//------------------------------// // Part Fifty-Three // Story: The Princess and the Kaiser // by UnknownError //------------------------------// It's not the worst truck ride I’ve ever had, Flurry reflected. Her thirteenth birthday was far worse. The tires had lost traction on a muddy road in the mountains during a wild thunderstorm. Flurry was bounced around the back, colliding with Jadis hard enough for the crystal pony to chip a tooth. The alicorn teleported out into the rainstorm just as the driver regained control. She climbed back into the truck and apologized to Jadis, soggy and miserable. But it is close. Elias Bronzetail stared at Duty Price. He narrowed his eyes. “That’s my cigar brand.” “Yes.” Price blew a smoke ring. “Fresh off the docks. Good brand.” The earth pony glanced at the two griffon knights besides Bronzetail. “Celestia didn’t approve of smoking. We didn't have many good brands here. I could count them on a hoof.” Bronzetail shifted his glare to the four mares with Duty Price. “You’ve been leading quite the army, I see. Fond of younger fillies?” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Babs Seed glared back at him. “Speak for yourself,” Price replied. “Princess told me about your romp in the hotel room.” Bronzetail flushed. “That is not what occurred. The Princess was fourteen.” “Dirty bird,” Price chuckled. “Enough,” Flurry sighed. The griffons sat on one bench of the canvas truck, and the ponies sat on the opposite. Flurry Heart laid on the floor, pressed against the back. She folded her legs and scuffed mud off her boots. “That is not what occurred, though it was quite traumatic to Bronzetail anyway.” “As you say, Princess,” Price laughed. He pulled a cigar box from a pocket and offered it to Bronzetail with a bent hoof. “Empty?” Bronzetail guessed. “Full,” Price corrected. He wiggled the box. “I don’t do exploding cigars, though if I knew it was your brand, I might’ve reconsidered.” Bronzetail grabbed the box with his unoccupied claw and stuffed it into his jacket. He went back to scanning over the list in his other claw. “These ponies are terrorists.” “Partisans,” Price corrected. “They’ve planted bombs at the dockyards, stolen our supplies, assaulted our garrisons, and killed my soldiers.” “I’ve killed more,” Flurry interrupted. “You free them, and the fighting stops.” “I could simply have Duty Price arrested,” Bronzetail countered. “We’re on the way to the prison, anyway.” “That won’t solve anything,” Price replied with absolute confidence. “We’re like a hydra, cut off one head and two take its place.” “I could start ordering executions,” Bronzetail threatened back in clipped Equestrian. “Elias,” Flurry warned. “I like you. Don’t try to go down that road.” “Where is the justice for my soldiers?” Bronzetail squawked. He pointed a claw at Price. “You think he regrets killing my griffons?” “I do not,” Price snorted. “You regret allying with that thug, Wind Rider?” “He offered to help us.” “He helped club us down, same as with Lilac.” Price thumped a hoof. “Manehattan is freezing and starving while you gorge yourselves at Lilac’s headquarters.” “Your ‘partisans’ blew up two power stations,” Bronzetail yelled back. “You bomb our dockyards and raid our supply posts!” “To eat!” “We cannot share supplies that you blow up!” Bronzetail squawked. Price glared at him. “Were you ever going to share?” Bronzetail looked to Flurry, then removed his cap and smoothed out his fur. “No,” he admitted. “The front line is stretched thin, and we need fuel, food, rations, everything.” He glared back at Price. “Stealing what we have does not help with that. We can spare food and some medicine once the supply lines stop being attacked, not before.” Price considered the idea. “Fix the power stations. Heat will go a long way.” “If I send engineers, will they be attacked?” Bronzetail asked sourly. “Not after today,” Price answered. “And keep your birds out of the boroughs. We’ll run our own patrols.” “I never sent them there.” “You sent Wind Rider.” Bronzetail opened his beak to say something, but Flurry gave him an icy stare. “Wind Rider was a mistake,” he admitted slowly. “He turned coat quickly, and had plenty of soldiers. If you had come to us with an offer, we would’ve taken it.” “Why should we have come to you?” “We’re fighting the Hegemony,” Bronzetail said bluntly. “We’re here on the Kaiser’s command. Chrysalis would surely strike Griffonia. The Reich struck first. Helping us helps you.” “Yeah,” Price nodded. “You fly your soldiers like a conquering army. This was never the Kaiser’s land. You aren’t fighting Wingbardy or Aquileia anymore. This isn’t some little breakaway that you can plant a flag on.” He folded his hooves. The ponies laid on the benches while the griffons slouched with their backs and wings against the canvas. “The Kaiser affirms that Princess Flurry Heart is the rightful and legitimate ruler of Equestria and the Crystal Empire.” Bronzetail flapped his hat in a claw at Price’s smoke rings, dispersing them. "We make no claim to this territory." “You just going to leave?” Price asked with a sneer. “We’ll need help rebuilding anyway,” Flurry interrupted. “You haven’t seen the mines in the Empire. The Changelings were dumping the dead into fields.” “I’ve seen a lot, Princess,” Price responded. “After my mother died with the Heart, they cut her organs out and kept her in a pod. She’s still there, if you want to see her.” Flurry wasn’t wearing her hat; it was stuffed into her saddlebags. Price chewed on the end of the cigar. He raised a hoof and brushed his moustache. “Sorry, Princess.” “We are not the Changelings,” Bronzetail said. “That’s a low hurdle to jump,” Price claimed, rolling his eyes. “We’re not hearing stories of happy ponies in liberated cities. You’re just advancing and leaving us.” “The further we’ve gotten, the worse you’ve attacked our supply lines.” “Excuses,” Price said without any true anger. “I can do that, too. Some of those attacks are infiltrators left behind your lines.” Bronzetail sighed. “We weren’t even sure if freeing cocooned ponies was safe, at first,” he revealed. “We know nothing about how to treat Magical Exhaustion, or whatever it is the changelings do.” “Aquileia,” Flurry replied, slightly confused. “Ponies were split between the monarchists and revolutionaries. You have to have some Aquileians here.” “We have several thousand Aquileian ponies in mage companies, out of an army of nearly two million. Our army is nearly entirely griffons. We had no experience fighting the Hegemony until we landed.” “The war isn’t going well,” Flurry said for him. “The Kaiser has complete confidence in his army,” Bronzetail said irritably. The truck turned a corner and everyone swayed. “There are more Aquileian ponies than that,” Flurry pointed out. “I have more.” “Don’t tell the Kaiser that,” Bronzetail muttered. “Most are stationed along the Riverlands border, in the mixed territories.” “Why?” “The River Federation is entirely eastern ponies and the dogs of Diamond Mountain. Magic will be essential in holding off an assault for enough time to-” Bronzetail cut himself off with a clack of his beak. “That army can’t hold the Federation if they attack,” Flurry guessed. “You’ll have to try to race back across the ocean.” “The Kaiser has complete confidence in his army,” Bronzetail repeated. It sounded fake. “That is why he is here on Equus.” “If that attack happens,” Flurry turned to Price, “the Changelings will push across Equestria without resistance. They’re pounding the Crystal Heart’s shield with bombs and artillery. It will be a mad gallop to the shield wall, and years hiding behind it.” Flurry raised her head to stare Price in the eyes. “Tell me you have an army that can beat Chrysalis.” “In spirit,” Price replied, “not in strength. Or equipment.” “I don’t have that army either,” Flurry admitted. “The Reich does.” “You have a giant shield,” Price pointed out. “Can you move it around?” “Considering what happened last time,” Flurry scratched at a patch of pink fuzz, “I’m not eager to try. Besides, it kills every changeling that it touches.” “That doesn’t sound like a problem.” “Thorax has helped me from the beginning,” Flurry responded evenly. “So have hundreds of changelings. You okay with your friends burning?” “No,” Price answered. He spat the cigar out onto the truck bed and it rolled between one of the knight’s paws. "The Kaiser has ordered no griffon to attempt to cross the shield," Bronzetail said. "Quite convenient, having a glowing border for your territory, Princess." "Our supply lines from the coast are severed," Flurry revealed. "That's hardly a secret. And we are in my territory right now." "True." Bronzetail clacked his beak. "But you have no authority in Manehattan, not as it is. The Kaiser could have walked the streets of the Aquileian Republic as its rightful ruler and have no power." "My ponies do not know me," Flurry sighed. "They hear a radio and see a faint glow in the north. Canterlot is the prize. We take Canterlot, and I am the Princess of Equestria." "What about Twilight?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Princess Twilight?" "I hope my aunt is alive," Flurry replied, "but they claimed my mother was alive for years." "Sweetie Drops and all of S.M.I.L.E were convinced Twilight Sparkle was in Canterlot," Price stated. "Led us right up that mountain and we got crushed on the Celestial Plain beyond it." Flurry was quiet. I can't take that risk. The earth pony looked to Bronzetail and removed his booney hat. “You pardon my soldiers, and the attacks stop. Get the power stations back up and running, and we’ll start helping with the supply lines. The more you help us, the more we’ll help you.” “That was my offer to you,” Bronzetail replied. “Friendship is give and take,” Flurry said. “You’re both giving and taking.” They stared at each other. “This is the deal,” Flurry reminded Bronzetail in Herzlander. “I am freeing several hundred ponies that have killed my soldiers,” Bronzetail said back in the same language. “Archon Eros would’ve already had them shot, but the Kaiser refused to implement such measures.” “Suppose I should be grateful that old bird’s dead,” Price commented in Herzlander. “The bugs took your language,” he clarified to Bronzetail’s surprised expression. “Of course I learned it.” “The attacks will cease,” Bronzetail said directly to Price. “Can you guarantee that?” “Guarantee it? Like a new car?” Price snorted. “No.” “You will help Bronzetail hunt down the cells that refuse,” Flurry stated. “I didn’t sign up to be the new Wind Rider,” Price snarled. “You will do whatever is necessary to stop the attacks,” Flurry rephrased. “I said it is treason to continue. I agreed to a ceasefire; I expect my subjects to do the same.” “I’m not hunting down ponies like a damn Jaeger,” Price replied. “This is the deal,” Flurry said forcefully. She slapped a hoof down on the metal bed and dented it. “Beg, plead, talk, threaten, kill, whatever it takes.” Price grit his teeth. “You gave me a list of ponies to execute,” Flurry reminded him. “It is a long list,” Bronzetail added. “Almost as long as the ponies I need to pardon.” Price heaved a great sigh. “Fine. If attacks keep happening, we go after them first. Try to talk it out.” “What if talking fails?” Bronzetail asked. “We’re not shooting first, but we’ll deal with it.” “I don’t want public executions,” Bronzetail compromised. “At least, not for that. Just take care of it quietly, and I’ll look away.” “How noble,” Price said bitterly. “I have ordered executions for soldiers that disobeyed orders,” Bronzetail stated. He straightened out the bill of his officer's cap between his claws. “I have carried several out myself. The Princess can attest to one of them.” He waved a claw at her. “She has ordered the attacks to stop.” “Don’t think of it like that,” Flurry countered with an angry glare at Bronzetail. “We need their army to push further into Equestria. We have to work together. If some ponies won’t do that, we don't have time to keep to the high road.” “We like to keep an army together out of loyalty and friendship,” Price answered. “You lost two wars,” Bronzetail pointed out. “You had a revolution,” Price retorted, then stuck out his hoof. Bronzetail blinked in surprise, but shook it. “We took everything back.” “After thirty years.” “You need our help after eight.” “You had the bugs help you. Aren't you glad you gave up all your secrets?” They argued for the rest of the ride, changing topics constantly to try and win some strange debate. Flurry shared looks with the Crusaders and one of the knights. Her ears wilted against her head, but there was no real anger in the barbed replies between the two. They were both smoking cigars when the truck pulled into the yard outside Manehattan Penitentiary. Flurry exited last and stretched her legs and wings, hopping down off the truck. They were within the fence, and the guard towers were overstaffed with griffons. The building itself was a massive red brick square with high windows for plenty of natural light. The exercise yard was fenced in at the top to prevent pegasi from flying away, but it was large and spacious. “Starlight and Trixie held the collaborators here,” Bronzetail commented. “I saw it once during the uprising. Had to station a lot of guards to keep ponies away.” “Lilac threw everypony she didn’t like in here,” Price added. “All of us ended up in one place. Didn’t end well.” “Didn’t end well for anyone,” Flurry said. “Don’t mix up the lists.” Two more trucks pulled behind them, and Rainbow and several of Flurry’s guards shadowed the vehicles from above. Rainbow landed and waved her metal wing one of Price's stallions. He landed with the other scouts. “Princess,” Rainbow bowed. For the first time, the Cutie Mark Crusaders bowed with her, seemingly remembering that Flurry was a Princess. The alicorn glanced down at her snowy and rumpled uniform. Some Princess. Sweetie struggled with her leg brace. Flurry hauled the unicorn to her hooves with a burst of magic. “I’ve worn leg braces, don’t try it,” she advised. “I’ve had one for two years, Princess,” Sweetie answered. “Took a rifle round just above the knee. Went clean through.” Rainbow walked over and nudged Scootaloo. “What’s up, squirt?” Scootaloo stood up straight. She was slightly taller than Rainbow now. “What’s down there, old mare?” “Only the Princess can call me that!” Rainbow replied with mock anger. She raised her wing and the edges gleamed. “You wanna dance with the Dash?” “Try me,” the orange pegasus challenged and they made a game of lunging at each other, feinting their strikes. Rainbow kicked some snow up to blind Scootaloo, then rolled away from a blind kick. Bronzetail and Price watched, amused and puffing smoke rings. The guards in the tower moved to watch the impromptu duel. For one moment, griffon and pony stood side-by-side in the snow. Rainbow folded her wings and slid between Scootaloo's legs, then swept them out from under her. The orange pegasus recovered with a hop and buzz of her shorter wings, lashing her rear hooves and kicking Rainbow in the jaw. Rainbow laughed high and loud; Scootaloo laughed with her. A shadow passed over them. A griffon in a flight suit and leather jacket crashed down atop Rainbow Dash, screeching a war cry. Scootaloo whinnied and rushed forward, but the griffon swiped her aside with a rear paw, pulling Rainbow up by her neck and pinning her metal wing with the other claw. The eagle-headed griffon glared down with yellow eyes accented by purple feathers. “What’re you doing here, dweeb?” she growled playfully. “Found a new sparring partner?” Gilda. Flurry barely turned her horn away in time for the laser to sizzle past her beak. Her horn’s blast blew through the chain link fence behind the group and seared across the street, disappearing into an abandoned building. I hope that’s abandoned, Flurry grimaced. The griffon felt the heat sear across her beak and looked up. Her mouth opened in horror, not at Flurry, but at the griffon scowling next to the alicorn. “Lieutenant!” Bronzetail squawked. “What in Boreas’ name do you think you’re doing!?” Rainbow laughed and shoved the stunned griffon off her. “You in trouble?” she asked the terrified griffon from the snow, then whistled. “Look at your new duds, G! They put you in a uniform like Gallus!” Rainbow rolled away, laughing. “Sir, I apologize immediately,” Gilda said and dipped her wings. She lowered her head to the ground. “I was not aware you were here. I’m sorry.” Rainbow laughed harder, not understanding the Herzlander. Bronzetail stalked forward. “You assault a guest of the Princess? After my orders went out that they are to be welcomed?” Flurry choked on her intended words, looking up at the dozens of watching Reich soldiers. Shit. Bronzetail was looking around at them as well. “No, sir!” Gilda answered. “Rainbow Dash is a friend! An old game sir, nothing more.” “Are you arguing with me?” Bronzetail asked in a low tone. “No, sir.” “You are in trouble!” Rainbow laughed in Equestrian from the ground. “I was happy to see my friend again. I forgot my place,” Gilda said desperately. “It won’t happen again.” Bronzetail looked up to one of the towers. “You are stationed at the air base. Why are you here?” “I saw Rainbow Dash flyby.” “You have a pass to leave?” Bronzetail asked. He held out a claw expectantly. Rainbow finally stopped laughing and stood up. “Hey, she’s a friend,” she called out in Equestrian, frowning. Gilda didn’t pass him anything. She blinked rapidly. “I’m sorry, sir.” “Your air wing may have lax standards,” Bronzetail brushed his coat back with raised wings. “I do not.” “No!” Flurry screamed. Her voice rattled the fence and blew out the nearest window. Everyone in the yard flinched. Sweetie clamped her good foreleg over her head and stumbled. One guard fell out of the tower, barely flapping his wings in time to stop himself from hitting the ground. Flurry ran to Bronzetail while he stumbled with his pistol in claw. “No,” she repeated at a lower volume. Bronzetail glared at her and gestured to the glowing hot hole in the fence with the pistol. “You nearly killed her yourself!” Gilda, Rainbow, and Scootaloo looked behind them. “It was an accident and stupid,” Flurry replied. “She’s a friend.” “She is one of our pilots,” Bronzetail corrected. “And she deserted her post to fly halfway across the city.” He set the claw holding the pistol on the ground. “Hey,” Rainbow interrupted. “She’s my friend. We’re fine. I’m not angry. We did that all the time in Flight School.” The pegasus stood in front of Gilda, eyeing the pistol. Bronzetail turned to look at Flurry. “I understand how your army lost if this is how they conducted themselves.” “No,” Flurry repeated again. Bronzetail looked around. The shout had attracted the entire prison’s attention. “She just made a massive show of this," he whispered in a strangled voice. "So did you. I have every right to shoot her.” Bronzetail did not raise the pistol off the ground, but he squinted angrily at Flurry. “I do not take orders from you, Princess. I will lose enough credibility from releasing prisoners that killed my griffons.” “That’s the deal.” “She is not part of the deal.” Rainbow raised her wings. “We’re all fine, okay!” she said in Equestrian. “No problems.” “She is Rainbow’s friend,” Flurry said in Herzlander. “I’m not letting you kill her to soothe your pride.” Bronzetail glared at Flurry, slowly breathing, then took his claw off the pistol and left it on the ground. “Lieutenant,” he announced in Equestrian, “you will return to your air base and scrub toilets for the foreseeable future. Do so immediately.” Rainbow frowned. “We just met! Come on! We’re all fine!” Thank you for being so stupid, Flurry internally sighed in relief. “Rainbow!” she barked in Herzlander. “Fall in line! The Field Marshal gave an order!” Rainbow stared at Flurry, not understanding what she said until Flurry waved a wing and beckoned her away. She trotted over to the Princess reluctantly. Flurry grabbed her roughly with both wings and dragged her muzzle to muzzle. Gilda stood up with snow on her beak from pressing it to the ground, saluted Bronzetail with a claw clasped to her chest, and flew away without looking back. Rainbow watched her leave with pained eyes. “Rainbow,” Flurry whispered, “he was about to kill her for desertion. She left her post.” “She’s my friend!” Rainbow hissed back. “Go apologize to Bronzetail.” Flurry shoved her forward. The Field Marshal was watching Gilda fly away with half-extended wings. He picked up the pistol. Price and the Crusaders watched warily with the gathered scouts. “What?” Rainbow glared back. “Go bow in front of him and beg,” Flurry ordered with a whisper. “She can still be shot later.” “I’m not gonna let them do that!” “This is how you do that!” Flurry bared her teeth at the smaller mare. “If you care about her, beg. Make a big show of it.” Rainbow glared at the Princess, then slowly slunk over towards Bronzetail. He noticed her approach; his wings and tail twitched in agitation. The pegasus knelt down and pressed her head against the ground. “I’m sorry that I got in your way. Gilda was my friend from foalhood,” she said loudly in Equestrian. “Your friend is an idiot and a deserter,” Bronzetail snarled. “You try my patience.” “Thank you,” Rainbow apologized with a rasp. She managed some tears and clasped her front hooves together. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Bronzetail looked to the watching guards in the towers and the roof before replying. “Consider it mercy.” The griffon stuffed the pistol roughly back in his holster and walked into the prison with raised feathers. Flurry nodded deferentially as he passed. He did not return it. Rainbow laid on the ground until Flurry signaled her to stand and come over. She did so slowly, dragging her hooves on the ground. “Keep that up until we’re inside,” Flurry hissed from the side of her muzzle. “I nearly took her head off.” “It was just an old game,” Rainbow answered quietly. “Didn’t I tell you that?” Flurry shook her head in exasperation and entered the lobby.