroom for the night. He had at least suspected to receive a bedroom so it wouldn't surprise him if that was their current destination.

"It has? How come?" He wasn’t expecting any kind of change; the plans were to get to the embassy of Equestria in the dragon lands in the afternoon, sleep there, and present himself in the congress the next day. It wasn’t his fault to not be prepared though, Blade (to who he didn’t want to blame for anything since she had just saved his life) didn’t explain how big were those “change of plans”.

Celestia took a small breath before speaking. "King Flamepath has died." Flamepath was the name of the actual… Well, previous leader of the Dragons.

The stallion had to process that information for a few seconds. Who would have known that four simple words could take so long to be understood? And even then, his reply was not the most brilliant.

He stopped dead in his tracks. "W… What?!" Was the only word he managed to say (It was difficult for him to express that I must add).

"It’s true, that’s why the meeting was delayed by one day." They both resumed walking.

"B… But how?" Replied the shocked pony.

"Apparently, he was sick." 

"Sick? Of what?"

"We don’t know. His sickness was kept secret to all nations, including their own. My agent there discovered that he was very sick some days ago, he couldn't find out more than that."

"Lucky for them, he was a respected king."

That was true, he had first achieved the throne one thousand years ago the same way the next king would be decided, by battle. He won without much trouble, proving that he was indeed the strongest. For such feat, the now dead dragon was respected by all of his kind. He had around five hundred years when he ascended to the throne. The age his son currently had, more or less. 

For the reasons previously given, the dragons all would keep themselves quiet and abide to the laws dictated by him, thus avoiding mayhem, the "luckiness" Policy was referring to. One of those laws was that “If the current leader dies, regardless of the reason of death, he or she must be buried properly”. 

Most of the fire breathing creatures would attend that event, which was the reason for the delay, or so the earth pony and the alicorn thought.

They both walked for some minutes until a big pair of doors which were painted white and had topaz coloured stained glass entered the princess’ field of vision. She walked towards them, the diplomat close behind her.

"This will be your room for the night. I hope you like it." The doors were opened by her as she spoke, a smile clearly visible.

He entered the room and looked around. It had a double bed covered with blue sheets and two white pillows, a bedside table on each side of it with candles on top of both, a medium sized drawer with a big painting of a landscape on top of it, a door leading to the balcony and another to the bathroom.

The stallion just admired the room for ten long seconds. Then looked at his host.

"This is amazing!" He hadn't expected such a beautiful place to sleep. 

"Thanks a lot!" He forgot who he was talking to, lost in his gratitude and in the beauty of the room itself.

She chuckled. "No need to thank me." Replied humbly.

"Of course I have to thank you! I may live in the best part of my building but this is still much much better!" He sounded like if they were close friends, still not remembering the fact that his words were addressing royalty.

She was now blushing. "Well, I have some matters to attend to. The staff of the castle is at your disposal, if you need me I’ll be in the throne room."

That’s when he switched back to reality and realized the way he had spoken to her. It was his turn to blush.

"Err… of course, have a good afternoon princess, he he." A nervous laugh came from within him, he felt like he had to do it. Indeed, his body made him laugh, in that moment he couldn’t control it, as if he was possessed by something.

"Thank you, I hope yours is as good." Another smile was sent his way by her when she said that. As she left, she closed the door behind her, leaving him alone in the gorgeous bedroom.

Hours later:

At nighttime, around ten o´ clock, Celestia couldn’t reach the land of the dreams. It was due to her thoughts always finding one way or another a path to the memory of when Policy arrived. Something was bothering him, he didn’t speak it up saying that it wasn’t a big deal, but she knew better than that. She never quite bought it but she also didn’t want to mettle in his personal affairs.

It was bothering her because his personal problems could interfere in the congress. Perhaps he couldn’t be much use if Lance got to be the next king but if it wasn’t like that, she needed him to encourage the other nations to unite against the bandits and barbarians, that couldn’t fail. 

She rose up and got out of her bedroom. Although all the personnel that was still in the castle had to be awake (guards, guards and more guards) she closed the door very slowly, trying to not make any noise. 

It didn’t take her long to reach the desired bedroom. She casted a spell to watch through walls and saw the stallion she wanted to talk to still awake, reading some papers. Probably the ones she gave him herself earlier about the deals and proposals he had to make in the meeting, plus the amount of bits and resources they could spend, etc. Afterwards, she stopped channeling the spell.

Three knocks were the amount she gave the door and, as expected, it was opened by the troubled pony.

Followed by closing the door, he made a gesture for her to go inside.

At the same time, in the main barracks of the Royal Guard back in Canterlot, the captain was in his office, alongside another pony, a dark blue unicorn.

A desk with a lightened candle to its left and an enormous amounts of papers of all kind on its middle occupied the end of the room. There was also a chair but it was to the far right of the place, John was on his fours, speaking with the other pony, who had an even darker blue mane and tail. His horn was pointier that the average. Pretty similar were his mane and tail, they both were somewhat wavy and had the occasional hair sticking out, in need of brushing. The latter of them was halfway to the floor while the former was significantly shorter. A tiny goatee was also present below his chin and a unicorn horn was his cutie mark.

"So, those are the plans to crush the bandits? Pretty good I must say." Said, while looking at the maps and other documents in the table, the unicorn. 

"Then again, this is only saying that Equestria, the Dragon Lands and Griffonstone do form an alliance. What will you do if a war against the Dragons is held?"

"If we do have a war against them then the bandits will be the least of our problems. Besides, they would be caught in the crossfire and have more losses than earnings so I don’t think we have to worry about them on either case." 

Confidence was present in the white stallion when he replied.

"Very well, you seem pretty sure about this. Do you really think I’m needed for this job though?"

"Certainly, the bandit´s leader is horribly strong. They say no metal can cut through his paws. We will need a magician of your skill for the job."

"If that’s true then I will be looking forward to that battle." Excitement could be noticed in his voice. 

"Very well, that’s all I wanted to discuss. You may leave."

The blue stallion walked away, when the door was opened by him, however, the captain called him.

"Oh, and Remedy." 

He looked back.

"Keep yourself easy to find, we will need you soon enough.

"Fine."

When he left he closed the door gently and left the strong pony alone, who started to check the papers on his desk.
> Death of a father.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She shot her eyes open.

In her bedroom, lying on her bed, the princess remained still for some minutes, watching everything around her, not quite awake yet even though, ironically, she waked up really fast.

After the mentioned time period ended she slowly rose up from her bed and, without tending to it which was still a mess, walked to her balcony.

Once there, a yawn erupted from within her as she used her magic to rise the sun and lower the moon. In both tasks she had to use an immense amount of magic and precision to move them at the right speeds but the latter required way more. Only with time (not much) she learned to properly relocate Luna´s momentary home. She did so the same way mothers learn how to raise their children: instinctively.

Meanwhile:

As the first rays of morning got through Policy´s window and landed on the bed he was sleeping at, he, as opposed to Celestia, slowly opened his eyes.

He remained on the bed a significantly less amount of time than her as well, his sleep being much better than what he could have imagined possible to the pony brain. The reason behind it was pretty simple.

The night before, when the alicorn interrupted the reading and comprehension he was performing of the papers she herself had given him, she wanted to talk to him about what he refused to tell her earlier in the train. It proved to be worth telling her about his feelings of everything he saw and felt inside, for her reply was a new source of light to him. It got away a burden and did a great job helping him to have more confidence. Plus, working wonders in his last sleep.

After doing the ordinary morning routine (breakfast, which was brought to him by a mare, washing his mouth,  you get me) as usual to him, he looked at a clock in the wall, packed his papers in a suitcase (Which was also his cutie mark), dressed up and walked out of that spectacular bedroom. Such action proved to be very hard to him, saying goodbye as well before doing so. 

He headed to the same place from which he arrived at the castle the previous day, the west castle courtyard.

Once he arrived his eyes met the sight of another golden carriage, waiting for him as agreed (The papers already mentioned several times had all the instructions he needed, being the transport one of them).

A déjà vu feeling came to him after getting inside of the golden vehicle and finding himself once again looking at the city from the sky not much longer after the travel began. He couldn’t help it, he really loved to see the city from above.

They didn’t stop in Canterlot this time though, instead, the guards kept flying until they reached the small town of Ponyville. Which was, even back then, next to the Everfree forest. The only difference was that the great gathering of branches, wood and dark green leaves was bigger and that the concentration of worked wood, glass and nails which were structured into houses and other businesses was smaller. 

There, two more guards were attached to the vehicle and a pegasus, of greenish-cyan fur and yellow mane and tail, sat next to the diplomat.

"Hi there." Greeted Poll. "You are Lightning Dust right?"

"I am. I’m your bodyguard for the next days to come, until the congress is over." Cold and somewhat uninterested was her tone as she spoke, something that picked the orange stallion´s curiosity.

"Huh? She is not happy to be here. As far as I knew guards couldn’t even move if it wasn’t an order. If she is acting like that she must be either really bored or simply doesn't care about her superiors."

"You seem unwilling to do this job, may I know why?"

"It’s just that this mission is going to be soooo boring. Celestia suddenly cares too much about everypony for no apparent reason. She sent me, an elite, top of the top, trained to fight threats that could potentially risk Equestria´s safety, to escort a politician to a congress? Yeah sure, like if there was going to be any kind of threat there. Kill you would mean war and no leader wants that, it’s just stupid."

He just stared at her rant, realizing how wrong she was and what Celestia meant.

The day before:

From inside of the bathroom door of the place Policy had stayed in for the night, he walked out, a towel on his back. It was blue as well, its length was equal to the length of his body.

The chair in front of the drawer was occupied by him as he tossed the towel to the bed, ready to check the documents that the Alicorn had given him, which were on top of it, the moonlight on them as well.

"Aah, I always love a good bath. Now to read these."

Instructions:

Greetings, Policy. In this letter or document or whichever you prefer to refer as, I, Celestia, will explain everything you have to do so that my plans for this meeting stop being plans and become reality.

The first thing you must do is head to the west castle courtyard (where we landed) at then o´ clock. Once there, a carriage with soldiers ready to move out will be waiting, get inside. It will transport you to the Equestrian embassy in the Dragon Lands, not before stopping in Ponyville. There, a member of the S.E.U.P, Lightning Dust, will be waiting, alongside two more guards who will also pull the vehicle. The trip should be quiet.

When you arrive at the embassy there will be a brown dragon, do not worry about her, she is my infiltrated there. If you see a dragon who is not her tell Dust that she has permission to kill whoever dragon is there but only after questioning it about “Unseen Clash´s” location. If such event happens contact me via telepathic pony immediately.

If everything goes as planned, then the only thing left would be for you to use your “diplomatic magic” to unite all nations against the bandits. Accept all proposals under our budget but always try to lessen their costs as much as possible, and remember:

-We don’t want weapons.

-We don’t want land

-And we don’t want war.

Apparently, there was a chance for that infiltrated Dragon to be kidnapped or something. That’s why that pegasus was with him, that and, in case Bloodscales won, to protect him.

In the Dragon Lands the day before:

The vast red land had feet of every colour, blue, red, yellow and more in a single location, all there to honor the beloved king who had died that same day. From the sky it looked like a disorganized rainbow, a bunch of sweets, but up close it could make tears form in the eyes of any sentient creature. No one cried and yet, their faces showed indescribable pain, as if their whole species had been slaughtered without mercy in front of them. 

Every creature was on their knees, all eyes facing the ground, all tails around their feet, showing their respect towards that particular green dragon who was admired as a father and loved as a mother. An enormous circle was formed around the deceased, in the center, Whitefire stood next to his father’s body, which had been placed on top of an anvil-like shaped stone, his hand placed on the now almost-white arm, his face even worse than the others. It was covered in sorrow but also in love; love unlike any he had ever felt.

The death of his father made him realize how beautiful everything was, the simplicity of life, "You are born, you die, so you better enjoy every goddamn second in between." He thought. The death of his father made the white dragon find joy and love in the most insignificant of things: love towards every living thing, love towards the mountains, the sky, the wind, the clouds, love and joy towards being alive. 

He looked around to the mass concentration of his people, not separating his claws from the corpse. He was sure that his feelings were unique, that nobody could feel the same he was feeling. Then he turned his vision once more, admiring the lifeless face. 

Something inside him made him promise that he would accomplish everything that the creature who had raised him with care and love ever wanted, his soul somehow demanded it.

He finally stepped back from the source of all his new feelings alien to him, held his breath, and created a wall of flame, three times his size.

The fire was some kind of unnatural red, to which the dead and defenseless bodies of the dragons were susceptible and got incinerated pretty easily. The smoke that emanated from it was a weird greyish white, the reasons behind it were the fire on itself which was already strange, and the calcium from the bones of Flamepath.

Once the body was cremated completely, every thought the prince had had returned, even stronger than before. Finally, a single tear ran its course through his cheek, and afterwards, his neck, not bothering to wipe it as his mind had left his body.

"I will ensure that your legacy continues forward. I will fight until I can’t breathe any longer, and I won’t die, because I just discovered how glorious life is and I can’t leave it so soon. I only have one option, to win."

Only after he found such determination his mind shifted to reality and he wiped his tear. He looked at the dusk with his red eyes still watery. Those eyes held many emotions: sadness, love, determination and, most importantly, defiance to the world, daring it to send storms his way. He felt invincible, he felt as if the gods had given him a task…

He felt happy.
> Fears.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the solar monarch had estimated, the trip to the embassy in the Dragon Lands was quiet, no bandit dared to show its face, much less attack. 

Policy wasn’t looking beneath the carriage anymore either, the city was far more interesting to admire from above than the grasslands and, after them, the red ground. Instead, the mountains visible during the trip were the places where his vision rested at. 

Midway to their destination the diplomat looked briefly at his bodyguard. The fact that she was so relaxed and didn’t act like most guards who never spoke without permission had taken him by surprise, even more so that she didn’t complain about him since everypony else disliked him for his uncomfortable knowledge. Given her qualities, he would have expected some kind of rejection, perhaps even a threat.

As if on cue to his thoughts, she looked back at him with a glare and made a threat.

“If you ever tell anypony anything about me I will use my first name to turn you into my last one, is that clear?” Some sparks ran through her mane as she spoke.

He smirked as his vision shifted to another mountain in the distance. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“You better, if you appreciate your life of course.”

Those words got him thinking again. Just the day before he was questioning if his life was worth living. Now, thanks to the princess, he was sure of himself again. He had a debt with her now, a big one.

No more words were uttered in the rest of the voyage, if it weren’t for the wind and the sound emitted by the flaps of the wings of the soldiers it would have been completely mute.

Half an hour later the carriage was already landing on Dragon soil in front of a tall building made of red sandstone, which stood in the middle of nowhere. It had several banners on it.
"The embassy, at last." Thought the orange pony.
The background of the banners was plain white and they had Celestia’s cutie mark in the center. Four of them were hanging in the facade of the place. The embassy was shaped like a small fort. The alicorn had planned for it to be structured as a modernist building, rectangular shaped, a single window that would go around the building giving light to the inside and lacking any form of ornaments but, despite her plans, one thing led to another and in the end, it turned out to be the way it is today. Perhaps it was better that way: Could you imagine such a modernist building placed in the Dragon Lands? The most medieval place there is? 

Once in the ground, both earth pony and pegasus got off the vehicle and walked straight to the front doors, which were made of the same wood as most of them in the Canterlot castle, mahogany.

Poll tried to be a gentleman and opened the doors for Lightning to enter. She, however, only raised an eyebrow and looked at him with a disgusted face as she walked in.

“What a bitch.” Thought the diplomat as he entered after her, who was already sick of her pride and of… herself in general.

Inside, there was a reception bureau to the left with an earth pony stallion whose left hoof was working as a pillar for his cheek to rest at, a door to the far end of the floor, to the right some stairs close to that door and another one to the left, past the bureau.

The stallion in the escritoire had his eyes half closed and was looking to the wall in front of him, which had some paintings. At the sound of the door opening, he, without much interest, looked there to see who was entering the place. When Dust walked in he just stared shortly with no interest at all. His head was about to turn to its former position when the orange stallion suddenly walked in.

The bored, lifeless face of the red furred receptionist unexpectedly morphed, as fast as a hoof backs off when standing too close to fire, into one of utmost fear, sweat running all over his face. The red earth pony stood up as fast as his expression had changed, both front hoofs on top of the table.

“H… How may I help you?” He knew exactly what they were there for, but his fear made it impossible for him to think straight.

“Good morning” Spoke the diplomat. “Could you point us to our…?” Policy halted his words without warning and started to look around desperately, searching for a certain dragon.

He turned to his right, then to his left, facing the red pony, ahead of him, and lastly, to his back. Seeing that… well, actually, not seeing the dragon, he turned once more to the receptionist.

“Where is…?”

He was startled (only a little) by claws which were set on his shoulders, interrupting him. He moved his vision to his back, a confident smile on him.

From what used to be an empty space in the room, a brown dragoness displayed herself slowly, holding his shoulder with her right claws, disappointed looks to her face.

“Not even that made you jump? Come on!" Sweet and young was her voice.

“Almost, but you need to try harder if you really want to scare me.” His tone mirroring his facial expression.

“Mark my words. One of these days you won’t see it coming and you will jump higher than Javelin Sotomayor in fear, one of these days…” Plans were already forming in her mind.

“Looking forward to it.” After Ren, Clash was his best friend.

The yellow maned mare simply stared at them both, an eyebrow raised once more.

“Anyway, has the battle started yet?”

“It will any minute now, it should last for around three hours, the last two are to decide who wins between Whitefire and Bloodscales. I’m the only one of my kind missing it right now.” 

“What are you doing here then? Go! Lightning Dust here is my bodyguard this time, don’t worry about my safety.”

“Alright, stay safe!” She walked outside as she waved goodbye, closing the door behind her.

Immediately after that, both remaining ponies were pointed to their rooms which were in the second floor. It was a long hallway with five doors, two to the left and two which were opposite to them, the last one was in the far end of the hall, imitating the first floor. The ones closer to the stairs were their rooms, the right and the left were Dust´s and Policy´s room respectively. Neither of them waited to go inside them.

The rooms were symmetrical to each other, had medium sized horizontal pivot windows, a single bed with a nightstand next to them which were opposite to the door and a showcase. Pretty small were the bedrooms I must add.

The first thing the mare did after founding herself in front of a bed was to throw herself on it, her back facing the soft mattress and exhaling in pleasure of finding rest. 

Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed her, pulled her up, restrained her hoofs and held her mouth closed. The pegasus was surprised but still managed to stay calm. In order to identify her enemy she identified the shape of the limbs restraining her, they were… claws. 

“Clash.” She thought.

“If anything happens to Policy, I will make sure you touch the ground before he does.” Her voice didn’t change and yet it managed to induce fear and the feeling of being dominated to most adversaries.

The invisible dragoness released her, the mare returned to her fours and gasped for air. The former never showed herself. The window was opened and left like that. Such action raised a question to the latter.

“How could she go out through the window? Not even I fit there!” Shortly after she would be asking herself if she was fat.

There weren’t many structures in the Dragon Lands, in fact there were only five, two alone were property of the fire-breathing creatures: The king´s Castle and the Sacred Dome. The latter was where the dragons who wished to become kings fought to the death. Another option of losing was surrendering but those never happened because even though some had tried to several times they were always killed on the spot, the thirst for blood of the dragons in a battle was too big, they couldn’t help it but kill everyone who lost against them. 

The buildings not owned by them were the embassies of the rest of kingdoms.

Prince whitefire was sitting on a rock bench, inside a dark room with several torches, an iron gate next to its left from where light managed to pass through. His eyes were set to the ground, the memory of his father and the funeral still vivid in his mind, alongside his newfound feelings. After some time, a horn´s sound could be heard. He clenched his fists and got up really fast, his ruby-coloured eyes showed no mercy, they were set to kill all his opponents. 

The gate was opened and he got outside, at the very same time every other contestant did. A massive cheer erupted from the crowd, filling the warriors with excitement, killing intent and fear at the same time. Neither Lance nor the prince felt the latter though, they were sure of what they were doing, victory was already theirs’ in their minds.

Amongst the contestants there was a cyan dragon with a very pointy beak, an orange one with lava leaking out of his mouth which was somewhat round as well, a red one whose right claws were as bright as ruby gems, a light green one whose scales were sticking out and a very old one, purple in colour, without any noticeable rarity other than his age. There were twenty in total, all male.

The prince wouldn’t lose; he would fight with all his might. Only after the complete stadium was filled with the ashes of his enemies he would stop.

Bloodscales, however, was way more confident. In his mind crushing Whitefire would be easy, it wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to kill him, he wasn’t expecting any kind of challenge. His never-ending pride came from the thousands of battles he had been already in which he always won in mere minutes, he had splashes of blood all over him due to them, which looked recent somehow.

Ten seconds, who felt like ten hours to everyone, even the spectators, passed before the horn´s sound was heard again, signaling the start of the battle that would shape the future of the four kingdoms, the battle Flamepath had prepared his son for five hundred years.

However, all dragons remained in their positions switching their visions at each other, unsure who to attack first. Lance, who was in the south part of the colosseum, charged to the one in his right and punched him in the face. Since it wasn’t expecting an attack, the hit stroke home and knocked him out, the bloodthirsty dragon buried his sharp tail on its head afterwards, ending its life.

After such action, the creatures dispersed and started picking random targets while performing battle cries, Whitefire was the only one calmly walking through the battlefield. A grey dragon jumped and used his wings to charge towards the prince from above, he stood his ground, bended his knees a little and adopted a catching position. When the enemy collided with his claws he held its fists tightly and was pushed a bit backwards but managed to hold him in place despite the efforts of the grey one. It was followed by a head-butt to the ground and later, a stomp to its head which squished it.

Meanwhile, the cyan warrior flew very close to the ground, at high speeds. With his beak he slashed two necks. Two others tried to attack the red one, only for him to cut the air in front of him with his glowing claws, both attackers got their upper half of their bodies separated from their legs. 

Next was the orange, lava-leaking dragon, a single target came close to him and threw a punch, he just dodged it and punched back in the stomach. When he retrieved his fist, lava could be seen where he had stroke. The damaged dragon just looked at his wound and fell on his back with its eyes completely white.

Then there was the green one, he flew up and got in the middle of a battle that was taking place up there between two others. He quickly grabbed two of his scales and threw them to his sides, as if they were knifes, to where the combatants were. They were buried between their eyes, followed by the fall of the dead bodies.

Not moving at all was the action that the old one decided to do. Another one, whose claws had just met the flesh of someone else’s stomach turned to see him, just being idle, in the far west of the arena. It ran to him and punched the old one, making him fall on his rear.

“You won’t fight?” Spoke the younger dragon, black in colour, expecting him to have an “as” under the sleeves.

“I’m very old, my fighting is not what it used to be, I just came here to die in an honourable place.”

“Very well, wish granted.” And without hesitation, another neck slashing took place, the elderly bodiless head rolling in the ground.

“Stupid.” Was all that he said after the action.

Two more lives were taken by the prince, one who tried to punch him in the face, he moved to the left and used his right claws to grab the fist, the left ones to push the arm bones to their limits and beyond, breaking it. The opponent fell holding tightly its limb, then he was beaten in the face to death. Afterwards, the cyan dragon targeted him and, as before, aimed his beak to the white neck. The sharped-beak one approached with great speed from the prince´s right, who, in the last second, took a step back and smacked him square in the left cheek, violently changing his course to the ground. 

After the stun caused by the unavoidable crash, Whitefire approached for the kill but, Lance descended, unexpectedly, from the sky and on top of the defeated one with great strength, crushing was used to be its back.

The blood which drenched his feet started drying and was replaced with red glowing in them, as red as the dried fluid, alongside some muscle forming as well. 

“Now…” Was what he said as he stepped outside of the body.

“You fight me.”

The feet of the prince would be tangled with the tail of his current and probably last enemy, making him fall on his back. Bloodscales retracted it after that. His foot was in midair, about to stamp on the prince. A quick, hard, flap of his wings got him out of there, another took him to the sky, where he hoped to best him. He felt lucky to avoid the stomp, for it caused a minor tremble throughout the stadium and left a crack almost as big as himself in the spot, the foot which was used returned to normal afterwards.

To the sky he was followed, relentless was Lance, who, not giving the prince a chance to breathe, started swinging his sharp tail without rest, he managed to avoid most of them but two swings got him, both in the left arm.

As he tightly clutched his wounded appendage, natural reaction to any serious injury, he blasted two balls of fire straight to Bloodscales face. They struck home but didn’t affect him, only made a big cloud of grey smoke for the injured one to fly away.

“That tail! It is too strong and sharp! He inherited it from his father right? Riddle, Ridley or something like that was his name.” He thought.

Another three normal contestants were killed in the meantime, leaving only six alive.

The green one grabbed another one of his scales and threw it to the red one, from behind him, who just turned around and slashed the air once more, making a clash with the flying scale, thus, avoiding it.

With his glowing limb he walked towards the green one and when he was around two meters away he performed his signature move once more, this time however, the enemy wasn’t cut in half and he felt great pain in his claws. He looked at it while groaning in pain, it was… well, it wasn’t. The claws were gone and the vital red liquid was pouring from the open limb.

Several steps, followed by burying his own claws on the red one´s eyes were the actions that the green one chose to perform.

Meanwhile, the black one had met the lava maker, they stood in front of each other, staring at each other for half a minute, until the orange one opened its round mouth and a column of the hot liquid was shot at his opponent, who just dodged it by a thrust to the right with the help of its wings, then did so again, but charging straight ahead.

A quick kick was all it took to kill the charging dragon, the same lava appearing were he had stricken him, just like before. However, the winning one suddenly held his head and screamed, then landed on his knees, panting. 

“This one had a fairly stronger mind, still, he couldn’t have hoped to resist me.” He remained still in his place, still trying to stabilize his breath. It didn’t remain down for a long time, fifteen minutes was all it took him to get up again, then pick another target, the green one.

That one was looking at the battle between the two who everyone betted on for the win.

“Do I really not stand a single chance against any of those two in single combat?”

The prince was in full shape once more, his fast regeneration was legendary, he had to be taken down in one blow, or he could escape and heal once more, that made him a very dangerous adversary. That was a quality shared by Lance as well, all the very powerful dragons had a great regeneration but none matched Whitefire's.

Both white and crimson flew very fast to each other, when they were only meters ago the former suddenly lowered his altitude and made an uppercut from below. The hit was successful and very strong, sending the latter flying. Whitefire, however, didn’t let him fly for long, he took its tail and, as the lumberjack chops a piece of wood in half, threw him down to the ground.

“It seems like they are both very strong, yes. I must fight nevertheless, until my last drop of blood is… Ah!”

He groaned in pain as from behind him, the only other warrior left was entombing its fist on his back, making the magma burn his insides completely. Indescribable pain overwhelmed him. It came to a peak when he looked to his gut and saw the fist, which had already gone throughout his back to his front. He died right there and then, without being able to give a proper fight like he would have hoped, he died in the worst way imaginable to him, he was assassinated.

The one who had just ended a life dropped the body to the ground and looked right in front of him, Lance was dashing to him, his claws ready to dig on its flesh.

The attacked one helplessly tried to spit back but it was too late, Bloodscales already had his right claws on its chest, a reddish orange was leaking from there, a mixture of both lava and blood. The former didn’t affect his resistant skin. He felt some kind of force trying to enter his mind, to control it, but he made a quick slash to his left arm with his tail, filling him with pain, rage and power, his state of mind engulfed the spirit and destroyed it, since it couldn’t bear him. Blood covered both of his arms now. 

The blood from the recently killed body made his scales shine red brightly, the splashes he already had glowed even more intensively than his drenched limbs.

“This one had better blood I see, Whitefire will be sorry for fighting me.”

Fifteen meters was the distance that separated the only two remaining rivals, shortened to three by the prince who had started running with his wings spread widely, performing a battle cry as well. The blood seeker dragon just turned around and punched the prince with his right fist at a stunning speed. The speed of the action made it unable to avoid for Whitefire, who was propelled all the way to the colosseum’s east wall, where he crashed, leaving a big crack on it, plus some more on several of his own bones.

Lance walked slowly to his enemy´s landing position, his left limb still empowered by the red liquid.

In a small, dark, room consisting of a rectangular table, four chairs (two on each side) and some torches to light it up since there was a lack of windows, Equestria´s top diplomat was found sitting, alongside the griffin´s ambassador. He had a monocle and was blue-feathered, both had papers with them on the table, reading them every now and then.

Four dragon guards, one in every corner of the room, were standing. Two blue, two red. Neither had weapons, but they did have armor on them, golden armor. A griffin soldier and Lightning dust were standing next to the politicians they had to protect.

“Celestia is a genius.” Thought the mare who had just recently found out about the chance of Lance winning thanks to Poll. “She knows that if that bloody dragon does win and shows up here I will immediately kill him." She chuckled before continuing. "Very well, let’s be myself.” She said that last part out loud, with a confident smile on her.

The guards present didn’t pay her any mind and the griffin ambassador just looked at her briefly, raised an eyebrow and went back to his papers. Policy was too distracted in his own thoughts to acknowledge her.

Sweat ran through Poll´s face, accompanying the fear he had. He didn’t have a clue to what was going on in the fight, he could only pray for the white dragon to win it.

He looked in front of him, a lonely door stood there, hiding the hallways behind it, the only obstacle for whoever won to get inside, and for everyone inside to look at the winner. The thought of that door opening was more fearful to the orange pony than the actual creature coming from it.

He stared at it, he wanted to look away but his fright made him to keep looking somehow. 

The horror engulfed Policy like a mantle and the world stopped existing for him as the door squeaked as it was opened. He conceived the door, nothing else, the world had gone blank for him. It was him and the opening door along its noise alone, until the one behind it made himself visible.

He had blood splashes in several places of his body.
> Realization.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Pain!” Screamed Whitefire´s body, even before colliding with the wall. When said action happened, he almost lost his senses but deliriousness overtook him instead, due to the huge amount of damage to his body caused by that fatal blow, empowered by the vital liquid. It had left him on the edge of death.

The crimson dragon kept walking towards his opponent, ready to finish him off. However, against all his expectations, it wouldn’t be that easy. The prince got back on his two feet and took a boxing position. The only difference was that he wasn’t jumping constantly.

The world had gone crazy. He looked at the crowd, only to find his father, replicated a thousand times, replacing every dragon who once stood there, and their cheers with silence. They stared at him, with harsh expression on their faces. Those looks penetrated on him like knifes into butter, bringing mental pain alongside them. Shock made itself visible in his face, along with fear, while adding themselves into his mind, which mixed into a rotten emotional state. 

When he locked his vision on Bloodscales he remembered what he was there for: for slaying that bloodthirsty menace to the world, so he could achieve the throne instead, ensuring peace.

He stood his ground, predicting Lance's next attack, it didn’t take him long to see it. The enemy tried to strike with its tail as predicted, which went straight ahead for his stomach. Thanks to his reflexes he managed to catch it airborne, but, it disappeared, like a mirage. Only after he looked forward once more he noticed that his opponent was still on his way, his pace remaining the same. The white dragon's regeneration had healed his body, but not his mental state, which was creating worse hallucinations than those which originate from smoking weed.

“Pathetic.” Were the words spoken by every creature present, followed by: “Are you truly king Flamepath's successor?”

His multiplied father spoke “my” instead of “king Flamepath's” but the rest of the phrase remained the same in all tongues.

A long pause was made by everyone, the crimson dragon stopped dead in his tracks and his foe remained motionless.

Suddenly he made himself be heard. 

“I will overcome you!” Is everything he replied yelling before charging, his mind already set. 

He just kept running mindlessly, until another blow reached him, this time with the left, still empowered, fist.

The previous events repeated themselves, the high dragon cracked the wall even more. Still, before long he was already on his feet, his body working miracles to get him back up. 

The illusions all remained there, but, there was a new one, next to the blood-splashed warrior. It was his father once more, that green dragon with a yellow line defining his front side, that old yet powerful face, not showing any kind of feelings, those emerald scales which were often confused for the real gem.

Both his foes made a step onward, then another, and another one, the feet dusting the ground with their heavy step. Once in range, both of them threw a punch. The white dragon used his arms and placed them in front of his face in a vertical position to block the attack of the only living being in the battle. The single blow immediately became a flurry of hits, trying to break through the flesh armour.

Meanwhile, the phantasm made a punch of his own, which didn’t make any damage, it just passed harmlessly through his face. At the very same time that harmless attack reached the white skin he lost his concentration and looked at the spot which, supposedly, had been hit. The other dragon took his chance and managed to break the shield. The defending one lowered his arms in pain and tried to back away but his enemy was too fast, managing to hit his face several times, sending him to the ground.

Oxygen was inhaled and exhaled aggressively through his nostrils, a small blue flame noticeable when the latter happened. 

The floor then felt very sandy and soft, it cleared a path for his body to be buried inside.

He tried to move but to no avail, his bones were still broken and the pain deprived him of movement, so the sand proceeded to softly carry his body beneath her. Strangely enough, he could still breathe down there.

As his bottomless bed dragged him further and further away from the surface, his thoughts followed along. 

“So… is this it? Will I spend the rest of my life in here?”

His question was answered really fast, for a set of claws made itself visible from the surface of the sand pool, green was its colour. It grew longer than what physics would allow and grabbed him from a shoulder, his left one.

He was pulled up all the way out of that soft tomb, once in the outside he felt another grip in his right shoulder. When he looked at that second limb the first thing that caught his attention was the blood running down it, which was retrieved by a tail, growing thicker, stronger and sharper after such action. 

His body had already healed but he still couldn’t move, his thoughts were a complete fuzz, he barely managed to acknowledge his situation. He looked at the sky, it was all grey and still, no raindrop fell. Lightings only reached the ground, striking in the distance and in his surroundings. Each of them induced fear to the broken-minded prince, fear of being hit directly, and pain, pain to his ears due to their sound. The closer they stroke the worst it was.

Both opposing dragons punched him in the face, one affecting him physically while the other just mentaly. They made him fall completely again. Another blow was about to be sent by them, this time though, different from each other. A normal punch from his father while his material enemy decided to pin its sharp extremity in the middle of the right claws, pining and disabling them.

For a second he weighted his options and tried to stop the tail, he clutched it from both of its sides and held it in place. He succeeded on stopping it, until the ghost's fist stroke. He lost his strength right there and then and the enemy managed to fulfil his target, the blood leaking from the appendage securing its position as his limb drained it all.

Lance was already sure of his victory, he went straight for the head without considering the other, free, limbs. Such action was mirrored by Flamepath.

“I said that…” The prince unexpectedly started talking, stopping his attackers.

“I will…” He clenched his left fist. Knowing that he could move it freely without his enemy acknowledging it he continued.

“Overcome you!” A scream, louder than what any dragon had ever heard erupted from within him, reaching the ears of everyone in a radius of five kilometres, as he slashed with his free limb in front of him, to a different foe this time.

Instead of going after Bloodscales, his father's neck was his choice, making his head roll in the ground. All events that only he could see. A blue glow, with the same shade the ocean acquires when above deep waters and making a small trail of itself, displayed itself in the tips of his claws when performing such action.

His opponent was dumbfounded again. Ignoring that new glow, he just stared at the one he was fighting, which had apparently lost its mind due to the beating.

“Are you suffering that much?” Spoke the dominant dragon, mocking his crazy opponent.

“Not anymore.” Was the only reply he received, before his opponent grasped the limb that was pinning down its right hand. It was different to his body, it looked like several rocks had been glued together, with some distance between each other, displaying blood running through those gaps.

“What are you trying to do? My tail is stronger than any metal or gem as it is, and now it is empowered by my blood. It’s impossible for you to either disentomb it or cut it off.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about the latter.”

Without any further wait his grasp became much stronger and the same blue glow from before displayed itself once more in the tip of every one of his claws. His foe felt something he never had, something no dragon had, in their whole lives, heat. His buried limb was burning hotter than lava itself and probably at a degree close to the sun. 

While screaming in pain he retrieved his tail immediately, or at least, what was left of it.

When he looked at it to see the damage he was astounded. The tip of what used to be his pride and joy was gone, alongside a small part of its base. He grabbed the new end of it and screamed once more, this time, in fear and sadness. Both were new to him as well, and they were terrifying, his mind was fully under their control. Logic, reason, killing intent, they were all gone. His thoughts were set only on his loss, only in feeling sorry. After some time, instead of going away, they endured, greater than ever before. It wasn’t just sorrow nor terror anymore, it was bigger, it filled him completely, it clouded his thoughts…

It was depression.

The prince, however, didn’t pay no mind to his now decayed enemy's feelings, he just positioned in front of him and, with the same fire in his claws, slashed his chest, killing him in the worst moment of his life.

The blood splashed on his face and body and he started to breath heavily as his adrenaline abandoned him. 

The liquid on him was bright red, like rubies. It was pretty, if you ignored where it came from of course.

A massive cheer suddenly erupted from the crowd. Most dragons just praised verbally, but some even started to breathe fire to the sky in joy. The newly elected king didn’t acknowledge them though, he had accomplished something far more important than what his plan initially was, the praise he was receiving wasn’t important to him. He overcame his father.

He didn’t wash himself up, he didn’t ask for rest neither for food, he just left the place flying, his destination, the castle. Where the congress would take place. He just wanted to get everything done.
> The calm before the storm.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wind hammered, somewhat, into the flying dragon’s face due to his speed. It was a strange flow of breeze, slow enough to incite the dragon to sleep and fast enough to keep him awake.

He showed no emotions, and yet, he was very happy. That battle had not only saved thousands of lives, but also made him fight his feelings, overcoming his father. That senseless love that made him not being able to get over his death, to mirror his father by forgetting about his own ideals and follow his instead, was now gone. Logic and reason returned to him, making his mind fully operational once more. He used it to start thinking.

“If I had won in my previous state, the results could have been terrifying for our nation.” He used plural, for he thought of the Dragon Lands as a kingdom owned by every one of his inhabitants, not just by himself.

“What a coincidence that I could only defeat him when that was over. Was it luck, or is there truly a god of some kind keeping balance?”

He spent the next ten minutes debating with himself, until he abruptly interrupted those thoughts.

“All of my problems aren’t over just yet for me to have such a discussion in my head. Whether there is a god or not is not important right now, the upcoming meeting is, I have to be ready and know what I want for our nation. I will definitely change the date for this election, it’s the same day of the congress, I don’t have enough time to get ready.”

As he flew he missed something that would have been crucial on his previous debate. A tiny white flower was visible in the red ground, with eight petals, as white as the peaceful clouds which don’t bring storms, only beauty to the sky. A purple stem connected those petals with the unforgiving red earth, were nothing grew. The most impressive and beautiful part of it was that instead of having the usual stigma, it had a sapphire, bluer than the sky or the ocean themselves. It sprouted there, in the arid Dragon Lands, where nothing could grow.

It wasn’t a long trip to the castle, shortened even more by the prince’s thinking, which made him forget about the voyage there.

When he reached it, he descended while flapping his wings several times, to reduce his speed along the way down. Once there he was saluted by the two guards who were in their posts, in the entrance of the wall surrounding the royal building. They did so by hammering their spears in the ground and adopting a very straight position. Shortly after, the words “The king has arrived!” echoed throughout the whole castle. They were first spoken by the dragons on top of the barbican, then repeated by others inside of the palace who had heard it, and so on.

The place was made of the same material as the pony embassy, red sandstone. The wall which surrounded the structure was circle shaped, with battlements. It was also thick, enough to have guards on top, looking at the horizon, ready to attack any threat. The castle itself was a mixture of gothic style and the structure of a fort. Several round towers climbed their way to the skies, all with a very pointy end. On its façade it had a big round window with amethyst-coloured stained glass, divided into tiny pieces by a single wood frame with a spider web shape, the glass, filling the holes in between. The place didn’t have many visual ornaments, the sandstone was worked to be plain everywhere, the only visual delight available were the window mentioned before alongside two statues of dragons holding spears, they were next to the main door. Both looked at each other, perfectly symmetrical. In the claws further away from the door they held a spear while in the other one they had a shield, a big, rectangular shield.

As Whitefire was saluted the portcullis was opened by the guards who were on top of the barbican, the ones who had announced the arrival of the prince. There was a mechanism which those two dragons had to operate, it consisted on two big gears that had to be turned by claw in either direction depending of the action wanted, one for pulling it up and the opposite to bring it down once more.

It wasn’t the only thing operated in that moment, for the drawbridge was also lowered revealing the pointed arches inside, truly a magnificent interior to gaze upon.

The king paid no mind to the soldiers and just waited for all the actions mentioned before to happen, to have his path cleared. Once then he walked through the drawbridge over the moat, which, unlike most castles, had lava instead of water.

Inside, there was a long hallway. A big pair of doors in the other end was visible, alongside two more, one on each side. More royal soldiers were inside, mirroring the position of the statues of the outside of the castle and the salute of the first creatures that Whitefire saw when he arrived, who he ignored once more. 

He turned left, opened the door and walked through the slim hallway hiding behind it. It was grey, like rocks, and had only torches to light it up, no windows were present. 

It didn’t take him long to reach the next door, another torch was in the wall on top of it, its fire somehow more vivid than the one in the rest. 

He turned the handle and slowly opened the door, trying to earn as much time as possible to finish thinking of his position towards the other nations.

As he committed such action sweat ran down his forehead and later, his cheeks.

His racing mind was now nonstop. As if he didn’t have enough troubles on his mind he remembered how the black paw was a threat to the rest of nations, he would have to send his dragons to fight there and some would definitely die. The Black Paw was not to be taken lightly, of course, they had some weak soldiers but most of them could be a nuisance to an average trained warrior, even to an experienced one. Worst of all, they had enough of them to declare a war on a single nation while having a chance of winning it. 

He was already standing inside the room, the door fully opened, while he thought that last part, but he wouldn’t acknowledge the place he was in then. 

A few seconds later, the blue headed griffin would interrupt his thinking. He pretended to cough loudly, the only thing that managed to get the new king to wake up and, afterwards, take a seat in front of the two ambassadors. He answered with an awkward laugh as he sat down.

Policy was very relieved and giving thousands of prayers to Celestia in gratitude. His bodyguard, though, was feeling the opposite. Lightning was cursing Celestia, for she secretly wanted Lance to win, only to fight someone of her skill level, to have some real fun, not like the usual scum she was sent after. The griffin bodyguard, who looked like any other soldier with silver instead of the usual copper armour, had his right paw on his sword, which was already halfway of being drawn completely. When he realized that Whitefire was the one who had entered the room he slowly sheathed it again.

The dragon king looked to the left, then to the right. He noticed that an ambassador was missing, he was just going to ask about it when the dragon guards in the room suddenly announced “The first council of King Whitefire is now in session!” Although he was startled, he hid that pretty well, in fact, no one noticed his reaction.

Seconds after the end of the announcement the white scaled dragon stated his question.

“Where is the hippogriff ambassador?” Regret enveloped him shortly after speaking that phrase, as if he had directly insulted them, who he still wasn’t sure how to address.

Policy quickly answered his question, somewhat. “We don’t know, but do not worry your majesty, Equestria has already sent one of its agents to find out.” The last thing he was worried about was the way he was talked to.

The griffin didn’t show signs of being bothered either.

“Very well, thank you.” Replied the white dragon, the way to speak to them hadn’t come to his head yet.

“With that out of the way” Interrupted the griffin, “I wish to speak of a nuisance to all nations.”
He cleared his throat before starting his speech.

“The Black Paw, as you already now, is a very strong criminal organisation, with enough power to resist the strength of a single army, perhaps even defeat it. That’s why king Grober determined that all nations should unite and attack them from all sides, a combined effort might do the trick to destroy them all with minimal casualties.”

He looked at his guard and nodded, the silver armoured soldier retrieved a map from his belt and unrolled it on top of the table. It would have gone back to its former position if the ambassador didn’t hold it in place from its ends.

It was a map depicting all the territory of both Griffonstone and Equestria, with several locations marked in red and orange.

“We have acquired information on most of their locations, the orange ones are lesser camps, probably spotters for caravans. Those don’t hold more than a hundred soldiers but they are very well placed and defended. Each has two wooden walls, one behind of the other and three watchtowers, each placed far away from the other so they cover different sides. There are tents inside each, the place where they rest we presume.”

He took a small pause before resuming.

“The red ones though, are a whole different category. There are only three but each of them is a fortress. Stone walls protect them from most projectiles and several arrow loop windows allow the archers to shoot while also giving them protection from incoming attacks. That’s all we know about them as facts, but we think that each battle against one of those could last days or even weeks, given how much supplies they can store in each one.”

He stopped talking and looked at Policy, then at the king. They both were listening carefully to his explanation. After seeing that he had stopped both focused their vision on him instead of the map.

“I presume you already agree to make an alliance against these bandits right?” He spoke with confidence, he knew that they had to say yes, even more, that they were planning to say yes from long before.

They both talked at the same time, their words hard to comprehend, all that the griffin heard them say was some form of approval from each of them, which mixed into incomprehensible words, they did have a consent air to them, that was enough for the blue feathered ambassador.

Very well, I will now review the military tactics we plan to…

The prince, for a short moment, wondered why hadn’t the hippogriffs sent a diplomat.

The space between two big mountains denoted the road which led into the Skydive Hippogriff’s kingdom. In the middle of it, a dark blue unicorn walked along, towards the neutral kingdom.

The pony had a mane and tail which were wavy, with the occasional hair sticking out, in need of brushing. Another visible quality was that he had a pointier horn that the average unicorn.

He also had a cape, which would usually hide his cutie mark but the wiping wind lifted it, revealing the mark. 

It was a blue bubble with a picture of him inside, the former representing a shield.

After walking for some time the mountains ended and the road turned left, since there was a cliff, impeding it to move in that direction any more.

The stallion walked to the edge of the cliff, which gave a clear view of the Hippogriff’s kingdom.

The unicorn was shocked after seeing it, everything was on flames or demolished and the flying creatures were fighting something. They were fighting black biped creatures, white hair surrounded their heads and went all the way to their backs. They seemed mouthless and had a symbol in their black armour, two blue lightings, parallel to each other.

The wind still lifted his cape, but it now also waved his mane and tail.

“Celestia made a good choice when sending me.”

He got rid of his cape by tossing it to a side before resuming.

“Now, let’s make them meet their graves.”

His cutie mark, which once was a blue bubble, slowly disappeared. A fireball displayed itself later, as slowly as the former cutie mark had gone.
> (Un)expected enemy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an ordinary afternoon in the Skydive kingdom the previous day to the events mentioned before. The sun shone brightly, birds tweeted, and everycreature was doing their usual chores. Nothing special was going to take place, nothing scheduled at least.

It was a magnificent city-state, worth of jealousy, with grasslands that reached the horizon and several lakes, whose waters were as pure as the raindrops, perhaps even more. They were scattered throughout the fields. Hippogriffs would extract great amounts of the water, both for themselves and for the rich people of other nations, who bought it not for its qualities, but to presume of consuming the precious liquid.

The city itself was similar to Canterlot regarding the material used for every construction, white marble. Its buildings were all made of it. Many chapels were distinguishable from the distance, with their gigantic bells to warn the whole city and beyond of their presence, windows with stained glass of all colours, shaping themselves into pictures. In the variety of them, there were hippogriffs praying on their knees around a white ball of pure light. Others displayed the city with a distinctive pearl overlooking it, darkness enveloping the surroundings which were away from it.

The houses were all magnificent, statues of the owner or owners were placed in the façade, lots of columns supporting the structures, magnificent balconies with plants of great visual delight. Ornaments, integrated with the very structure of every building, were also present. Their shapes different on each one, but always beautiful. Baroque in its splendour was the style which gave all this beauty to the city. It was first created by this neutral race but later on, effect of its splendour, replicated in some places of Equestria.

The castle where the king of this race was located was very much alive, guards moving from one place to another, chefs cooking nonstop. Noblemen were traveling as well inside it, from one room to another, always discussing about properties, money, companies, religion and more. The king was the only one who sat idly on his throne. 

Precious ebony wood and a seat which was as red as blood, the trail matching the seat perfectly, those were the qualities of the royal seat. The most discernible fact about it was that it had a pearl on top of it, levitating. It was blue coloured, shining brightly in pink, very close to white, in its middle.

The room was completely white except for the furniture and the banners, those had a red background with a yellow border and a hippogriff with a spear to his side on the middle, yellow as well. The throne itself wasn’t at floor level, it had two short steps, incorporated with the flooring, making the ruler stand higher than the rest.

The reason for all the hustle and bustle was pretty simple, the city was ruled by an unfair government in which the rich were always making agreements and trades of loans of money, lands, companies, everything that you can imagine to earn as much money as possible. This, of course, affected the lives of the farmers who lived in the fields and of the whole citizenship who didn’t have the same economical level. Those were living a hell, working really hard, to spend all the money they earned in taxes and food, the basics needs for the hippogriffs only. Leisure time was almost inexistent, the weekends or even the Sundays alone.

None of that went through the king’s mind though, he was only worried about his income, in how to make the country even more profitable than it already was. Plus, he was afraid of the situation in the dragon lands, if the rest of nations did go to war then the economy could be severely damaged, it could even collapse completely and lead the nation to ruin.

As he dismissed more patricians from his court he raised a hand and made two snaps of his talons. A butler made his way towards the king from the left side of the room. He had entered from a door, the place beneath was of no interest to anyone who was in the big line to speak with the monarch, neither the creature walking out of it.

Once the finely dressed slave came close enough to his master, he gestured for him to come even closer, so that he could speak to him without drawing unnecessary attention.

“Is Snowgust all set up to depart? I don’t want our reputation of attending on time to be shattered.” Whispered the monarch, an English accent present.

“He is, your majesty. All ready and willing to leave.” Returned, without any kind of feelings, the butler.

“Perfect!” He cheered quietly. “Now tell him that…”

“My king!”

He was interrupted by a soldier in golden armour which covered only his head and his chest, the latter having an incrusted gem. It was more an ornament that it was a defence. Despite the sunlight entering through the enormous windows and finding its path against the armour, it didn’t reflect the light.

Everyone in the room shifted their vision to him in surprise and cleared a path for the monarch to be able to see him. The ruler was first to speak.

“Is there a problem?”

“And a big one your majesty! Storm clouds, unnaturally black coloured, are headed our way! We have asked the local pegasus about it and he said that he didn’t have scheduled stormy weather!” Concerned and tired, that’s the perfect way to describe his voice.

The king’s eyes immediately shot open and he looked at the pearl hovering over the throne. 

“You!” He suddenly looked back at the golden armoured guard and pointed at him. The attention of the room was now fully on him.

“Y… Yes, king Riveron?”

“Communicate the captain that I want all the population out of the ground and into the sea! Every warrior must be ready to fight at every moment! I also want two more guards to go to the lake city and warn the queen! And remember, nobles are the priority for the escape.” He sounded desperate and afraid, yet sure of what he was doing. He turned around and was going to grab the beautiful pearl when he was interrupted again.

“But, what is the message to her higness?”

The king slowly turned around, he uttered the so expected answer when his back faced the seat.

“Tell her, that we are going down there and that we need help…”

Riveron stopped for a brief second before saying the rest, spoken in a very quiet voice. 

It was a very shocking phrase.

The guests all looked at each other In confusion after hearing it. The soldier, however, didn’t have time for that, he simply nodded and replied.

“Yes your highness!”

The warrior proceeded to run into another room inside the castle, the rest of them inside the place escorted the remaining invitees outside.

“People will die, I myself am at a huge risk, but I must do my best effort to protect my kingdom, even if it means death.” Thought the monarch.

He finally took the much precious pearl and held it with both of his talons as he admired its beauty, like if he had never seen it before.

“If that mongrel wants a fight, I will give it to him, and one that will never forget.”

He sat on his throne like how a biped creature would, bending his knees the wrong way and resting his extended arms over the arms of the throne, the pearl resting on his legs.

Some time later, all the soldiers were informing the whole city to flee. They did so through yelling. There was a particular pair of them who had found themselves in front of one of the churches, which was full of prayers at the moment. One of them was in the left side of the enormous doors, the other was in the right one.

“Here we go.” Said the one in the left, followed by a push to open the door, mirrored by his now silent partner.

A long paced squeak was heard by everyone inside the religious construction and by the guards themselves as they opened the door. Everyone rested their visions at them, some with an annoyed face for being disturbed, namely the Bishop and priests, while others had a shocked and confused look.

The same guard spoke again. “The king has ordered a complete and immediate escape from the city! We are in great peril here!”

There were no more sting eyes looking at them, terror and confusion were the replace.

“You must head to the closest lake hole, retreat to the underwater city now! Go, go, go!”

Every set of legs and talons reached the floor at the same time, to later run outside, pushing everyone who stood in their way, children and old alike.

Both royal defenders stood outside of the holy location, avoiding any damage from the stampede of creatures controlled by fear. A feeling which, in certain situations, can lead to kill others, just to remain alive ourselves. But for what were these people doing it? To keep living a miserable life devoted to work and no enjoyment? But well, that’s just the animal instincts kicking in, I guess they were somewhat justified.

At the same time, two others were in the shore of a “lake hole” as they called them. Without thinking twice, they jumped into the water, but before falling into it, both placed their talons to their chest, more precisely, on their gem. Immediately after, several sparks of pure magic which then became many more surrounded them, becoming a cape, enveloping them completely. Afterwards, the cape disappeared in a magnificent show of lights and their new bodies were displayed. Half siren, half pony was the new anatomy they possessed. It all happened in a second.

Below the surface and into the water you could watch a much more open space than just a single lake, as if it were a complete sea. Numerous holes were visible above, all quite far away from each other and displaying the clouded sky or a mountain depending on your angle of sight.

The sound of water being pushed at high speeds and in high quantities was the only thing heard by the soldiers along the way which they acknowledged, nothing else was important so they ignored it all.

The orders received led them very deep down, the water pressure not having any effect in them.

Structures made themselves visible eventually, coral as the main material, giving the city a very unique beauty, one that only this race could appreciate, since the rest didn’t even know of its existence.

The coral was structured into long tubes with glass between them, leaving a fantastic sight of the ocean’s flora and fauna for every citizen to admire from their home. The entrance to those buildings was built from below, an open hole without any kind of doors. 

The underwater city, unlike its counter partner, wasn’t inside walls, all the opposite in fact. Since they were sure that no other race could threaten them while submerged they didn’t waste any effort in protecting the city, only some guards in the main palace.

The rushed pair of armed hippogriffs went straight for the royal building. When they were close enough, both dived and then made a thrust upwards, getting themselves into the throne room through the main hole, located in the exact middle of the place.

At the unexpected arrival of two guards from the surface, the Queen felt confused and curious.

“What brings you here?” Self-assured and uninterested was her tone. 

“Your highness!” Saluted both at the same time. “The king has ordered us to deliver a very important message.” Both spoke once again, tiredness and anxiety present in their voices.

“Yes, what is it?” It was the queen’s turn to feel anxiety and express it through words. 

She would shoot her eyes open in shock at the mention of the following words.

“Upper Skydive has been captured!”