The Ambassador

“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!”

Lightning Strike pelted down the hall. He skittered as he turned, fighting to follow the path he had left. The loud clanging that was following him grew louder. Lightning clambered on, occasionally slipping on the smooth floor. He dared not stop.

Finally, he entered the janitorial section. The exit was near! Lightning veered right, diving past the door frame. He quickly turned, pawing at the door controls. His shaky hoof kept jabbing at the wrong buttons. Lightning flinched as the harsh clanking drew nearer and nearer.

“Please Celestia, shut the damn door!” As if by divine intervention (thank you, Celestia), the mechanism whirred, sealing the space. Hardly a second later, a loud bang erupted as a mysterious force collided with the door on the other side.

Lightning Strike heaved a sigh of relief. He collapsed, leaning against the door. Lightning began to giggle hysterically at his narrow escape. He was cut short as the monstrosity on the other side banged against the door again. And again, and again.

Lightning Strike stared in disbelief as dents rapidly began to appear.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

~~~

Spike uncurled as he awoke. He began to stretch, wary of nearby cottages. He had long since grown up, but leaving the castle just felt alien. In truth, he probably should find a cave to live in. It wouldn’t have to be far away. He could still visit Twilight when he liked.

Once she gets back, Spike reminded himself.

Spike yawned. He quickly remembered his mental note to visit Princess Luna. He spread his wings, and with a few mighty flaps, was off. The flight to Canterlot was less than ten minutes as a fully grown dragon. If there was one thing Spike could find pleasure in about out-growing his old home, it was the ability to fly.

The sky feels like home. Spike chuckled, remembering one of Rainbow Dash’s many interpretations of the joy of flight.

The majesty of the royal city quickly grew in sight. Spike carefully glided downwards, touching down outside the city border. The two royal guards posted outside the gate exchanged nervous glances.

“Uh… can we help you?” One of the stallions asked.

“I’m Spike. I’m here to see Princess Luna.”

The two guards shifted uncomfortably. “Um… I’m afraid we can’t let you in.”

Spike sighed, shaking his head. “I knew I should have written ahead.” He muttered to himself. To the guards, he added, “Look, I’m not here to burn the place down or anything. Just one of you go get a quill and parchment, please.”

The second guard, who had remained silent, hesitantly obeyed. He returned from inside the train station with the quill and paper.

“Okay, now here’s what I need you to write.”

~~~

There were a lot of things Twilight was not happy about. But bringing her herd with the human party was one thing she loathed. She still trusted Roman, though. So if he said they were safer traveling with protection, even out in the open, so be it. He had lived on this world longer than Twilight had.

A shadow passed overhead every once in a while, signaling Blazing gliding past, keeping a tight watch. At the head of the mismatched pack was a burly young man. Stud, if Twilight remembered correctly. His body language was stiff, and he refused to look anypony in the eye. He was downcast, somberly trudging forward, only sometimes checking a compass or scanning his surroundings.

No, that isn’t the face of a murderer.

Twilight had seen murderers in the past. But Stud wasn’t a power-hungry king, or a manic psycho Centaur. For some odd reason, Stud reminded Twilight of her first students.

It’s okay that you accidentally shot and killed one of our dear friends. As long as you truly regret it, we can teach you to find the true, true friend inside of you.

Twilight banished the snarky thought. She needed to set a good example. Already several ponies cast livid gazes at the humans near them. The tension was very obvious. But the humans were at least trying to be compassionate.

Two young men, boy-colts really, were carrying Shortstack on a makeshift stretcher. The poor Pegasus had been slipping in and out of consciousness. The boys traveled in the middle of the motley crew, and the majority of other humans surrounded the pack, all carrying firearms.

Twilight hoped there would be no further need for them, but knew in the back of her mind that that was just wishful thinking. More shots would be fired before they departed.

“Water break!” Caine shouted, bringing up his fist as he halted. Everyone stopped. A couple humans fished out canteens, and several ponies retrieved their own from saddlebags. The humans, who took pitiful sips before passing their canteen to the next eager mouth, threw confounded looks at the ponies, who took in generous mouthfuls.

Twilight felt rather uneasy. No doubt the comparison must seem to the humans as if the ponies were entitled. But they had never gone days scavenging for food and rationing water. These humans had been born fighting to live in a dangerous, corrupted world. Twilight’s eyes fell upon the man named Plumber, who had so far only glared threateningly at everypony.

Some of them, Twilight reminded herself, were already resentful of the herd.

~~~

“You have grown much, Spike.”

Princess Luna was surprised to receive the letter from the monstrous dragon. She had not seen him in many long moons. Yes, he had been too big for Twilight to bring on diplomatic missions for a long time, but he was not an adult dragon at that time.

And now, here he was, standing tall outside the city limits.

Spike shrugged. “Yeah… sorry we haven’t visited, Luna. We did come by Canterlot before Twilight left, but…”

“I regret being involved with other affairs at that time.” Luna nodded, hiding the sadness in her eyes. “But it is still pleasant to see you, my friend. What can I do for you?”

Spike fiddled with his claws. “Well, I was actually wondering… can you still see Twilight’s dreams?”

Luna shook her head despondently. “Princess Twilight has been far beyond my reach for many weeks now.”

“Oh.” Spike looked down dejectedly.

Luna flew up to meet Spike’s eyes.

“The last time I visited her in the realm of sleep, Twilight yearned to return to the comforts of home. She misses you very much, Spike. But she was still filled with eagerness and willpower. And I would expect nothing less from her.” Luna patted Spike’s snout reassuringly as she spoke.

Spike nodded gratefully.

“Come, Spike.” Luna motioned as she flittered down. “Let us catch up over afternoon tea. I’ll see to it that several pitchers are brewed.”

~~~

“In the name of all things good and holy!” Lightning Strike gasped. The door strained as it held back the maniacal force pounding at it. Lightning’s instincts screamed at him to run, but he couldn’t help but stare in a mixture of awe and horror.

Hit after hit, the thing on the other side never relented. Lightning pushed himself to his hooves, regaining his senses. He tried to remember what exactly was chasing him. He didn’t get a good look. But it was big. And it seemed to be made of flailing armored appendages.

Lightning Strike extended his wings and lifted up, allowing himself to move slightly faster through the hall. A dreadful crash sounded behind Lightning, and his heart sank as he realized that the door had caved in. Lightning dove back into the office he had claimed, slamming the door behind him.

Which of course, he knew, would not stop that beast. He felt the ground shake as thundering footsteps approached. Outside the window, the creature appeared. Lightning Strike’s fear was temporarily replaced by puzzlement. It was a human.

Okay, it was a large, bulging human with a hideous face that reeked of raw meat stuffed inside a suit of body armor. And it snarled at Lightning, its yellow eyes gleaming with fervor, drool dripping from its gaping mouth.

It reared its head back, and brought it against the glass of the window, shattering it instantly. Lightning could feel tears streaming down from his eyes. He felt like begging. Begging to be let go, because he was young, he had a family, he had never done anything wrong, there was so much to live for.

As the wretched creature of a human began to worm its way inside, an Earth-shattering chain of exploding noises went off. Lightning covered his ears, but to no avail. The hulking human was pelted by an unseen savior, trembling as invisible forces ripped through its body.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the human dropped dead from the window, belching a spurt of blood into Lightning’s face. He sat there, ears ringing, waiting for the world to stop spinning. Eventually, he noticed another figure approach the window. A human.

Lightning cowered as it kicked the door down. This human also wore a set of body armor, but it appeared to fit much better. The human knelt down in front of Lightning, and he noticed behind the visor of the helmet a pair of blue eyes staring at him intently.

Lightning’s vision began to fade, and before he passed out, he could just comprehend a female voice demanding, “How the Hell did you get here?”