“Flurry, we—that is, Cadence and Celestia and Luna and me. That is to say, the other alicorns. We are, um, collectively. I mean, all together. We’re concerned about some of your actions. Recently.”
After a moment, Twilight cleared her throat. “We’re worried a bit.”
Flurry sat on the throne of the Crystal Empire—her throne. She wore her full battle armor, and rested her glaive by her side. And she made quite the sight. The throne sparkled, her armor was a work of art, her weapon had a shaft of ivory and its blade was magically formed as a single diamond. She was young and beautiful and always would be, but where Twilight was young and soft, Flurry’s limbs showed muscle.
There were two lines of crystal pony guards, flanking her throne on either side.
Flurry allowed the silence to hang. She considered Twilight and Cadence, and sat as a ruler sat, with her forehooves on her throne and her back straight. It was only when she was done thinking that she allowed the conversation to proceed: “Are you?”
“Flurry, dear…” Cadence took half a step forward. “We know you’re in a difficult situation. The Crystal Empire still isn’t safe and action needs to be taken. But some of these sedition laws you’ve been enacting… you can’t. You just can’t.”
“Or you’ll scold me and send me to bed early?” Flurry let out a derisive snort. Her horn glowed, and she pulled her glaive over to her, idly inspecting the shaft. “I think we’re a bit past that, Mother.”
“It’s un-Equestrian,” Twilight interjected. “Alicorns have a divine right to rule because we embody good things: love and friendship, the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the night sky. We’re avatars of harmony. We can’t hurt the ponies we rule.”
“I’ve hurt the ponies I rule; my wings haven’t fallen off.” When Flurry lifted her eyes from her glaive, her expression was hard. “And I will hurt them again, if it is necessary to keep the Empire safe.”
“This isn’t necessary! Amaryllis is retreating and—”
“She is retreating to preserve her army to fight another day. Which it will.” Flurry raised her voice, and assumed a commanding tone. “You have liberated empty tundra and logging camps, while Yakyakistan, the Diamond Republic, and Vanhoover remain under Amaryllis’s control. You have suffered heavy casualties, and are now far enough from Equestria that supply is becoming a serious problem. The griffons are preparing for a major offensive against the badlands. And I will not—”
“—we will protect the Crystal—” Twilight tried to cut in.
But Flurry shouted over her, her face twisting back into a snarl. “And I will not lose my throne the way she did!”
With a flick of her muzzle, Flurry indicated Cadence. “Weak and helpless, unable to protect my ponies, waiting for Equestria to save me. You left us to die, Twilight. We screamed for help and you didn’t come. So this time I’m not wasting my breath. The Crystal Empire must be able to defend itself and wage war in the North in its own right. I will not weaken our defensive posture in return for promises of Equestrian protection.”
“And how does killing ponies who question your rule enhance your ‘defensive posture’?” Twilight demanded.
“Don’t be a fool. Nearly a fifth of the Crystal Empire thinks that Amaryllis would be a better ruler than me. Our ranks are riddled with spies. We talk about changeling infiltrators, but for every shapeshifter, there are three traitors who willingly support Amaryllis’s cause. Left free to act, their influence will spread, and we will lose the Empire not through any military action but when I am overthrown. Sedition is a crime, and if I want to enact exceptionally severe punishments for that crime, the circumstances warrant it.”
Silence hung over the courtroom. Cadence looked at her hooves.
“You can enact laws to that effect if you wish,” Twilight said, her tone cool. “But when you accuse ponies of breaking those laws, they get a trial. They get to defend themselves. And if they are found guilty, they get a punishment that is appropriate to the severity of their offense. You don’t have the right to have them abducted in the night and murdered.”
“Why not?”
Cadence’s head snapped up. Her mouth hung open in shock. Twilight pulled back, and grimaced like she’d eaten something sour. “So you don’t deny it?”
“No.” Flurry folded back her ears, and stared down Twilight and her mother. “Why should I? When a naive young stallion defects from the army, it is my right to have him summarily executed for treason. But when a scheming mare with a love for changelings in her heart encourages him to defect, she is somehow entitled to a trial and fair treatment? Better that the schemer dies and the young pony lives.”
“So you’re bringing back the secret police. Just like in King Sombra’s day. What’s next?” Twilight snapped. “Banning public gatherings? They might be plotting against you. Arresting ponies with foreign friends? They might be communists. In fact, why have courts at all? Declare martial law, and you can personally dispense justice with your glaive and a storm drain for the blood.”
“Flurry, dear, please,” Cadence said. Her voice was weak, and it wavered up and down. “I know I was a terrible ruler. I made so many mistakes, and I’m sorry. But you were my sweet little foal. Don’t do this. You were a princess. Please don’t grow up to be a warlord.”
“Mother, I am a warlord.” Flurry sighed, and lowered her voice back to something like normal. “At this point, the Crystal Empire doesn’t do much except wage war. Food is grown for the army, crystals shaped for weapons, schools exist to train young ponies to calculate artillery tables and march in formation.”
“And when does it end?” Twilight snarled.
“When my enemies are dead.”
“And if Amaryllis surrenders?”
Flurry’s snort perfectly captured her contempt. “Then that would make it much easier to kill her.”
Then Cadence said: “And what about your sister?”
Twilight, midway through another angry retort, fell silent. She turned to look at Cadence, and Flurry did as well. The Alicorn of Love was trembling where she stood, and quite obviously trying not to cry. “What about Cheval?”
“She’s a threat to the Empire. She stays where she is.”
“How?” Cadence demand. “How is she a threat? She’s a teenage mare.”
“That is an exceptionally stupid question,” Flurry snarled. “She’s a changeling queen, and she’s pregnant. She can start another hive.”
“And her first batch of drones will come of age in, what, fourteen years?” Cadence struggled to speak, her eyes red and bloodshot. “Is that strategically relevant? Were you planning for this to go on for that long?”
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Flurry said.
“And that doesn’t happen until all your enemies are dead,” Twilight summarized, her words laced with disgust. “Is Cheval one of your enemies? Are her unborn children? Are you plotting to have your nieces and nephews killed because they might one day be a threat to your rule?”
“I will do whatever is necessary to protect the Crystal Empire,” Flurry snapped. She descended from her throne, picking up her glaive as she did. “That’s my destiny. That’s why I was born. And that’s why Cheval put me on the throne in the first place.”
“Then she made a mistake,” Twilight said. Her horn glowed. “This is wrong, and I can’t allow it to continue.”
Flurry didn’t wait. As her horn formed a shield in front of her, she pointed to her guards. “Shoot her, now!”
A bright purple beam fired from Twilight’s horn.
“Bitch!” Flurry kicked Twilight’s unconscious body. She lay in the rubble, surrounded by guards, her body burnt by laser blasts. Flurry’s battle armor was blackened and dented, and her glaive had a notch on the shaft. Long scorch marks covered the walls of the throne room, meandering along it’s walls and ceiling like great serpents.
“Think you can come and tell me how to run my kingdom!” She kicked Twilight again. “Like you know what war is?” She kicked again, and one of Twilight’s ribs broke.
“I have watched ponies die. I have seen what torture does to a creature. I saw what happened when my own sister tortured one of her inlaws until she tried to kill herself. And I know that it will!” She kicked Twilight again. “Not!” Again. “Stop!”
She lifted a hoof, and brought it down on Twilight’s exposed leg. It snapped, and bone protruded from the skin. “Until they are all gone. You understand? It’s not over until it’s over!”
Tears were streaming down Flurry’s face. She wiped at them with an ash-stained hoof, and then violently shook her head. “Make sure she doesn’t die,” she snapped at a guard, before storming off.
Cadence hadn’t fought. She’d thrown up shields to protect Twilight, but she hadn’t attacked herself. As Flurry marched out of the throne room, she shot one last curse at her mother: “What? Nothing to say?”
Cadence was crying as well, but she kept her composure better. She reached up and gently wiped her tears away. She straightened her back, and stood like an Equestrian princess should.
Then she said, “Both of my daughters are monsters.”