//------------------------------// // 230. Twilight is Bored Listening to Luna Lecture Her About Foreign Politics // Story: Azure Edge // by Leaf Blade //------------------------------// Luna was an interesting pony. Hm. ‘Interesting’ was definitely not the correct word. ‘Fascinating,’ perhaps. Twilight was genuinely endeared to Luna’s passion for doing good, and her genuine drive for improving the lives of ponies and dragons alike. But gawd. She was so dull. Apparently Luna had been taught that when conveying information, making it LOUDER meant making it more engaging. Whoever taught her that was likely long dead and Twilight cursed the fact that she couldn’t give harsh words to them herself. Rarity and Fleur had already needed to quiet Luna down at least three times during Luna’s agonizingly dull speech about Crystal Empire politics and how they interacted with Equestria’s politics. The Crystal Empire was an autonomous micronation, it had its own laws and governing body separate from Equestria. It was a fascinating topic that Twilight was dying to learn more about, but Princess Luna— bless her heart— had a way of presenting even an interesting topic in a brutally disinteresting way. After what felt like hour two-hundred-and-fifty, Twilight couldn’t even pretend like she was listening anymore, and she had her head buried in her arms folded on top of the table in the very plush and dainty bedroom that Luna had hastily shuffled into a makeshift war room of sorts. “Dear Luna,” Rarity— sweet, comforting Rarity— rubbed Twilight’s back as she miserably slogged through Luna’s lecture, “perhaps this method of explanation isn’t quite hitting its mark?” “Is Twilight having trouble internalizing?” Luna grumbled. “After all the work I put into making this briefing as compact as possible?” “This is your idea of ‘compact’?” Twilight balked, looking incredulously at Luna. “For her, yes,” Fleur chuckled, and flashed a funny grin at Luna who glared at her, though the Princess’ gaze softened immediately at Fleur’s smile. “Luckily for you, Twilight Sparkle, I anticipated this and prepared the cliff notes version. “Twilight doesn’t need to know the minutia of all the local politics,” Fleur said, rolling her eyes at Luna, who rolled her eyes back. “In fact, Twilight you already know the situation between ponies and dragons in the Empire, correct?” “I do,” Twilight nodded. “Dragons are allowed to stay within the Empire’s walls free from Equestrian pursuit, with the condition that they follow certain rules to maintain order and safety.” “Certain rules?” Rarity arched a concerned eyebrow. “What kind of rules?” “Always stay in pony form,” Luna said coldly, “live in their own rundown districts, and work for slave wages, basically.” An uncomfortable pause lingered over the room, and Twilight looked over at Rarity whose face slowly washed over with pained recognition. “Is that—” Rarity paused and shook her head, and then she turned to Twilight. “Twilight, is that true?” “Yes,” Twilight said bluntly. “That’s why I didn’t want to go.” “Wait, you told me that dragons and ponies lived in harmony—” “I told you that when ‘dragons can be used as harmless slave labor’ would be an improvement in how you saw dragons,” Twilight said shortly, and for the sake of her own mental health she pretended not to see the pained wince Rarity made. “But there’s a reason that I’ve been dragging my feet on getting us there.” “I-I see,” Rarity said, her fingers clenched together and her brow furrowed. She took a deep breath and let it out as a sigh, before smiling at Twilight and putting her hand atop Twilight’s as she looked to Luna. “So what is our objective here exactly?” “You didn’t ask the important question, Rarity,” Fleur said with a cute grin, resting her chin on her steepled fingers. “I didn’t?” Rarity asked perplexedly. “You didn’t ask how the dragons feel about this arrangement,” Fleur said, and Rarity’s face turned red instantly. “N-no, I suppose I didn’t,” Rarity said bashfully, and then she cleared her throat. “So um, how do the dragons feel about this arrangement?” Luna opened her mouth to speak, but Twilight was faster. “They accept their fate,” she said bitterly. “Excuse me?” Rarity blinked at Twilight. “Twilight is correct,” Luna said. “Do go on, Ms. Sparkle.” “When the Crystal Empire originally offered its amnesty program to the dragons,” Twilight explained, digging painful memories out of her mind like scraping skin off her body with a trowel, “a lot of us knew it was obviously a trap. That they were always planning on doing exactly what they did. “Some of us gave benefit of the doubt, but when the awful terms that would make us little more than slaves were proposed, some of us still went along with it, arguing this was ‘the best we could hope for’.” Twilight scoffed in disgust. Even recalling it years later made her nauseous and pissed off. “Needless to say,” Twilight continued, “those of us who didn’t want to be slaves argued that we needed to push for more. This discourse escalated as neither side wanted to listen to the other. Because one side was right, and the other was acting foolishly. They were going to condemn us all because they weren’t comfortable fighting for justice.” Rarity gently took Twilight’s hand and kissed her fingers. She smiled concernedly at Twilight, who softened her posture a little bit and smiled back before leaning in and graciously receiving a kiss from her beautiful girlfriend, which helped her calm down a lot. “The long story short version,” Twilight said, “is that this ‘discourse’ escalated to the point where it looked like a civil war was inevitable. Those of us on the ‘fight to not be slaves’ side started to break apart because we didn’t want to fight amongst ourselves. “Some gave in, some returned to the Dragon Lands or went into hiding in Equestria. Others just disappeared without a trace. Soon enough, there weren’t enough of us to put up an argument, and the dragons became slaves to the Crystal Empire.” “So, to answer your earlier question, Rarity,” Fleur said casually; Twilight wasn’t sure if it was impressive or insulting how easily she was keeping her composure, “what your party is going to do is convince the leader of the Crystal Empire to meet with our dear Princess Luna. And convince the leader of the dragons to fight for their freedom.” “Or, failing those things,” Luna said coldly, “we’ll replace one or both of those leaders.” “Okay, chill out, Luna,” Fleur giggled into her hand. “So serious all the time, I swear. It’s not good to be this uptight, honey.” Luna scoffed under her breath and looked bashfully away from Fleur, who then focused her attention on Rarity. “We’re not exactly planning a coup or anything, and certainly not tomorrow. “We’ll take things one step at a time. This little trip of yours is just so you can meet the major players involved.” “And who is the leader of the Crystal Empire?” Rarity asked. “He’s a man named Gladmane,” Luna explained. “He’s an oaf who bribed his way into power, and it’s unlikely that there’s a single living being that thinks fondly of him.” “But people sure like his money,” Fleur added. “And he’s got more of it than god, so no one can touch him or remove him from power.” “That said,” Luna said, “the important players are his two most trusted advisors. Lady Cadance, who you know, Rarity, and is sympathetic to our cause.” “Oh, sweet Cadance,” Rarity laughed, and that piqued Twilight’s curiosity. “Who’s Cadance?” Twilight asked. “She’s one of Celestia’s star students,” Rarity said fondly. “Basically, she was in my position in the class right before mine. She’s about a decade my senior, and an absolute sweetheart. Also? She has always been obsessed with dragons.” “I don’t think that’s true,” Luna corrected. “Our colleagues in the Slayers painted her as obsessed, when the truth was simply that she knew all along how wrong we all were about dragons.” “Huh,” Rarity hummed, finger up to her lips. “I hadn't thought of that, but… it does make sense, doesn’t it? Rather depressing when I think about it.” “It be like that,” Fleur said knowingly. “It’s not going to stop being depressing either. You’re going to have to live with the effects of your bigotry, and your colleagues’ bigotry, for the rest of your lives.” “I can accept that,” Rarity said immediately. “It’s more important that we change things so that as few generations after us as possible will have to deal with those effects.” “On that note,” Luna interjected, “the other advisor of note is Gladmane’s court magician. Her name is Starlight Glimmer, and she is most certainly not sympathetic to our cause. In fact, she’s the architect for much of the ‘conditions’ that the dragons in the Crystal Empire are burdened with.” “It’s worse than that,” Twilight added. “I never met Starlight Glimmer in person, but I’ve heard of her. I’m almost certain that she is the one who made the dragons who were against the Empire’s terms ‘disappear’.” “And last but not least,” Luna said, “is the leader of the Empire’s dragons.” “And who might that be?” Rarity asked, looking to Luna, and then to Twilight. “Shining Armor,” Twilight sighed, feeling empty. “My brother.”