Author's Note

Also, I say somepony when Im speaking about somepony's point of view and somebody when Im narrating.

And if you dislike the story, I would like to know why.

Briefing

As the first hints of spring approached the land, fear controlled Celestia's mind, fear caused by the love she had towards her subjects, for who she would give her own life if necessary. God forbid her of being that way ever.

The four kingdoms, Griffonstone, Equestria, the Skydive Hippogriffs and the nameless Dragon Lands would have their yearly congress. It ussually wasn't that big of a deal, but that very year, the dragons would decide, by their traditional methods, their new leader. As usual, the dragons that desired the title would have to fight one another until only obe remained standing, the new king. Pretty barbaric in Celestia's opinion, but it was their tradition, she was in no position to judge them, or so she thought.

Many Dragons would join the fight, but only two had the chance of winning. Lance Bloodscales, known to have taken away hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in the previous wars against the Dragon Lands, hence the name. Prince Whitefire was the next (and preferred) option. Son of the actual king, proven to be very skillful both in politics and battle. His father made sure he was the best at both, training him in two battlefields. One of them were the front lines of the war between the Griffins and the Dragons fifty years ago in which the Dragons made the Griffins surrender thanks to Whitefire's participation. The other one were the classes of politics he imparted his son (the hardest in Whitefire's opinion). Lance, however, wasn't born in royalty, meaning that he had no sense of politics or relationships with other nations. He was driven by the same ideals of every common Dragon, treasury. If he won, he would most likely start a war with both Griffonstone and Equestria, for one had innumerable amounts of gold, and the other too many gem mines.

The Dragons are very strong, and their greed even more so, but even then, they would most likely lose the war due to the combined effort of two strong kingdoms. They would however, leave a scar in the land. Towns and cities would be burnt down and corpses of Griffins, Ponies and Dragons would be found everywhere, feeding the trees as they rot. The war would be written in the history books and in the minds and bodies of the survivors, most of who would probably end up in asylums or hospitals for the rest of their lives.

The actual king would have been another option but he wad too old, he wouldn't fight. His son was the only hope for Equestria and Griffonstone.

If Whitefire won, he would avoid the massacre and maintain the so wanted peaceful relations with the rest of nations, saving thousands of lives and, even if it wasn't remotely as important, save the economy of the three kingdoms. Besides, Dragons, Ponies and Griffons would then agree to make an alliance to eliminate the Griffin bandits, who had been harassing Griffonstone and Equestria for the last fourty-five years.

You see, the Griffin-Dragon war mentioned before had left Griffonstone with a great damage to their treasury, mostly from the surrender conditions. The first five years they tried to reestablish their economy but failed to do so. Many then turned into bandits, stealing coin from citizens and themselves, tired of waiting for a change. The situation was dire for their species, the little money they had was being stolen by bandits, there wasn't an obvious way out of those problems. That's when miracles tend to happen, as if life gave a second chance, wanting to keep its work of art intact, for three years later, king Grober would find the idol of Boreas and the Griffins would be restored to their former glory. The bandits would have returned to society, but after committing several crimes you can't be forgiven that easily, not in Griffonstone. So they kept stealing and murdering, and at some point they extended their range to Equestria as well, Ponies were very much easier to steal from. The Dragon Lands were left intact though, they once made the mistake of stealing from Dragons, resulting in serious damage to themselves, it wouldn't happen again.

To make it all worse, some of them decided to help each other and became an organization, they were currently the biggest threat in the bandits side. They called themselves the Black Paw, and their leader, Fur Beak.

What about the Hippogriffs you ask? They would remain neutral at all costs. They didn't have anything of value to the Dragons nor had a proper army. They had and would keep living through commerce, their pearls were desired by the richest everywhere (Except by Dragons and mostly by Ponies). They also exported water, the purest and cleanest ever been, for they lived next to lots of lakes, worked by themselves. No one knew how they made it but they weren't questioned either.

Summarizing, there was no reason to worry about them.

The ones Celestia had to be worried about were the Dragons. She hoped that Whitefire won, but she had to prepare for the worst scenario. She had already lost her teacher and her beloved teacher. She wouldn't lose anypony else.

For this congress, she had chosen the best of the best in terms of politics. If there was anypony capable pf stopping the war in case Lance won, it was him.

The princess rose from her throne and walked out of the throne room, headed to the castle barracks. Out of the gigantic doors there was a big corridor, the walls were of white marble. More doors could be found, made of mahogany wood, chosen by herself, with a noticeable separation between each one. Torches, who weren't on fire since it was still midday and the light came from the sun and entered through glass windows, were present as well, one on top of each door. The guards had silver armor and spears made of the same metal, shining brightly. It all looked like it was painted by a very skillful artist since everything was unnaturally still, even the guards, who moved even less than the walls, Celestia was the only thing moving through the hall. She entered the last door to the left which inside had a square staircase leading to the basement where the castle barracks were located. It was grey coloured and very spacious, up to at least a mile long and half a mile tall.

Although the place had lots of weapons in display, enough to gear up more than fifty soldiers, there weren't either long swords, spears, battle axes nor bows.

Several ponies, all pegasi, were training. Some practicing hoof to hoof combat while others were training in the art of the sword or daggers.

As soon as Celestia entered the room everyone there gathered together and saluted the princess, awaiting orders. She simply called out a name.

"Blade Blur!"

The answer was almost instant.

"Here!" Shouted a grey mare, she had a robe with a hood, the same colour of her fur, which hid her tail and cutiemark. The only hole existent in it was for the wings. A part of her mane could be seen though, it descended from the hood to her neck, it was black and wavy. Blue eyes accompanied her inexpressive face, facing forward, only wanting to receive her mission and complete it.

"You will go to Manehattan and bring Policy here, Soundless John will ecort you both in the train back, with so many bandits around you can't take any risks. Is that understood?" When she said she wouldn't lose anypony, she meant anypony.

"Yes Princess!" She shouted back.

"Good. The rest of you don't have a mission. Dismissed!"

Blade flew out of the castle towards her destination, while the rest of the guards stayed and kept training until further notice.

Celestia then returned to the throne and sat once again. She closed her eyes, wishing that everything turned out the way she wanted.