//------------------------------// // Part One // Story: The Princess and the Kaiser // by UnknownError //------------------------------// Flurry Heart slammed her horn against the iron frame of the bed. Tears sprang from her eyes as she wailed in pain. Still, she persisted, bringing her horn down again and again. The ring around her horn remained stubbornly fixed as she pantomimed trying to remove it. The old dog barked something in that brutal tongue of the griffons, waving his paws in a gesture that might have been comforting if it had not come from a slab of meat thrice her size. “I don’t speak your stupid language,” Flurry scolded through her tears. “Prench, idiot! Or Aquileian, I don’t care which!” The dog huffed and let his paws dangle uselessly by his sides. His uniform was surprisingly plain, a simple brown jacket and pants, with a ceremonial sword on one hip and a holster on the other. Flurry still wore her frilled pink dress with a high white collar, although her tiara had been left behind in her bedchamber. Aquileia was a strange place, the only griffon-held area where ponies and griffons lived together in relative harmony. Flurry had heard stories that the eastern borderlands were consumed in fire and blood between the races, but the Aquileian monarchs had always protected their pony subjects. Even when the Revolution came, it was not divided by race; ponies and griffons marched and fought together against their brothers and sisters. Aquileia had been a kingdom, a vassal of the Griffonian Reich, a republic, a restored kingdom, then finally a second republic. The Republicans had made the change stick by beheading King Discret early and exiling his daughter Vivienne east. Flurry liked to imagine that Vivienne and her aunties sat around the same table in the River Republic to the east, grumbling over their rights and titles. The Republicans had been wary of her father when he crossed from New Mareland to offer his services in their army. They had an innate distrust of monarchs, even princes without a princedom. Shining Armor had persisted, swearing to uphold the ideals of the Republic and becoming a citizen, even renouncing his claim to the Crystal Empire and Equestria. Flurry had been appalled. “How could you?” she railed at him when she had caught the announcement over the radio; the Republicans were using it as propaganda. “Mom believed in the Empire with all her heart. The Crystal Ponies believed in you! What will they think when they hear this? When we go back to the Empire-” “We won’t go back,” Shining Armor said quietly, adjusting the buttons on his blue dress shirt. He had been made a lieutenant. It was a disgrace; her father had commanded the entire army of the Crystal Empire, millions of ponies, and the Republicans had given him the rank of Lieutenant. “Auntie Celestia and Luna are rebuilding the fleet in New Mareland. They’ve announced an alliance of free nations.” “With who?” Shining had asked tiredly. “The radio didn’t say,” Flurry replied. “Because there is no alliance. There is no one left to appeal to.” Shining knelt before his daughter to look her in the eyes. His own glacial eyes were sunken and eternally bloodshot. He had aged a decade in half the time. His blue mane had a few streaks of white that matched his coat. “Flurry,” Shining began, “New Mareland doesn’t have the Ponies to retake Equestria. It doesn’t have the ships and it doesn’t have the equipment. Everypony and everygriffon know it.” “You could help them,” Flurry tried. “I won’t help them fight a doomed war,” her father dismissed. “Not after they left Twilight. New Mareland only existed on Griffonia with Equestria’s help.” Her father seemed prophetic when New Mareland was invaded by Wingbardy three months later, ostensibly to reclaim long-lost territory. Celestia and Luna’s grand army to reclaim Equestria crumbled in two weeks, unable to withstand the onslaught of their querulous neighbor. The Sisters fled on a convoy east, given shelter by the River Coalition. No army followed them. As far as anyone was concerned, Flurry Heart was the last serious Princess of Ponies at the age of nine. She had been afraid that the Aquileians would view her unkindly; the streets of Aquileia were cluttered with posters reminding its citizens of the cruelty of their monarchs and how they oppressed their griffons and ponies alike. The government had not asked her to renounce her crown, nor would she, even if her father urged her. Flurry Heart had a duty to everypony, and she would see that duty through to the end. Like her mother. Instead, the opposite occurred. Aquileans were a romantic people, much like the Crystal Ponies. Flurry became the 'Lost Princess' and a minor celebrity, and her father’s devotion to his family and the Republic was celebrated with a promotion to Colonel. Shining Armor didn’t cry at the ceremony. The last time her father had wept was when he heard that Cadance stayed behind with the Crystal Heart during the retreat. He had been in a field command tent in Rainbow Falls, trying to coordinate desperate pockets of resistance against Changeling panzers. He ran out of tears by the time he heard that Twilight remained in Canterlot while Auntie Celestia and Luna retreated. He had formed a shield over the Alicorn Sisters one night in Manehattan, screaming at them. Flurry and the soldiers couldn't hear what he said through the spell. It was the last time her father ever spoke to her aunts before they boarded the boats. He never said, but Flurry knew even at seven years old that he only left with the other Princesses to keep her safe. Flurry was still surprised when he woke her up early one morning in their New Mareland apartment and took her across the short channel to the north, to the Aquileian Republic. She was barely awake when she met a nice griffon girl in front of some cameras and shook her claw. She didn’t realize it was the President of the Republic until after breakfast. Flurry had been assigned a tutor to learn Aquileian, a young black griffon that had cringed at her Prench accent. Luckily for him, Flurry had learned quickly. Unluckily, he also had to tutor Shining Armor, who still kept his Prench accent despite their best efforts. It had been a quiet life compared to New Mareland. Aquileian style hid her oversized wings in a poofy dress when she went out with her father and her friends, cubs and foals of Shining’s new officers, complained that Flurry was too nice to be the evil queen in Tyrants and Revolutionaries. Aquileia fought a few short wars with its neighbors, then announced an alliance with the Griffonian Republic and the Skyfall Trade Federation. Flurry Heart looked at her father’s map when she was nine and asked him what was happening. “Aquileia is getting some friends to stand up to the Griffonian Reich,” Shining had said, gesturing to the center of the map with a quill. “With the Republic in the north and Skyfall controlling the ocean, Aquileia is to the south. The Reich is trapped. They have to fight everywhere.” “Why are they fighting?” “You remember all the Grovers,” Shining sighed, “or else I have to hunt down Sunburst...” “I remember!” Flurry lied. “Grover One used his guns. Grover Two beat you black and blue. Grover Three made fees. Grover Four ate more. Grover Five is alive!” “Rhyme’s out of date,” Shining chuckled. “Grover the Fifth died several years ago. His son, Grover the Sixth, is about your age.” Flurry stuck out her tongue. “Is he nice?” Shining paused, tapping a hoof on the floor. “We never met him. Equestria always disagreed with the Reich about war. His regent is in charge, like Sunburst, but far stricter and meaner.” “So, he has to do what the regent says?” “At his age, yes,” Shining swept the quill up and down half the continent, “The Reich used to control everything. Right after I was born, there was a big war and everygriffon decided to split up. The regent says they’re going to take everything back.” Flurry stared at the map for a long time, squinting. The Griffonian Reich would be the size of Equestria if it controlled that much stuff. She shifted her focus to Equestria, drawn in black to represent its occupation by the Changelings. The Changeling Hegemony and Queen Chrysalis controlled nearly the entire continent. “Dad?” “Yes, Flurry?” “You’re gonna stop them, right?” “I’m going to try, Flurry.” He would have said yes a few years ago. Shining Armor tried. He was put in charge of a critical holding point in the frontline when the war finally broke out. He didn’t hug her goodbye, nor did he promise to return. Flurry caught enough snippets on the radio from the basement to know it wasn’t going well, but she didn’t tell the other foals sheltering from the artillery. The north had been pushed back, and the navy was doing well but out of fuel. One day, there was gunfire outside and the adults left with their guns and didn’t come back. Flurry stayed with three of her friends, technically in charge because she was oldest and a Princess. They ran out of food after four days, and Flurry decided that she needed to go check if the neighbors had any left. The gunfire was very loud, but had moved several streets away. Flurry guessed that the fighting was mostly over. She put on her frilly dress and left her crown behind. Flurry Heart walked over several bodies in the street while she was looking for food. She had seen dead ponies before, during the retreat from the Empire and despite Sunburst’s best efforts, but the griffons were new. She spared them a cursory glance before closing their eyes with magic. She didn’t recognize any of them. Flurry ran into a group of griffon soldiers in unfamiliar gray uniforms on the way back. She actually passed by them without issue until one of her saddlebags slipped off her wing. One soldier took notice and shouted a challenge, then looked jubilant when Flurry turned around and stared at him. He was young with golden feathers and babbled excitedly as he approached, speaking the language of the Griffonian heartland. Flurry never learned it, but recognized her name being spoken several times. Flurry waited until the griffon got close, then summoned a bright blue shield around herself. “I have to get this back to my friends, sorry,” she said in Aquileian. The soldier looked confused at the shield while some of his friends laughed at him. After a moment, he tapped on the shield with a claw. It sparkled and produced a sound like a windchime. Flurry shook her head and walked away, taking the shield with her. The soldier pounded on the shield with the butt of his rifle. “Hey!” Flurry shouted over her shoulder. “Don’t do that, it makes my horn hurt.” She turned away again and continued down the street. There was a gunshot and Flurry’s horn itched. She sighed and turned around as the Griffon lowered his rifle, glaring at Flurry through the shield. His friends stumbled up behind him shouting angrily, not at Flurry, but at him. He sneered something over his beak back at them before working the bolt on his rifle. Flurry dropped the shield, seized his rifle with her magic, ejected the clip, and disassembled the rifle like her father showed her. She blinked and let the parts fall to the ground. The group froze for a long moment before one of the other griffons, an older male with a graying head, stepped forward. “Princess Flurry Heart?” he asked in heavily-accented Aquileian. “Yes,” Flurry replied as she brought her shield back up and began to walk away. He followed at a respectful distance. “The battle is over. Could you come with us, please?” “No, I have stuff for my friends.” The griffon looked thoughtful. “Food?” “Yes.” “You have much food?” Flurry eyed her meager bags. It wasn’t even enough for her. “No,” she replied. “If we give you food, will you come with us?” “Are you asking if I will surrender if you help my friends?” Flurry sighed. The griffon stopped walking after her, either surprised or needing a moment to parse her words. “You are not a prisoner,” he insisted, flapping his wings to catch up. That was a lie, and Flurry felt stupid for not realizing it at the time. After leading them back home, she soon found herself with an inhibitor ring on her horn and stuffed inside an unused bedroom in occupied Aquileia. At least my friends got some rations, Flurry thought. The old gray dog had been waiting in the bedroom when she arrived and seemed content to let Flurry wander around, talking idly in his language while Flurry spoke Aquileian back. After several hours, Flurry began to ram her horn against the bedframe. She could have melted the ring off, but Flurry risked taking half the building with it from the magical backlash. She had no idea where she'd go even if she escaped. The old dog gave up trying to talk to her just as a pair of Griffon knights entered the room and spoke to him. The dog waved at Flurry to follow him out of the room. Flurry Heart was led by the knights and dog into the courtyard outside Parliament. Once, it was the royal palace of the Discrets; the republicans had turned the building into their Parliamentary Chambers. Judging from the banners haphazardly dangling from the balconies, it was back to being a seat of royalty. The banners were yellow and orange, depicting a proud, roaring griffon in black relief- the symbol of the Griffonian Reich. Before the doors to the central chamber, the knight in shining plate armor and a blue plume whirled around and faced Flurry. Placing his claws flush against the ground, he spread his wings and raised his beak to the sky, proclaiming a grand stream of unintelligible garble. The old dog behind her laughed, and the griffon scowled under his helmet. They exchanged some harsh words before the griffon’s wings deflated and he cast an embarrassed glance at Flurry before waving at the griffons standing before the doors. They pushed them open and the guards ushered Flurry through. There were armed guards throughout the Parliamentary Chamber, spread out along the walls and standing between the scattered desks. All of them cast wary stares at the alicorn. Flurry blinked at the young griffon wearing an impractically heavy crown. He was seated in the Speaker’s chair, wearing a simple white dress shirt and blue slacks with a small set of spectacles resting awkwardly on his beak. If not for the emerald and ruby studded crown, Flurry would have dismissed him as a student. The griffon blinked back at her, then adjusted his oversized crown with a claw. An absolutely ancient griffon in red and white priestly robes stood beside him and waved a shaking claw at a purple pony wearing a gray uniform. “Princess Flurry Heart of the Crystal Empire and Equestria,” the pony began in Aquileian, “you stand before Kaiser Grover VI of the Griffonian Reich, rightful heir to Aquileia, Wingbardy, the Borderlands and the North.” They kept my titles, Flurry thought. She spread out her wings and bent her forelegs in a sweeping bow. “I greet you humbly and beg for your mercy, Kaiser,” Flurry replied in Aquileian. The pony spoke to the Kaiser in Herzlander, the Kaiser’s brutal native tongue. The Kaiser replied back in a high voice as soon as the pony finished, and the flustered pony translated to Flurry. “There is no need to beg, Princess. The Kaiser has sworn you shall not be harmed.” “Then I beg for the lives of all Aquileians, Kaiser. They are a kind and just people, but my friends hide from your army, hungry and without their parents. I feared they would cast my father and I aside due to our crowns, but they embraced us as family.” The pony translated, and this time the old griffon replied. His feathers had been tan once, but were nearly white with age. “The Kaiser has no desire to harm his subjects, as misguided as they may be. The Kaiser promises that your friends will be fed. He also wishes your father to surrender, and pledges that he will not be harmed,” the pony translated. Flurry closed her eyes. “My father is dead.” The young griffon appeared confused before the pony translated. He asked the old priest beside him, and they conversed in whispers for a moment. The old griffon spoke and the pony translated. “The Kaiser encourages you to have hope. Colonel Shining Armor is a fierce fighter, and has given the Kaiser’s army much trouble.” “That’s why I know he’s dead,” Flurry replied, staring at the small griffon. “If he were alive, you would not be in that chair.” The Kaiser’s wings twitched and he lowered his beak. The old griffon beside him was far better at masking his emotions. The pony looked between the Princess and the Kaiser for a moment. “Translate it,” Flurry demanded. The pony stuttered, but spoke to the Kaiser in Herzlander with her head held low and forelegs bent in supplication. The old griffon began to reply harshly, but the Kaiser’s head snapped up and he issued a sharp rebuke to the priest. The griffon’s eyebrows wrinkled further, but he instead turned and called to the guards against the door. He spoke quickly to the pony. “The Kaiser and his regent, Archon Eros VII, share your grief, Princess Flurry. The Kaiser’s father was also taken far too soon from this world by Boreas. The Kaiser still encourages you to have hope, for his esteemed friends in the Changeling Hegemony bring wonderful news.” The Aquileian pony’s muzzle had twisted during the spiel, unable to keep a straight face. Flurry Heart turned around as the doors opened again and two Changeling officers swaggered in. There was really no other word for it, Flurry snorted to herself. The one in the lead bore a fez and a chest of medals on a crisp uniform that had never seen a day of combat. The other, lagging behind with a slight limp, tracked mud onto the red carpeting. His uniform was rumpled, with only three medals hanging askew on his chest. The fez-wearing changeling offered Flurry an easy smirk, purple eyes smiling with delight. “Greetings, Flurry Heart. I am Field Marshal Synovial with the Changeling embassy to the great Griffonian Reich,” he stated in Equestrian. He buzzed a wing towards his partner. “This is General Thranx, fresh from the frontlines. We are very pleased to meet you.” Thranx offered a brief nod, but did not make eye contact. Flurry took a slow breath through her nose, resisting the urge to paw at the ground with her hoof. “I wish I could share your enthusiasm,” she lied in Equestrian. Synovial obviously caught her lie, but lowered his head in sorrow anyway. “We are sorry to hear about your father. He was a great opponent in the Righteous War against Equestria; the Queen was eager to see him again.” “I’m sure she was,” Flurry replied noncommittally. She stilled her twitching wings. Synovial took Flurry’s attitude in stride. “Queen Chrysalis, in her magnanimous mercy, even allowed your dearest mother, Mi Amore Cadenza, to travel here to urge your father’s surrender. We make an offer to you, Flurry Heart. You may travel together back to the Crystal City and share your grief.” Synovial removed his fez with a flash of his horn. “As a family,” he added. Cadance appeared in the doorway, surrounded by a squad of Jaegers, the elite Changeling troops. The old dog stood behind her, shuffling his paws and looking to the side. Flurry Heart remembered her mother standing before the Crystal Heart, clad in specially-made purple barding, enchanted to resist high-caliber small arms fire. She would have made an impressive figure if her eyes weren’t so sunken and hollow as she stared up at the glowing Heart. My family or my throne. Love is the death of duty, Flurry. I will always love you, but I cannot leave them, not again, not after so much loss. Flurry had been too young to understand. She had cried incessantly on the long journey east to Manehattan, traveling at night to avoid Changeling bombing runs. When her father finally boarded the last convoy to depart, she clung to his legs with all her strength. He cried too, but for Twilight as well. Flurry seized ahold of that memory as she faced this Cadance, who was too clean, too trim. Her purple and gold mane was done up in the old, poofy style that her mother had abandoned after long nights at her desk; her wings were preened with no feather out of place. Her horn had a simple black ring at the base, the same as Flurry. This Cadance wore no regalia, only a simple purple dress. A lone tear emerged from her right eye as she strode towards her daughter. “Oh, my Little Wings,” she began, using the ironic nickname her mother had sparingly used in private, “I’ve missed you so much. My heart broke a thousand times a day.” “She was so miserable that a changeling couldn’t bear to get near her,” Synovial added from her side. The other changeling, Thranx, wouldn’t make eye contact with Flurry and backed out of the way. Flurry gripped the memory tighter in her mind. “Dad’s gone,” she rasped with fresh, snotty tears. Cadance allowed another solitary tear to slide down her muzzle. “I should have been here with Shining. He would have never gone to fight if we were together again.” She stopped a few hooves from Flurry and looked down at her daughter. “I could see his shield blocking the tanks from the harbor. Aquileia did not deserve him.” Flurry glanced at the gas-masked Jaegers around Cadance, who stared back impassively. “We thought you were dead.” “Sometimes I wished I was,” Cadance responded. “Queen Chrysalis wanted to study the Heart, and needed my cooperation.” She gave a somewhat baleful glance to the Jaeger on her right. “I remind myself that it would be worse for our ponies if I refused.” That actually sounded almost like mom, Flurry thought. She stepped forward on trembling hooves, pawing at the carpet. Summoning her most desperate voice, she asked, “C-can we go home now, Mom?” “Of course, Little Wings,” Cadance gasped as another tear slid down her muzzle. Flurry rushed forward and embraced her mother. The last hug had been muffled by plate armor and hard steel. It was uncomfortable. Flurry wrapped her wings around Cadance’s forelegs as she lent fully into her chest, smearing her snot into the dress. The smaller alicorn tucked her head under Cadance’s chin. She was warm and soft, just like she remembered. This hug was almost perfect. Flurry’s horn had an inhibitor ring around the base, but the tip was still sharp. When she was bored, Flurry would sweep her old drawings into the air with her wings and spear the paper on her horn. Her father had caught her once; it was one of the rare moments where he truly laughed. Flurry leaned down, sniffling, then drove her horn up into Cadance’s neck. Cadance shifted at the last moment, so the horn instead rammed through the bottom of her jaw. Flurry felt a hot wash of blood splash across her curls and run down her horn as she smiled. The room devolved into screams in Herzlander. Cadance gurgled a command to the Jaegers in the same language, but Flurry’s wings held Cadance’s forelegs in place long enough for Flurry to get one good twist in before stars exploded across her vision as a rifle butt smashed her head away. By the time Flurry shook her vision clear, she realized that the figure straddling her was the old dog, who had drawn his very sharp, not-at-all ceremonial sword and was hacking apart a changeling Jaeger lying next to her. Cadance had torn off a sleeve of her dress and shoved it against her muzzle with magic; the green-tinged magic was seemingly not hampered by the supposed ring on her horn. She glared venomously at Flurry with green eyes and batted away the horrified Field Marshal with a hoof. The other general in the muddy uniform leaned against a desk, looking bored and miserable. Some of the Griffonian knights were fighting with the other Jaegers at the entrance. Flurry leaned her head back against the ground to get an upside-down look at the young Kaiser and his regent. The young griffon had discarded his crown and was crouched behind the desk. The old regent was behind him, squawking an order at a griffon knight. The Kaiser and the Princess made eye contact; his glasses were askew on his beak. Flurry grinned at him, tasting blood in her mouth. There was a good chance it wasn’t hers. The Kaiser’s blue eyes widened, then he steeled himself and leaped onto the desk, screeching some command in a high, reedy voice. Surprisingly, the violence stopped. The old dog remained standing over Flurry, but stopped hacking at the Jaeger, who slowly crawled towards Cadance and the other changelings. Field Marshal Synovial, whose fez rested at an angle now, began a long-winded tirade, pointing a hole-ridden hoof at the dog and Flurry the whole time. Flurry assumed it to be about her, but the dog seemed braced for violence and his back paws twitched several times throughout the speech. The Kaiser cut the changeling off midway through at some point, which further enraged Cadance, who spat out green, bloody phlegm and mumbled some warning. The old priest, Archon Eros, waved a shaking claw again and again at Cadance, pleading something and speaking softly. Flurry watched the exchange from her back, glancing back and forth between the changelings and griffons and resolving to learn Herzlander. The Kaiser gave the prone alicorn one last glance before speaking to the old priest, who sighed and bowed his head towards the Changelings. The Changelings looked more enraged than mollified, but Cadance stormed out of the room, hobbling on three legs while she clenched the rags to her muzzle. Field Marshal Synovial and the Jaegers followed, pausing only to drag the wounded one out. He left a blood trail on the carpet. When the doors slammed shut in a burst of green magic, General Thranx, the muddy changeling seemingly left behind, slumped against the desk and laughed in a low chitter. The old dog atop Flurry laughed with him after a beat. The dog looked down at Flurry with kind brown eyes, then sheathed his bloody sword and offered a paw to help her up. Flurry accepted it, and stumbled back to her hooves. The dog looked around the room before pointing at one of the delegate desks and barking. The Aquileian pony, a mare, poked her horn out from behind the desk and looked embarrassed. She blinked when the Kaiser addressed her, and turned to Flurry. “The Kaiser will speak privately with you, Princess Flurry. Please follow Benito.” The dog clapped a meaty paw on her wing.