Equestria 2150

Chapter 6

“No, no, the setup is all wrong! If you want the representative to agree to our terms than you need to cater to what they like!"

“Darlin', from the sounds of him, he don’t care too much.”

“Oh, coming from the barn pony who knows nothing of decorating.”

“This commin' from a pony who don’t even know the name of the representative who’ll be showing up!”

This was all that could be heard in the main hall of Canterlot castle- the bickering of Rarity and Applejack. Twilight sat at the head table, reading the profile of the General Razgriz, the pony who was supposed to be arriving in less than an hour. She looked over the top of the folder to see the two friends arguing about how the stupid room looked. Rarity wanted it to be black and deep blue, with the table being a dark red. Applejack said to leave it plain, fitting the nature of the General.

“We should put some gemstones along the edge of the tables.” Rarity suggested, only to get her hopes stomped on by Twilight.

“No.” The alicorn said, not looking up from her profile folder. “We don’t have any in supply.”

Applejack smirked, and countered Rarities’ idea.

“I think we should ship some apples from Sweet Apple Acers up here to have in baskets along the center of the table. Ya know, for snacking!” she smiled at Twilight, who once again turned the idea down.

“We’re having our meal catered due to the time constraint. We have exactly one hour to please him, loosen him up so he’ll see the error of their nation’s ways, and tell him why there should be peace. After that, we wait to hear what they want to do.”

This time it was Rarity’s turn to smirk at Applejack, who only stuck out her tongue in response.

“So we just need to talk nicely, and then they’ll end the war?” the timid voice of Fluttershy asked, only just audible over the chatter of the ponies. Twilight looked up from Razgriz’s profile, and the rest of the girls followed her gaze. Fluttershy shrunk down. Her friends were glaring at her.

“Look, Fluttershy.” Twilight said. “I know you want this to work, and trust me. So do I. But sadly, it may not work out, so don’t get your hopes up.”

Fluttershy looked at the ground, but nodded.

“Alright, so who is this General Razgriz Twilight?” Rainbow asked her purple friend.

“He is the General Razgriz. He was second in command back when Luna was first banished. Soon after she was, he was caught for continuing her work. They said that he had executed several troops for siding with Celestia. Basically, he was a monster. Though now he mainly handles the political work now.” Twilight explained.

“You should know that, Rainbow, you just got into the Wonderbolts. Isn’t that on the entry test?” the purple pony added with a tilt of her head.

“I don’t know, I kinda just fell asleep.”

“Wait, how in the hoof did you get into the Wonderbolts if you didn’t pass the entry test?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I just made the point of the fact that I can fly faster than all of them.”

“What? That worked?”

“Yeah. Well, it was during the physical. I scored with one hundred percent. It allowed me to just pass with a seventy.”

Twilight was seething with rage at this point. She had a hard time grasping the possibility of passing a test without writing it Applejack saved Rainbow Dash from a lengthy lecture by taking Twilight around her neck with her hoof.

“Let’s all just be glad that she got in ,huh? Say, the Wonderbolts are a part of the military, you should start finding out what is going on at the front, right?”

Rainbow Dash nodded solemnly. “It’s not going good. The first assault on an encampment south of Ponyville was a slaughter. They took about six hundred troops, scientists and construction workers as prisoners. And anypony who didn’t take that route… they were shot. By Razgriz himself, if what I have heard is correct.”

All the girls gasped.

“No, that can’t be right. The profile that Celestia herself wrote up for me states, ‘Was once a ruthless killer, but now only leads the political, strategic and civilian sectors. He is to be treated as trustworthy, and loyal. He will more than likely have a closed mind in the subject of peace, and therefore, you are to do everything you can to sway his mind towards peace at all costs.’”

Rainbow shook her head. “No. Spitfire herself told me that she had a friend stationed there, and that she got an SOS transmission from him. It said that they were going around to the different buildings and killing everypony one by one.”

All the girls looked shocked, but Fluttershy in particular was shaking.

“I-Is he g-going to k-kill us?” she stammered out, almost tearing up as she did so. Applejack trotted over to comfort her.

“No darling, I don’t think he would do that. It’s wrong, and it would escalate the war very quickly.”

Twilight looked at the clock in the room. The General was supposed to be here at two; he had five minutes left.

“Girls, get ready. He’ll be here soon.”

-

Razgriz trotted back and forth in front of the conference room. He had done his pre-meeting briefing on the flight and learned a lot about the girls. They were all friends, and close friends at that. Second was that they possessed the powers of the Elements of Harmony. They had beaten many foes together with the power of friendship.

This baffled the general. How can you defeat anything with an idea? All that Razgriz knew about defeating enemies were spells, swords and guns. Lots of guns. He shook the thought off. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He desperately wanted peace for both the nations, but the terms were outrageous for the Lunar Army to surrender to.

When it was precisely two o’clock, the general knocked on the large doors. They swung open to reveal the girls sitting at an oval table. The room was brightly lit, and there was an odd sort of sparkle to the white walls and floor. Around the table were seven comfortable chairs, one of which was not occupied.

Razgriz noticed immediately that the six ponies sitting the remaining chairs were looking at him. There were two earth ponies, two pegasi, one unicorn and one alicorn, like himself. The earth ponies and pegasi sat across from each other, and the alicorn sat at the head of the table. All of them had elemental necklaces on, with the princesses on a crown.

“Hello General Razgriz. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack.” Twilight said, stepping off of her chair to meet the visitor. Razgriz Bowed to her, which caught the princess by surprise. She bowed in return, and got another surprise. Razgriz snapped a sharp salute to Twilight, and said, “General Razgriz reporting for the conference. Permission to sit down?”

Twilight had no idea what to do. She looked toward her rainbow friend (who was in a military organization) for guidance. Rainbow Dash saluted herself, and nodded her eyes toward it. Twilight attempted a salute, and gave Razgriz permission to sit down. He nodded and sat down. Rainbow Dash giggled at Twilight the whole time Razgriz seated himself. At this point, there was awkward silence for about a minute. Razgriz was the one to break it.

“So, one minute has gone by. You now have fifty nine minutes to tell me why peace is a good idea.”

Twilight shuffled, ruffling her wings. “Well, I was hoping you could have some food with us, and then we could talk about the negotiation.”

Razgriz shook his head.

“Sorry, protocol forbids it.”

“Um, not to be rude or anything, but why?”

“Poison.” Razgriz blankly said.

“Oh. Wait, you think we would poison you?”

Razgriz just shook his head, not wanting to say more than he needed to.

“That may be true but we thought you were sent here to kill us!” Pinkie blurted out almost joyfully.

“Pinkie!”

“Darling!”

“What in tarnation Pinkie!”

“What? It’s true! Fluttershy said so herself!”

“But that doesn’t give you the right to say it in front of our guest!” Rarity cried.

“I know honesty is my thing, Pinkie, but ya might want to keep these feeling down.”

“Oh, so like the fact Celestia suggested an ambush to kill Razgriz?”

“Pinkie!” all the girls yelled at the same time.

This kind of bickering went on for some time. All the while Razgriz sat there, his smirk growing bigger and bigger. At some point, Twilight gave up, and her head hit the table, making a loud thump. This somehow grabbed everyponie’s attention. They all looked at Razgriz, who still had the biggest smirk on his face.

“I’m sorry you had to see that, General.” Twilight said apologetically. She then mumbled, “If my friends weren’t such dolts then this would be done by now.”

“I guess the report to Luna won’t be a good one?”

She looked up to see Razgriz still smirking.

“What is so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s just the profile of you ponies spoke so highly of you all. And by the way, all of what you said, Pinkie, it’s not very surprising.”

The girls looked confused, and unsure of how to respond.

“Oh good! I thought I had said something bad!” Pinkie cheerfully spouted. A couple of the girls gave her a death glare.

Twilight simply gave Razgriz an ‘oh, for bucks sake’ type of look. Razgriz smiled and mouthed the words “It’s okay.” to her, to which she smiled in response.

“Besides, if you had nothing but trust in me, you wouldn’t have the Elements of Harmony with you.” Razgriz said, pointing to all the girls in a sweeping motion. The girls instinctively covered their necklaces with a hoof, and Twilight took her crown off.

“How did you know about our elements?” she asked slowly.

“You think you ponies are the only ones that do research?”

Razgriz looked at the clock. His aircraft would be back in a few minutes to pick him up, and if he wasn’t there…

“Look, I need to get going now.” Razgriz said, standing up. The girls blurted a flurry of words, but Razgriz kept walking until Twilight stopped him.

“Look. Please, don’t say anything bad about us.” Her ears drooped down.

“My brother… he’s in the Royal Guard. I don’t want him, or anypony else, to get hurt if they don’t need to. We can end this war, here and now.” Twilight said, poofing up a document.

“This letter states that you will surrender your forces to us, and for all of your troops to go through a screening process to see if they are fit to live in Equestria. If they are, they will live under a guard for a while, and if they are good, they will no longer be watched.” Twilight explained. She was about to say more, but Razgriz held up a hoof.

“I can’t sign that. That job lies in the hoofs of Luna. I’m sorry, Twilight, but you will just need to wait.”

Razgriz started to walk away, but Twilight called out his name and he turned again. She held out a hoof, her mouth opened as if wanted to say something, but couldn’t. Razgriz supplied the words for her.

“Maybe after this is all over… we can hang out sometime?”

“With my friends? Or just you and me?”

“Whichever you want, Twilight.” Razgriz replied with a smile and a very brief wink. Twilight blushed and averted her eyes. With a nod of his head, Razgriz walked off to the pick up zone, leaving the ponies confused as to how a pony like this could capture Twilight’s eye.

The ponies stood in silence for a minute, then Rarity cleared her throat.

“Darling, did he just…”

“Just drop it Rarity.

“But-“

“Drop it.” Twilight said, still looking where Razgriz was a minute ago. She sighed deeply, closing her eyes, and wandered off to her room here at the Canterlot Castle to get some sleep. The rest of the girls did the same. Even though it was early in the day, they all felt like that they would need it.