Prologue: March to war

All men should owe loyalty to their country. No man should ever be called upon to show it.

Thomas Michler

Canterlot Palace, Private access balcony, 2000 hours

"Mr. Ambassador..." Princess Celestia began, like she had the hundred times before when addressing the griffon who had been with her all evening. He had a name, of course, but she couldn't bring herself to use it. Having a name usually meant sentience. Sentience meant that he had feelings. And if he had feelings, it made it that much harder to see him for the animal he was behind that silver tongue.

Yeah, that's right. Princess Celestia, the guardian of the sun and keeper of love, light, and happiness, the paragon of justice, hated someone. Granted, when that someone is a representative of a nation which was never on good terms with her own, it was justifiable. Still, she couldn't help but feel as though her thousand years of attempting to maintain peace along the border of Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom were about to jump down the drain, not even having the courtesy to wait to be pushed there. As princess of that nation, it was her job to protect all of her little ponies, not send them in to a pointless war with a physically superior force when all that would be needed for the two to avoid the conflict was for a single griffon to admit that he was wrong, and that a tribe of raiders did in fact cross the border and burned down a mining camp. That wasn't so much to ask, was it?

But no. Turns out, you can't really negotiate with a war-minded species like that. Instead, you'll just end up arguing over the state of your borders. It got frustrating, to see the least.

Thankfully, before things could get explicit within the confines of the solar alicorn's mind, the griffon ambassador spoke up. Unfortunately, it had to be the griffon ambassador that spoke up before things got explicit. Oh, Celestia, she thought, recognizing immediately the irony of thinking that to herself. Oh, me, why did it have to be him?

The ambassador may or may not have noticed the princess's distraction, but if he did, he didn't care. "I don't know about you, Celestia..." he began saying before quickly being cut off.

"Princess Celestia," she corrected him. True, she frequently pointed out to everypony who talked to her that she didn't particularly like being called princess, but that was just the thing about it- those were ponies. Not to say that she was racist, it's just that on diplomatic visits like these- it was always a diplomatic visit when a griffon was invited into the palace- she wouldn't hesitate to pull rank. "Or Princess, if you're feeling like using some kind of shorthoof, but never just Celestia. 'Tis informal."

"Of course, Princess." The griffon all but spat the words, as though he was sure that they would leave some kind of foul taste in his mouth. Granted, it was in his nature- no, his species' entire culture- to show some disdain to those whom one should consider their enemies, to do so to a princess of Equestria was unspeakable. Celestia noted the tone, but decided against mentioning it. "As I was suggesting, I would greatly appreciate it if we were to move to your palace's dining hall for dinner, as well as possibly moving on to less... violent subjects?" His voice had quieted, though it wasn't quite ready to fade away yet. Too much needed to be done.

Almost surprisingly to him, Celestia shared that sentiment- at least, the one about being hungry. "Very well, then. Please remember, I expect the same formality while you are addressing the other princesses."

The walk through the hallways of the palace was long, tedious, and terribly, terribly, boring. Neither of the two spoke to the other as they made their way to the dining hall, the only noises being the occasional sound of armor shuffling around as the guards would snap to attention at Celestia's presence. He did his best to remain silent, choosing to admire the paintings and tapestries adorning the hallways rather than attempt conversation. He was so intimidated by Celestia at this point that he feared he may not be able to complete the one task he was sent here to do. He had to say, he would miss that palace when his own military burned it to the ground. These painting were beautiful, and even better, likely priceless. He passed one such painting, containing two young alicorn fillies, one white, one midnight blue, flanked by two fully grown alicorns, one jet black, the other a stark white. Below the painting there was a small brass plaque denoting the only known interpretation of the celestial sisters from their fillyhood. Such a shame, he thought. That's a four thousand year old painting.

Finally, after what seemed like hours but was likely no more than a few minutes, the two finally found there way to the dining hall. As the ambassador looked at it from the grand doorway at the top of the stairs leading into the room, he couldn't help but notice how... modest it was. He couldn't possibly imagine that many of the servant's quarter's were bigger than this room (after all, he came from a place where there were quite a few servants, there needed to be a very large amount of space to accommodate them all). A small dining table was placed in the center of the room, adorned by several bowls full of salads and fruit, with silver plates placed at five places along its length. From the looks of it, the table could accommodate no more than eight ponies at any given time- there must have been another hall in the palace for the times when the princesses needed to entertain more guests. There were another three alicorns seated at the table, in case one wasn't enough for the ambassador. All, however, were looking very impatient, as though they had been waiting for quite some time for the two to come back.

Fortunately, before he had to explain anything, Celestia spoke up. "I'm sorry, everypony, but things took longer that we expected them to. I won't bore you with details, worry not." she said as she took her seat at the head of the table, opposite a violet colored alicorn, whom he presumed was Twi- er, Princess Twilight Sparkle. She wore gold horseshoes labeled with a magenta, six-pointed star and a small gilded chest plate with the same design, though he noted the lack of a crown on her head. He had heard quite a bit about her since her Ascension- and knew enough to understand she hated wearing the thing. To her right sat a pink one. with purple tipped wings. She wore much the same outfit, save for the material and insignia- a light blue crystal and a gold-trimmed crystal heart of the same color, respectively. Cadence, then.

His eyes then fell upon the real reason he wouldn't enjoy the fall of Equestria- the midnight blue alicorn seated next to the head of the table, whereupon Celestia would soon be seated. Princess Luna, the lunar alicorn, truly the most beautiful mare in Equestria- no, of the entire planet. Of course, he would never say that to her face- the last stallion who tried that ended up with the hospital with both eardrums blown right open, with internal bleeding causing serious damage to his brain. Apparently, Luna didn't like it when ponies tried to flirt with her. Or maybe, she just doesn't like stallions. Either way, the ambassador knew he had no chance, which is the only reason he was possibly able to justify the future his King had in store for her.

Only now just noticing how much of a fool he looked like, standing at the top of the stairs admiring the view, he slowly waked down the stairs and took his place at the table, across from Luna. He hardly spoke throughout the meal, listening intently as Celestia explained to her fellow monarchs the situation along the border, right down to the last bloody detail. The scariest part was that she got almost all of it right.

"That's horrible!" the pink and violet ones half-screamed in unison, glaring eyes like daggers shooting towards the ambassador. Finally, he had his chance. Here goes, then!

The griffon there never really bragged about it, but he had served his own nation faithfully for twenty years in their own pseudo-military. He was not afraid of anything his King asked of him, even if it meant intentionally starting a war, going against everything his political studies had taught him. Above all- and he would brag about this part- he was not afraid of death.

"That's hardly the entire story, Princesses," he began to say. A smile, while hardly capable of physically appearing across his beak, began to take hold of his mind. He was going to enjoy this. "I completely understand Princess Celestia's concern here, mind you all. I'd be worried, too, if a hostile force came over the border and started not only living, but mining on my own people's land. And in fact, I am quite worried that such a thing has already happened. That mining camp was, by any reasonable means, our land!" The ambassador was standing at this point, as though being on all fours would somehow allow him to get everypony angrier.

Luna soon joined him, her magically augmented voice echoing throughout the halls of the palace despite the all the doors being closed. "WHAT!" she cried, causing the other princesses to recoil in fear, though the ambassador stood his ground. Undeterred by his newfound resolve, however, Luna pushed that fight. "YOUR LAND? YOU DARE TO WALK INTO OUR CASTLE, NAY, OUR HOME, AND ACCUSE US, MY SELF, MY FAMILY, MY NATION OF STEALING YOUR LAND!"

A simple response. "Yes." The griffon was doing his best to appear calm and collected. He failed miserably, to say the least.

"WE DEMAND YOU RETRACT SUCH CLAIMS IMMEDIATLY!"

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, Princess Luna. In fact, I come with a demand of my own." He knew full well, of course, that it was actually Equestria's land. He knew as well that this would be the reaction. "I stand to demand that you remove your subjects from our land at once."

"No." To everypony's surprise, it was Celestia who spoke up now, joining her sister in standing, herself an intimidating height above the griffon.

"You refuse to relinquish our territory to us? This would mean war, Princess."

How quick these animals are to move straight to violence in the face of the unfamiliar, Celestia thought to herself. She looked over at Twilight and Cadence, who sat with worried looks on their faces, though nevertheless indifferent when faced with the option of war. Looking at Luna, she could tell her sister obviously approved. "So be it." she said.

Before the griffon could even begin to formulate the question of whether or not she should take the council of the rest of the princesses, however, Twilight's voice spoke up as she too stood. "So be it."

Cadence stood, joining her sister-in-law. "So be it."

Luna did her best to calm her voice before saying in a much quitter, if no more polite, tone, "So be it."

Celestia spoke once again. "Then we have an agreement. Guards, if you would escort this... thing to the dungeon. While you're at it, call for a royal messenger- I have a letter to write."

The griffon was dragged away by two unicorn stallions, there golden hued magic grasping tightly onto every inch of his body. "So be it!" he continued to call as he was "hostilely escorted" from the premises. "SO BE IT!"

Several hours later, the two celestial sisters had joined each other on a balcony overlooking the city of Canterlot. Cadence and Twilight had retired for the evening, though the solar alicorn doubted they'd get to much sleep. After a long, though not necessarily uncomfortable, silence, Celestia spoke up. "Sister, you will need to being training Twilight and Cadence the ways of war."

"Sister, are you sure Equestria is ready for war? I mean, it has been a thousand years since we've even spoken of the possibility. Are you certain our military forces are competent?"

"It is not our military I worry about- they are well trained and well armed, if inexperienced. It is those two who concern me."

"If I am to teach them, what will you be doing?" Luna's expression displayed genuine concern. Though she had always been the more militarily minded of the two, she didn't enjoy the concept of war itself.

"I will stay here, in Canterlot, to oversee the political side of things. Now, go. Get some rest."

Luna left without another word. She had a long ways to go before she would feel that Twilight and Cadence were ready for battle. It's going to be a long war...

Author's Note

Yay, another one! I know, Fearless is on hiatus, and a lot of you are probably mad at me for it. But just for the hay of it, let's see how this one does! EDIT: I kid you not, first fave in 14 seconds. That means a lot to me.