He lunged.
Twilight instinctively flinched as her magic flared.
When impact did not come, Twilight opened her eyes to find the emperor suspended before her, but rather than his claws at her throat, she found her horn inches from his.
He made an utterance, too quiet for her to hear. She looked up, but rather than the anger of a moment ago she found that his eyes looked almost empty.
"Why..." he asked in little more than a whisper.
"I don't-" Twilight began before seeing that the Emperor was not focused on her, but rather the griffoness.
"Your quest to see me dishonored and bound in shame has succeeded, but why would you see me made a ghost rather than die with honor? Why do you wish me such shame?" The Emperor roared at the Griffoness, sounding almost betrayed.
"Now look here, she just saved-" Twilight started, stepping between the two, before being sidestepped from behind as the griffoness marched past her towards the suspended Emperor.
"For the very same reason you made me one!" The griffoness all but shouted back, prompting Twilight to be ready to suspend her too if necessary, "Because I love you! I could not bear to see you die!"
Unable to process the situation Twilight's concentration broke, unceremoniously depositing the emperor on the stone. Twilight turned, ready to seize him once again, but stopped when she found him seeming no less dumbstruck. Then it processed.
"Wait, you-?" Twilight blurted, gaze rapidly shifting between the two.
After a moment of pause, the emperor lowered his head, beak pointed to the ground, "I am sorry. I did not mean to-"
"There is no need for that," The griffoness said, rearing up to place her forelimbs around his neck in a hug, rubbing her beak to his, "You must consider yourself in this too, our family is not complete without a father, honor or no honor."
Twilight watched the scene in shock, a minute passing before she regained control of herself, "What?!?" she sputtered, eyes darting between the intertwined griffons.
Quickly they broke the hug, lowering their beaks to the floor in deep bows, "Into your sworn service Empress, I follow my wife and my line to where I belong. From now till death renewed release me, I am yours. Never shall I raise talon nor beak other than in service to you, never shall I speak other than in supplication to you, never shall I take breath other than to please you. Upon all that I am I swear, the moment I cease to serve you shall I be struck down. My life is yours."
Twilight's confusion did not lessen as the former emperor and the female griffon spread their wings out so that they partially rested upon the floor before her.
"I beg forgiveness for my conduct, and shall receive any punishment you desire with welcome."
"And I as well," the griffoness added, "I have spoken far out of turn, and shall bear any punishment you see fit."
Twilight recognized their posture from old pegasi artifacts; they were offering their wings to her. For a culture of flying beings, where flight was an important part of life, the meaning of the gesture was not lost on her.
"There is no need for that." Twilight said quickly, but the pair remained in place.
"Actually..." she said thinking it over, "I do have something for you..." she said gathering her magic.
"POP!" The manacle previously on the griffoness's right ankle jumped over to his.
"There, now your punishment is to not die before it's your time. As for you," she said turning to the griffoness, "I want you to continue to make sure he's keeping good on this, alright?" She backed off with a smile, "Now rise, we have a lot of work to do." Her smile dying a premature death as she said it.
The two rose, "I thank you for your generous forgiveness Empress. I did not wish to deceive, but I knew not how to convince my husband that his pride was keeping him from seeing reason."
"I'm glad you did. I would certainly not have carried out his desire, but without your input I may not have known the consequence of my refusal. For that I am thankful." She said in response.
"...in fact," she added with a smile to match her sudden inspiration, "You said I was in control of the capacity of your... uh... service right? Then I would like you both to be my advisors. Who better than those who know the job best?"
"We would be honored." She said alongside her husband consenting with a bow.
"Rise, there is much to be done," they did as she said, while she herself began listing off what needed done.
"...and now I have to arrange both sides of the accord. The troops need to be re-supplied if our stay is extended for too long. The populace is going to need... Yes?" Twilight asked, becoming aware that the griffoness was once again bowing, "There is no need to bow. As my advisor, I ask that you speak freely."
"Thank you your eminence," She said, still bowing, "May I suggest, that addressing the populace be made a priority? I fear that some incorrect signals may have been sent during your arrival."
"Oh?" Twilight asked, betraying a little nervousness, "Like what?"
"You made a point of how you ended the conflict bloodlessly?" The griffoness asked leadingly.
"...yes?"
"Well, I fear that the lack of prisoners in your parade of conquest may have given the wrong impression..."
Ha. That last line.
Oh god. OH GOD. Now theres a good reason to have an entire species of proud warriors not utter a word when you enter their city. When they see whitout prisomers, they think you just killed every single one of them.
Of course, maybe now every single soldier will be ashamed of not being dead, or something silly (from my/twilights pov)
i.imgur.com/tHw0b.gif
...
~ Super-Brony12
That..seemed like a rather quick cop-out.
5094110 That's actually kinda funny, really. Orchestrating such a bloody war through bloodless killing, lol.
I do feel like the whole love deal with the griffoness and the emperor was a bit...cliché, I guess, for lack of a better word. The griffoness being eager to serve Twilight is understandable, but a far better conflict would come from the emperor grudgingly falling into a role of servitude. Much more reasonable given his prior attitudes, really.
Good god, Twilight, what are you thinking? Taking on these boorish brutes as advisors? Did you forget they once wished to declare war on you? Secure a treaty and leave, Twilight. You don't owe them anything. I'd rather keep my distance with that lot.
I don't get it... (the last line), why is it funny?
5094272 There's two ways to end up with no living prisoners in your victory parade. One is to have had no prisoners to take, and the other is to have left no prisoners living.
Guess which the griffons would expect. No, go on, guess!
5094272
I think what is being said here is the lack of prisoners might look as though she killed, rather than imprisoned, her enemies.
I think.
5094272 Typically in the old days, usually an occupying army into a city would trail behind a few PoWs, either them being the last surviving remnants of the defending force, or important people (officers, royalty, etc.) and having them march into a city with no prisoners means that -they killed them all.-
So the last line may, like Twilight's original impression upon them may be misconstrued. She didn't bring any prisoners (since they were all hungry or whatever and sitting around Equestria) as they were being tended to. So the general populace thought that she put all gryphon troops to the sword. (aka execution)
5094272
It looks to the griffin population as though they took no prisoners in the last battle and killed the whole army.
5094264
You know what they say: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
This is so you can put a knife in 'em while they're not lookin'.
Twilight has the boon (probably) of functional immortality, so the only thing they'd get for putting a knife in her is an enraged goddess of magic.
That was fun. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
5094311
It'd be too easy to just magic their heads off right here. Why wait?
that last line.
/5
5094264
That's klingon/wolf/griffon mentality at work. Show them who's boss and you can trust them, usually.
She'd probably earn a lot of goodwill by reuniting families and such.
Get out there and start kissing babies, Twilight. You have a kingdom to fold into Equestria.
Do they think Applejack won the war?
Twilight, it might be time to just bow out of this bassackwards country, they're all insane!
5094423 It would be funny if they set it up that way for that very reason. It would be the batman gambit of all batman gambits.
5094110
this, THIS!
that one line made me love this fic OH so much more! and holyshit it makes sense!
wages of sin you Magnificent fucking BASTARD!
5094264 Twilight's been explicitly trained (and rather indelicately) to operate on principles of friendship, meaning incorporating other beings' points of view and listening to them. She's going to deliberately seek and choose those paths in preference to doing everything herself, particularly when operating in an official capacity.
It has its pros and cons, but one of the advantages in international diplomacy is that it can change antagonism to tolerance and even alliance on more than just paper. Listening to people and acting (to a degree) as an extension of their will gives them a sense of empowerment, that the powers-that-be can be persuaded to assist personal goals, and provides positive societal feedback. People are far more likely to accept rather nebulous things like a new ruler, new international alliances, and so forth, if they can largely live their own lives the way they want.
It's using a two-way extroversion channel, and it's interesting to see Twilight, a severe introvert, using it more because she's been told to learn how to do so rather than because of any personal preference. It's rather interesting to see it in operation, as she doesn't use it with the natural unconscious skill that a lifelong extrovert does, but with caution and forethought and hesitatingly. It's like watching someone learn to walk after having grown up without using their legs - they might know the principles behind it, and have watched other people do it for years, but it's another matter entirely to learn to do something from scratch. Twilight's smart enough to know that she needs help to make it work, and has glommed onto the best sources of it readily available.
5094461 I really like your explanation of what she i doing. It really helped me understand what was happening. I feels like a lot of the story is moving quickly, and I don't think I'm completely following. Thanks.
Hehe...the griffons think no quarter was asked, none was given...
Poor Twilight.
Simple to fix, walk out onto a balcony and tell the population there husbands and wives and children are allright and being fed and fattened up after starving a bit. Trust me, it will all work out quite well for all involved.
Seriously, she makes them her advisors? She is even considering staying on as the new Empress? doesn't Twilight answer to Celestia? Its her army that is at Twilights back after all.
5094291
5094297
I got that, but hasn't the griffon army come back yet? And wouldn't boasting about there being no blood in the conflict clear up any confusion immediately?
"Prisoners? Oh no no, when I said bloodless I meant we used fire. Lots of fire. There was no blood left! "
5094538 I suspect that's exactly how the Griffon population read that message. XD
Crap.
Twi: "Oh..... whoops..................... ssssssssssssssssssshit."
5094527
Well, Twilight wanted to show how much of a bad ass she was.
5094532
She can have her army back. Twilight has a new well-fed army that will be returning soon.
5094538 fimfiction-static.net/images/story_images/208902.png?1407456148
Twilight The Dreaded.
5094532 To be fair, Twilight did do all the legwork to conquer the Griffins. She should get some kind of compensation for her time, right? What better than the whole Griffin Empire?
5094538
"It was a bloodless coup. All smothering!"
The last line is a perfect hook into the next chapter! woo
outstanding typos:
didn't see any others, but of course that doesn't mean that they're not there
Well, count me pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. I like this story.
5094188 Well, on one hoof it was anticlimactic. On the other, it was the only way this story could have ended
On nom, delicious chicken wings.
''Take no prisoners, kill them all!''
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5094832
"I shall hug them and squeeze them, and I shall call them George!"
5095084
Well it was a little short, but it got the point across.
I'll see you at the next chapter.
5095084 Then I suppose Twilight should be thankful she didn't bring that old war criminal with all her war... crimes. Seriously though your comment made me smile... also I listened to the song again.
:Huh?
:Oh.
5094318 Did you forget this is Twilight we're talking about?
Yah, I could see how that could be a problem. There are going to be a lot of happy families soon that are currently in mourning.
Cultural differences, making everything more difficult since the dawn of civilization!
Oh... Oops, yes, that last line makes a certain degree of sense and probably means the rumours of a massacre are already spreading.