‘Twilight—’
‘We can’t just ignore what happened!’ Twilight cried out. ‘That’s— that’s just terrible! Those poor souls are suffering out there, and for what? A-and what happens if they do this to other ponies? It’ll be another nightmare for everypony!’
‘Twilight.’
Twilight finally turned back to Princess Celestia, who had spent the last few hours breaking whatever magic had sealed the ring around her horn. Twilight was surprised that griffon magic was that strong. According to Celestia, it was common during the early history between the Equestrians and the Griffons.
‘Twilight,’ Celestia said gently, ‘I understand that the past few days have been awful. But—I assure you—we will be having important conversations with the Griffons.’
‘Excuse me for saying this, but conversations aren’t enough! We need… we need to help them! There has to be some way to help them!’
‘Twilight, there isn’t a way we can without stepping in.’ It was Luna who spoke this time, agitated and tired after hours spent helping her sister remove the contraption from Twilight's horn. ‘So unless we want to send Equestrian troops into Gryphoniya, we don’t have a solution.’
‘Luna, that isn’t quite true—’
‘Tia, please don’t dance around the subject. There’s no hiding the fact that this is a problem with no easy solution.’ Luna glanced toward Twilight. ‘I’m truly sorry you’ve had to go through what you did, Twilight, but you must understand—’
‘Understand what?’ Twilight shouted. ‘There’s griffons dying out there! Ones that want what’s best for their kind! Are we really going to ignore them?’
‘Better they die than we do,’ Luna muttered.
‘Luna!’ Celestia’s otherwise motherly tone became immediately sharp. ‘Let’s avoid such a suggestion. If there’s anything I’ve learned in my few millennia alive, it’s that there is always a solution to a problem that doesn’t involve ignoring it or retaliating against it.’
‘Then you must’ve forgotten Discord, Sombra, the Changelings… And the griffons.’ Luna shook her head. ‘No, empty words aren't going to fix Gryphoniya, nor will sending in a few armies to try to fight for or against whichever side you choose. It’ll be bloodshed. And with the state our Royal Guard is in—you know, the best of the best?—it’ll be worse for us.’
Luna’s approach deeply hurt what Twilight hoped would have been a solution to the problem. She, well, hated the Politburo for what it had done to her and her friends… But the one “good” side in that whole mess turned out to be as terrible as the one she already didn’t like.
Even if Equestria got involved, it’d have to choose between two evils. Fighting against both made little sense, and fighting against neither was pointless.
She had promised her friends there wouldn’t be a war. That nopony had to suffer like they did. What she didn’t realize was that, by forgoing the fight against either the Politburo or the Interim, she didn’t have a solution. The ponies would be safe, but the griffons would keep on dying and dying until either they were all gone or one side capitulated.
But how could she do that to them? They didn’t have to do anything to save her friends, but they chose to. There was still hope in Gryphoniya among those with good hearts. How would she fight for them?
She didn’t know.
‘Th-there’s got to be a way!’ Twilight pleaded. ‘There are good griffons out there who are suffering day after day! More than just one must’ve laid down their lives for us—’
‘Twilight...’ Luna sighed. ‘I hate to say it, but the only reason the Interim thought to rescue you and your friends was to force us to the bargaining table. Even if there was a good griffon among them, they died because their leaders saw them as a utility. My sister’s suggestion would’ve been to give weapons to the Interim on one condition—’
‘Give weapons to them?’ Twilight cried, turning toward Celestia with tears in her eyes. ‘A-after what they did to that one village? How they…’
She couldn’t finish that thought.
‘Twilight...’ Celestia’s motherly tone returned. ‘That’s really the only conversation we can afford to have at this point. We’ll negotiate some security for our own should they enter Gryphoniya. That, or completely shut down the border. We’ll transfer them some supplies—’
‘But weapons?’
‘No weapons. What you just said they did, Twilight, is a violation of Equestrian law. We will not stand for them to continue using such violence. Instead, we’ll give them aid. Medicine, food, clothes, those sorts of things.’
‘You know that the leaders will just pick those clean, Tia.’
‘Luna, that is enough,’ Celestia warned.
‘I-I can’t believe you…’ Twilight shook her head. ‘We can at least put in Peacekeepers? Have a zone where no creature is allowed to fight? I-it’d provide security to the innocent, maybe even facilitate peace negotiations, and no creature has to die!’
‘If that was enough for griffons, then perhaps I would agree.’ Celestia shook her head. ‘Unfortunately, they hate the Equestrians enough, Twilight. Just having foreign troops on their soil is enough for outrage. There are plenty of Equestrians in Canterlot alone who would despise the idea of sending their sons and daughters to help stabilize a nation that attacked us not even a decade ago.’
Twilight fell silent.
‘I wish we could do more, Twilight. Sometimes, the most peaceful solution is to not get involved at all.’
‘Oh, but it was alright to send Gedeon back? That’s when it is okay to be involved?’ Twilight snapped before she could control herself. ‘I’m sorry, but if I’m understanding what I’ve been told, this is all our fault! And we’re doing nothing to fix it!’
‘You have to understand that, after three millennia of being under their claws,’ Celestia explained, ‘and a few more being adversaries with them, that Equestria didn’t have many options, especially if it meant appeasing our allies in Hippogriffia.’
‘Sometimes it’s more complicated than black and white, Twilight,’ Luna seconded.
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ Twilight’s tone faded into a dismissal. ‘Thanks for helping get this thing off my horn. I’m… I’ll need some time alone.’
Twilight started out of the doors. Her mentors and fellow princesses did nothing to try to stop her. She composed herself until she was out of their sight, her emotions finally getting the best of her.
Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Despite what she had told herself in the past, she did nothing to hold them back. She had failed. Everything she told herself—everything she had promised that she would do to help improve the situation back in Gryphoniya—meant nothing if she couldn’t do it.
What then? What now?
There was nothing. No easy answer. No satisfactory action. It was all the same. Even if Equestria at large knew of the atrocities in Gryphoniya, all that would do is encourage them to stay even further away from the civil war.
Nothing then. Nothing could be done.
Twilight resigned herself to the fate that some things could never be solved. And she, no matter how determined, had no power to change anything.
The tears finally rolled down her cheeks and onto the royal carpets of Canterlot Castle.