//------------------------------// // Knock Knock, It’s the Real Harmonists // Story: Harmony Doesn't Knock // by Amarandream //------------------------------// General Starfrost trotted down the main boulevard of the Crystal City, palace directly ahead. Along the street, soldiers in white and gray uniforms and kettle helms similar to her own removed hastily erected republican banners, replacing them with those of the one true Crystal Empire. Starfrost couldn’t be more proud. For years, she’d led her small band of guerrillas in and out of mountain passes, through monster infested tunnel networks, and across open plains under cover of blizzards too brutal to have been imaginable before Sombra’s corruption of the crystal heart. Each time they would strike at Sombra’s true supporters, cut off supply lines, seize crucial resources, or spread propaganda leaflets. Her rebellion got larger over time as their mind controlled friends were freed and those made complacent by fear began to see the light. By the time they marched on the Crystal City, she had at her tail the largest army the Empire had ever seen, excepting only Sombra’s own. To finally be there—her mission complete, homeland reclaimed—it made her want to grin until Hearth's Warming. She didn't have time for that though. She knew from experience that after every war, came a mountain of paperwork. She hated paperwork almost as much as she hated having her country under occupation. Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but still, she considered trying to hoof most of it off onto her sister. She was much better at that kind of thing. Of course, it was going to be even more complicated as a result of what the Imperial army found when it had arrived at the Crystal City. At the time, she'd been more amused than anything to find not Sombra, but a miniature republic occupying the nation's capital. She knew there’d been a battle and she did sent assassins after Sombra in the midst of it, but she never expected the rebels to win. Since the moment she petitioned her Equestrian allies to divert some military aid to the republicans, she’d only been using them as a means of keeping Sombra distracted. That way, her forces could run amok out in the countryside. What amused her less was the so-called revolutionaries’ refusal to give the city over to the legitimate government of the Crystal Empire. Naturally, Starfrost didn’t let that stop her. Prevented from outright attacking non-aggressors by official Imperial doctrine, she’d ordered the army to march straight into the city as if on parade, leaving the defenders only a choice between surrender or starting a conflict with a numerically superior and well equipped force. Some surrendered, some fought, all lost. Those of low rank who surrendered were told to go home, no questions asked. After all, even with the battles won, they still had to unite the nation. The officers and those who chose violence were under much greater scrutiny though. Already, rumors of war crimes committed by these ponies were spreading, and she knew at least one was true. She’d seen the carnage leftover from the butchering of the Mareida family. It wasn’t pretty, and while once upon a time, she wouldn’t have been too put off by it, she liked to think of herself as reformed now—despite the princesses skepticism of that fact. Even back then, she’d never harmed foals though, and the Mareidas had several. “Starfrost, there you are. I have those reports you requested.” She smiled and turned around to see a white-coated earth pony with a dark mane. Her colorings closely matched Starfrost’s own, but with green eyes instead of blue. Though she recognized the voice even before seeing her. Only one pony never ever addressed her by her title, and that was her sister. Starfrost had expressly forbidden it the moment she first outranked Icy Snow. Her sister was ever embarrassed by the informality of it in front of their subordinates, but it had been an order, and Icy loved following orders. It was probably the reason Starfrost outranked her despite having gone through the academy at opposite ends of the grading scale, a fact Icy never once rubbed in her face, even when she had every right to. “Well, Colonel, what’s the situation?” Icy Snow’s emerald eyes narrowed at Starfrost’s refusal to follow her own rules, but she didn’t hesitate in hoofing over a sheaf of papers. “It seems they took Radiant Hope from the palace and executed her in the street. No trial, mob justice.” “I’m not surprised. A trial would likely have ended in her execution anyway.“ Starfrost flipped a page. “Didn’t she and Sombra have a daughter? Where is she?” Icy Snow frowned at the quick dismissal of Radiant’s death, but went on, nodding toward the palace. “Last seen in the company of the rebel leader, Applethorn. General Applethorn, he styles himself. After that, no sign of her. I’ve already ordered a full investigation of the matter. Hopefully, we’ll be able to track her down and bring some sense of normalcy back to her life.” Starfrost raised an eyebrow as she began walking toward the palace. “You think she’s alive?” Icy blinked. “Why wouldn’t she be?” She set a pace with her sister. “I mean, she’s just a little filly.” Starfrost shook her head. “You have too much faith in the good of ponies.” “Or maybe you don’t have enough.” “Maybe, but mark my words, we’ll be digging up a corpse, not fishing a scared filly out of some hiding place.” Icy grimaced. “Once again, I find myself really hoping you're wrong.” “Me too, believe me.” She sighed. “What about the prisoners? Anypony valuable?” “Well, we have Applethorn in custody now. I knew you would want to interrogate him personally. Also, reports indicate that the last of Sombra’s key supporters, Flawless, has been captured. We have a battalion of soldiers escorting him and his officers to the Crystal City now.” Starfrost smirked, pulling at the scar on her right cheek. “A whole battalion? Wow Icy, you are learning!” Icy Snow’s cheeks flushed vermillion. “Um, well, at least we know he won’t get away this time.” “Right. Take me to Applethorn. I have some questions regarding his involvement in the Mareida deaths, and if anypony knows where that poor filly is, it’s him.” Her sister nodded. “Of course. Would you like me to assist in the questioning?” “Oh, please do.” Starfrost flashed a smile at her. “You know so well how my solo interrogations tend to get less than friendly. Somepony has to hold me back.” Icy rolled her eyes. “Or maybe you just enjoy forcing my hoof.” Starfrost smirked. “That too.” Two guards in helmets emblazoned with the symbol of the Crystal Empire entered the interrogation room, escorting “General” Applethorn. His coat was still torn and dirt-stained from his fight against Starfrost's forces and his white Stetson had a gaping hole in it. From the looks of it, he was lucky not to have lost his head. Starfrost dismissed the soldiers the moment he was seated in the chair across the table from herself and Icy Snow, coolly stepping up to meet him eye-to-eye as the door closed. “Welcome. My name is General Starfrost and this mare beside me is Colonel Icy Snow, acting chief of the Crystal Intelligence Services.” Applethorn scoffed. “The C.I.S. is gone, just like Mi Amore and her entire government. You’re just a bunch of pretenders using whatever you can to claim legitimacy over my own force. The very force that you unlawfully dismantled." He flashed a smile, though it looked somewhat forced. "The princesses will hear about this, you know, and when they do, they will be most displeased. I have been in their favor, after all. They even sent me supplies.” Starfrost gave him a blank stare that lasted all of a few seconds before she burst out laughing. The poor fool had absolutely no idea what was really going on in the world. Her, a pretender? The princesses favoring him? Even Icy gave a small chuckle. “What? What are you laughing at?” Applethorn insisted. “You think it’s funny to laugh in the face of those who believe in peace, friendship, and harmony? To laugh at the only ones capable of bringing liberty?” At that, Starfrost’s laughter transformed into full on wheezing. Was he possibly referring to all of the "peace, friendship, and harmony" the Mareidas felt at the end of rebel blades? No, he couldn't possibly mean that. She knew she shouldn't laugh at something so dark, but something morbid inside her couldn't help it. Icy Snow patted Starfrost on the withers, giving Applethorn a sympathetic look when she saw how offended he was. “I must apologize for my sister’s poor sense of humor. I’m sure she did not mean to demean your core values.” “Yes, I did.” Starfrost hastily threw in as she got herself under control. It was always in her sister's nature to be diplomatic for as long as possible, but Starfrost felt no such obligation. She didn't see the point in appeasing ponies not worth anything to her. Icy sighed. “Regardless, there are some things you need to know before we can begin with the questions. The Princess and her government are not gone, merely in exile. If you believed the rumors of her and her family’s deaths, then you have been listening to Sombra’s propaganda. The truth is that they were saved from Sombra’s custody, shortly before their planned execution date, by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They were then taken to Canterlot, where they have been protected but told to keep a low profile to avoid Sombra’s assassins. “You see, we aren’t pretending at anything. We are the legitimate government. Princess Cadance herself requested I take temporary command of the Crystal Intelligence Services during this time, and both of us were in the military even before Sombra’s take over.” Starfrost nodded along with her sister, adding in, “Which means that when you refused to surrender the city to us, you were in direct defiance of the crown. I suppose I could have explained the situation then, but you clearly weren’t interested in dialogue. The last thing we needed was to give you time to prepare your defenses. Also, nopony favors you. I directed those supplies your way so you could keep Sombra occupied for me. That’s right,” she smiled, “you were nothing more than a distraction. Your victory is meaningless; the city was ours either way.” Applethorn gulped, his gaze falling down to the simple, wooden table as he visibly soaked in the tirade of information. “I . . . I don’t know what to say. How could this happen? I never trusted them, but I didn’t think our so-called benevolent overlords could be this callous to our plight.” “They aren’t. Don’t be dramatic.” Starfrost leaned in close, tipping the helmet she still wore back to get a good look at the stallion. “They accepted the advice of the military because the situation was desperate. The border was too fortified for the Equestrian army to break through and Sombra was rapidly gaining real supporters, ponies who didn’t need to be mind controlled to be loyal. I suppose we can blame Radiant Hope’s outreach for that. You saw many of these facts the same as I, but if you really think the princesses in their all-powerful wisdom could somehow be wrong, you can feel free to tell them yourself. After all, Cadenza is expected to be here later today. And believe me, I intend to have a detailed report of all your activities ready for her when she arrives.” “All-powerful . . .” Applethorn’s eyes widened in recognition. “Wait. I know of you, don’t I? Yes, you were that nationalist who almost started a war with the Yaks a few years back. Didn’t the princesses have to repeatedly call you down for being overzealous? I think the papers even called you ‘dangerously unstable.’ Almost lost your job over that, didn't you? I mean, in addition to your sanity, of course.” She clenched her teeth. First Princesses Cadance and Luna doubted her, then Blueblood and Rutherford took turns openly insulting her, then Artic Lily slandered her in front of thousands at the Crystal Fair, and now this fool? She tried to resist yelling at him, she really did, but she'd about had enough. The war against Sombra had been a good break from the criticism, but it seemed that era was quickly ending. As if in slow motion, she saw Icy realizing what she was about to do from the edge of her vision, but it was too late. She was suddenly quite sure that Applethorn would look much better with a few bruises. He might even be easier to question. “For the last time, I’m reformed!” Starfrost screeched, rearing up to smack him across the muzzle. “Okay!” Icy Snow jumped in, pulling her down into a seat just before her hoof could reach the stallion. “Maybe let’s not get you involved in a prisoner abuse scandal, especially since I would be the one tasked with investigating it. Okay?” “Fine,” Starfrost grumbled, “but those papers exaggerated. Most were just attack ads written by old enemies of mine.” She coughed. ". . . and maybe a few old friends." “Yeah, well, you have a lot of old enemies.” Icy said, choosing to ignore the last bit, probably to avoid further resurfacing bad memories for Starfrost. She turned to Applethorn. “And I will thank you not to antagonize her. We brought you down here to ask a few questions, not fight over who can act more like a foal.” She paused, glancing down at the papers sitting before her on the table. "Speaking of, I believe we have a rather important foal missing. Snowblossom, I believe her name was." She looked back to Applethorn. "Where is she?" "I . . . I don't know . . ." Applethorn floundered for a moment before taking a deep breath and visibly regaining his bearings. "I mean, she escaped." He looked between Icy Snow and Starfrost with an apologetic smile for the first and a disapproving glance for the second. "Sorry, you caught me a bit off guard, what with the almost hitting me and all. I last saw Snowblossom when I locked her in the palace armory just before going to give a victory speech in front of my ponies. By the time I came back, she was gone. I suspect she climbed out the window. You must understand, she wasn't more than four or five. She was scared and confused, too young to understand that we would never harm her. I sent some soldiers to look for her, but then you attacked and the hunt was called off in the chaos. She could be anywhere by now." Icy Snow merely nodded and wrote some notes down, but Starfrost wasn't satisfied. "You expect us to believe that? That you didn't so much as have a guard look after her during your speech? No. I think you had your ponies kill her, just like you did to her mother. You might as well confess now, because I intend to question every last soul here until I have the evidence to hang you with." "But I didn't—" Applethorn began before being cut off by an icy glare from the mare of the same name. After a few moments in silence, Icy turned to Starfrost, pulling her close to whisper in her ear. "Look, I get it, you think you have the solution. But you can't just decide that you're a hammer and he's a nail. If he is guilty of that particular crime, it will come to light in our investigations, but yelling at him now will only make him more hostile going forwards. In the meantime, we have other, arguably more serious crimes to worry about." Starfrost sighed. "As usual, you are right." She glanced down at Icy's papers, found the one she was looking for, then slid it across the table to the revolutionary. "The Mareida family. Or 'House' Mareida, as they were decreed by Sombra's regime. What happened to them?" Applethorn spared only a glance for the report in front of him before calmly meeting her eyes. "I sent Major Redwood to handle that. He claimed to have killed their soldiers and broken his way inside only to find the family had committed suicide." He frowned, gaze falling to the floor in sorrow. "They even killed their own foals to prevent our soldiers reaching them. If only they had just surrendered." He shook his head. "An unnecessary tragedy." "Right," Starfrost said skeptically. "Well, Colonel, do we have this Redwood in the city?" Icy Snow shuffled through her papers. "I believe . . . yes. Right here." She pushed one page forward on the table. "He is being treated for head trauma in one of the temporary hospitals. Seems he was wounded in the assault against Sombra's forces, but he should be stable enough to talk, seeing as how he isn't in emergency care." "Good." Starfrost nodded. "I'll go speak to him now. Have the guards see this one back to his cell." Starfrost stepped over to the door, opening to find an orange unicorn stallion on the other side, hoof raised to knock with a message floating beside him in a red aura. She snatched it from him without a word and scanned the pages. "Well, Icy, looks like Flawless just arrived." She looked up, smiling at her sister. "And he's requested to speak with you personally." Icy Snow sighed. "I see. Very well. You handle Redwood and I will handle . . .” she gulped, “Flawless."