In Manehattan, in the penthouse of the highest building, there was a troubled stallion who was walking back and forth in his living room, clearly worried.

There was a coffee table between the couch and the fireplace, full of papers of all kind. Newspapers, top secret documents and more. Those papers were the cause of his worries, for the newspapers told about the Dragons “elections” and the secret documents were about the same topic, but also explaining in detail the possible winners and the results it would have on Equestria depending on who won.

Policy knew this meeting could go wrong if there wasn’t a good delegate to stand for Equestria in case an undesired Dragon was “elected”, so he was already preparing himself for the Congress, weighing his options on what to propose and how to approach the Dragon’s leader on each case.

He didn’t have much time to think about it though, for a certain hooded pegasus quickly landed on the yard walked towards the door and knocked it twice, while the wind softly levitated the part of her mane that could be seen, imitating the movement that a mother would do to help her baby fall asleep.

It didn’t take her more than half an hour to go from Canterlot to Manehattan, never getting tired nor slowing down on the voyage there. A feat that would have impressed even the Wonderbolts.

Policy saw the mare and realized that his time had run out. In a matter of seconds, he packed all of his papers in a suitcase, got his keys and dressed with a tie and a hat. He then walked out of his house and locked the door behind him. It almost looked like he had practiced for that moment. He seemed rushed, but also sure of what he was doing, he had clearly done that in the past more than a few times.

The orange stallion wanted to get the job done as fast as he could, he almost didn’t pay attention to the mare as he spoke.

"Meet me at the train station." Was the only thing he said to her while walking fast to the elevator.

"There’s a change of plans sir." Returned Blade coldly, her voice soft but imperative.

The stallion stopped dead in his tracks, the wind having less effect in his brown mane since it was very short.

With a shocked face he turned around, any change could drastically ruin his schedule to success, and in such a sensible matter it could be catastrophic. "How so?" was the only thing he managed to ask. His facial expression similar to the one anybody would have if you told them that their girlfriend is pregnant.

"We are headed towards Canterlot; her highness wishes to speak to you." answered the grey mare, unamused by the face.

"Of course! How could I be so blind? She will probably speak to me about what should I propose or defend there! Anyway, a carriage would be too slow and we would be late for the congress so we are still taking the train right?" His tone instantly morphed from worried to exited when guessing all of that.

"We are indeed. Here." From her robes she pulled out a train ticket and offered it to the politician, who gently took it with his left hoof. "Train number two, Soundless John will be waiting for you alongside me. Do not make us wait." Stated Blade, as coldly as before.

"Don’t worry, I won’t. If anything you should worry about being there late." said the stallion joking. Almost as if they were longtime friends, which, although she never expressed it by any means, made the pegasus uncomfortable at first. She then remembered who she was dealing with. Policy. One of the most intelligent minds of Equestria. He could memorize anything in a matter of minutes or even seconds. He graduated as a lawyer and climbed his way up to the top of Canterlot, ending up as Celestia’s favourite delegate and diplomat. All secrets were shared with him and he knew everything about everypony. Job, routine, leisure time activities, showering method, favourite colour, and more. One of the reason he had stayed single his whole life, no one was comfortable around him. It was only normal he acted like that towards her.

Another, less interesting, and obvious, fact about him was that he had a slightly longer chin than most ponies.

The mare flew to the station while the stallion walked to the elevator, being unable to fly he would have to take a cab to reach the arranged place.

He entered the elevator and marked the ground floor, again, with his left hoof. He had a confident face on the way down, with his long chin up, similar to how the rich always have it, especially in Equestria and the skydive kingdom. Midway down, the machine stopped and opened its doors, letting a red mare inside. She seemed tense, but he knew why. He never wanted to make any evil, he had been born with the wrong skills, so he had to bear that life. He felt awful for making everyone feel that way towards him, but he also comforted himself, saying that, in the end, he was helping everypony.

They both remained quiet all the way down, the feeling of proudness of Policy had gone away the instant that the mare had entered the elevator alongside him, replaced by sadness and regret. There wasn’t time to worry about that though, as soon as the doors were open, they both walked inside the lobby towards the front doors. The mare was trying to speed up and get away from him as fast as possible. He noticed it and slowed down to let her go out of the building first, not wanting to make her suffer any longer.

The mare turned to the right after leaving the building and left his field of vision. Immediately afterwards, Policy quickened his pace and got out the front door. A normal Taxi was waiting outside facing right, and its driver was an old friend of his, the only one who didn’t feel bad when being around him. Policy liked to be driven everywhere by him instead of his personal transport, and his friend enjoyed it as well. They always talked a lot I their trips and helped each other when they required it. If there ever was a true friendship in Equestria, it was this one. The driver had beach fur and his tail was black, it looked like a long cylinder that curved down. His hair, though, was hidden by a cap.

The driver noticed his friend approaching and called him out while waving.

"Poll! How you doin´?" said the beach pony with excitement from seeing his friend.

"I’m doin fine Ren, in a bit of a hurry now though." his words almost bumped into each other as he spoke and got inside the cart.

"Okay then, where is it?"

"Mane station. I have a very important meeting and I must get there ASAP." Said the orange stallion, emphasizing the last word he uttered.

After putting his suitcase aside, he looked forward and saw the elevator mare who was still on the same block. He felt awful once again, he couldn’t help it.

"Got it." Answered Ren, completely oblivious to what his friend was feeling at the moment. Probably for the best, it would avoid some drama and help the diplomat forget the problem. He turned around the car before starting to run with great speed to Poll´s destination.

Along the way many ponies looked at Policy briefly, before turning to another direction with frowns on their faces, not wanting to know anything about him. That time it also affected Ren, he noticed how everyone to look at his friend with a sting eye or tried to avoid him. He wanted to comfort him but he couldn’t; he was running, and speaking could cause pain to him, rendering him unable to move as fast as needed. Both diplomat and taxi driver felt awful the rest of the ride.

Fifteen painful minutes passed before they arrived to their destination. It was a quarter to three in the afternoon when they arrived. They wished they didn’t get there though. It had more citizens than the streets themselves, all mirroring the previous ones. His friend, whose heart was broken by the reaction of the public, then spoke to him.

"Five bits."

Or that’s what I would have liked he said actually, but ponies aren’t that heartless.

"Hey, look at me." He was devoted to spark a light in that sad soul, who was very special to him.

"Yea?" Answered Policy without much spirit on himself.

"Whatever they think of you doesn’t matter, what matters is the truth, and the truth is that you are saving all of his asses right now." There weren’t limits when it came to cheer up a friend, even if it meant saying the word fuck, which was a big deal to ponies.

"The truth is also that I know every single fact about them." Answered Policy, a sad tone to his voice.

"You can find that in the birth records of any main hall. They just don’t read them; their information was available to everypony before they were even born."

Those words improved the diplomat´s mood a bit. A small smile could be seen already on his face.

"Well, off you go! A very important meeting is ahead of you!" Poll then retrieved his suitcase and hopped off. Ren was about to leave when Policy stopped him.

"Wait! I need to pay you!" Said Policy while handing some bits to his friend.
Ren looked backwards.

"There’s no need for that, this was a life threatening moment." He said with a smile, before returning back the bits.

"No way, you deserve it, I visited you at yesterday night after all, I probably woke you up, so accept this please, for the troubles." After all of his feelings getting crushed he just wanted to feel good with himself in any way.

"Again, you don’t have to pay me." He had never accepted money from him, his company was enough payment to him, they both knew that. If only Ren knew about Poll´s feelings he might have accepted the money. "Well, you’re going to be late for the ride so I’ll leave now." He started trotting away, the orange stallion tried to call him but he didn’t listen and kept running further away.

The diplomat then turned around, and ignoring everyone he walked to the train named number two. In the entrance door there were two ponies, he knew them both even though he had only met the pegasus that very morning and never seen the other in his life. The other one, Soundless John, was a white earth pony, bigger than the average, who had wrinkles in his face. They made him look old, yet young at the same time somehow. He also had a long shield on his back and was wearing the same silver armor as every common guard, the only difference was the helmet. It was still made of silver but it had a pointed end at the top, shaped like the fin of a shark. He also lacked a weapon like a sword or a spear. He was the captain of the royal guard back then.

The pegasus made a gesture for Policy to go inside. He flashed his ticket and did as told. He sat next to Blade who was in the window seat, and opposite to John, who had taken his shield out of his back and placed it next to him, to sit more comfortably.

The same pitiful situation repeated itself, everypony there had frowns and was trying to avoid him. He would have felt bad once again, but, ironically, something unsettled him instead.

There were around six griffins in that very part of the train. He didn’t like to be racist but good people didn’t live long back then. He whispered his concern to the grey mare at his side. She just nodded and looked at her partner, who was staring out the window, directly into his eyes until they made eye contact. He took a glimpse of her at first, then looked at her again almost instantly and established eye contact. She blinked several times, changing the speed of the blinking several times and stopping completely at some points. It was Morse code, Policy could tell what she was telling John, Morse code was in his extensive database as well after all. She had said to him. "there are griffins here, get ready for action."
Soundless just nodded and slightly grabbed his shield, ready to act at any given moment. Poll simply gulped, hoping that he was just being racist, that the griffins weren’t bandits. He found it funny how someone, himself in this case, could do good to the ponies around him while being bad himself. The thought of being bad so that everyone could be happy instead of sad when he died also crossed his racing mind. He actually wasn’t too far away from it. Was his life really wor…

¡Clang!

His train of thought was interrupted by John, who, in order to protect him from a flying axe, jumped in front of him and blocked it with his shield who he held on his left hoof. The sound of clashing metal grabbing his attention. Blade didn’t move at all, like if unaware of the situation.

For some reason, even though the shield was made of metal, the axe glued to it. Probably for magnetism magic of some kind. The captain took a standing position, grabbed the axe and wielded it in his right hoof. His opponents, the six griffins Policy had informed of. Three opposite to him, in the front part of the wagon, three behind him, on the rear of the wagon. They were all standing, some had scars in their faces, others in their bodies or paws. Some had swords, others had axes and some had both, but one of them had a crossbow, she was standing opposite to him as well, in the far end of the front part, weapon aiming straight for the right eye. In the same direction there was another one, also different from the rest, who only had a cape with a hood, very similar to blade. Lastly, on the same side, the griffin who had thrown the axe drew a sword. There was something they all had in common though, an angry face, and their target, Policy.

For the first twelve seconds none of the two sides performed any action. Ponies were running and screaming everywhere, trying desperately to leave that wagon, their fear bigger than ever before.

When there was nopony left except for blade, Poll and John, the battle started.
One of the griffins charged from behind while performing a battle cry. John simply spun around and hit him with his shield, making him fall unconscious and with a few broken bones, it fell just in front of the exit of that wagon. John kept facing the rear part.

The next two came from both the rear and the front of the wagon. The one in his back swung his sword at him and the other one hold his ground, he nailed his shield behind him, staggering the attacker, to the point of falling on his back, then threw his axe to the one who stood still, which couldn’t avoid it and was buried on its forehead, killing him. He afterwards brought up his shield and nailed it again, this time on the hip of the staggered one, dividing him on two pieces.

Both of them screamed when they died, a lot of blood was also spilled, yet the diplomat wasn’t affected by it.

John took the sword of his last victim which was next to the upper half of the body and swung it in a one hundred and eighty degrees’ radius to his right. It caused the divert of an axe thrown his way, which changed its direction towards a window and exited the train breaking it.

It was his turn to charge, he did so towards the last attacker on the rear. The griffin swung his axe vertically upside down, John simply lowered his head and let it hit his helmet, which staggered his opponent again. He then imitated the griffin´s attack, but in the opposite direction, from below. The creature tried to avoid the attack and it managed to do so, more or less. The swing didn’t kill him but instead sliced his arm and the creature fell, alongside his limb, screaming in pain all the way down.

It held strongly its injury to not die of blood loss and managed to mutter some words.

"Pl… Please…"

"I don’t even want to hear it." Interrupted John coldly, with a voice whose qualities matched the wrinkles he had, old but also young. In addition, his voice was very low pitched in tone.

"NOO!!!" Yelled the griffin.

But without mercy, he buried the sword on its neck, interrupting its pleas once again.

"Shhh."

John slowly rose up, then looked back. Blood covered the whole rear of the wagon.

He walked towards his shield, which was still in the middle of the griffin´s body, and lifted it to his side. Immediately after that an arrow was shot at him but he avoided it with his sword the same way he got rid of the flying axe. Through a different window this time, and without spinning around, but to the same side as before.

Then, the hooded griffin took two knives from its cape and dashed to John, blocking the crossbow´s line of sight. He didn’t have time to block with the shield so he tossed it to his left side, it landed on top of a table that had some train treats, the shield made them all fall as it slide through it. The captain and the hooded bandit clashed sword and daggers several times, John was always defending himself, never having a chance to retaliate.

Poll looked at Blade with a concerned face, asking her to save her partner. She, however, didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge him.

Poll looked back and his train of thought left the station once again.

"Should I try to do something? Try to help him? What help could I be anyway? I should at least take an arrow for him, sacrifice myself right? That could earn him time. But what use is there if he is fighting to protect me? I must get to the congress in case Lance wins."

He looked at the battlefield.

Both fighters were struggling to overpower the other, Soundless having advantage.

"Perhaps I don’t have to interfere, perhaps he will win." He thought with hope.

But that hope was crushed after some seconds; the fight took an unexpected turn.

The bandit jumped backwards and ducked, an arrow was shot above him. John barely had time to duck, and when the arrow threat was gone the bandit dashed towards him again. He managed to use his sword to block the bandit just in time, with very limited room of time.

"I will be honest with myself, if Lance wins not even me will be able to stop the war, the outcome of this battle here is only who lives and who dies. And I’m willing to die to save the life of him, who risked his to save mine even though he must hate me as well."

That was the last thing he thought before he stood up and run through the seats he was facing, towards the front part of the wagon, where the battle was moving to. Blade kept being quiet and still like a statue despite all the action.

The daggered griffin jumped over John and landed behind him, leaving a line of sight for the crossbow to shoot once more. He wasted no time and started running towards the crossbow user. after a second he did a barrel roll, to avoid the arrow. However, it wasn’t shot, instead, the griffin pointed it at him along the way, ready to take a shot. The other one jumped, looking down, ready to stab. John could kill the crossbow user when he finished rolling but the other one would then kill him. There was no way out of that situation, and still, he didn’t look afraid nor concerned.

That’s when, suddenly, he noticed Policy jumping on top of him, surely to sacrifice himself in order to save him. That’s the only moment of the whole trip where he showed an emotion.
A smile formed on his face, a tiny one, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Policy landed on Soundless, stopping the roll, both backs ended looking up. The arrow was shot and the other griffin was already halfway down. Policy was happy with that death, at least one pony wouldn’t be happy on his funeral.

In less than a second later he shot his eyes open and shock enveloped his face, replacing the smile, as if feeling enormous pain.

Back in Canterlot:

Celestia was laying in her bed, having some cake and tea, just minding her own business when, unexpectedly, she felt a tingle down her spine.

It was a horrible tingle, it went through her whole body, like a warning of some kind. She questioned it with a concerned face but let it slide shortly after, she was probably just being paranoid.

That wouldn’t be the only thing that would surprise Celestia in that couple of minutes though, for a pegasus guard, who was grey coloured, slammed her bedroom door open, sweating like if he was on a grill and breathing heavily. A commoner wouldn’t expect any less since he was in front of a sun princess, but you aren’t one, and Celestia definitely wasn’t one either.

"What happened?" Said Celestia frowning. If he had run to the point of sweating that much then it had to be important.

"The train has arrived, but there has been an… Incident."

Celestia rose up from her bed at the speed of an asteroid. Her frown bigger than ever before.

"What… Kind… Of incident?"

She was escorted by that same guard, who despite his previous run didn’t get tired, the pride he felt for the task he was doing kept him from fainting.
It didn’t take them more than fifteen minutes to reach Canterlot’s train station. There was a yellow tape surrounding a certain entrance of the train. The words, Royal guard, do not cross were printed on it. There were many guards surrounding the scene, keeping the curious ponies out of it and avoiding panic. Policy’s escort was there as well, but there was no Policy.

The sun princess looked at what little she could see of the inside of the train from the outside. It was completely covered in blood and a dead Griffon could be seen. She then, almost panicking, (though hiding it pretty well) walked to Blade, who was as unexpressive as ever, and asked.

"Where is Policy?"

Moments before:

Blade blur watched the diplomat run to "save" her partner. As always, she remained in her seat, still unamused by any of the events that were unfolding right before her. She was trained to act a certain way only, when there was no other choice. Those where the orders that Celestia had given her the same day she finished her five-year training to join the S.E.U.P. (Special Earth, Unicorn and Pegasi, or SOUP as its members jokingly called it) which she had to stick to for the rest of her life. Resigning from it would be considered an act of treason, once you enter that branch of the Royal Guard you can’t get out without killing the rest of its members. It was a way to ensure peace, for all its members where terrifically strong and could cause problems if they weren't controled.

When Poll landed over John she stopped thinking, sighed, and drew a curve sword from beneath her robes.
At first there were two griffins, two ponies and an arrow in the scene. Half a second later, there only remained two ponies and two slashed necks. The one who was in the air was also kicked to the floor by her.

When she was over she landed beside the only griffin who was left alive, the one Soundless had knocked out, without sheathing her sword.

"You got a little sloppy there Cap." Mocked the living blur.

Policy looked around him and realized what had happened. He swiftly rose up, blushing and avoided eye contact, very embarrassed of himself.

"I took four of them myself, you barely got two." Said the captain as he stood up as well, not giving any attention to what the diplomat had just done, which he thanked Celestia for.

The bandit next to Blade moved slightly and groaned in pain. She buried her sword directly into its heart, without hesitation, at an enormous speed. Indeed, a blur replaced her arm when she performed that action. The griffin grabbed the sword with the little strength he had left, coughing blood, trying to get it out. As he died he said "I failed you all."

To which the pegasus answered "Yes you did. You didn’t fight bravely since you barely stood a second, you couldn’t keep your honor."

When it was finally dead she retrieved her sword and mocked John.

"You were saying?" she had a confident smile clearly visible.

"Whatever, let’s get out of here, the train has arrived Canterlot, leave the mess to my subordinates."

Indeed the vehicle had stopped, it was already a quarter past three in the afternoon.

Both soldiers started to walk to the exit but Poll just sat and stayed inside. Blade took notice of it and called him, but he didn’t answer, he just stared at the bodies of the criminals. Her orders were to avoid his death, nothing more, so she simply walked outside, leaving him inside.

Author's Note

Well, there's my first attempt at a fight, I hope it wasn't a disaster.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you see anything in which I could improve I would like to hear it.