Equestrian Rage

Diplomatic Incident

The train rolled into Canterlot, the four Marines quietly picked up their gear and made their way towards the exit though soon everyone in the room was surrounded by a lavender aura as the four turned to Twilight who's horn was glowing as she had a few tears sliding down her cheeks, "I'm sorry." The young princess said then a flash the four humans found themselves surround by guards whom had their weapons at the ready, an older white unicorn stallion with a grey mane was standing before them. His fur and hooves looked to be in immaculate condition as he cleared his throat and looked to the four humans whom had already raised their weapons and had them pointed at a guard each.

"Good afternoon er mare.."

"Lady and gentlemen." James corrected, still holding his weapon ready as he maintained the staring contest with the guard whom had his spear ready to lunge into his chest.

"Right, good afternoon lady and gentlemen, I do apologize for the way this looks. My name is Duke Cobalt and in keeping with the wishes of the royal diarchs you will be treated as ambassadors for... well whatever the name of your nation is. But we must inform you that weapons are not allowed on palace grounds other than in the possession of the royal guards. So if you would please turn over any and all weapons we can start with a more civil matter of teaching you the ways of the royal court before your meeting with the royal sisters."

"Thoughts?" Lt. Raine asked in a hush tone between the other three, the guards had started to show signs of their discipline faltering as the stand off progressed.

"Code of conduct would allow us to surrender ourselves considering the circumstances, but I don't like giving up my rifle," whispered Szwast.

"I think we have little choice," replied Mayakovsky.

"I have an idea, mind if I try a play sir?" James asked, maintaining his staring contest with his guard.

"What do have in mind?"

"Hand over the rifles to Szwast, who will go with them to the armory, we'll try to keep side arms or our knives at least."

"Worth a shot," answered the Lt.

James nodded and spoke up, "If we are expected to turn over all weapons then that is little difference to us than being taken as a prisoner of war, we'll turn over our rifles under the condition that one of our own will accompany them to your armory to oversee and insure that you do not try to sabotage them or copy their design, also we will be keeping our side arms and any blades to show to us that we in fact 'guests' and not prisoners."

"If your 'side arms' function the same as your 'rifles' then that is unacceptable, though I do suppose we can allow you to keep your blades, which one of you will be accompanying your weapons to our armory?"

"I will," answered Szwast as the others handed over their weapons to him and he then slung all of the rifles over his right shoulder before cradling the three other empty pistols in his right arm and quickly followed an escort of four guards, two of whom looked ready to attack at the wrong move.

After the sniper had left the room the other guards relaxed a bit, after a shooing motion from the Duke they exited, living only himself, the six mares and the three remaining humans. The Duke smiled and turned to the six friends, "your majesty, I do ask that you and your friends exit as well."

"Why should we!" Rainbow cried in objection before being dragged by her tail by Twilight's aura.

"It's the way the court works, don't worry we'll see them after they make their case at the Sun and Lunar Court later today" Twilight said as she and the rest gave their goodbyes and exited soon after.

With that the three humans started to explore the room and adjoining bathroom as the Duke simply watched them, James looked to the pony in question and quickly placed his garment bag on one of the four beds and unzipped it, before he turned to the stallion, "What exactly do you know about us, sir?"

"That you call yourselves humans and that you are to be treated as diplomats by the court. Though if you really are humans then there's only the legends of you being a disharmonious race with a strange magic that is unlike anything that is used by any ponies, not even the most imaginative of unicorn's magic."

"If advanced enough, technology and magic are indistinguishable," observed the liuetenant as he removed most of his gear and placed it on a chair.

"We don't use magic of any kind, it's all just really sophisticated and complex tools," explained James, whom had now taken off all his gear and was only in his cammies.

"I see, so what you used to freeze yourselves in those tombs that Princess Twilight Sparkle wasn't magic. That may be of interest of the royals in Canterlot, a lot of ponies may be looking to take advantage of such technology," Cobalt observed, "Though it is a given, you are hoping to get land and protection from the Princesses while your people rebuild, yes?"

Lt. Raine only nodded as he and James took a seat, Olga appeared to be taking advantage of the bathroom from the sound of running water coming from the closed bathroom doors. Cobalt took a seat at a small table in the room, the two men joining him and looked to the Stallion.

"Now if you are looking for land, you'll need support from the royal council and the Princesses themselves. The council runs the day to day operations of our nation, they are comprised of six families, the descendants of those that founded Equestria. Now since you're asking to have land turned over to your sovereign control, if four of the houses object to it then we cannot turn over that land. Now the houses are House Platinum, Clever, Hurricane, Pansy, Cookie and Pudding, named after the founder whom they are descendants from. Now your appearance in the court today will get you support from the Royal Sisters and should you convince them we can start courting the various houses. Now some of the heads of the houses will be in court so do try to make a good impression."

Lt. Raine looked to the Sergeant and nodded, "so which house do you belong to?"

"I'm actually the head of House Platinum, I'm also acting as your advocate in the court since outside dignitaries need a member of the royal families to represent them," Cobalt answered.

James and the Lt. looked to each other in mild shock before turning back to him, "if you hold so much power in your country, why risk your station to help a race that according to your legends are a threat to the peace and security that you enjoy now?"

Cobalt smiled looked to the two, "because, if you were like the legends then I doubt we'd be having this conversation right now. Tell me gentlemen, what manner of human are you?"

James simply smiled and shook his head, "'People sleep soundly in their beds, because rough men stand ready to commit violence on their behalf' George Orwell said that, I think that describes us perfectly. We are those whom had signed away our lives to protect and fight for our nation as well as the ideals that she stood for. At our core we value honor, courage and commitment above all else, we gladly endure the horrors of war so that our people will never have to."

"And what of your nation? Is it also so militaristic?"

Lt. Raine shook his head, "our nation was a democratic republic, it's power was split into three parts, Congress, the President and the Supreme Court. The President and Congress were elected by the people, were as the members of the Supreme Court were appointed and approved by the President and Congress, in theory the only power that the government had was what was given to it by the people."

"Why not just give power to your immortal equivalent of the Alicorn Princesses?"

"We don't have immortals," answered James.

"Interesting," mused Cobalt, "so what is the name of the country you represent?"

"Our country name is, well was the United States of America," the Lieutenant answered and gave a heavy sigh.

"Though the Ark project had citizens of several NATO nations, aaaaand other nations so I doubt naming it that would be wise," James interrupted.

Lt. Raine nodded and looked to the stallion, "I guess we can call it the Republic of Man till a better name is decided on."

The sound of the shower soon ended and a few minutes later while the three men were talking, Cpl Mayakovsky stepped out in her Dress Blue uniform, she talked with the stallion while the other two queued up to wash up and change into the ceremonial uniform.

Within the hour the four had made their way down into a foyer of the castle outside the large doors of the Court of the Royal Sisters. Each uniform looked well pressed and clean, with thanks to the help from a certain white fashionista. James and Olga paced and watched the small crowd of petitioners that gave worried looks to the three, they had noticed that a small group of gryphons with insignias much different from the one that was branded on that mutant that attacked them in Ponyville was brazen across a piece of armor across their chest. Unlike the ponies that looked at them with curiosity and in some cases fear they looked to them with hatred and disgust.

Before they could ask the Duke why the gryphons were there, the large doors were opened and a lone guard stepped out and announced for the Duke and the humans to enter. Quickly James and Olga took their place behind the Lieutenant and he gave the soft commands they drew their three swords and quickly made the ceremonial march inside only to have a harsh feminine voice yell in protest.

"What treachery is this Celestia?!"

----

Helga Keenclaw, rightful empress of the Gryphon Empire, stood before Princesses Celestia and Luna asking them to right the tretery of her brother Domi Windscar, he and his accursed beasts. There she was, standing over his beaten form when they had crashed through the windows, defiling the ancient proving grounds with their presence. They moved and attacked like nothing she had ever seen before, they looked like small fur-less minotaurs. She told the two rulers of this and had even called for them to make good on their treaty with her father and help her regain what was rightfully hers.

Luna looked to the proud young gryphon and then to her sister she spoke in a hushed tone to her sister, "Tia, we already know that some member of house Windscar do have those humans that have been deformed, I could have the Night Guard in the Gryphon Empire by the morn."

"The Night Guard are not assassins Lulu, we would need proof and even then it could spark a war with the Gryphons," Celestia whispered back.

"The humans won't like their people being in control of that gryphon."

Celestia cleared her throat and looked to the gryphon heiress, "we would need proof before we could help, but there are those that could help you while we investigate your claims, Valiant Shield, please get the humans."

One of the guards gave a quick salute and went to open the door to then three of the humans walked through the door in with a militaristic show, Celestia had to admit she was impressed how they had convinced Duke Cobalt to let them keep their swords. Though miss Keenclaw was less impressed.

"What treachery is this Celestia?!" The young gryphon yelled with righteous indignation, "these beasts are allied with my brother, worse yet they twist their own kind into abominations!"

James found himself unable to keep the rage of this creature's accusations, soon military baring gave way to pure rage as he broke away from the formation, as the young gryphon female kept hurling accusations and insults towards him and the other two, the royal guards quickly moved to try and intercept the human but before they could get close his hand had already gotten a firm grip on the gryphons claw and before they could move he had flipped the 'rightful empress' of the Gryphon Empire onto her bad and held his blade ready to pierce her throat.

"You insult my honor and impune my character again and I will personally send your race back into myth where they belong."

The gryphon female quickly quieted and looked to the human and gave a small nod that she understood though before the situation could deteriorate further James was encased in a blue aura and slammed into a nearby column and Luna looked to the guards, "take him to the dungeons, escort the other humans and Lady Keenclaw to my personal chambers to speak them, in private."