On my way to the door, I took a moment to pay my respects, at the front, near the monuments. I added another thing to our production list. A statue of our past president with his last few words engraved on it. Fitting, he honestly deserved it. But I had no time for that. I quickly wiped away the last of my tears and made my way to the now-opening doors. My hand fell to my pistol, the comforting grip molded to my hand. It was time for business.

I welcomed the first guests, Princess Celestia and Luna. I really wasn't surprised to see them first, and not long after, the dragon ambassador guy followed. He was a dark, forest green, and stood about four feet above me. He was walking on four limbs, but according to the books, these smaller forms can also function on two. Fair enough. Within a few minutes, the rest of the ambassadors/rulers had arrived.

A stag and doe, a pair of griffins, a buffalo, a diamond dog, a huge-ass pony/bug (changeling), a pair of minotaurs with goats alongside them, and an honest to God pair of horses, along with their honor guards and entourages of various types, all were greeted by me and directed to the mess hall, now mostly clear of tables. I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the changelings and the mess of black and bug I found earlier, but I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt... for now.

I didn't remember all of their names, and frankly, I could care less. The dogs didn't like me, I didn't like them. The changeling just looked suspicious, and frankly, she deserved it. The minotaur seemed to be bored out of his mind, and the griffin was staring at me, constantly. The horses and ponies seemed to act normal, but the only types who actually seemed to be interested in the Warehouse were the dragons and deer. And Twilight, always Twilight.

I led them to the mess hall (mostly cleared for use), and after pulling a beanie bag chair from the side (I set those up earlier, don't ask where I found them) and a coke (I set up a mini-fridge with them and some assorted drinks, alcoholic ones included)(it tasted the same as before the war, I swear those preservatives are bad for us) and sitting my ass down on the beanbag, I started talking.

"Okay. Greetings, welcome, whatever. Take a seat and let's start talking." I popped the cap off the bottle as only five of the creatures in the room actually sat down, pulling other cushions of various sizes from the side, following my lead. The Princesses, the horses, and the dragon sat down, curling up in various forms, ready to talk, as the rest just stood, a look of slight shock on their faces.

"Do... you... actually expect us to sit down on the floor?" The slightly hesitant but arrogant voice of the griffin king cut through the tension in the air like a hot knife through butter. I almost laughed out loud.

"No. I expect you to stand and try to exert your dominance over me." I deadpanned at him, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "You are in my home, and as any civilized race knows, you should be polite to your hosts. If you want to leave, go ahead, I'm not stopping you. But if you want to stay, I expect you, every one of you, to act civilized enough to participate in negotiation. Frankly, I don't care. So, sit, or leave." I gave him my ultimatum. I'm a goddamn soldier, not a politician. He can sit or fuck off. I noticed a frown on the Princesses' faces, but the dragon seemed to enjoy that as much as I did. Hopefully a kindred spirit.

The griffin glared at me for a moment, before one of his guard/servants pulled a cushion over to him. I sighed and put a hand to my face. The rest of the rulers sat, after a moment, and most of them also had a servant of some sort bring them a seat. The only one who didn't was the minotaur. I'll give him some credit, he seemed to understand that doing so actually raised him in my eyes. Or maybe the sigh gave it away.

Once every...one had settled, I spoke again. "Now that that's out of the way, any of you want something to drink. It might be stale after a really long time, but it can't be that bad." I sipped my cola. I was actually right. It wasn't that bad. It seemed as if none of them had ever gotten into this situation before. Or maybe I was being too callous about these things.

Princess Celestia seemed to try and play peacemaker, as she agreed to one after a second. I hopped up from my seat and walked over to the mini-fridge next to the cushions, and after rolling it back to my seat, I popped the thing open and tossed a bottle over to the Princess.

The changeling Queen, Chrysalis or something, looked at me with a sort of distaste. "No servants of any sort? I'd expected more out of a race so 'advanced'." Oh god, the sheer arrogance in her. No wonder she never got anywhere in life.

I looked at her, the smirk on her face growing wider. "Muse." I called out to the VI watching this. "Activate the turrets and point them at the bug. I though I told you to let in the rulers, not the roaches." On my command, a pair of ceiling based turrets opened from hidden panels and swung down. Both were equipped with magnetic mass drivers, similar to my rifle, and a pair of .40 caliber anti-personnel chain guns. A pair of red targeting lasers slowly hovered around the center mass of the bug. She visibly swallowed, her eyes twitching between myself and the turrets.

My voice dropped. "I don't rely on others because it makes me better. And I'm a soldier, but that's irrelevant. I don't have servants do what I can do myself. The quote 'If you want it done right, do it yourself.' explains one of my standards very well. And so... Muse, deactivate the turrets... If I were to want you dead..." I stood up and drew my pistol. "I'd put a hole in your damn head myself. Does that answer your question?"

The queen nodded, her fear diminished and turned to dislike. Fine by me. The dragon still looked on the verge of laughing, and the rest of the races simply sat, observing my actions. I might have come on a bit strong, but I'm a human. We tend to do that. And if a show of force now stops later bloodshed, then I've won a battle today.

I sat back down, took a sip from my cola, and started. Most of this was prepared. "Now let's just get to the point. I wanted to just tell you all that if there are human-created structures inside of your countries, the artifacts inside are all under your own jurisdiction. You can have them. However, if there are any remains of humans of any sort, they are to be sent here. In addition, weaponry is also to be sent here, and and cryopods, active or not, are to be returned to this location. We have tracking devices on most all of these, so hiding them from us is impossible. Also, if I discover a human in your custody, anywhere, and they have been mistreated in any way, then you are to be held responsible. No questions asked. If you are holding a human and refuse to send them here, unharmed, I swear upon my own blood that I will put a bullet in your head after bringing them back here. To show the extent of our technology, we destroyed this world once, we can do it again." Bluff. But it worked. "In addition, we have orbital platforms capable of wiping out cities in the blink of an eye without radioactive fallout." Not entirely a bluff. None of them are active at the moment, but that's irrelevant. "So in short, all humans, weapons, and cryopods are mine. Anything else you can keep, if it's in your own territory. If you disagree, I will allow you to leave here now, but you will never gain anything from the experiences of my race. And if you fail to deliver, you are subject to persecution with extreme prejudice. Any questions?"

I seemed to have scared most of the other races. They were staring at me, eyes wide, and I think they knew I was being serious. Good.

A voice spoke up. "And how do we know you're not just going to exterminate us? What stops you from doing that? How can we trust that you'll be just with your power?" The stallion of the horses. His tone was even, and it was made in actual curiosity, not in arrogance or fear. Or at least, no detectable fear.

I smiled at him, the predatory smile humans tend to make well. "You don't, nothing, you can't." I counted my negative responses on my fingers." But there's nothing you can do about it. You could say I'm being a tyrant, but my nation consists of two people and a VI. I'm being cautious. All I want is to be left alone with ample supplies and resources. All I have in return is technology. I have the knowledge of how to build, not the materials to build. But trust me when I say that weapons for everyone would just spawn war. I've seen it firsthand." My voice dropped slightly at the end of the statement.

Most of the others caught on to it, after my previous statement of being a soldier.

Then, another question. "Why are the ponies allowed access to this building, and not any of us?" The black bitch again. That sheer arrogance. This was turning out to be more of an interview, rather than a negotiation.

"They gave us the mountain. Simple." I stated as simply the statement itself. "Resources for info, same as what I'm asking for. I bet you didn't know that the majority of matter is actually just empty space." I deadpanned, just as before.

The only interesting reaction came from Twilight, who gasped in shock. A loud "WHAT?" came along with it and drew the gaze of the rest of the creatures. "Yes, it really is. Protons and neutrons, subatomic particles with a positive and neutral charge, respectively, inhabit the nucleus of an atom. The negatively charged particles, electrons, orbit the nucleus at different energy levels, but they orbit much farther away from the nucleus than the nucleus is wide. And, their placement is actually theoretical, as they move to fast to be located."

Twilight was scribbling notes on paper as I lectured, and the other races just stared, uncomprehendingly, except for the Princesses and the dragon. It appears as if the most intelligent is not necessarily the ruler...

"And I though you said you were a soldier?" The griffin spoke up. I couldn't resist this chance.

"Exactly. What I said is common knowledge. We take twelve years of schooling in general subjects before our eighteenth year, and then go for undergrad, bachelors', masters' degrees and then doctorates. I was barely out of that twelfth year before enlisting, and I know that. Imagine what the Ph.D's of our civilization know." I stated, smugly. "That is what I mean by my species being more advanced than yours."

He looked at me, his glare matching my smirk. Finally, as it broke, a deep voice, as resonant as the ocean itself but as clear as a flawless diamond spoke. "Although this... banter is quite amusing, we should move on to the matters at hand. I, for one, would love to listen about the humans' technological advancement all day, but not all of you are as gifted as I am to be allowed the gift of longevity." The complexity but simplicity of the dragon almost matched Muse herself. "Human, might I have your name, it seems as if we may all have forgotten our manners."

I nodded to him, my smirk leveling. "I'm President Virus, just call me Virus. And for the record, I'm actually older than you." I winked at him, and the old dragon, curled up in a beanbag, laughed at me.

"That is true. I am known, now, only as Elder. But I have two things to add. Recently, I have come across a very cold metal tube, slightly larger than yourself, in my territory. It is currently still cold and sitting inside my hoard. I believe it is one of these 'cryopods' you speak of..."

My eyes widened. Another one. YES! "Yes. It most likely is. I'd like if you could deliver it back to us here."

He chuckled at my face. "Yes, of course. My second question was about the cushion I'm currently sitting on. I'd like to ask you if I could take one back with me and keep it in my hoard. Gold sometimes gets uncomfortable when you're sitting on it." I cracked a smile, my spirits already lifting.

"Well, I'm sure we could come to an agreement. But that's for later. Anyone else have something to talk about?" I looked back expectantly towards the group of creatures before me. It seemed as most of them just wanted to...

"Yes, I actually do." This was the dog. I held back a sneer. "I have a personal eye-witness report of one of my royals stating that a monster of some sort, about the same size of you, broke into his arena and tried to assassinate him. He said that over thirty of his guards were slain with brutal efficiency by multiple weapons. Some were killed with blades, some with puncture wounds, and some were killed by weapon that seemed to shred a portion of their body. One other's corpse was found torn apart into bits, it's organs removed and body vivisected. I'd like to ask if you know anything about that." The snarl in his voice was just as badly concealed as my sneer.

I sat for a moment, introspectively. "It was barely a dozen. And if I wanted him dead, he'd be six feet under. And he had my colleague fighting in said arena. The punishment was no different from the one I had explained earlier, and his ignorance of my rule makes no difference. He enslaved a member of my species, attempted to murder her..." Hopefully these beings still had a shred of chauvinism inside of them... "and in general committed a crime against humanity. He got less than he deserved." I stated, with no desire to sugarcoat it.

The black bitch spoke up. "Really? And what about the scout I sent here to make contact with your kind? What happened to him?" I frowned. Was that black thing a changeling? Probably. The tapes showed it invisible in the visible spectrum and strangely enough, in the infrared too, before it got shred by the turrets. Sonar caught it.

"I don't know any messengers who travel invisible into the domain of their heavily guarded neighbors. That was no messenger, and don't even try to lie. We all know how trustworthy you are. Nice try on the castle, but make sure you kill the people you replace. It makes it a lot harder to find them. And if you had, even if Twilight got out, not a single person would have been able to stop you. Yes I read the reports." I stared at her, my eyes hard.

She stood up out of her beanie bag, and then responded. She was mad to say the least. "So what? We don't deserve getting our population cut into one tenth of what it was when we didn't actually kill anyone!" She shot a glare at Celestia, which I'll admit was responded to quite well by the Princess.

I spoke calmly back to her. "Really? If you kidnapped our First Lady and tried to assassinate our President, we would wipe your species off the face of the Earth. Your home would be a crater. You should thank your lucky stars that they didn't choose to pursue your subjects and invade in response. Humans would have."

She looked at me for a moment with a glare, and then sat down on her beanie bag with a 'hmph'. It would be cute if it was a five year old.

I leaned back in my beanie and took another sip of the cola. I could see why the dragon wanted one of these.

The deer, for the first time, spoke. "Human. You seem to be quite strange. One moment you threaten us with oblivion, and the next, you joke around." He stopped there, in thought. "What have you seen, that plagues your mind so?"

I sighed, and answered him, memories returning to me. "It's not what I've seen. It's what I've done. It's what I caused. It's who I left behind. It's my own mind that plagues me. But that is irrelevant. I have a duty, and it must be completed. I have a responsibility, a task, a purpose, if you will." Fuck, I'm getting philosophical in front of a bunch of technicolor monarchs. "But it's my burden to bear. Now, are there any questions or offers of non-aggression or trade agreements. I'm sure at least one of you wants exclusive rights to our space program's information."

The other monarchs digested this for a moment, and then the dragon spoke again. "Virus. What a curious name. I would like to offer you my support in you endeavor, in addition to a large amount of supplies of various origin. I ask in return for complete access to your Warehouse, in addition to the places you had state were previously off limits. I say this because I want personal access, for the sake of pleasing an old dragon, not for the sake of improving his kind. Dragons are solitary creatures, and the others only defer to me because of my age. Once, I'd use this knowledge as a powerful weapon, but now, I wish to follow it for a purely intellectual purpose."

I thought for a moment. What does he have that I would want. Metals, of course, but I know that dragons hoard gold and gems. Bullion would always help. And he wasn't lying, dragons don't work together. There's no way that they would join together, they're all like humans, but with exaggerated main aspects. The young ones are innocent to a fault, but then grow greedy to a fault. In their old age, they tend to let go of their possessions in the pursuit of hobbies of various sorts, liked retired old men. And they devote their lives to it. The younger ones make up a majority of the population, and they wouldn't agree to cooperate...

"What type of resources are we talking about?" I just needed to make sure I'm not getting cheated out of a bargain. I raised an eyebrow at the faces of the races around me. They were mostly confused, frowning, or scowling. "For the record, if there is one, he's right. The dragons are the only race solitary enough to not actually use our weapons. They couldn't build the ones that really matter without a team of experts."

Elder looked thoughtful for a moment, although he usually does, before responding with the shortest and least elaborate while also most surprising answer I could have thought of. "All of them. I offer my hoard in exchange for yours." After a moment of silence, he elaborated. "In my hoard alone, I have enough bullion to wreck the entire Equestrian economy, namely, my hoard is the sister to the sisters' treasury, in gold alone. The gemstones also match their treasury again. Finally, that which I think is most valuable to you, the amount of metal in my hoard of the forging type is enough to match their armory four times over. I believe you will find it to your standards."

I grinned, and then stood up. I walked over to the dragon and extended a hand. "Deal." I said. He responded by standing up, like me, and grasping my hand. I returned to my seat, reinvigorated, ready to begin trade negotiations.

"Now..." I began with the biggest of shit-eating grins on my face. "I'm going to need a way of transporting that material here. I'll offer five percent of all the gold in the shape of bullion to anyone who wants to move that much gold from point A to point B with none of it lost in the process..."

Author's Note

I suppose this is pre S-3, atleast before Twilicorn and Discord's return.