“My fellow diplomates and leaders, I am Blueblood, Ambassador of Equestria, Prince of the Realm, and Captain of her Sky Navy. You here today have been assembled for one reason, and I will not drag that out beyond what is needed. We, and I’m using this as both the Royal We and to indicate the two behind me, are here to accept your surrender,” he began, clipping his hoof against the podium he stood behind.

It was interesting to watch, honestly. He moved through their ranks so seamlessly, asking questions, seeming to know each person he met on an individual level, able to name them, and even able to ask about family members, giving condolences for those who had lost them in the attack, and even making small talk about most things, though avoiding the weather for obvious reasons.

That had shocked them, to find him to be so…amicable. He was, as he had declared, a diplomat, after all. In Equestria, he was known to be pompous, oafish, and without a care for those beneath his station. That was not an act either, but simply a lack of care on his part for the individual, and more a care for the group as a whole, and he had over the years of his life, proven his skill at the negotiation table more than once.

He was the carrot Celestia used on those beyond her borders, where her stern motherly gazes did no good, and she instead had to be hard as the mountain. She had been, for a thousand years, the stick, and for his lifetime, and those of his family stretching back to the time of Nightmare Moon, his blood had been the ones to come in afterwards, and show genuine concern for those harmed by what she had to do.

“This cannot be an easy thing, to admit defeat, but, you have seen the power of my nation, when it is angered. You have felt the touch of Moonlight on your soil, and watched the whole of a people vanish into the light forever, a consequence of their choices, of choices this body and those it represents made to declare war on us, on Equestria in her entirety,” his voice echoed slightly on the word ‘war’, but otherwise his tone was even, and without reproach.

“We desire no other life lost, no other people lost, but we cannot allow the blade at our throat to remain there. Not when we can turn it aside. And thus we have. The attack was thwarted, and today, I bring you the survivors, returned in good faith, and in good health, to the peoples from which they come, and hope it proves we are not monsters, that we do what we must, what we have been driven to, but no more,” as he spoke, the door in the back opened.

Coal Blade and the unicorn mare, along with another contingent of guards, including some unconverted humans, walked into the chamber. They held no weapons, but their uniforms told you they were not harmless without such. Between the group, outnumbered three to one, marched those survivors, their number slowly making their way to stand before the podium at the center of the chamber.

There were eight, including Colonel Danford and his two subordinates. They looked oddly mismatched, being from more than four nations between them, and with wildly different builds, though they all wore the clothing that marked them as prisoners of Equestria, grey things that seemed to blend into the background, as they stood there, trying their best to stand straight, but fidgeting as so many eyes turned to them.

They were in good health, better even than when they’d been taken, fished from the seas in the case of the five others. Two were engineers, their engine rooms near the center of their vessels padded in such a way to protect them when the rest of their ship had been destroyed. One was from a submarine, destroyed without being noticed by the pounding from above, who had been near the hatch when the pressure had crushed the rest like a can.

The other two were pilots, with one seeming the most dejected of the group. The others, for all that they were military, had been enclosed by their vessels. These two had made war on the Wonderbolts, the female pilot, her ebony skin shining a little, even looked proud, as she had claimed the one casualty of the entire action, having clipped the wing of one of the Wonderbolts who had come against her. That same one, with a healed wing, was standing with the other guards, eyeing her despite himself.

It was, all total, a pitiful showing. There should have been so many more, so many lives that should have been saved. But the Stormwall allowed for little mercy, and survival against it had odds that bordered on miraculous when it happened. The pilots, meanwhile, had been flying metal tubes that exploded, and few had the chance to bail out when they came under attack, and fewer had the will to do so.

Still, it made a point. For all that the human race had sent everything they might muster against her nation, these were the ones that survived, and almost half of those had been with her when the counterstroke happened. This was a goodwill gesture, but it had an impact as well. If you fight us, this is all that will be left, and yet, Blueblood seemed ignorant of the second meaning, as he smiled his best, and continued.

“One year ago, my Princess came to you as a beggar, as a lost soul seeking solace, as her nation, in part though not in whole, was displaced from our world, our home, and transplanted on yours by forces neither your science nor our magic have been able to understand, let alone reverse, leaving us as naught but beggars, until our power slowly returned to us,” he spoke, as Twilight used her magic to take control of the massive screen behind him, and flashed those terrible images of her ponies, bodies in the streets, not dead, but drained so wholly of magic they felt like they might as well have been.

“Then, the moment we began to find out hoofing, you, this body, those behind you, decided we were growing too strong, too fast, and struck at us. Fear, jealousy, and hate drove your actions. We, the ponies of Equestria, well know these things, and have seen what they do to a nation and people,” he said, his voice reproachful, but without a hint of malice.

“When she spoke to you, it was as if you were ponies, as if you had tried to turn aside from such base things. Today, I speak to you as if you were dragons. You think those beneath you can be bullied, can be turned aside, and as the Great Wyrms learned, we are not so easily made meek. We will stand on our four hooves, and we will fight back, but we do not desire to go farther than that,” as he said the last, one of the men in the room leapt to his feet, his finger pointing towards Blueblood.

“If you desire no further violence, no loss of life, then why demand surrender, why push us to defend ourselves now, even as the dome of light continues its expansion, threatening every nation in this world?” he said, his voice filled with venom and hate, for all that his accent made it harder to understand. Celestia, looking to Blueblood, waited, but she began to draw on her power, should it be needed.

“Because you tried to kill us, Ambassador. You didn’t try to enslave us, to negotiate with us, or to offer us an alternative. You struck first, both at our Princess, the very Soul of our Nation, and at her people as well. We do not suffer such attacks lightly, nor is our trust easily earned once lost in such a manner,” he told him simply, and then, with a small movement, he dug a hoof into his coat pocket, pulling forth a fairly easily recognized document.

“By the words on this declaration, you blame us for simply existing, and to be fair to you, we are foreign, we are alien in fact. Life like you had never seen before, and our presence was affecting you in ways that neither of us understand. We were starting to, though, and even this magical field that comes from our land is proving something we can adapt to,” an image of a Conversion Chamber, staffed by an earthpony and a human.

“Conversion for those who wished to live with us, and thanks to your own scientist working with our greatest mages, we were learning to understand the barrier around my homeland. In time, we would have…no we will stop its growth, so it does not threaten your world,” he said, gently placing the document on the podium before him.

“We will not be erased for your sense of inner peace, however. Not when there are other ways, and that leaves us at this current impasse. You have attacked us, unprovoked, and did so with the knowing intent of genocide. Your own history shows that, when so threatened, your people have little qualms about returning such favor,” he said, slowly turning his gaze over the whole of the chamber, making sure each and every individual knew he was talking to them and their people directly.

“My people…we have never had to do so before. When the griffons attacked, we smashed them. When the dragons breached our borders, we drove them away, and that was the end of it. They were burned by our fires, and they knew well enough that they did not want to taste them again. Would that we could trust humans to do the same, we would simply close our borders, and that would be that,” as he spoke, he nodded to Twilight, whose horn began to glow slightly brighter, the large screen behind them suddenly shifting to other images.

“We cannot trust this. We cannot trust that you will not strike us again, will not keep coming, even with so much death,” what was behind him was…well a wall of human hatred made manifest. Interviews in a dozen languages with people who lost loved ones, demanding blood, and not of their leaders. Newspaper articles decrying the loss of life, and promising that more will be spent to gain victory.

The worst, and most damning, were private reports, including images, of various shipyards around the world, all building a new fleet, one that would take years, maybe decade to reach the size of the one they had lost, but it was being worked on, for the sole purpose of destroying the enemy. The ones they’d provoked into this, the ones who had simply sat there, and let them throw themselves against them.

“We have read your history, how many times ‘peace’ was just used for breathing room for the next war,” he said, and then motioned with a hoof, articles replacing those above, showing the many times that had happened. Where an armistice was just an excuse to bring more troops to the front, or even some things that were from history books, showing a blunted attack returning in full force during ‘peace times’.

“We will not allow this. We will not play these games with you, nor gamble our peoples’ lives that you blunder into such a defeat again. So here, on this day, My people demand your surrender. You will disarm, your military forces will disband, and you will become vassal states to our own,” he said with conviction, but you could hear the rumble from the crowd around him, and imagine it repeated a billion times over. Humanity would not submit, or so they would say.

“Your nations will survive. Your people will survive, though those that signed the declaration of war will be tried for their crimes. Your cultures, such as they are, might survive. I cannot promise they will. This is a drastic change, but it is not one that can be avoided. You have started this war, and now, we finish it today,” he stamped his hoof onto the desk, sounding like a gavel, and then waited, as the assembly digested what he’d said.

It was a lot, and the fact that they couldn’t deny…well couldn’t honestly deny, they were politicians and diplomats, denial came easy, but the proof was on the wall behind him, and anyone trying to do so would sound hollow. She expected it, however, and was shocked when instead, everyone sat down, and she saw most of them pick up phones or other communication devices, and began sending notes home.

It was in the middle of this that she felt it. Aggression, hate, rage. A boiling bloody mess, and she saw a few of the diplomats suddenly shoot to their feet, as something happened. She took a heartbeat to extend her senses outward, and follow the thread of all that anger to its source, and found…a missile. One of the city buster kind, the kind they’d tried to use against her, fired towards this building.

That was…the DRAGONS had not been so stupid! To attack her, when she was in the middle of another’s den, another nation’s great city? What madness gripped these humans, and before her eyes she saw the news ripple through the group before her. Panic, fear, terror was in them. Only one seemed calm, only one seemed accepting, and she sighed, thinking of how stupid that woman had to be.

“Princess?” Blue Blood turned towards her. He sounded…less concerned than he should have, given the magnitude of the weapon. It was with a question in his voice, as if asking if this was something she could handle. She nodded, turning to Twilight, and then stepping up to the podium, where the various dignitaries and diplomats were already starting to try and call their nations, trying to find out if it could be stopped.

Truth to tell, she could sense many defenses activating. No nation was without some guards, even now, and she even estimated that some of them might be able to work against this weapon. She would not allow it, however, and stood up to the podium, and then swung her head. A wash of golden light swept over the room, doing nothing really, but it looked impressive, and it drew every eye to her without the need to shout or otherwise strain herself.

“It would seem, another lesson is in order. A week hence, my sister felt it necessary to erase a nation from your world, to prove we were not to be ignored. This time, I will prove we have mercy, and only destroy those who have acted against us directly,” she said, and then nodded to Twilight, who focused her spell, and soon, the images on the screen of various reports were replaced with an image of a base.

This was a missile silo, built into a military base, somewhere on the almost opposite side of the planet. Clouds, exhaust really, hung around, from a weapon fired, and you could see the people there looking up, some scrambling, as this was a launch that had been barely announced to them, and while expected in general, it was still a shock to see the leaders go through with it.

Celestia, seeing them, seeing soldiers simply doing their duty, wished she could spare them, wished they would have simply abandoned their posts, but they were well trained, and so were still there as she closed her eyes, and reached out her senses. In moments, her magic felt the thing she was reaching for, and with it in her grasp, she tugged on one part of it, like unraveling a string from a ball of yarn, and then unwinding it.

The sun, to those looking at it, was normal. Only a few images would show a solar flare of unusual density rise from its surface, and then seemingly vanish into nothingness. But it was not vanishing, and it certainly wasn’t going into nothingness, as those in the base soon learned, as a ring of golden light appeared in the sky above them, a ring that began to heat up enough to cause them to sweat despite being high above.

Where Luna’s moonlight was cold and precise, where it could literally carve out a chunk of the world without going beyond what she wanted, Celestia’s power was nowhere near so surgical, nowhere near so gentle, and so when she let loose her fury, it was not with silence, but with a roar. Fire, molten, hot, and terrible, poured from the ring floating in the air above the base, and those beneath it were consumed utterly.

Twilight, to her credit, knew precisely how to focus the image her magic was projecting, adjusting the brightness in a heartbeat to prevent it from harming the vision of those in the room, but zooming in to show the people, their bodies dying instantly, as hair and skin burst into flames, and the innards boiled away, their bones even melting like wax when it was all done, running into puddles that evaporated in moments.

More importantly, she showed their weapons of war, deep bunkers beneath the base, places where the leaders had thought themselves safe from any counterstroke. They burned just the same, perhaps even worse, honestly, as their defenses held for that split second, forcing them to endure the torment of the sun’s wrath, until mercy saw it break through and end their pathetic lives.

When it was done, the view pulled back, and showed the base had been…simply expunged. There was no sign of its existence, only of the still smoldering desert of glass, with fire along the edges to show that something had been here, but had offended the Goddess of the Sun. This was what it meant to stand against her, and she smiled as she opened her eyes back onto the assembly, their faces frozen in abject horror.

Behind her, the image shifted again, to the weapon, and this time, pale violet light took hold of it, glowing all around it, before suddenly it was pulled apart, hovering, even flying into the air in pieces, with the dangerous core vanishing in a flash, as the remainder of its mass kept on going, being deposited in neat stacks on the roof of this very building, as Twilight herself looked on, never having had to close her own eyes to focus.

Her step faltered a little, as she took her place back in line with Twilight, who offered her a bit of support, letting it go unnoticed or uncommented on, but still, such had not been easy, and Celestia herself felt her body would require a lot of rest to recover from her exertion, but she stood straight as she found her hoofing again, and tried to exude once more that aura of an ageless goddess, walking amongst the mortals, and judging them.

Blueblood, having watched all this, nodded at it, feeling it only just and right that he take the final step, and with a swish of his blonde mane, he pulled out his weapon, a simple dueling blade, and then once again took the podium. Looking out on the faces of those before him, he did not smile, he did not even say a word, instead, he used his magic, and surrounded the delegate who had been behind the attack, in part or in whole, in a sphere.

“And so, you see that we are not to be trifled with. You WILL disarm, you WILL be made vassals. This is not a demand or a request, this is the future. If we have to burn the weapons from every hand that holds them. If we have to choke the life from every warmonger amongst you, this will happen. You have been seen, you have been measured, and today, you know, that your people have been found wanting,” he declared, as the sphere rose up, and then was held beside the image of the base and the missile.

He let it stand there, for a time, and at first, it seemed he did so just to gloat, but no. This was the hardest part of all. To kill while looking your enemy in the eye, as the delegate began to realize one important fact of Blueblood’s shield. It lacked any spell or hole to allow new air in.

Slowly, the people assembled here, and those at home would watch as this woman in a business suit, this woman who had been so willing to die moments ago, began pounding on the sphere, and gasped for breath. They would watch as her struggles grew weaker, as her expression changed from shock, to anger, to terror, to weeping, and finally, to stillness, as she slouched down against the bottom, and expired.

This was the power of the nation of Equestria. This was its will, set against the nations of the world of Earth, and it was the victor in all things. The body was left floating there, as Blueblood began to lay out terms, not specific ones, this was merely the acknowledgement of it all, of their surrender, but soon, he, and nobles like him, would take positions in each of the former nations, to take command of them.

/-/

Her hooves clacked loudly on the tile floor, as Celestia walked down the hall of the palace. Around her, arrayed in their armor, her personal guards were standing at attention. The ponies with their spears, the humans with their blades, all looking quite deadly. She tried her best to maintain her stoic expression as she slowly made her way down the corridor, but wanted to smile in pride at the way they were all standing together.

Even a few scant decades ago, there would have been separation, there would have been animosity in their stances and side eyes viewing each other. Today? They had no such feelings. Each one, trained in the ways of the Royal Guard, were without equal in combat, and they trusted each other with their lives. It was with that feeling that she reached the end of the hall, and made her way out onto the dais that held the three thrones of Greater Equestria, and took her seat.

Before her, delegates from around the world stood, humans and ponies alike, looking, if not a bit mismatched, at least like they all belonged in this room. She smiled warmly as she took her seat in the center of the thrones, lamenting only that, due to some test on the moonbase, that Luna and Twilight were not here to celebrate this occasion. Still, they were watching her, and she could see them on monitors behind the groups.

“We welcome all those before us, both those of Equestrian descent, those of more Earthly stock, and those that straddle the lines in between, to this joyous occasion. One-hundred years of peace for this world, and for the growth of our peoples, as one harmonious union,” she said simply, and she could hear cheers from outside, the booming sound of a million voices raised in celebration. She smiled at it all, at what had been made, and thus began her speech.

Author's Note

Was going to make this two chapters, but really, the epilogue is short and to the point.

So, that was this story. Where did this come from? Mostly just reading other Conversion Bureau fics, which typically have an HFY(Humanity Frick Yeah) perspective, which is fun and interesting sometimes, but oftentimes has something I take issue with.

One in particular had Celestia, who survived an attack like here, recover, and find only 100 ponies left. In retaliation, she started to warm the Earth(all of it via a sun in the pacific that was boiling the oceans), especially after humanity KEPT trying to kill her and her people. And she was still Princess Celestia, not TCB's common Queen Celestia/Xenolestia. She wanted to be a good pony, but with so few left, she responded in kind.

That one only had humanity 'win' because Twilight talked her down, after having teleported herself and 2000 or so ponies to the moon to escape, and she was disappointed in her mentor taking the actions she did. Both Celestia being able to heat the Earth, and Twilight teleporting that much mass that far really clenched home how...well how screwed humanity would have been in that confrontation, had the ponies just decided to fight back.

Here, I decided to show that off. 100 civilians were able to lift a massive amount of water into the sky several kilometers. So what happens when trained military, two of which in training could create a powerful tornado themselves, all work together to defend their home? Well, their home stays safe. And the Princesses, when angered, do not simply stand idle. They prove that that can be Powers, with a capital P, when needed.

I hope, dear reader, you enjoyed it for what it was, and as I had fun with the idea, and liked writing it.