Cinder found herself pacing back and forth inside what appeared to be a large ballroom. Her scaled feet clicked and clacked against the marble floors of the room, which was rather dim thanks to large velvet curtains covering the room's tall windows. She felt dozens of eyes on her back, mostly belonging to guards in crystalline, pink and purple armor. She knew, however, that six of those eyes belonged to the Princesses of Equestria, each of which could flatten her like a pancake without even trying.

The little dragon's heart raced in her chest, enough to hurt in fact. What would Dragonlord Ember and General Spike say now that she was the captive of the Equestrians? Would they want her dead or was this part of the plan the entire time? The thoughts were giving her a panic attack!

Cadance blinked a couple of times as she watched the little dragon grab either side of her head and whimper. "Is she going to be ok?" She asked her Alicorn compatriots.

"She's been like this since I brought her here," Twilight said rather dejectedly. "I think I might have made a mistake showing up at Pupa's door like that..."

"I think she should be ok, so long as the nobility shows up to mess everything up." Flurry Heart said, sitting down and crossing her arms over her chest. "What a bunch of-"

She was cut off by Cadence. "Flurry!" She chastised.

"I'm over a thousand years old mom! I can swear if I want to!" Flurry shouted, just before the door to the room slammed open and three unicorns marched in.

The first to enter was a tall Stallion, with white fur and blond hair, he wore an oily black tuxedo. A silver circlet rested on his head.

The second was a mare in a rich looking dress that seemed to shine with diamonds. Her fur was a deep blue, and her hair was almost bleached white. A rich platinum and sapphire tiara rested on her head as she looked at everyone in the room, even the princesses who ruled over her, with a sense of superiority.

The last to come in was a similarly all-white unicorn with black hair. He wore a suit of golden armor, Cinder recognized him as a member of the Equestrian Sun Guard, apparently, after Celestia nad Luna stepped down a thousand years ago, the Sun and Moon guards were relegated to more ceremonial roles, and the new Twilight, Crystal and Heart guards took up their roles.

Bleh, Equestrians had such lame names for military services. The Blazeguard had a much cooler name!

"Where is it!" The lead stallion said as he walked in, gazing around the room. "Where is the little salamander!"

His eyes eventually locked on the little yellow form of Cinder who looked up at him with a mix of fear, and offense. Salamander? Why that was like calling a pony a Cavehorse!

The armored stallion took a step back in disgust, before turning to the purple suited guards in the room. "Guards! Kill it before it has a chance to burn down the palace!"

The guards merely stood still or rolled their eyes.

Twilight took a step in front of the small dragon and glared at the Unicorns. "Since when, Golden Heart, did you have the authority to command my guards?" She asked with narrowed eyes.

Cadance stepped forwards to diffuse the situation. "Slick Sleen, Glossy Locks, Golden Heart. So nice to see you." She said in an obviously forced tone. Flurry Heart was obviously struggling to keep calm.

"Princess Cadance. It has been too long since we last talked. I hope your Protectorate is doing well." Glossy Locks, the mare, said taking Cadance's hoof into her own. Even Cinder, as bad as she was at politics and social cues, could tell Glossy meant that as a passive-aggressive insult.

Cadance, like a champ, took it all in strides. She inhaled through her nostrils before smiling down at the Unicorn. "It is, very well in fact. A recent trade agreement with the Minotaurs finally went through, so our economy has never been better."

"I certainly hope you got permission from the Princesses for that," Glossy replied before turning to Twilight and letting go of Cadance's hoof. Cadance's eye twitched.

"Like how you should have gotten permission from us before bringing this... thing to the capital!"

Twilight opened her mouth to say something before shutting it and placing a hoof between her eyes in exasperation.

Cinder just watched the Princesses and the Unicorns argue in a passive-aggressive manner before she felt a hoof on her back which caused her to jump in fright.

She adopted a defensive pose and quickly turned around to see Flurry Heart.

"Come on. I think we should get you out of here quickly before the Twilight and Cadance get actually angry. I heard the other leaders have arrived, we should meet with them." She said, gently leading Cinder towards the exit.

The Princesses and the Nobles were too busy talking to notice them leave.

Galatea sat at her chair in the large disk-shaped table that made up the global council's meeting room in Canterlot sullenly, idly sipping at a tea which a pony servant was more than eager to refill for her whenever it ran low. Garen stood behind her, still as a statue yet observing the room for any potential dangers.

The room was full of all manner of creatures, from the large forms of yaks, to the slender forms of Hippogryphs. Speaking of Hippogryphs, one, in particular, caught her eye. Or rather, he had been staring at her since he arrived.

The tall white and purple hippogryph wore a sold gold crown and a flowing purple cape over a similarly purple suit. He started to approach her, flanked by a blue adult gryphon, who was clearly an Admiral in rank, and a... blue teenager? She assumed he was the son of the Admiral. She guesses she couldn't judge if someone wanted to bring their kid with them to diplomatic meetings or not. She had been involved in those since she was ten.

Behind those three was a line of the purple uniformed linemen of the Hippogryph Empire. Purple Coats as they were endearingly referred to by Equestrians. The 6 soldiers each wielded a musket and a stood firmly, perfectly disciplined in their duty to protect their leader.

"King Velox... what a pleasure." She said in a faux-pas attempt at sounding diplomatic. "How has life in Greater Hippogryphia been treating you?"

King Velox smiled, as the teenaged hippogryph grimaced at her. "Oh, simply delightful, the Novan Dynasty has really fixed the problems House Gallus did during our ill-fated co-rulership. Our ocean empire has never been more powerful!" He said smugly, placing a claw on his chest and looking into the air with a smirk.

Galatea heard Garen grunt beneath his armor, glancing back they saw his eyes roll under his visor.

"Speaking of House Gallus's incompetencies," Velox said staring down at her with a sudden seriousness in his tone. "Why would your mother send a child in her place?"

Galatea's eyes widened before she shut them and looked away from the king. Velox raised an eyebrow and opened his beak to speak, but was shut up by the slamming of metal on stone.

Garen marched forwards and pressed his face against the King's, armored beak to beak. His eyes narrowed under his helmet. "Back off, Horsetail." He growled.

The King instinctively stepped back with fearful eyes as the teenaged hippogryph rushed in front of him, shielding him with his body. The Admiral stepped forwards and drew a saber, pointing the blade tip between Garen's eyes.

With seemingly unnatural speed, Garen raised his longsword and cut the flimsy saber blade in two, causing him to tumble back. The blue hippogryph looked at his destroyed blade then to Garen, who hissed and raised his shield, dropping into a combat stance.

"Spears up!" The Admiral suddenly shouted, and the King's Purple Coat guards raised their muskets, aiming them squarely at the knight.

All eyes in the room were now on the squabbling half birds. The Hippogryphs and the Knight did not notice as they stared each other down until the doors to the room slammed open.

The walk through the palace was a quick and uneventful one, the Princess leading Cinder through back passages and secret doors so as to not cause a ruckus amongst the pony guards and staff. Even then it only took them about five or ten minutes to traverse the entire length of the palace.

She thought it should have taken longer, but then again, she lived in a culture where the leaders were the size of mountains. She was used to castles and palaces taking hours or even days to traverse on her stubby little legs.

"Do... do you think some of the p-people you called would try to hurt me?" Cinder asked timidly out of the blue.

Flurry Heart suddenly straightened up and turned to the little yellow drake. She saw the fear plain in her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry," Flurry Heart said patting the dragon on the back. "I guarantee that the creatures on the other side of this door are perfectly stable and rational individuals."

The Alicorn, to prove her point threw open the doors and-

Immediately on the other side of the door was Garen, sword raised staring down six heavily armed Hippogryphs.

Cinder blinked several times at the sights as all eyes diverted from the standoff to the little yellow dragoness.

"That why you called Yaks here?" A deep voice said, belonging to a hulking, tall bull-like creature, who was surrounded by equally large creatures who wore scale mail armor and hide and iron helmets.

Cindar knew what those were. The dimwitted yet strong Yaks of the far north. She had heard they were the strongest creatures on the planet, baring the dragons of course, and should not be trifled with. She gulped before scanning the rest of the room.

The first thing she noticed was a rather sizable group of changelings off to the side, on the opposite end of the circular table in the center of the room from the bird people who had been fighting. There were six adult changelings of varying colors who wore flowing pale blue robes alongside necklaces which dangled from their necks, an eye-shaped insignia making up the pendant of the amulets. She recognized Pupa as one of them, making an educated guess that the six bug horses were the Council of Ocellus she had heard about.

Dactylus and Butterfly stood next to Pupa. Dactlyus merely looked bored out of his mind, while Butterfly was clearly excited from the way she was shaking, clearly looking at the many varied inhabitants of the room.

Next to the Changelings stood a Yak with dark grey fur, which was highlighted by small strands of white fur. He was obviously old, that much was for certain, though she couldn't guess how old he was. He wore a tribal crown and was escorted by four all black-furred guards, each of which holding a war axe that looked as heavy as Ash's entire body, a fully armored draconic elite.

She gulped and moved on. Next were the two groups of... bird things... that looked ready to murder each other. She had no idea why. As far as she was concerned, they looked almost identical, barring the fact that the ones in purple were taller and more slender in appearance. The all-white one sitting at the table did throw her off a little. She did a double-take after looking past her. At first, she assumed she was really old, what with how white her fur and feathers were, but no, she was a child!

Last, and certainly least as far as she was concerned, an all green pony sat in the corner, a notebook opened on her lap. She assumed she was a crystal pony, judging from the fact that despite lacking wings or a horn, she still seemed to shimmer with magic.

A large orange curtain seemed to divide the room in half just behind the table. She thought that was odd. Wasn't this an important meeting? What was amazing to her however, was the fact that in the middle of the room, the table surrounding it like a ring, was a pure crystal tree! It looked absolutely delicious! Her mouth couldn't help but salivate while she looked at it.

Flurry Heart stepped forwards.

"Excuse me. I could have sworn we all agreed, centuries ago, that this room was neutral ground and that there would never be any blood spilt here, for all time?" She said marching into the room.

The armored bird with the shield grunted.

"Feh," he hissed, sheathing his sword and marching away, standing behind the snow-white gryphon and returning to a completely still guard pose.

The taller slender birds grunted and returned to their section of the table, the one with the crown sitting down.

"Far be it from me to deny the will of my great great great grandfather." He sighed.

"As far as Prince Yerick concerned, he not make treaty, so it not matter to him." The massive dark grey yak said as he too sat down at the table, crushing the chair he tried to claim for himself, but he didn't care.

The six changelings of the council quietly bowed to the princess and were the last to take their seats.

Flurry sat down too, bringing Cinder with her and putting a chair next to her for her to sit on. She took it and gulped, expecting a barrage of questions and insults she wouldn't have been able to deal with. Instead everything remained quiet. For several minutes nothing happened as everyone in the room simply stared at her, although the Hippogryph with the crown started thrumming his claws on the table after the first minute went by.

"Of course those two would be the ones to keep us waiting. Far be it from the purple wonder to be punctual." He grumbled under his breath.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the doors opened again, and Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance entered the room, with visible bags under their eyes. They were followed by the three nobles from before, who marched in smugly.

The doors were closed behind them as the Nobles took their seats, between the changeling council and the princesses, while Twilight and Cadance sat to Cinder's left.

Cinder could have sworn she heard one of the Unicorn Nobles mumble something about 'having to sit next to filthy bugs' but she ignored it. She had always been taught that ponies, especially Unicorns, were a very specist lot.

Flurry Heart stood up with a smile. "Now then, if there are no further interruptions, allow me to begin the 756th meeting of the Global Council open. We shall first bring up the following issue, the possible resurgence of the draconic-"

She was cut off when a guard rushed into the room, slamming the doors behind her, panting heavily, as if he had just ran the length of the entire palace as fast as she could.

Flurry Heart looked straight into the air and groaned loudly. "What is it!" She shouted in annoyance.

The guard looked up to see all eyes in the room, baring those of Cinder, was staring at her in pure annoyance.

"H-he..." She started as she caught her breath. She only succeeded in getting everyone more annoyed in her.

"Well! Spit it out mare!" Golden Heart, the armored noble, shouted at her.

"He's here." She finally said. The looks of annoyance in the room instantly turned to a tense sense of dread or pure fear.

"Wh-who's he?" Cinder asked Flurry Heart. She got no response.

"MY HERO!" Dactylus suddenly cried in pure glee as he took to the air, his wings buzzing as he brought his forehooves to his face, shaking with excitement as the sudden sound of metal striking stone became aware to her. She knew what that sound was. The sound of something in metal armor marching towards her.

The doors to the room slammed open for the fourth time that day, only this time, the force was enough to produce a burst of wind which put out every candle, torch, and brazier in the room, leaving it in total darkness, aside from the glow of the Crystal Tree.

Cinder saw a sight that made her heart filled with a sense of danger. She felt that she could die soon, just from looking at it.

It was a black silhouette with two glowing purple compact eyes that seemed to stare into her very soul. Sharp, violent looking mandible shaped antlers emerged from its head, alongside a horn, forming a three-pronged crown-like shape.

It was flanked by two additional silhouettes of the same shape, although they lacked the glowing purple eyes. Every torch in the room reignited with cyan fire, giving her a better view of the creature.

It was a changeling, that much was obvious, and its antlers were blood red, while his carapace was a dark, dark cyan. He wore a black opened military overcoat over armor that was the same shade as his carapace.

Two Pharates stood on either side while he marched forwards, an oddly out of place warm, kind smile on his face which did nothing to alleviate her fears or the tenseness of the room.

"Did you seriously think you could have a global meeting without me?" He said in a flat, almost emotionless voice. "Oh Twilight. I'm hurt."

Author's Note

I'm back baby!

Yeah, I don't know why I got really sad about the fact that this story was underperforming, but screw it, I am gonna write this story and not give a damn about how well it does XD