The Kingdoms of Man

Twilight Sparkle and her friends also were on a train, albeit a different one, and that train’s destination was Canterlot. Celestia had sent a letter right after the departure of the Legionnaires, and they were all nervous to see what would transpire in the near future. They all now knew that the Legionnaires had fled, but they were still concerned for their collective safety. If what they feared was true, then shortly there would be a war.

Something that not been seen for a thousand years. Something that was vague, yet terrifying. The ponies glanced at each other, looking for comfort in each other’s eyes. The recent events had all weighed heavily on their minds as of recently, though, and the outcome looked grim.

Even Pinkie Pie was still feeling the effects of her experience at the encampment, and made a mental note never to sample diracarnis again. Or, maybe if she....

Pinkie seemed to be lost in thought, and Applejack noticed that, so she asked,

“What’s on your mind, sugarcube?”

Pinkie absentmindedly answered,

“I’m thinking of a way to make their diracarnis rations more sweet.”

Pinkie suddenly lights up, and exclaims,

“Brown sugar! That’s it! I just need to cook it with brown sugar! And a hint of pepper! Oh! I should share it with all of you! I mean, it’s fine for a ration, but it could do with a little spicing up!”

As Pinkie rambled on, the spirit of the train car slowly lifted, and everypony managed a small smile. Even in these trying of times, that silly pink party pony would find ways to make her friends smile. This, Pinkie’s friends are grateful for.

The train, having finally arrived at Canterlot, stopped to allow passengers like Twilight and her friends to disembark. They hastily made their way to the castle, a trip that was thankfully short, made so by the Royal Guard escort sent to accompany Princess Twilight and her friends. This practically cleared the way by their mere royal presence and their apparent haste, which signaled to the populace that something was up. Again.

Getting into the castle, Twilight and her friends passed by some dignitaries of the Goblin Collective. Short little green goblins with scrawny long ears that protruded from the sides of their heads, they wore crude chainmail armor with torn red fabrics that were more or less draped over the chainmail. Their yellow eyes sat above pointed, large noses. They didn’t wear anything on their thin feet and hands, but carried spears and hung little knives on their worn belts. One of them wore a busted-up crown and was fatter than the others, along with less damaged clothing. This fat goblin addressed Twilight as she passed, causing everypony to stop.

“Princess Pony!”

Twilight halted to listen, and the goblin continued in his little raspy, squeaky voice.

“We don’t likes to visit your comfortable castles often, but when we do, it’s to tell your other princess ponies that we don’t likes the war-daemons. Theys too strong for us little goblins, and that’s saying something, seeing as we like to test our mettle against each other all the time.”

Twilight tilted her head in curiousity and asked the goblin leader,

“Daemons?”

The authoritative goblin barked and left with his escort goblins, leaving the ponies to wonder what they meant. However, they needed to get to the throne room, so they progressed. The pace was more subdued, more patient, leaving everypony to mull over the meaning of the goblin’s words.

After some time, the group entered the throne room. The dignitaries of the loose collection of groups of Diamond Dogs, Kobolds, Minotaurs, and Griffons were in attendance, as was a single Elder Dragon. The Diamond Dog emissary had a Brass Waterloo Helmet, while the other dogs had the traditional spiked dog collars that dog peons were expected to wear. The Kobolds wore simple gold cuirasses on their chests and gold skullcap helmets. The Kobold ambassador wore a much more ornate set of golden armor, complete with a ornate skullcap with a red horse-crescent. The Minotaurs only wore their heavy armor, designed for extensive combat, which had dings and scratches in the plate armor. In contrast, the Minotaur ambassador wore a simple ambassadorial white toga, complete with honor pins on their honor-sashes. The Griffons wore light armor, ideal for their build. The Griffon ambassador had a similar outfit to the Minotaur, barring the honor pins and instead wearing golden laces in the Griffons’ ordinarily white toga. Then they saw the Dragon properly.

The head of the purple dragon was barely able to squeeze through the window to take part of the proceedings. Upon seeing the group, the Ambassadors greeted the newly-arrived Princess. Before Princess Twilight could be completely surrounded, Princess Celestia stepped in and expertly received the guests by making her presence known with her clearing her voice. All of the dignitaries then approached Princess Celestia and started to talk all at once, so she gestured and said,

“One at a time, please.”

After a duration, the din calmed down. Celestia said,

“That’s better. Now, what do you have to say on behalf of your peoples?”

The Diamond Dog ambassador stepped forward anxiously, and with a sound that could be heard as a grunt, a gulp, or clearing one’s throat, nervously said, twiddling its thumbs,

“We of Diamond Dog Packs... do wish again that Pony Princesses see reason.”

Princess Celestia then gently said back,

“I don’t see any reason in attacking the Kingdoms of Man. After all, they are under siege by their very environment, so I plead with you one last time to give these beings a chance to prove themselves. I know that they may seem scary, but I tell you that they are innocent.”

The Diamond dog with the brass horned helmet seemed to be infuriated by this, so it stomped once, then said angrily,

“Man not innocent! Pony doesn’t understand! Man digs and digs deeper, robbing dogs of our rightful riches! Their hunger for wealth matches our own, yet they’re not diamond dogs! They can’t take what is ours! We will not stand for this! You will see, and they will see what happens when you try to leash a Diamond Dog!”

The Dog then stormed out, leaving everyone else to see the fuming dog as it stomped out. Everypony looked at each other, gauging the other’s reactions to the unfolding events. Twilight noticed while the Kobolds looked nervous and would look around into some dark corner every so often, the Minotaurs would stand upright, silent and unreadable. The Griffons, however, were cooly scanning the room, as if anticipating a trap or an ambush, one they obviously felt ready for. The princess's reactions to this were neutral, if her blank face was anything to go by. The Minotaur then stepped forward, and boisterously said,

“The dog may not speak right, but it is right. Man’s too dangerous to be left alone, especially when he can run any of you down and not tire after. What’s to say he won’t? He has the capacity, so he will. He will hunt us down and destroy us. We may be stronger, but they will last just as long if not longer than we can. What’s to say he won’t exercise his potential? This is why we must stop them from destroying us. We will destroy them, first to prove our endurance, and second, to prove ourselves the stronger of the combatants. We offer them honorable deaths, Princess Celestia, but that’s all the honor they’ll get.”

After those words, the minotaur ambassador left, him and his comrades causing great thumping along the ground where they walked. After the thumping subsided, the kobold ambassador then stepped forward, and gave his remarks.

“I would hate to agree with these warm-blooded barbarians, but they’re right in that these mammals are too strong to be allowed to live. My good friend once tried to serve as ambassador to these... people, but he nearly died when he sampled one of their drinks. They are biologically incompatible to even dine with us, let alone get along with us. They are too alien to us, and suggesting that we initiate close relations is to court death. If even something as simple as a drink can harm us so, what do you think their weapons can do to us? No, we will not stand for this, and neither should you.“

With that, the Kobolds also dismissed themselves, feet almost racing to get out of this environment as if it were to go somewhere safer, and the Griffons stood forward. The griffon ambassador sighed sadly and said,

“I’m sorry, Princess Celestia. I too realize the danger here. Even if I’ve spent a lot of time in this palace to serve as an agent of peace, I can sense when war is not only inevitable but on the immediate horizon. You do not understand it yet, but you will. War is coming, and Gryphus must respond properly if she is to survive. We may have our weapons, but the advancement of men means that their weapons grow more varied and more effective than our own every year. Our best are struggling to keep up with their advancements, but it may prove ultimately futile. Their cannons are bigger, stronger, lighter than ours. There’s even rumors of repeating handheld cannons that are circulating. Of course we would ordinarily disregard those rumors, but from what we’ve seen of these humans, nothing is impossible. We must remain vigilant, or these humans will crush us like so many eggshells.”

Having said this, the Griffon Ambassador left with his escort, exchanging one last sad look at Princess Celestia before departing. Twilight Sparkle remembered observing the fond friendships between Griffon Ambassador Kaln and Princess Celstia, and noticed that Princess Celestia had visibly lost a fraction of her friendly demeanor. Celestia then went up to the dragon, who looked at Celestia almost with contempt. Celestia addressed the dragon with a soft voice, saying,

“Surely you, Asaduth the Wise, see the folly of attacking such a people?”

The dragon answered back with a deep voice that reverberated throughout the throne room, saying slowly,

“Princess Celestia. I admire your dedication to preserving life whenever you find it, and I’ve seen many examples of that...”

The dragon paused to glance over to Spike for a fraction for a second, but turned its attention back to Celestia, and said,

“...were worth the investments you’ve put into them. However, saying that, I see that your efforts are wasted in trying to redeem these humans. You see, they are dangerous. Dangerous not because of their violence, no. They can corral their tempers, and that is terrifying. A species that can truly control its nature is unstoppable. Unstoppable in that they can change their very destinies. They can become anything, and they’ll strive to become the masters of the world, just because they have the power to do so. We dragons know all too well of the temptations of sovereignty of the world, and the humans are now at a position the dragons once were. Powerful. Naive. And all dangerous. You will see our wisdom when they turn on you because you don’t provide them with as much power as another potential ally. You’ll see. There are too many parallels between them and us to not think they would not attempt to take over.

“They are not learned as we are, so history is doomed to repeat itself. We must wage war to keep them from asserting themselves over us. They already show the signs. Now we must stop them. I’ve already laid the groundwork of a Coalition of Free Beings. You must join us or possibly face tyranny at the hands of the humans.”

And with that, the dragon withdrew its head and departed, great big leathery purple-green wings gyrating, causing great lift but also a lot of sound. Celestia sighed and visibly deflated, defeated after all her efforts had failed. The only question, then was... how would these next series of events play out?