Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
December 12th, Gregorian Calendar
Celestia
Try as I might, I couldn't shake the overpowering sense that things had changed. And not for the better.
I shifted uncomfortably on the Javelin's seats, their arms lifted between two, and then the two of the next row reversed, and joined with the first to form a platform of cushions large enough for me.
Change was a familiar sensation to me. Often a welcome one after so many years of stagnation.
It wasn't the sense of change itself that was weighing on me. Nor was it merely the sudden exhaustion I felt, deprived of the connection to my dear Sun, and the world of my birth.
It was the inescapable feeling that a line had been crossed, and that certain aspects of the future were unavoidable, no matter what I said, or did.
I'd seen moving images of what the Humans called 'Atomic Weapons' very early in the first contact process. It was nearly five days of contemplation after that before I'd finally decided to continue speaking with them on diplomatic terms.
For a time, the urge to cut them off and never speak to them again had been sickeningly overwhelming.
A tiny part of me wondered if we all would have been better off had I turned them away...
And just as quickly the main reason I hadn't came flooding back. Seven billion people. More, really. Seven billion was a rounding simplification. How could I in good conscience have condemned so many to perish, even when I didn't know that I was partially responsible for their plight?
Humanity rightly seemed, for the most part, to fear many of its own creations nearly as much as I did. And the fear they were feeling was palpable.
They'd always worked hard to ensure my safety when I visited their world. And for all their partisan, religious, racial, and class bickering, their government and military had always managed to present a united face, even when the reality was more complex underneath.
The tenuous illusion of stability seemed to have shattered.
Never before had so many fighter craft been sent to escort me. Two dozen jet attack craft, plus two Dragons outfitted with 'turbine flight boost armatures,' and 'heavy anti-vehicle weapons packages,' and an 'electronic warfare jamming plane.' And all for just one executive transport.
The number of JRSF troops that had been dispatched to meet me at the crossover point, just to oversee my arrival and boarding, had been almost stifling. And, I had not failed to notice, almost all Equestrians. Their ratio to Humans was five to one.
Even the pilots of my Javelin were Equestrian. A Pegasus and a Gryphon. There were only two Human crew onboard. And fifteen other JRSF troops. All Equestrian. And all that in addition to my six Day Guards.
The cabin was a very cramped space.
Cramped, and virtually silent but for the deadened roar of the engines.
We'd stopped twice to refuel out of necessity. Once aboard an aircraft carrier, which had only surfaced for the amount of time strictly required to shuffle myself, and my detail, from one Javelin to the next, and launch the relief aircraft.
The second time in a JRSF ground facility just outside a city called Belém. Two more Dragons, and a dozen Gryphons had been patrolling the skies around the base, alongside half a dozen attack VTOLs.
The facility's defensive railgun and missile batteries had all been extended from their shelters, and tracked the sky in great menacing sweeps, ready to fire on anything that felt hostile, with even the slightest provocation.
In the distance, just smoke, and a thousand faint red glows.
Belém was burning.
Every city on the Earth was burning.
I'd taken the first leg of the flight to read a hastily assembled briefing packet sent by the JRSF's central command. Then on the second leg, I'd forced myself to watch the Humans' news media reports.
It was hard to decide which was more heart-breaking; The decision by Human military leaders to deploy Nuclear weapons against a Conversion Bureau. Or the responses that had followed.
Pained though I was to admit it, I had been forced to abandon my preconceptions. To agree that what had been done to the 'Creek Mountain' was an acceptable response. Perhaps even an appropriate response.
I'd been forced to ask myself; Would I have done anything differently in the end? I'd allowed Gryphons to slaughter the enemies of my little Ponies before, once certain lines had been crossed... Known what they would do. Wanted them to do it for me.
And felt shockingly little pity, right up until it had very nearly been too late.
Yet another in my pantheon of mistakes.
As to the response from the Humans, and Equestrians, who had set fire to so much of the planet's cities?
What else were they to do? They had so little recourse left.
How had it all slipped so far into oblivion without my noticing?
The rot Fyrenn had uncovered should have been more of a warning. But no one had truly understood how fragile the peace was. Perhaps partly because so few, whether Human or Equestrian, really understood Humanity's history, even its recent history.
There were evils lurking in their culture, their government, and their very ways of life, that had gone largely unconfronted for centuries. I'd badly underestimated the magnitude of those evils, and the danger that with the right prodding, that they might break loose and wreak havoc before I could finish the work I'd started.
Work I had no choice but to finish, even in spite of the causes of the catastrophe.
I winced, and switched off the holoscreen with a flick of my magic, forcing my thoughts back to the present.
The goal is still the same. The paths may change... They always do... But the goal has not changed at all. First save as many lives as possible. Second, make as many lives better as possible. Third, save what art, and science, and history can be saved in the time given.
Complex paths. Complex obstacles. Simple goals.
Right and true.
The mantra was only a small, dim comfort.
Millions more were going to die than I'd ever feared in my darkest nightmares. And that was the best case to be hoped for.
I knew Fyrenn would give his opinion. Others too. And I valued them all. But having seen the callousness with which the order was issued... 'Target the San Francisco Conversion Bureau.'
I found myself shivering again, as if someone had poured ice water over my coat.
There was a way back from the brink of outright war... For the present. But I'd seen the fury of those roused to action by fear, combined with hatred, before.
And both sides had what they saw as good cause for both fear, and hatred in plentiful ration.
Secession, devolution of certain government powers, special administrative zones, strategic weapon disarmament... These measures would merely stem the flow of blood for a time.
The patient was always going to die... But now it was going to die much sooner, and more painfully.
True stability would never return. Riots, and brushfire conflicts, and terrorism, and brinksmanship, unrest, and conflict would be ceaseless. Right up until the last of Australia vanished.
The chance for an orderly transition was dashed. Forever.
All that was left was the fractional hope that a majority of those who could accept the escape of Conversion, or of Genesis, would both have the chance to take it, and the will, before the end came.
Far too many were going to die in the collapse. Still more would never muster the will to take the final step, until it would inevitably become far too late to process so many through such a materials-limited process.
More still would perish in stubborn pride. Humans we might have reached, and convinced a week previous were now doubtless cemented in their hatred of us. Patriotism was morphed, as it so easily is for them, into Nationalism. The sickly sweet elixir of self-inflicted mortal wounds under the guise of greatness restored.
A soft two-toned sound indicated that we were preparing to land. I steeled my ears for the deeply unpleasant higher registers of the Javelin's engines passing through particularly painful frequencies.
I watched Lucapa pass by in the window as we descended. I was struck again by guilt as I saw the skeletal frames of fifteen great arrowheads being slowly moved from initial assembly hangars into the fitting, completion, and launch pits so recently vacated.
I should have done more to support them.
How many more might have been saved if they could have flown twice, five, or even ten times as many ships?
Perhaps, the thought struck me as the Javelin's wheels touched pavement softly, there might still be time to partly rectify that mistake. Atone for lost time.
The taxiing process was over in a blur, and I found myself smothered in armored creatures once more.
One face at the bottom of the 'airstair' stood out in stark familiarity.
I descended carefully, and slowly, shivering as the cold air bit into my side. I knew it wasn't so much that Earth's winters were getting any colder... More that my own power was waning.
As I reached the bottom with no small amount of relief, I pulled the red Gryphon into a short, but intense hug with both wings. Decorum be damned. I needed the physical contact. It seemed, from his expression, that he did as well.
I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach, the same way it had when the Javelin began its descent. Pain. A great sadness was written on his beak, and his eyes...
Pulling away, I opted to remove the bandage with alacrity. I did my best to keep my voice away from exhausted, or fearful registers as I spoke. But I knew I wasn't entirely successful.
"I have... Extremely disturbing information. About the being you know as 'Veritas.' "
The way Fyrenn's ears flattened... His tail lashed. The horrors reflected off the back of twin golden orbs. Somehow I felt the truth of his words in the breath before they left his beak, cold, almost lifeless.
"I already know."
Fyrenn
As the last of Skye's projection faded away, an exact visual and auditory recounting of everything she'd ripped form the Nightmare's mind, I moved to put a wing over her, as much to give her some privacy as to comfort her.
I felt her press her whole body into my side, as if trying to vanish from the world, and I knew that she was crying again. I wanted badly to break down and join her.
The rest of the group seated around the table sat in a hollowed out, defeated silence of introspection, and processing. Not one face bore any expression outside the spectrum of horror, pain, and sadness.
Celestia, Martins, Aston, Neyla, Alyra, Seyal, Sorven, a large golden Dragon who'd introduced himself as Arnshekh, and Hutch.
Thank God that the person who had designed Martins' personal conference room had built it with large multispecies gatherings in mind. And security.
Hutch was sitting side by side with Aston. Seeing him there in his dark burgundy and gray feathers, reminiscent of a Kestrel, tail entwined with Aston's one wing over her back... Together with the sight of Alyra nestled under one of Neyla's wings, and the touch of her other against my own left side...
The contact, and the sight of them, was all that was keeping me alive in that moment.
Skye's presentation was the capstone to a long, careful recounting that Celestia had shared to ensure that everyone knew as much as she did. Hearing the awful truths again, forced out through her pain, and grief...
The way it had all aligned so perfectly with everything Skye and I had seen...
At last, almost everything had fallen into place. The vast majority of the whole tragic skein made clear. The initial images from our voyage were still somewhat unclear in their meaning, but I had a few hypotheses. None of which particularly mattered to the present moment.
I squeezed Skye gently against my side with one wing, and opened the other to lay across Neyla's back.
A hard core of steel began to wrap its way around the sorrow and pain that had nested deep down in my gut, seeded there by Skye's anguished cries. Astris' hollow expression. The sight of so many horrors...
The future was still in motion. Still in flux.
I would be damned if I was going to lose the particular future I'd so briefly, but so wonderfully glimpsed.
I'd seen the Nightmare bleed.
If it bleeds... We can kill it.
Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
First step; Define the problem in the simplest useful terms. Break the future out into basic, generically defined goals. Then work out a flexible plan as-needed.
I placed my open right claw down on the table with enough force to get everyone's attention, but not enough to shake the surface.
"Right, then. As complicated as the web is that brought us here, the goals are very, very simple. Save lives. Survive. Fight. Win. And our next steps are clear."
Turning to face each being in the room, starting with Celestia, and ending by lifting one wing and proffering Skye a small smile, I was met only with nodding silence. They were all looking to me with anticipation, I realized with a jolt.
I felt a weight descend between my wings. A sense of responsibility I'd been desperately trying to avoid. Neyla might have been the one to talk the most about how she didn't want the burden of command, but in truth my own desire to stay free of those hard choices practically matched hers for its intensity.
Too late now. They want you to lead. So lead.
You were made for this. Trained for this in two worlds.
Step up, or shut up.
I chose the former, narrowing my eyes, and gesturing with a claw to underscore my words as I worked double-time to put as much confidence, and hope into my tone as physically possible.
"First; We stem the damage here. Show a *part,* and only a part, of this to the Earthgov delegation, and the wider JRSF command structure. We need them to fear an external enemy, to help bring them together. Or at least keep them from drifting further apart. But if Humanity learns that the Winnowing... The Barrier... Conversion itself... Were all part of the Nightmare's plan, from the start?"
I pierced Celestia with the most intense expression I could. Neither anger, nor judgement, but simple firmness. I knew she out of us all would most object to a lie of omission.
"...Then Conversion will truly fail. Billions more will be doomed. We'll lose enough people to the collapse as it is. We can't afford to act as if it isn't happening. Isn't accelerating, now..."
I stood, keeping my wings in contact with Skye and Neyla as I did, and pointed towards room's the sealed and locked security doors.
"This is a different world than it was, even yesterday. It's not an orderly transition anymore. It's an emergency evacuation, under-fire. We treat it as such, or we are dooming those to whom we have a responsibility. Now more than ever."
Though I paused, no one spoke. I saw nothing but agreement written in every face. It was frightening... The load of all that trust...
But not a load I had to share alone. Each and every one of the beings at the table was competent, skilled, loyal, and brave. I forged ahead with a tiny spark of true confidence that seemed to grow slowly with each passing word. But at least it was growing.
"I've given Martins' plan a once-over... I see it as the best option for the logistical and political path forward. But that's for the esteemed former Councilor, her royal Highness, the JRSF Board, and the Council to hash out. And that's just how we keep the planet intact and alive a little longer... The real threat..."
I could see Skye shrink from the words. But I could also see the spark of defiance under all the pain. A tiny flicker of a still-unspent ember. It gave me hope.
"...The real threat is the Nightmare. Nothing else matters if she succeeds. It doesn't matter that we've seen her intentions. She isn't going to change tack now. An invasion is coming."
I shifted my gaze to each person once more in turn, starting this time with Skye, and ending with Celestia before I continued.
"This is war. Pure and simple unbound war. And in war, it pays to be fast off the blocks. So we strike a retaliatory blow before she can recover from her failure here. One of the things Skye and I learned from our... Expedition... Is the location of the PER headquarters on Earth. It's a facility too large, and too sophisticated to pull up stakes and move. Our enemy also thinks it too well defended for us to mount a successful assault, given the current global situation; SatVision says they haven't budged since we learned the location... So we're going to wipe it off the face of the planet. Violently."
Arnshekh inclined his head, and spoke for the first time since he'd introduced himself to me at the start of the meeting.
"That will not be easy. Earthgov is not likely to be pleased by the idea of the JRSF acting unilaterally on their soil in such a fashion. Nor can we easily spare the forces, or risk placing them out in the open for Earthgov to strike should negotiations fail. Deploying a strategic weapon is completely out of the question if we want to avoid an apocalypse. We will need something... Unconventional."
I nodded, and grinned slightly. I wasn't prepared to discuss the specifics quite yet, but I'd already been chewing over the points the General had raised for several hours. I was slowly but steadily concocting something that would fit the bill.
"Understood. I don't think we're out of clever tricks quite yet. But this is just for openers... As soon as we've put some dirt in Veritas' eye, she is going to accelerate her timetable, if she hasn't already. Make no mistake. This war will primarily be fought in Equestria..."
I sat back down, and folded my wings, trading a nod first with Skye, then with Neyla, before finally reaching my main point.
Though the secondary counterpoint remained unspoken, I think everyone understood that we needed a direct victory against the Nightmare not only for the tactical reasons I was about to state aloud, but for morale.
An army marches on its spirit, even more than its stomach.
"...To keep Earth alive long enough for us to win the war? To have a chance at saving more than we lose? We need to cripple Nightmare's operations here. We must deny her a base of power from which to continue engineering a faster collapse of Human civilization. If we can't undo the damage the fire has already done, and we accept that it will take time to put it out? At least we can prevent the arsonist from pouring on any more fuel."
Alyra
I always knew my father had something important to say when he would sit down across from me on his haunches, and dip his head, bringing his eyes level with mine.
He'd taken me and... Mom... Aside right after the end of the meeting. It still felt so strange to be invited to those kinds of gatherings. I didn't feel like it was my place to say very much, or even participate at all beyond listening...
But even listening to discussions of such dark secrets and vital plans was a far cry from my days at street level, worrying more about how I was going to steal a functioning pair of shoes before the current ones wore out, than anything else.
It was subtle, but Dad had a tell; Whenever he sat down across from me to talk about something serious, if it was good-serious then his ears would be fixed straight up, and canted towards me. If it was bad-serious, they would be ever so slightly droopy, and the tip of the right one would twitch every so often, until he finally got the first words off his chest.
Judging by his ears, what he wanted to say was bad-serious. And the way Mom put a wing over his back to comfort him did a lot to underscore that impression.
I braced myself as Dad gave me a sad smile, and took a deep, deep breath to speak. Oh boy. Really bad-serious then.
"Alyra... You are already so intimately acquainted with the difficulty of making choices. And of taking lives. You've been through far more than anyone your age should have ever had to face. And while others may say whatever they will... I firmly believe you make many, many more right choices than wrong ones. Including the one you made recently."
I nodded slowly, and tried to force out a half of a smile, which I could feel fall flat into a grimace almost instantly. I'd not lost any sleep over the lives of the Earthgov soldiers I'd killed. I'd endured too much at their hands to have any sympathy for them.
But the consequences that had come after? The fear that I'd made the wrong choice, because of the instability my actions had only exacerbated... I finally fully understood what Dad had spent so many sleepless nights wrestling with over the last year.
Freeing people was not an easy task. But I'd always known that. Gaining my own freedom, and all the pain and deaths I'd seen along the way, from my earliest memories... I'd always known that freedom was hard-won.
Dad leaned forward, and gripped my shoulders firmly, affectionately, and comfortingly with his claws as he finally got up enough head of steam internally to say the hard part out loud. Mom moved to stand beside us both, placing a wing on each of us in the process.
"This is, for all of us, the worst possible time to deal with yet another hard choice... But you have a right to this one. More than any choice you've been faced with since your choice to become a Gryphon, you have a right to this choice..."
I was completely baffled, and that scared me. I almost always knew some part of what Dad was going to say, even before he said it. But not this time. What could he mean? What could he possibly be referring to?
He reached into the feathers of his neck, and plucked out a small data storage stick. I'd seen Martins hand it to him right as we went into the meeting, and I'd assumed that it had something to do with his war plans... But that idea went right out the window as he gently pressed the cold aluminum rectangle into one of my claws, and closed it over the device.
"When we arrived on Earth, I received a message. From your biological father. He wants to meet you."
Of all the things he could have said, that was probably one of the only ones I never would have guessed, even given an infinite number of tries. The words hit me in my gut like a well thrown punch.
I could almost feel the room start to spin.
My biological father? He was alive? How had he... No. That part was easy. My DNA had entered the system in a dozen different ways just before my Conversion. Medical records at the Manhattan Bureau. And Samples taken for investigative purposes too...
If his DNA was also registered with the global database, and he had an alert setup...
The much more important question wasn't how. It was why.
Dad sighed deeply, and inclined his head down at my closed claw, clutched around the drive, and his clutched around mine in turn.
"That's a complete record of everything anyone knows about him. Personal history. Psychological profile. Physical description and images. Contents of his formal request letter... Criminal records."
I flinched at those last words. Criminal records. Curiosity had sprung up, sharp and acrid in my throat... But fear too. And... Anger. And confusion.
A torrent of thoughts and emotions threatened to break loose and overwhelm my senses, but I fought it back. I needed to hear the rest of what Dad had to say.
"The choice is yours. He arrives here later this afternoon. I asked Martins to arrange transport and accommodation. But he's been told very little, and no promises were made. You have the choice. Read what's on that drive. Or don't. And if you do read it? Then meet him. Or don't. And if you decide to speak with him... Whatever comes after that... That's your choice too. Neyl--- Your Mother and I... Will follow your lead on this."
Oh God... So *that* was it. That was the part of it that was eating him alive inside... I could hear it in the way he said 'follow your lead.' The sadness. The fear. The resignation, even...
He thought that there was even the slightest chance that I might replace him... Or maybe ask him to admit my birth father into our family structure...
I shook my head and did my best to pull both Mom and Dad close with my wings. Big as they were growing, they couldn't quite fit all the way around both of them. But the gesture still pulled them close.
"No! Oh Dad... No... Don't even think that. Don't even think that, please!"
After a protracted moment of quiet, heartfelt contact, I pulled away, switching my gaze slowly back and forth between my parents. My parents. My parents because they loved me, and were raising me, and caring for me... Not because of some measly shared base proteins.
Dad hit me with a curious expression. A confused head-tilt. I couldn't say whether he was trying to work out what I meant, or whether he knew, and was trying to work out how I knew. I forged ahead regardless.
"I... Honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I don't have a lot of time to decide... But I do know this. I *promise* you this; If I talk with him today? It will be the first, *and* the *last* time he and I see each other."
The tears in both Dad and Mom's eyes were pretty obvious. They weren't doing an especially good job of holding them back. I leaned forward to wing-hug them both again, and took a long silent moment to just revel in the feel of my wings against them, and theirs against me.
Even if the world came to an end, and we all died in the process... That one moment alone would have made all the suffering it took to get there worth it. Let alone the million other moments like it I'd experienced in eight months' time.
Both Mom and Dad's heads were nestled adjacent to mine, so I whispered in their ears.
"I want my life with you to be a fresh start. Live or die, win or lose... I don't want any family besides the one we're making. You, and Skye, and Stan, and IJ... Kephic, and Varan... Hutch, and Laura... *You* are my Father. And My Mother. No one else. Never anyone else."
I knew in that moment what I would do. I suppose every adoptee's life is different... The feelings we each have to the ones whose bodies we came from different too...
It might not be pleasant... But I needed to know answers to questions. And I needed to say goodbye. In whatever way ended up being appropriate.
Pulling back from the embrace again, I smiled up at Mom, and Dad. To see them together in that way... It was all the strength I could ever need.
"After everything I went through to finally get you two together? I am *not* adding a third wheel to that mix. I'm too selfish for that. I want the two of you lovebirds aaaaallll to *myself.*"
The half sob, half chuckle that escaped Dad's beak told me I'd hit the mark with just the right amount of humor at the right time. It seemed to work just as well for rescuing him from his darker spirals as it had for Sonya.
He gently brushed one talon down my right cheek to dislodge an errant tear, and then nodded firmly.
"We are, happily, and contentedly, yours. We always will be."
Neyla
I couldn't stop looking at Fyrenn as we walked, for the most part in silence.
Part of it was an admiration for the choice he'd made with Alyra, and the way he'd handled it. But a much bigger part of it was simply an attempt to conquer the surreality of thinking 'my mate, soon-to-be' whenever I saw his face.
Humans would say 'my fiancé.'
From the way he kept looking at me, I knew he was working through the same strange and wonderful feelings. And, too, I think we were both taking as much comfort from each other as we could. Dark days had fallen. We both knew that even darker days were still to come.
As we reached a particularly quiet stretch of corridor, offset by a large bank of windows, he stopped, and sat down on his haunches, staring out across the immense tangle of steel, wires, lights, and machines.
I moved to sit beside him, pressing in as close as I could without knocking him over. How wonderful to finally be able to do that, and have him press back. When he spoke, his voice was drenched in a forlorn warmth that was at once strange, sad, and deeply affectionate.
"I can't begin to ever properly tell you how sorry I am. My sense of timing is... Lousy. If I'd been less a fool, we could have already had almost three years of this together. And now we may not make it to three at all."
I nuzzled my head up into the crook of his neck, and ribbed him with one elbow until he realized what I was after, and placed his right wing fully over my back and side. Only then did I respond, whispering softly into his ear.
"If we are to die? We will die together. And we have so much to fight for now... If we live? We will have so much time to be as we are now, that these fell times will be nothing more than a blink in our stories. A Prologue to a victory that sets the stage for many, many chapters hence."
He slowly began to preen the feathers of my right cheek. I suppressed a small giggle at the irony; I'd been one of the ones to teach him how to properly preen in the first place.
Not only had Kephic and Varan done a terrible job when they'd initially explained... But it had also been a good excuse to indulge myself, before someone had cruelly robbed me of that contact by explaining to him that social preening was a very intimate thing usually mainly done by parents to children, and lovers to each other.
More than once I'd had a Human ask me about the differences in Gryphon courtship, romance, and physicality. Too numerous to easily discuss, but at its core, the main difference I'd always highlighted was the difference in the way physical attraction worked.
We certainly had the ability to strongly appreciate beauty in another, and to desire it to be our own. To enjoy very close physical intimate contact. But without all the baggage and issues of physical organic reproductive systems, there was a complete and total absence of something Humans might best have termed 'lust.'
Many Human physical intimacies were considered taboo for practice in public, whereas Gryphons have no such boundaries, because we have no need of them.
Another key difference is the fact that we lack the ability to split our romantic affections. Humans threw the word 'programmed' around a lot when discussing our minds, and perhaps that was an appropriate term.
Regardless, no one had ever known a Gryphon to desire poly-amory, whether mutually accepted, as it could often be with Ponies and some Humans, or whether an unhappy situation, as also seemed to happen sometimes with Humans and Ponies alike, with one partner leaving for another and so dashing the hopes of the one left behind.
We did not form romance as anything other than pairs, and we did not ever break the heart of another once a promise of mating had been given. We simply lacked the ability to develop longing for another once that commitment had been made, as if the mechanisms by which we felt that specific kind of love became almost magically bound to our partner.
We could only ever have eyes for one other at a time, and that only of the opposite gender, and never any other ever again once fully mated. It was why Fyrenn and I had agreed to forego sharing sleeping accommodations until after a formal ceremony. Males and females often had to keep close quarters in very cold climates when outside the benefit of a shelter, but that was a concession to practicality.
In turn, our decision to remain apart at night was a concession to symbolically underscoring the nature of our innate mental construction.
For a single instance of a male and female to share a sleeping space? Our culture, and the inescapable compulsions that drove it, practically demanded we be a mated pair.
All of that seemed to rile some Humans in particular, especially when they didn't understand that it wasn't a cultural mold we were forcing members of our society to fit into, but rather that our culture was following a 'baked-in' structural part of each of us that we were born with, lived with, and died with quite happily.
Inasmuch as no one ever knew a Gryphon to break our programming, no one had ever known one of us to *want* to break it either.
Ponies or Humans who knew us better understood that we levied no judgement against others, nor held any of our 'programming' to anyone else. We were simply made a certain way, and had no clue as to how, or why. Just that it had always been so in all historical memory, for all of us, always.
It was something endemic to being a Gryphon. Something programmed.
I idly wondered, and not for the first time, by whom we'd been programmed, when, and why? Was it something we'd developed naturally? Or something done to us in the intermediate past? Or had we been that way from the start?
What was the thought process? What reasoning behind always forming mated hetero-gendered pairs? Why did we even have gender, or gendered dimorphism at all? Changelings had the option to partake of that, in any way they wanted, or not to do so at all, and their means of reproduction was the only one in Equestria remotely similar to ours...
For my part, I was glad our kind were bound to one, and only one other. I could never have stood to share Fyrenn that way. Share him as a father to Alyra, a brother to Kephic, Varan, and in many ways a brother to the others... Yes. Gladly. They were as much siblings of mine as of him.
But the way he would look at me when he thought I wasn't aware... I couldn't stand the thought of him ever looking at anyone else in that way. I breathed a silent prayer of thanks that whether it was the Creator who had made us this way, or something else under His auspices, that the end result would be that Fyrenn was mine. And only mine.
I supposed every species had its mysteries... Ponies had Alicorns. Dragons had a great many questions still to answer, perhaps even more than we did, about their relationship to deeper forms of magic. Changelings too, especially given all that IJ and her Hive had discovered.
Fyrenn had clearly taken a lot of my preening lessons to heart, and soon he had cleaned my right cheek of dried tears and smoothed it to perfection. Breaking my train of thought, I shifted position to let him start on the left, as he spoke softly between motions.
"I don't know wherefore Humans get the idea that having no lips means that kissing is somehow worse for us. I may be biased, because you were my first kiss... I never did kiss anyone that way when I had lips, so I have no first-claw comparison... But I think this is better than all the best parts of that, and of hands rubbed through hair... Any of it. And much less nasty and messy too. All very... Wholesome."
I snorted outright, and then allowed myself a chuckle aloud as he finished. We locked eyes for a long moment, and then we shuffled stances so I could start on his left cheek, talking in turn as I paused between patches of feathers.
"I remember when I first explained our mating to you... I will treasure the look on your face for the rest of our days. I still can't believe it wasn't covered in orientation. Alpha program test or not, there is no excuse for not explaining that to someone before you completely change the way their body and mind works. You were lucky that your mentality was already so well suited to our uniqueness."
I was close enough to see him blush under his feathers. Finishing on his left side, I moved to start on the right as he provided a window into his own thoughts.
"In all honesty? If you must know the truth? They had a specialist in to explain it... But I skipped the session, and lied afterwards. Kephic and Varan knew, I think, but didn't press the issue. I was so afraid of what I'd find out, that I just... I didn't want to know then. I was always an outlier among Humans. I never met another one in-person who shared my unique revulsions... I think Gryphons' lack of the expected physical reproductive intimacy is one of the things that drives away a lot of potential converts, actually. Many people can't part with that. Too much raw physical desire. I always found it personally unthinkable. So I suppose I was made for this..."
As I finished on his left cheek, and sat back, I took his claws in mine. A question sprang unbidden into my mind, accompanied by a strong image; A little fledgeling tucked under Alyra's wing.
"If we survive this war... Do you want another fledgeling? Would Alyra want a brother, or sister?"
He exhaled slowly, and his expression surprised me. The relatively calm, but still eclectic mix of feelings playing across his ears and beak told me he'd actually already given the idea some thought, but that he hadn't reached any more an answer than I had. His words confirmed it.
"I don't know yet... I hope that's a workable answer. I think one of the hardest lessons I've been learning is not to count out possible futures too early... We could have another fledgeling. I think we need a lot more time with Alyra before we will know if she is ready for that, or wants that... We could also adopt again. It wouldn't even have to be a Gryphon. We could do both. Or just stay as we are...? I don't know yet..."
The warmth of my smile visibly put him at ease. I reached up with one claw to clasp the side of his face, and drew him in to where his beak was within an inch of mine.
"Then regardless of when we know, and what the answer is... I will relish the journey of finding out together with you."
I'd meant to surprise him by pulling him in for another kiss, but he leaned forward just as I began to pull. We held that kiss for a long time, trying to forget the things we'd seen, and the things we knew we soon had to face.
Earth Calendar: 2117
Equestrian Calendar: 15 AC (After Contact)
Twelfth Month, Twelfth Day, Celestial Calendar
Luna
It was impossible to forget how much I hated taking on certain specific parts of my dear sister's duties. Practically every micro-expression, every haughty inflection, and every perfectly coiffed motion of the noble court seemed designed to ignite rage in me.
I scanned the throne room slowly, carefully, calling to mind the name of each noble and what little I knew about them. There were over three dozen present, along with Shining Armor, Kephic, Varan, Sildinar, Stanley, IJ, and her own entourage.
The huge split down the middle of the room, separating Ponies from all others, spoke distressing volumes to me. Seeing Shining Armor and Stanley breach that foul divide and take their stand beside IJ did much to help soften my concern.
Undoubtedly one of the worst parts about returning home after a thousand years had been the way the royal court had changed. It was, at the time my exile began, a much smaller, more tight knit, and far more diverse group of humbler Ponies from humble backgrounds. Their main goal had been to serve others, rather than 'tradition' or 'policies.'
Somewhere in a thousand years of absence... A thousand years of my sister being stretched far too thin because of what I'd done... That had all changed.
Of the three clans of our kind, Unicorns had always struggled the most with curtailing expressions of their pride through ceremony, pomp, and endless knots of needless expectations. In time, they'd grown to be grossly over-represented in the court, with fully over half of all high stationed Lords and Ladies being Unicorns, and two thirds of them being of 'noble descent.'
A few noble families of theirs had always clung to old bloodlines and pre-unification ways of doing things, even long after the oldest holdouts among the Pegasi had excised the majority of their disharmony.
I privately suspected that it had a great deal to do both with their cultural views on casting magic as a superior trait, as well as the fact that my sister had always disagreed with my assertion that they needed to be forcefully broken of their dangerous notions about 'pure blood.'
Celestia had never argued against the danger of those notions... Merely that there were gentler, kinder ways of turning away those darker impulses. As someone who understood darkness very well, I couldn't have disagreed more. And I was thrilled to finally have leeway to do something drastic about it.
From my brief study of Human history, their world was replete with cautionary tales about the dangers of allowing anyone a platform to preach, however subtly or quietly, that one kind deserved a higher station than another. And I knew from keenly painful experience that power was its own kind of corrupting evil, in the wrong measure.
Combined, it was a recipe for ruin. Even the Gryphons, homogenous though they seemed, understood that; Their 'royal lines' rarely became long-term dynasties, and were often rotated out, through electoral will, for clans and families that came from all sorts of origins.
Their isolation, I felt, stemmed more from the fears and foalishness of Ponies, than any behaviour of theirs. I wondered how few Ponies realized that they were compatible with the Gryphon mating process, if they were willing to take the monogamous vow, and that Hippogryphs were more than mere legend.
And then I wondered how few would be willing to even consider such a union in a positive light, even from afar, if they knew it was possible.
Even after all we owed them... All the terrors and horrors they had put down at the expense of their own blood, to keep us safe...
Our kinds had a much closer relationship before my fall. Close enough that, while few in number, Hippogryphs were a known and recognized reality that was of no shock, nor revulsion, to anypony.
Not for the first time, I bit back a deeply sour recrimination.
That loss was not Celestia's fault any more than it was mine. Had I been less a fool, I would have been there with her. She would have had my counsel, and would have been far less thinly stretched, and far less afraid to take direct action.
Though always prone to gentleness, she'd been braver, and more confident back then. I knew what I'd forced her to do... What the Nightmare had forced her to do... Had a great deal to do with the ways she'd changed. That, and her outright exhaustion.
I pressed that thought violently from my mind as I scanned the room again. I didn't want to think about my sister's age, relative to mine. Alicorns are not immortal, no matter what the legends say, and a thousand years is a significant portion of time for even such as we.
The pitch of hushed conversations reached exactly the point I was waiting for, and I cleared my throat with just enough volume to demand attention. Silence dropped like a heavy drapery, and all eyes swiveled to fix on me, as I seated myself upon my sister's throne.
I'd made that choice quite on-purpose.
Plenty of Ponies believed I'd succumbed to the Nightmare because of a desire for power, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
I'd always abhorred power, but maintained a functional relationship with it, because application of power is necessary for change.
Sitting on Celestia's throne was not borne out of giving in to some dark temptation or silently held fantasy. It had been her idea. A way of trying to get both myself, and many others, used to the idea of seeing me ensconced in that place of power on a more permanent basis, while someone younger in turn took their place on my own throne.
This time I'd decided to take Celestia up on the suggestion. But not because I wanted to get used to the idea...
I did, however, want the nobles to be off balance. Afraid of me. To 'soften them up' as the saying so often went.
Sildinar, Shining Armor, and IJ moved up the stairs to stand flanking me, as we'd prearranged.
Seeing me in all my regalia, sat atop my sister's throne, and flanked by a Changeling Queen, the former Guard Captain, and a Gryphon Prince, each suited in their own ranking paraphernalia?
That image would not soon fade from the minds of anypony in the room.
One could have heard a butterfly's wing beats. I think many of the assembled Ponies were actually holding their breath.
I knew what I had to say would not be easy.
I'd discussed precious little of my experiences with the Nightmare to anypony. Perhaps ten words put together to anyone outside my sister. But for them to understand the reasons for what I was about to do, they needed to better understand the danger. The possible futures we faced.
"Once, I stood as Equestria's most dangerous foe. You trembled at my voice, as I rose to claim the power of Night Eternal. You called me Nightmare Moon."
As I lit my horn to begin projecting images above my head, I could sense the shift from apprehension to fear, even outright terror, in the crowd. Good. Now to focus that fear to a useful end.
"What you once knew as Nightmare Moon, was not one Pony, but two. A dark avatar, made possible by my bitterness, and fear. I opened a door which I could not close upon realizing my mistake."
The mural of light above the throne coalesced into the familiar image of the mare I had been, and then split into my familiar form, and a second dark apparition.
The display drew audible intakes of breath from everyone below the dais, except perhaps for Stanley, who seemed awed, and intrigued, but not nearly so shaken as any of the nobles. He both knew something of what to expect, and was made of far sterner stuff.
As I continued to speak in a tone that reverberated inescapably across the Throne Room's marble surfaces, I sculpted the magic above my head to show Vertias. To show memories IJ had shared with me of the Wisps' citadel in the north. And to show the difficulty, and brutality, of the fights she had witnessed.
"Now... Our old enemy has returned. The creature we call the Nightmare has taken a new host. She stands on the cusp of readiness. Soon she will begin an assault against all the free peoples of both worlds."
I closed the illusion projection with a flash, and a snap. Not strictly speaking necessary, but the way it made some of the Lords and Ladies jump very nearly brought a smile to my face.
Nopony moved, or spoke. More than half were still holding their breath, or breathing very shallowly, as if trying not to be heard. I allowed the tension to hang for several moments before I finally spoke the words I knew would at last trigger spoken reactions.
"In defense of our home, and for the protection, and preservation of life, in the face of this grave threat... I call for a Council of War."
The silence lingered precisely long enough for everypony to fully come to grips with the idea. And then the shouting finally started. I actually found it to be something of a relief.
I allowed them to expend the majority of the verbal frustration, mostly on eachother; They were too afraid to direct any of their arrogant tantrums at me. I listened, carefully tilting my ears and sifting through all the objections and fears to make sure they lined up with the responses I had predicted.
"Such a thing has never been done in living memory!"
True, for all save for my sister and I. The last time had been during the Wars of Discord, almost two and a half thousand years ago.
"What precedent is there for the ways in which this court will have its say on this 'council?' "
There is none.
"Are we to be replaced as the Royal advisors and local governing powers?!"
Now they were catching on.
"Gryphons and... *Changelings* standing beside the *Throne?* Such apostasy would never---"
Quite enough. I rose, and my mane flared brightly. The movement and light were enough to instantly restore silence to all but the most infuriated. The pitch and volume of my 'Royal Canterlot voice' put the rest to immediate, and meek silence.
"OUR DECISION IN THESE MATTERS IS FINAL! WE ACT WITH THE AUTHORITY AND PERMISSION OF OUR SISTER, AND THE SOVEREIGN RIGHT OF OUR OWN CROWN."
Almost as one, the assembled mass of Ponies bowed. Even Carradan seemed to catch on to the gravity of the moment, dipping his head low to match the Nobles.
I let them hold that position for several moments before speaking again, albeit in a less room-shaking fashion.
"This land has not faced war on this scale in the living memory of any being here, except for myself. The... Esteemed body of the Royal Advisory and Noble Court is well versed in economic, and diplomatic matters, as well as peace-time governance."
'Butter them up.' As the colloquialism goes. That had been a piece of Celestia's advice. Flattery first, and then the savagery of truth, and practical action.
"However... This body lacks any of the disciplines and skills needed for martial preparedness and decision making. As such? By the powers vested in the crowns of the Royal Sisters, I am suspending the functioning of the Court, as well as all of its powers and privileges, in favor of direct leadership from the War Council, until such time as this crisis is over."
The words did not conjure as much of an incendiary reaction as had swept the room before. Not only had they spent much of their fury, but they were more keenly feeling their fear once more. And, they were all fruitlessly starting to scheme as to how they might ensure a place for themselves on such a war council.
They were forgetting with whom they were dealing. I am not my sister. I was bound and determined that I would not choose a single Pony of 'Noble blood-stock lineage' for my Council. Nor, even, would every single member be a Pony at all.
That was sure to bruise some egos. Ruffle some fetlocks.
But what could they say, or do? The power of the Alicorns had been an unopposed sovereign absolute for our kind since before Celestia and I had been born.
To defy us was tantamount to defying a goddess.
I was counting on that precedent.
Celestia had given me the hoof-lengths to take extraordinary measures in defense of Equestria. I was merely going to take just a few more canter-lengths to ensure that its future was as well defended as its present.
As the Nobles began to rise from their kneeling positions, and talk quietly amongst themselves, I exchanged a small smile with first IJ, and then Sildinar.
No need to make more of a scene today than necessary. The Court would learn soon enough that I intended to have Gryphons, and Changelings, and Converts on my Council.
And if we survived long enough for the Council to end its terrible purpose? Then the Nobles would learn that I intended to use the changing times as a good excuse to finally replace them outright.
An end to 'nobility' and 'blood-lines.'
Perhaps one day in a century or two, an end to the absolute sovereignty of the Alicorns.
My dear sister had never been a fan of the 'separation of powers.'
But after all I'd done? And all I'd suffered?
I most certainly was.
If she wanted me to take a stronger hoof in Equestria's future? Then a stronger hoof I would take.