There was a splotch on the large front window that hadn’t been fully wiped away. In the fading sunlight, it was hard to tell it was blood unless one got close and smelled the lingering metal in the air. The rain would wash it away; storm clouds gathered on the northern horizon, and the wind blew stronger now.
It was still too far to see any flashes or lightning or hear thunder, but spring brought wild storms without Cloudsdale’s weather control. With the shield over the north, the weather rolled into large swaths of dark clouds after crashing against the magic. Flurry Heart could feel the microcurrents in her feathers as the door to the bar crashed open.
“I am told there is beer!” Gilda crowed. She dragged Rainbow Dash in beside her. The pegasus’ metal wing hung loosely over her jacket, partially unstrapped. She wore her sunglasses; Flurry guessed it was to hide her already drunken leer.
“It’s shit beer,” Gallus answered. “Knock-off swill.” He had folded his black coat over a chair and waved a claw to the empty chairs across from his table.
Edvald squawked in indignation near the discarded piano. “It is not our beer!” he insisted angrily in Herzlander. “It is Changeling swill!” He continued to shove the piano against the wall.
Katherine helped him, cheeks puffed in effort. “Why…why are we even moving this?”
“I can play the piano,” Edvald answered. “A true blessing to find one in this hooved hell.”
“I meant why isn’t our Princess helping?” Katherine asked louder with a pointed golden eye at the alicorn sitting on a barstool.
Flurry stuck her muzzle in the air. “Am I to perform mundane labor at my own coronation party?” she said in her best attempt at a Griffenheim accent.
“You sound like a pig farmer pretending to be a noble,” Katherine advised with her peasant Katerin. She clucked afterwards when Edvald tried to swat her with his wing. The two burgundy griffons finished shoving the piano against the wall.
The bar was rustic, attempting to look like an old beer house from the Herzland. Wooden paneling covered brick walls with high, wall-mounted lights and thick rafters. Everything was made of wood with accented gray colors.
There was a discoloration on the wall from where Chrysalis’ trident emblem had been taken down; Duty Price used it as an ashtray beside Frosty Jadis. The black flag of the Changeling Hegemony was currently Gallus’ tablecloth. Gilda and Rainbow flumped down across from him.
“You didn’t need to stay for the ass-kissing ceremony?” Gilda asked him.
“I’m a Griffonstone griffon,” Gallus shrugged a blue wing. “Our presence is odious; they can smell us because we don’t bathe. What about you?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow poked her friend. “How many flying aces you kill? You lying, G?”
“Shove off, dweeb,” Gilda growled with a hint of playfulness. “I ain’t standing in line for three hours staring at some stuck-up knight’s tailhole just for the blessed Kaiser to nod at me.”
“You toasted him,” Rainbow continued.
“So did you,” Gilda laughed, “and you couldn’t even say the Herzlander right!”
“Who’s fault is that!?” Rainbow nickered. “You never taught me any!”
“Didn’t need to,” Gallus preened his wing. “The Griffonstone-Equestrian exchange program was very generous. Education and Flight Camp for the most impoverished griffons in Griffonia.”
Nightshade screeched a warbling laugh from the rafters before descending with Murky and Amoxtli. She flapped her leathery wings just off the floor. “Some New Marelander griffs might dispute that!”
“You haven’t been to Griffonstone,” Gilda dismissed. “It’s a shithole.”
“It’s our shithole,” Gallus agreed.
“Damn right.”
The Thestrals landed and claimed another table near the others. Amoxtli spared a glance to a shadowed corner, and Murky followed her slit gaze. He perked up. “Homey enough in here for you bedbugs?”
Arex hissed beside Ocellus, both in full-body cloaks over their purple uniforms. “This is a mockery. No corners or staggered holes in the walls. I don’t know how true changelings could stand it.”
“We agree!” Katherine chirped. She wiped her claws off and sat down across from Ocellus, cheeks pulled into a smile. “It is like if Edvald explained a beer hall in his broken Equestrian and a pony built a bar following his exact words.”
“No,” Edvald disagreed in halting Equestrian, “I would have beat pony when first wood set down.”
“This place was meant for the Queen’s Guard,” Ocellus said quietly. She kept the cloak around herself, tucked into the corner beside the older changeling. Arex was braver and lowered the hood. She rapped a holed hoof onto the table as she waited.
“What’s a Herzlander bar like?” Flurry called over.
Katherine swept her wings in a mock bow. “It is too low for you, Princess. There is no bar seating. And there are no booths, only long tables where griffons sit together.”
“Griffons being social?” Price snorted a puff of smoke. “Don’t pull my tail, little cub.”
“More griffons to sit and more coin to be made,” Katherine shrugged. “And no bar seating where quick claws can swipe free refills.”
Duskcrest emerged from the basement storage on his paws, clutching a cargo of an overfilled brown crate. Bottles clinked together as he used his wings for balance. “In Nova Griffonia, we invested in such things as clubs. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Large sticks for whacking the unruly?”
Flurry felt the residual waves of magic from spells in the basement. Jacques and Cerie followed Duskcrest with their own haul of chilled bottles. The young griffoness puffed with exertion, but recoiled with a growl when Flurry’s magic tried to seize her crate. “Non!” she spat in Aquileian, then immediately looked horrified.
Jacques swaggered behind the bar and set his crate down, then flipped an empty beer bottle around in a claw. He tried to jam it on the tip of Flurry’s horn, but she jerked her head up and the horn point drifted out of quick reach. She narrowed her eyes. “I can help.”
“You cannot summon Amontillado from that horn of yours,” Jacques answered, “so you cannot help. You must sit and look pretty in your uniform.” He clambered over the countertop and moved to help Cerie. The griffon left the empty bottle spinning on the bar. Flurry batted it between her white-booted forelegs while she waited.
Sunset Shimmer emerged from the stairwell lugging a full wooden keg in her telekinesis. She had unbuttoned most of her gray uniform and it hung loose on her frame with rolled-up sleeves. The fiery-maned unicorn stowed it behind the bar in an empty spot, then twisted the barrel around for the spigot.
There was a series of thuds from the basement. A barrel rolled up the stairs with audible sloshing inside, then Tempest Shadow roughly shoved it behind the bar with brute strength and rammed it upright next to the other. She had fully discarded her uniform and stood nude with froth in her coat.
Duskcrest whistled, only to squawk in pain when Dusty Mark cracked her tail across his back. The former archaeologist appraised the beer with clear experience. “That all that’s salvageable?”
“That’s all that’s good,” Sunset retorted. “Queen’s Guard had shit taste, even considering Griffonian beer.” Cerie, Edvald, Jacques, and Katherine flashed their talons at the unapologetic unicorn. The soon-to-be Archmage took it unflinchingly. “You only hate me because I’m right.”
“We are the only ones that can insult our beer,” Katherine replied. “We do not make fun of your Equestrian tea.”
“Because it’s already a joke,” Gallus ‘whispered’ across the room.
“Just so.”
“Right,” Tempest panted. “Cerie spotted some decent Aquileian swill down there, so we have options.”
“Field Marshal, may we have some refreshment?” Jacques requested. “Little Flurry spilled all my wine earlier.”
“It’s because you were whining too much,” Flurry quipped from the barstool. She looked around the room; her horn glowed. Abruptly, the chairs and tables were enveloped in her magic and rearranged with squawks and neighs of surprise from the captive audience.
Flurry Heart ignored how most of them looked frightened. She set everyone down in a long row, tables pressed together to form bench seating. “Might as well get the full experience.” The alicorn left gaps and empty chairs between each group.
The door to the bar opened with a rough shove. The wood caught, and the Yak shoved it fully open with a grunt of annoyance. Yona puffed hair out of her eyes. “Stupid bug building. Remember when this was guard bar. Much smashing.”
Sandbar followed her in. “Didn’t know you visited Canterlot.”
“Before war for Rutherford, when Jaks tried to break away from Yaks. Ask Celestia for help. Rifles.”
Duskcrest leaned back in his chair to see the approaching Yak. “Considering we sold some shipments of guns to Prince Rutherford in the frontier…”
Rarity entered, “Sending guns to defend Harmony is a bit of an oxymoron, wouldn’t you say?”
“Oh, good!” Rainbow snorted. “More moralizing. At least your fur is as snow white as-”
Zecora cleared her throat and kicked the door shut behind her. It closed with a terrific bang that brought the chatter to an end. “My apologies,” the zebra said, not sounding very contrite. “I’m here to drink, not to listen to you two invent new terminologies.”
Rarity scrunched her muzzle, then regarded Rainbow with a cold look and sat down across from her. “Very well. I can play nice.”
Rainbow stuck her mohawk up and scanned the bar. “Get over here, Tempest. I know you drink. Have one last drink with us before your high horn gets too good to drink with the lower class.”
Tempest lowered her broken horn with half-lidded eyes; it made her scar look extra dangerous. “That’s not exactly a concern for me.”
“Get over there,” Sunset huffed. “I’m on bar duty.” The mare rummaged around with her horn, setting up glasses and dividing the bottles by variant and flavor.
“What, you know how to bartend?”
“Sushi bar,” Sunset muttered. “Same principle. Have a seat, Fizzy.”
Tempest walked over slowly and eyed the chairs. Duskcrest clasped his claws under his beak. “Have no fear. Most at this meeting are assholes. You fit in. I heard you’re called Fizzlepop? Like the soda?”
“I heard you’re called Virgil,” Tempest retorted. “Like the poem.” She sat down close to Duskcrest and across from him, dragging the chair forward.
The griffon offered his claw without prodding from Dusty. “I shall forget your unfortunate name if you forget mine.”
Tempest nodded. “You’ll be General Duskcrest in all the dispatches and paperwork. Since I’m your boss.”
Sunset began filling mugs with wine from the barrels after rinsing out the glasses in the faucet. Beer bottles floated over to the table. Edvald and Katherine sat near the end, by the piano; they had several empty chairs between them and the others.
“You aren’t taking our orders, Archmage?” Rainbow shouted.
“I’m just reading your minds,” Sunset deadpanned. “Yours is always empty, so think extra hard about what you want.”
There was some scattered laughter; hooves and claws swapped drinks. Flurry sat at the bar alone, staring at the two Herzlanders. She set her cap down atop the counter and her wings fluttered.
“You can’t make them sit closer,” Sunset whispered. She set a mug down filled with water and nudged it towards the alicorn. “It’s fine.”
The alicorn scanned the table, spotting Ocellus still hiding in her cloak. She was wedged between Arex and Gallus, sitting across from Sandbar and Yona. The other changeling sipped on a beer after using a hole in her hoof to pop off the bottlecap.
Rarity also noticed and leaned on the table. She had selected the wine with a mild nicker at being served wine in a beer mug. “That’s a rather poor cloak, dear. If you’re trying to blend in, Equestrians prefer brighter colors.”
Ocellus’ wings buzzed beneath the gray, threadbare cloak. “I don’t like being out in the city.”
“You mean undisguised,” Sandbar snorted across from her. He tugged off his eyepatch and let the empty socket glare at her while he drank his own beer.
“We had great fun bidden farewell to all of Chryssi’s little ‘lings,” Arex said with feigned enthusiasm. “Hope they have a bumpy train trip to Hayston.”
“Remember who your enemy is,” Price agreed with a low rumble. The earth pony stamped out his cigar on the trident emblem. “Play nice, corporal.”
Sandbar drank instead of replying.
Flurry scowled at Jadis pushing a bottle down beside Price. The crystal pony refused to meet the Princess’ eyes. “Jadis!” the alicorn belted. “Drink!”
“I’m fine, Princess,” Jadis demurred.
“We got the Crusaders on the door, love,” Price said beside her. “Nopony wants to see those fillies drunk, and we got some of Lime’s regulars.”
“Love?” Jacques chuckled.
“It’s slang in Trottingham,” Price huffed at the griffon. “Maybe you’d learn kinder ones if you weren’t such a wanker.”
“I’ll be fine, Jadis,” Flurry assured her. “I’m not shielding the bar and broadcasting I’m down here.” She glanced at the window to the street. It was twilight and the street lights were off to conserve power. She returned to the crystal pony. “Drink, your Princess commands it.”
Jadis popped off a bottle cap with a hard strike of her hoof, then necked the bottle with a chug. Her blue fur glittered like freckles above her purple uniform, and began to flush purple around her cheeks. She cleared the bottle with a smug belch and tossed her navy-white mane back. “I endeavor to abide by your commands, Princess.”
“Oh shit,” Duskcrest laughed. “I love it when the crystal ponies start talking fancy again.”
“Wastrel.”
“Bandit,” the griffon corrected.
Flurry accepted the mug and sipped the water. “You can join in if you want,” she offered to Sunset. The amber unicorn leaned against the bar beside Flurry and a row of bottles.
“No,” Sunset waved a hoof. “I’m here to make sure you don’t drink.”
Flurry stuck her tongue out. “Already had some wine. Let me have a beer.”
“One,” Sunset compromised. “Which one do you want?”
“You pick.”
The unicorn studied the available bottles. As she did, she commented, “Heard a few of the Reichsarmee regulars gossiping that you made a real ass of yourself at the Kaiser’s birthday party. Little peasant filly pretending to be better than she is.”
“Harsh and accurate,” Flurry assessed.
“Is that smart a few days before the coronation? Already looks like Grover’s propping you up on a throne.”
“Looks bad on him then if I’m a barely literate peasant,” Flurry countered. “They can laugh all they want. I’m sure those nobles were laughing at me before the knives came out.”
“They were,” Sunset confirmed. “Served them too.” She finally chose a bottle and set it down. When Flurry moved for it, she tugged it back with a flick of her horn. “Finish the water first so something’s on your stomach. More water after.”
Flurry rolled her eyes, but drank.
Sunset watched her. Her cyan eyes flickered. “No testing?”
“You got it from the faucet.”
“Could’ve poisoned the mug.”
“You hate me that much?” Flurry laughed slightly. “I trust you. I have to, Archmage.”
Sunset broke eye contact and looked at the table. More bottles floated over with a few cheers. Flurry’s ears turned and picked up melding conversations. Everyone could speak Equestrian at least passably, and this would be the last time many would be in one place. After the coronation, there were administrative duties and battle plans and a war to win.
Flurry did not want to think about who would not be at the table at the war’s end. Cerie and Jacques were the lone Aquileians; the alicorn had not truly counted Sophie and Eagleheart as friends, but with Josette in Nova Griffonia all that remained in the south had to be lonely.
But right now, Cerie tapped a talon on the table in a rhythm while listening to Zecora speak on Zebrica. Jacques was annoying everyone with wine facts, but the group was smiling. Everyone accepted the refills offered by Sunset, or set bottle off to the side for later.
Flurry finished her water, but left the beer on the table and trotted over to the table. She picked an empty chair near Sandbar and Yona and flapped herself forward before folding her wings. She hummed at Arex’s beer; it was mostly full.
“Can changelings get drunk? They can, right?”
“Get buzzed,” Arex jerked her horn to the side. “Pun intended. If it’s spiked with love, yeah, but otherwise it’s not much. I can down two dozen of these and only need to piss.”
“I can never imagine swearing at Grover,” Gallus engaged, breaking off from a competitive discussion on aircraft mechanics between Gilda and Rainbow. “He always has this affronted look on his beak if someone curses in front of him.”
“The Princess swears worse than I do,” Arex shrugged.
“I’ve noticed,” Gallus said dryly.
“Fuck off,” Flurry huffed at him with a smile. “Why weren’t you at the high table?”
“Technically baseborn,” Gallus shrugged a claw. “Never knew my parents. That’s a big hurdle. Grover naming me his royal advisor nearly gave a few of the old-timers heart attacks.”
“Worth it?” Sandbar questioned.
“Oh, yeah,” Gallus squawked. “Don’t like the VOPS-adjacent black, but I make it look good.”
Katherine shuffled down the chairs, hopping from seat-to-seat. “You look like Wingfried von Katerinberg. You know him?”
“I do not look like a Reformisten,” Gallus sputtered. “The uniform is…” he paused and thought about it. “Okay, a little similar but not that bad.”
“No, he’s blue,” Katherine explained. “Almost your shade.”
“I imagine he’s white now because he’s dead,” Gallus replied shortly. His head feathers flushed to Katherine’s visible amusement.
Flurry looked between them. “Context?”
“Griffon supremacists from the borderlands,” Katherine waved a claw. “Their leader was related to Diellza, the Mad Monarch of Katerin.”
“Spent years building forts in the wrong direction,” Gallus mused. “The Reich invaded before whatever idiocy they wanted to attempt in the Riverlands.”
“Grover recruit them like Wind Rider?” Flurry asked mirthlessly.
“No, Eros had them all executed on Maar-worshipping charges,” Gallus laughed. “Fake charges, by the way, but they had it coming.”
“Heard it was because they did some experiments on Riverponies,” Katherine needled with wry eyes.
“No comment,” Gallus answered. “But they really had it coming.”
“Glad to know we’re not the only ones,” Ocellus muttered. Flurry blinked and realized the little changeling had downed three beers in less than twenty minutes. She rocked in her chair like a drunk, no matter what Arex said about changelings.
“That thought fill you with glee, changeling?” Sandbar nickered across from her. “A pity you can’t steal your own emotions. I’ve seen feral changelings lost in the Everfree. Not even animals.”
“I saw a stallion steal hay from a starving mother,” Ocellus responded. “Ripped it away and gnawed on it like a horse, crawling along the ground. We’re all animals deep down.”
Sandbar grimaced and it stretched the burn on his muzzle. “We didn’t start this war.”
“And we did not try to wipe out every scrap of a people,” Yona said beside him with a low huff. “Careful, squishy bug.”
“The world acted like we didn’t even exist.” Ocellus yanked her hoof away when Arex leaned in to whisper to her. “You know, most changelings don’t care that Chrysalis rewrote everything. Our history is cycles of starvation and infighting as the world watched us die.”
Sandbar folded his hooves. “Maybe if you weren’t-”
“Monsters?” Ocellus finished for him. She tugged her hood back and bared her fangs underneath pupilless eyes. “We didn’t choose to be like this. Call us broken, soulless parasites all you want. Sometimes I wish we were. It would make it easier to chug down love and not think about what family it was stolen from.
“We have to think of you as prey,” Ocellus finished and laid her head on the table. “If we think of you as people it gets too hard to stay alive. That’s why every Changeling Queen postured about it.”
“There’s only one Queen of the Changelings now,” Arex sighed. “The others are gone. They followed her into the war and she cleared them out the moment she truly won.”
“Why?” Flurry asked.
“They could challenge her,” Arex hissed. “Same with Trimmel. Her cousin Synovial is too spineless.”
“Lilac could have,” Ocellus muttered.
Sandbar brayed in laughter. “That bitch? Give me a break!” Chatter died around the table as everyone focused on the conversation. “Governor Lilac was a monster!”
Ocellus jerked her head up. “No.”
“Woah, filly,” Rainbow snorted. She hopped up and stalked down the table to Ocellus. “If we had ever found her body in the Crystaller, that bitch would’ve been paraded around Manehattan.”
“She loved Manehattan,” Ocellus retorted. “She tried.”
“Really?” Sandbar insisted. “I remember the reeducation classes and ‘Are You Smarter than a Changeling?’ on the radio.”
“Jachs tried,” Rainbow mocked.
“She went to Vesalipolis and renegotiated the Love Tax to be less demanding,” Ocellus hissed. “That was basically a death sentence and she still risked it. Lilac wasn’t…she wasn’t a good person, but she did believe in making something better.”
“That’s enough,” Arex said soothingly. “Let it go, Occie.”
Price leaned forward to see down the table. “You were picked up in Ironbend because of her idiocy. Lilac was a ponce, prancing about how we could all be friends while sending Jaeger teams into the subways to flush us out.”
“She wanted to make something better,” Ocellus insisted. She wilted down in her chair at the stares and growing hostility. “It wasn’t just talk. I knew her.”
“She knew I was working for Suri before the ELF and kept it quiet,” Rarity added. “I could’ve have been shipped to the Queen as a trophy.”
Rainbow twisted her head back. “Maybe you should have fought, Rares!”
“Lilac wasn’t a monster!” Ocellus hissed. “She hated the Queen’s Guard looking over her horn. She wanted to get rid of them!”
“What?” Rainbow scoffed. “You related to her or something?”
“Yes!” Ocellus snapped.
The table shared an incredulous look. Arex rubbed her muzzle. “That’s…Thorax said…”
“I’m sure he said to keep it quiet,” Flurry remarked after a moment of recovery. She raised an eyebrow at Ocellus. “I suppose that explains why you were an officer at such a young age.”
“Glad to know the Changelings practice nepotism just as much as we did,” Rainbow muttered. “Seriously? You’re Lilac’s…” she uncharacteristically hesitated, “foal?”
“No,” Ocellus whispered. She shrank down in her seat, but stared at Price. “It wasn’t a coincidence that all those ELF members ended up in the one prison. She wanted a breakout.”
“You…” Price shook his head. “You ain’t convincing me she wanted us to win. Sorry, love.”
“She knew the revolt was coming. She sent me away before it started.” Ocellus stared at the table. “Lilac thought she could win it. She had to; it was going to destroy everything if she lost.”
“Don’t you dare blame us for fighting, bug,” Rainbow snarled. She leaned down and tugged a strap across her barrel, and her metal wing went taut. The feathers flexed. "What, we should have listened to all her propaganda, Gone with the Wind garbage and sold away Equestria?"
“I don’t blame you for fighting,” Ocellus sighed. “I blame you for losing. It gave Chrysalis the excuse to crackdown and proved all the hardliners right. Every changeling that ever expressed a moment of support for Lilac’s soft hoof ended up somewhere worse if they survived.”
“Starlight planned on trying Lilac,” Tempest provided quietly.
“She planned on trying Chrysalis,” Rainbow retorted with a disgusted snort.
“Lilac should’ve thrown in her lot with us, then,” Price added. “Sorry, love. Family can disappoint you, speaking from experience. If she cared about ponies more than her own power, she could've worked with us.”
Zecora nodded with the earth pony. “It was brave of you to say these words, truly your soul believed they needed to be heard.” The zebra bit her lip. “And she is right. The ELF should have fought harder.”
“We did fight!” Rainbow growled.
“You know exactly what I mean, Rainbow Dash,” Zecora gave the pegasus a dark look. “My Everfree did not often take prisoners. I was not overly concerned with particulars.”
“We don’t have souls,” Ocellus laughed bitterly. “The griffons are preaching that now. They used to preach that we were allies against Equestrian imperialism. I still remember the pamphlets.”
“You burned my entire family.” Sandbar’s muzzle quivered. “D-don’t you dare try to turn this around on us.”
“You never wonder why we’re fighting for her?” Ocellus asked. “I know what Chrysalis is. Lilac told me, and I didn’t want to see it until I ended up at that camp.” Arex looked away with a wince. “Or is it just because we’re all monsters and like it?”
Flurry exhaled. “Why?”
Ocellus was quiet for a moment. “Please promise you won’t kill me.”
“I promise,” Flurry stated. “No one in this room will hurt you.” She gave Rainbow a stare until the pegasus backed up.
“Chrysalis is a monster,” Ocellus began. “But she’s also a visionary that united the Hives and created an actual Changeling Lands, united under one Great Queen. We used to raid each other over scraps. She put a radio in every home to spread her propaganda, cars on roads, no more smuggled goods through proxies but actual trade relations with another power…”
“The Reich,” Flurry supplied.
“Yes. One country, one army, one will. Her will. She almost took Canterlot without a drop of blood, enough…enough f-food that we’d never go hungry again. We followed her to a war and we won. We never win. There’s no great legends about heroes defeating villains back home. It’s all clever tricks to not starve for a day.”
The Thestrals looked uncomfortable.
Ocellus took a deep breath and made eye contact with Flurry Heart. “Your ponies love you the same way we love her. And even if we don't, you’re going to burn it all to the ground when you reach our home.”
"You have it coming," Sandbar snarled.
Ocellus did not argue it.
Flurry looked down at the table. “Do you have family back home?”
“Yes. If VOPS realizes I’m alive and working with Thorax, they’re already dead.”
“Thorax will be King of the Changelings,” Flurry offered.
“Not like there’s any other candidates,” Arex agreed. “Chrysalis probably planned for all of this. She’s not that stupid. She got rid of Trimmel by shoving him up in the Empire, got rid of the other Changeling Queens. She knew what would happen if the war ever turned against her.”
“Did Lilac know about Twilight?” Flurry looked up again to Ocellus.
“No.”
“If she did, would she have done something?”
“No,” Ocellus responded after a short pause. She frowned, sensing the emotions from the alicorn. “I’m sorry, Princess.”
“Thank you for being honest,” Flurry answered. “Did you ever think about escaping?”
“Ironbend?” Ocellus frowned. “We don’t like the cold, Princess.”
“Me,” Flurry elaborated. “Or were you afraid I’d burn you alive like I said I would?”
“Where would I have run?” the changeling asked in genuine curiosity. “If I made it home by some miracle, and if my family wasn’t already dead, then VOPS would definitely do the job. I’m a deserter. My life is forfeit in the Hegemony.”
Flurry did not have anything to say to that.
Ocellus turned back to Sandbar and Yona. “I am sorry about your family. Both of you.”
Sandbar closed his remaining eye. “It must really suck to be stuck around a bunch of people that hate you and you can always tell.”
“Yak agrees.”
“It comes and goes in waves.”
Flurry left the table. Thorax said the same thing. She flapped her wings and hopped up the bar stool, then snapped the cap of the beer off with her horn. Sunset was watching the long table with a frown, then levitated over four beers. The former students from the School of Friendship gathered around the young changeling, speaking quietly about their families.
Rainbow sat down with a huff near Rarity, then glanced at her and began speaking haltingly in a low voice. The unicorn seemed surprised and speaking responding while looking around the room. She caught Flurry with the beer.
“Princess!” Rarity trilled. “Please don’t spill any on the sash. Alcohol is such a pain to wash out.”
“She’s speaking from personal experience!” Rainbow crowed beside her. The unicorn turned and jabbed the pegasus with her horn. “Ow!”
“Yes, I distinctly recall a drunken Wonderbolt begging me to clean her flight suit. Shall I tell that story?”
“Please do!” Jacques insisted. “Madame Rarity, we must know the secrets of Rainbow Dash.”
“What about your secrets?” Rainbow asked back.
“He’s an anarchist that blew up mailboxes!” Flurry called out.
“I deliver mail as atonement,” Jacques picked up. “The work continues until mailboxkind has been appeased.”
Rainbow puffed her lips. “You know what? Spitfire’s dead. Tell that story, Rares.”
Rarity smirked and took a deep breath, shaking her mane bun out into loose curls with a chime of her horn. She began to launch into a theatrical rendition of a dark and stormy night. Flurry undid her sash and draped it on the stool beside her with a flash of her horn. She held the beer between her forelegs and took a contented sip as Sunset leaned on the counter.
Flurry cringed at the taste and looked back. “Did you poison this?” she coughed.
“Nope,” Sunset smirked. “And it’s the best one we have.”
The alicorn stared at the table with wide eyes. Even Katherine, a year younger than her, drank the swill without complaint. Is it a griffon thing or a Herzlander thing? “What’s wrong with all of you?”
“When you’re an adult, you need to drink,” Sunset advised. “We’re all military, technically speaking. We drink more than most.”
Flurry shook her head and teleported the bottle away with a snap. “I’ll just drink water.”
“Where’d you teleport that?”
“Halfway down Mount Canterhorn.”
Sunset chuckled. “That’s littering, Princess.”
“Not when I do it.”
Sweetie Belle struggled to shove the front door open. Babs checked it with a flank, one hoof on her submachine gun. “Guests, everypony! Liven up!” the earth pony yelled into the interior.
The room impressively sobered and moved for stowed side arms. Duskcrest raised his wings and offered one of his two revolvers to Dusty Mark. She took it and leered at Tempest Shadow across from her with a smirk. Flurry Heart pivoted her forelegs and hopped the bar to take cover with Sunset. Both horns glowed.
It was completely unnecessary.
Benito and Elias Bronzetail shuffled into the doorway. The Field Marshal had his cap under one wing and dress shirt partially unbuttoned. Both officers had a tall, black-cloaked griffon between them, almost Elias’ height. A familiar beak stuck out from the hood, but the cloak was long and obscured everything but dark tan claws.
Grover? Flurry dimmed her horn, then flared it and cast the detection spell at the same time as Sunset Shimmer. The two spells flashed across the room and made static charge in the air. The alicorn felt her fur stick up from the close casting. Sunset shook beside her to settle her own amber fur.
Benito surveyed the room and beer bottles. “We can go elsewhere,” he announced awkwardly. “Good night.”
“We are drinking to the health of the Kaiser,” Rainbow hiccupped.
“Of course,” Elias accepted without a trace of disbelief. Flurry judged it an exceptionally good lie. “We do not wish to disturb you.”
“We have empty chairs!” Flurry called out. “Come in!”
Benito had seemingly missed the tall alicorn slouched behind the bar and performed a double-take. “Princess?” he asked before coughing into a glove. “It is improper.”
“Is Grover old enough to drink?” Flurry asked knowingly while staring at the hooded griffon between them. “Please, come in! We have, uh…” she nudged Sunset.
“Pridean wine, Katerin swill, Feathisian dark brew, some fruity thing from Strawberry that nopony wants…all Changeling imitations, of course.”
Katherine waved a claw from the end of the table. “There’s seats!” She smiled. It was not a kind smile. “Please, take a seat. Friends!” Cerie had joined her and waved coyly. Edvald dragged his chair to the piano and sat next to it.
Benito, surprisingly, walked in with a paw on his sheathed saber. The graying dog glanced around the room with a disgusted muzzle. “They tried to steal everything, did they not?”
Elias nodded to Flurry, then screeched in alarm as Jacques lobbed a beer bottle towards his head. He barely caught it, dropping his hat with raised wings. The Field Marshal spat a stream of expletives at the Aquileian.
Jacques laughed and scooched over, waving a yellow wing with invitation. The Herzlanders instead crossed to the end of the table and sat beside Katherine and Cerie. The cloaked griffon slinked in between them and sat down. Katherine scooched over with a coy look, then her feathers flexed in puzzlement. She sank back into her chair.
Flurry grabbed a random collection of available bottles in her magic and trotted over to the table. She sat down next to Cerie and splayed the bottles out before her. “Used to be a bar for the Royal Guard,” she explained. “It’s near enough to the castle it wasn’t looted.”
“You aren’t planning on destroying it?” Elias asked. He accepted the Feathisian imitation with a grimace at the bottle. “Blessed Boreas, they tried too hard.”
“They’re imitators,” Benito shrugged. He glared at Flurry for a moment, then grabbed two bottles between his paw pads.
The cloaked griffon kept his beak turned to the table. Flurry flexed a wing. “What would you like, uh…is this a thing? Are you pretending to be some random griffon? Maybe don’t travel with Benito.”
Benito growled. “This is Henrik.”
“Sure,” Flurry whickered. “Pleased to meet you, Henrik. I’m the Princess of Ponies.”
“N-nice to meet you,” ‘Henrik’ stuttered in Herlzander. His voice was deeper than Grover’s, but tinged with nervous energy.
Flurry reared her head back. “Wait.”
“He’s not the Kaiser,” Katherine squawked. “For a moment, I thought the Kaiser might be fun, but alas.” She rested her head atop an upturned claw. Benito patted Henrik’s side, and the griffon pulled his hood back, still cringing at the alicorn with a scrunched muzzle studying him.
Flurry cast the detection spell again in puzzlement. Henrik was not Grover; his beak was a shade darker and his eyes were slightly bluer, but he shared the Kaiser’s build and body type close enough that he could easily pass for Grover VI at a glance. He did not have glasses, blinking clearly and averting his eyes.
The alicorn shook her head. “I’m sorry. I thought you were Grover,” she said in a lighter voice. “Do you want something to drink?”
“That’s the point,” Benito huffed. “Henrik is the Kaiser’s body double.”
“He has those?” Flurry asked, then resisted stuffing her muzzle into a boot. Of course he does. Why wouldn’t he?
“The resemblance is uncanny, is it not?” Elias remarked.
“I-I have g-glasses,” Henrik stuttered. “J-just glass in them.”
“Maybe work on the stutter,” Katherine laughed.
Henrik looked down at the table again, and away from Flurry Heart. She twisted and glared at the burgundy griffon to back off. Katherine settled in her chair and waved her beer.
“So,” Flurry slouched in her chair to appear shorter. “It’s nice to meet you, Henrik. I haven’t met you before, have I?”
“N-no, Princess.”
“Flurry is fine.”
“It’s not proper; Henrik is lowborn,” Benito advised.
“I don’t give a shit,” Flurry snorted. “My mother didn’t even know her birth parents.”
“R-really?” Henrik perked up. “I’m from an orphanage in Griffenheim. Archon Eros found me when I was ten. Said I could s-serve the Reich.”
“Soaking up daggers meant for Grover,” Katherine said bluntly. “Do you taste-test his food?”
“We do that,” Benito barked. “Mind your tongue.”
Katherine stuck her tongue out. Flurry grabbed it in her magic and stared at her friend flatly. The griffoness lowered her head and got the message. She rubbed her beak after Flurry released her tongue. “Fine,” she slightly slurred, “what’s it like?”
“The palace is very nice.” Henrik wrung his claws together.
“You live in the palace?”
“Of course,” Benito answered with rolled eyes. “A double that doesn’t spend any time near the Kaiser is a poor double.”
“I sat in on some of the t-tutors.”
Flurry smiled. “Oh, did you read any of Shakespear’s plays?”
Henrik looked to the side. “They were b-boring. S-sorry, Princess.”
“You know he quotes them a lot.”
“We know,” Benito huffed. “The Kaiser is very proud of our cultural history.”
“He u-used to do it way more,” Henrik whispered with a slight smirk. He glanced to Benito, clearly afraid he said too much, but the dog merely raised his beer bottle with an agreeing shrug.
“How do you pretend to be him? Do you say anything or-”
“Travel,” Benito elaborated. “All that’s required is posture and costume. We even have replica Reichstones.”
“All right,” Flurry accepted. “Give me your best Kaiser Grover VI.”
Henrik straightened in his seat and glared across the table at Flurry, looking both disappointed and disdainful. He clacked his beak and waved a wing. “Dismissed, Princess of Ponies,” the griffon said in Equestrian. He pitched his voice slightly higher with the Canterlot affectation.
Flurry hummed in approval. “Oh, that’s good. What do you think, Katherine?”
“The Kaiser of my nightmares,” Katherine said dryly. “You got the ‘I have a stick up my tail’ look down. Very good.”
“My lady,” Bronzetail said to Cerie, “I assume you are Aquileian due to your uniform.”
“I am,” Cerie said in Aquileian. “And you are Feathisian due to your accent.”
Bronzetail nodded.
Edvald plucked at the keys while peering inside the top of the piano. He reached in with is other claw and poked around, tapping the keys awkwardly. Satisfied, he closed the top and sat on his haunches with a flicking tail.
“I don’t understand why the Changelings had a Minotuar-style piano,” Edvald groused in Herzlander. He splayed out his four-taloned claws. “They have hooves.”
“They don’t have to,” Elias commented, “and I suppose magic helps.”
Edvald looked back over a wing. “Do you play, Field Marshal?”
“Blessed Boreas, no!” Elias squawked with laughter. “My tutor nearly tore his wings out.”
“My father caned me when I attempted to quit,” Edvald replied. “Insisted I needed to be cultured.”
“You’re from Katerin,” Katherine said teasingly. “You’ll never be cultured.”
“That did not stop my father from trying.”
Elias reassessed Edvald. “You’re nobility?”
“Only if you count the sixth son of a baron with only swampland to his name,” Edvald said dryly. He tapped on a few keys, shifting his claws around to play the misaligned piano. “Communism sounds like an appealing prospect at that point.”
“More noble blood than I,” Bronzetail answered. “My parents are merchants.”
Katherine and Cerie leaned on the table. “Huh,” Cerie said. “Thought all the Reichsarmee officers are noble.”
“That’s how the first revolution started,” Benito pointed out. “Mudbeak may crow about privilege, but the majority of our officers are made from merit. Including him.”
“Do you count?” Katherine asked the dog.
Benito opened his coat and showed off several medals on the interior. Flurry wasn’t familiar with any of them, but recognized gold and precious jewels in the top row. He closed his jacket with a snort. “I earned my rank; joined the Barkginian Guard at eighteen, like my father.”
“Sounds like nepotism,” Cerie commented.
“The dogs of Bronzehill overwhelmingly serve in the Reichsarmee,” Benito said proudly. “There were times in history the Grovers had to beg us to tend to our lands first. There is no nepotism if we are simply the best.”
Elias tapped a talon on the table in a signal to change the subject.
“So,” Flurry refocused to Henrik, “what’s the Griffenheim Palace like?”
“D-domes, a lot of high ceilings and artwork.” No longer pretending to be Grover, his stutter returned. “It’s b-been built up over the centuries. Kitchen is below ground; guest quarters have their own spire to s-see the city. I h-have a cloud bed.”
It was only through practice that Flurry suppressed her gasp of utter jealousy.
“Going to the military academy was overwhelming,” Edvald said from the piano. “Spent my youth flying about a glorified swamp, no offense to Katerin.”
“We like it that way,” Katherine pouted. She looked to Henrik with a friendlier expression. “You don’t mind being Grover’s lackey?”
“Could say the same about you and the Princess,” Elias said down to her.
“I’m her friend and her lackey,” Katherine scoffed. “I love it.”
“If a griffon isn’t adopted, they usually end up in the Reichsarmee,” Henrik shrugged. Flurry noted he did not stutter when speaking to Katherine. “I’m celebrating my birthday today.”
“You have the same birthday as Grover? You could be twins.”
“No,” Henrik laughed. “I don’t know my birthday and it’s easier to celebrate it on the same day.” The alicorn stood up and backed away from the table, seeing Edvald and Elias talking with Cerie. She returned to the bar and Sunset replaced her water.
“Making sure no fights break out, Princess?” Sunset asked.
“I just want everyone to get along for one night,” Flurry returned.
Yona eventually challenged Ocellus to take her form and have a smashing contest. Sandbar, Gallus, Arex, and the two yaks descended into the basement, most slightly stumbling. Flurry observed them, but Ocellus was finally smiling and Arex nodded to the alicorn at the bar. Sound of crashed barrels and broken glass echoed up from the basement.
Sunset let dirty mugs gather on the floor. “I take it we’re trashing this place, Princess.”
“I command it,” Flurry ordered. She ventured back to the table, recognizing Jacques’ waving wings and wide smirk as a sign of trouble. She levitated a chair over and shoved herself between Duskcrest and the Aquileian.
“First!” Jacques slurred. “Come on, all of us have a story!”
“I’m not talking about it,” Dusty nickered. “Princess, make him stop.”
Flurry’s horn glowed and she fired a small bolt of lightning into Jacques’ side. He twitched, but shook his claw at her. “I am too drunk now. It is too late for that. Firsts!”
“First what?” Flurry asked regretfully.
“First kill,” Duskcrest explained. “Trade war stories.”
“Yes!” Jacques slapped the table.
“You first, then,” Flurry challenged. “Or are you too drunk to remember?”
“One of my mail bombs, I assume,” Jacques waved his wings. “Didn’t always check where I sent them, or if they were even bombs. Some griffon may have gotten a box of nails.”
“You don’t care at all that you killed innocent people for some worthless cause?” Benito scoffed. Elias shifted his chair around to listen.
“What gives a cause worth?” Jacques slurred with a philosophical talon wiggle. “Yours then?”
Bentio tapped the hilt of his saber, then rolled his eyes. “Some young cub during the revolution.”
“You are being modest.”
“It was an easy shift in the palace,” Benito elaborated with a resigned growl. “Side hall to the Kaiser’s chambers. The rioting outside turned into a rebellion, but the idiots forgot to tell the dogs. Reichsarmee burst in shooting at us. Ended up holding a corner until I ran out of ammo, then Eros shouted for help and I went to the chambers and led the Archon down through the escape tunnels while he carried young Grover.”
“You helped Grover V escape?” Tempest asked incredulously. “That’s the worst version I’ve ever heard.”
“Have you heard a lot of them?” Benito huffed. “Dogs do not boast. Your turn, Storm King’s Right Hoof.”
“Kludgetown,” Tempest answered easily. “Some boastful griffon idiot tried to sell me cheap. Didn’t think a gangly filly with a broken horn was much of a threat until the lightning bolt caught him in the balls.”
“So,” Jadis snorted, “nearly got sold into slavery then turned tail to a slaver?”
“I was stupid and desperate and I don’t deserve to be here,” Tempest snapped to her. “Is that what you want to hear?”
“You’re among assholes,” Duskcrest tapped his beer to the unicorn’s on the table. “Bodyguard for a merchant. Dad took me along on a raid. It was a good headshot.”
“You regret it?”
“Nope,” Duskcrest quipped. “I don’t regret any of them.”
Rainbow nudged Gilda. “How about you? Got a fun one?”
“I wish.” Gilda clacked her beak. “Some Wingbardian sergeant leaning out of a hatch in his tank. Didn’t expect a Griffonstone rifle to shoot straight, I guess.”
“At least it was defending your home?” Jadis suggested. “Same story. Northern front and a long rifle during the Great War.”
“What about you, Z?” Rainbow asked Zecora. The zebra took a long sip of her mug of wine in response. The table shifted to look at her.
Zecora rolled her eyes and tapped a bangled hoof on the table after setting the mug down. “Zebrica.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Okay,” Rainbow drawled the word out. “Where in Zebrica?”
“When one only gives the continent, that’s usually a sign to stop asking,” Rarity advised drolly.
“My family set me on a path I chose to hate,” Zecora sang in a lilt. “And so I decided to choose my fate. I set down a dark path, made a choice in wrath, then fled to avoid the aftermath.”
“Where’d you learn armored maneuvers?” Tempest asked. She shook her head. “Never mind, I’m sure you won’t tell us. I can’t even place your accent.”
“The rhyming helps,” Zecora winked. “I do not regret my first kill; that is all I shall say with my own will.”
“Good enough,” Duskcrest shrugged.
“Sounds like you were an evil enchantress,” Rainbow hiccupped.
Zecora hid her grin behind her mug, but waggled her pierced ears.
“Before the war in a life I left behind,” Duty Price puffed a smoke ring. “If Zecora can be vague, so can I.”
“This is grisly,” Rarity coughed into a hoof.
“How about you, fair Field Marshal?” Jacques suggested in Aquileian.
Elias Bronzetail flapped his cap down onto the table and smoothed his speckled head feathers back with a claw. “Very well,” he returned in Equestrian. “Strawberry front during Duchess Gabriela’s war. Ordered a shot into a rebel tank hiding in an overgrown vineyard. Blasted right though it.”
Benito frowned. “You weren’t on the Feathisian front?”
“No,” Elias said with clear relief, “and thank the Gods for that. Gerlach chased Gabriela’s tail into that war. I hope he realizes how little that slattern is worth one day.”
“Couldn’t take fighting your countrygriffs?” Duskcrest chuckled.
“Not while they fought for Gabriela,” Elias answered sullenly.
“Bronzehill surrendered quickly,” Benito said with a lopsided smirk. “Dogs fought dogs, but we had the Kaiser at our backs and Ignatius was a traitor to our Reich."
“I cannot imagine a crystal pony fighting against the heir to Amore,” Jadis added. “What madness possessed you to raise your paws against the descendant of the one that liberated you?”
“I did no such thing,” Benito growled. “Ignatius is old and grieved Grover V’s passing deeply, as did all dogs. Gabriela whispered poison into his ears. They are lucky they did not all hang.” He looked up at the ceiling with a sigh, then tilted his head in confusion.
Flurry followed his stare to the rafters. Murky, Amoxtli, and Nightshade stared down at them with empty bottles stacked along the wooden beams. The older sister waved a wing in lazy greeting.
“I suppose you have a story?” Benito questioned.
“New Mareland Expeditionary!” Nightshade and Murky slapped their wings together from opposite rafters, speaking in unison. “First into the fray, and last to leave!”
“Slit the throat of the overseer of the plantation,” Amoxtli added quietly. “She took a long time to die.” Her fangs glittered from the wall lamps in her cold smile.
Jacques craned his neck to the bar. “Sunset Shimmer! Who was your first?”
“I don’t remember!” the unicorn whipped back.
“Bah!” the Aquileian scoffed. “This old dog remembers!”
“One of the Kaiser’s soldiers,” Sunset reluctantly admitted while grabbing a few bottles in her magic. “It’s not that interesting.” The bottle she was levitating over to the table froze and she clamped her muzzle shut. Flurry recognized her glassy-eyed stare. Looks like she’s been sneaking a few as well.
“Where did you fight the Griffonian Reich?” Dusty asked. “You join up with some mercenary company?”
Sunset licked her lips. “International volunteers,” she explained slowly.
“You fought with the Riverlanders in Wingbardy?” Benito barked in laughter. “How droll.”
“Nah,” Rainbow waved her wing. “She was with us.” The pegasus raised a drunken eyebrow. “You kill one of the Kaiser’s birds? Where?”
Sunset shrugged and vanished behind the bar. Her fiery tail bobbed above the countertop while she rummaged for something. She did not resurface.
Rainbow shook her head. “Nah, you don’t get to be all mysterious about this one, Shimmy.”
Jacques snapped his talons and burst out laughing. “Skynavia! Oh, Little Sunset was a revolutionary!”
Elias shook his head in embarrassment. “Those International Brigades were a joke. They spent more time freezing in the north than shooting at us.”
“Fireballs were popular,” Sunset defended in a muffled voice. She stuck her head up from behind the bar with narrowed eyes. “I was young and stupid.”
“Wasn’t that long ago,” Elias answered with smirking eyes. Sunset puffed her cheeks and lobbed an empty bottle at the Field Marshal. He ducked easily and it shattered against the wall.
“Glad to know you were too busy being a dirty commie to fight for Equestria,” Dusty chortled.
Flurry opened her mouth. “I don’t-”
“We know,” half the table said to her. She closed her muzzle and her pink fur flushed a touch pinker. Guess I need to stop saying that.
“Princess,” Rainbow rasped. She flailed her metal wing vaguely in the alicorn’s direction. “What about your story? You got a great one.”
“Because you’re in it?” Flurry guessed.
“Of course!”
“Then you can tell it.”
“Again?” Rarity sighed.
The pegasus twisted back to the unicorn. “You wanna talk about the time you were possessed by a book?” Rainbow nickered. “That definitely counts as a first.”
Rarity downed her wine with a unladylike chug. She turned a flat muzzle to Rainbow. “Sure. Then you talk about the time you faked a wing injury to read Daring Do.”
“Oh,” Rainbow snorted, “it’s on.”
Flurry pressed her wings tight against her uniform and slid out from the table. Piano keys sounded more regularly as Edvald practiced. Katherine and Henrik chatted at the end of the table behind him, apparently swapping ‘peasant stories’ about nudity and growing up poor in the Griffonian Reich.
Cerie sat with the others, not telling her story but absorbing ‘happier’ ones. Rainbow, as prideful as she was, spared no expense at embellishing her failed heist of a book from a hospital. Rarity laid blame heavily on Spike for her possession, but acknowledged it was because he wasn't here to defend himself. She jabbed Rainbow when the mare claimed not to be able to tell she had been possessed by a spell during the incident.
Edvald finally broke into a proper waltz, and the smashing from the basement stopped. The students and the changelings returned, smelling of spilled alcohol but laughing. “I take it the basement’s trashed, Corporal Sandbar?” Sunset shouted to him.
Sandbar blushed; his fetlocks were sopping wet with old wine. “Sorry, Colonel!”
“It’ll be Archmage in a few days!” Sunset retorted with a mild smile.
The bar quieted as Edvald began playing faster. Flurry did not recognize the song, but it had several distinct movements. He missed a few notes as he sped up, claws skipping over a piano meant for a minotaur or magic. But it was hard to tell and he finished with a wild flourish moving from major to minor keys. The griffon’s wings flared in celebration.
“Well done!” Jacques approved. Ponies pounded on the table and made the deluge of empty bottles and mugs rattle. Griffons clapped. Katherine stood up with only a slight swaying. She leaned a wing on Henrik more for show than stability.
“Do you know the Harvest Ball?” Katherine asked her fellow Katerin griffon. Edvald clacked his beak in a dismissive gesture. “No fancy dancing!” Henrik braced an arm and Katherine locked her elbow to his, side-by-side.
“Wait!” Duscrest crowed. “Clear the table. As a Nova Griffonian, I am obligated to show you how to dance, Herzlander!”
“As an Aquileian,” Cerie countered, “I am obligated to dance better than all of you!”
“You wish!” Gilda scoffed.
Flurry’s horn glowed, then she snuffed it out as the mostly drunk crowd shoved the tables and chairs to the front window, haphazardly stacking everything in a large pile that screamed ‘fire hazard’ if anyone cared about regulations. Spilled alcohol soaked the wooden floor.
We’re all gonna die in here and it won’t even be a conspiracy, Flurry mused from the bar. Sunset leaned her forelegs atop the counter and watched beside the Princess.
Gilda and Gallus paired, or rather, they teamed up to compete with Katherine and Henrik. Duskcrest spun a drunken Dusty Mark to the floor with a whinny, then caught her with an outstretched wing. The unicorn balanced herself on her hind legs and offered a forehoof. “You know how to tango?”
“I’m full of surprises,” Virgil answered huskily. “Can you do the Nova Griffonian tango, my little archaeologist?” Dusty blushed and her tail twisted around a hind leg, but she adjusted her stance.
Murky and Amoxtli paired up, facing each other with outstretched wings. “You know some awesome tribal dance?”
“Of course,” Amoxtli deadpanned, “but we need a dozen drums and a sacrifice. I can waltz, moth brain.” Their leathery wingtips touched.
“Good!” Murky declared, “because I can’t. Sis was the dancer.”
Amoxtli glanced at Nightshade, then realized Murky was referring to his other sister Echo. Her ears pinned and she began stepping slowly, whispering to Murky the movements.
Jadis and Price sidled together as earth ponies. Her coat was glittering around her cheeks in a drunken blush, but Price’s thick brown mustache hid his own blush if he had one. He slapped his booney hat back on before taking to the floor and stepping in time with the crystal pony, favoring her bad leg.
Elias approached Cerie. He bowed with extended wings. “Lady Cerie, do you require a partner?”
“Yes,” Cerie blushed. “I’m just a cadet, Field Marshal.”
“As a proud Feathisian, I am obligated to express regional pride by allying with Aquileia to prove these Herzlanders inferior,” Bronzetail declared seriously. “My wife is absent on another continent, and I suspect she will not begrudge me a dance.”
Cerie processed the statement then held out her claw. Elias took it gently and stood across from her. Flurry watched her friend smile sadly as the older griffon walked her through a few steps. Wonder if her father ever had the time to teach her.
Nightshade flapped up to the rafters, but Jacques snagged her tail mid-air. She twisted back with a screech. “I know the New Marelander Stomp,” he offered apologetically.
“You can’t do it without hooves,” Nightshade rolled her eyes.
“Well, you can laugh at my attempt if you wish.”
The bat pony landed on her hind legs and balanced with her wings. Jacques assisted her to the floor. Edvald began a slow tapping of keys, watching the dancers form up behind him.
Ocellus and Arex retreated to a table they had shoved back to the corner with a few beers. No one approached them, until Sandbar and Yona came over and spoke quietly. Flurry couldn’t hear over the patter of hooves, boots, claws, and paws, but Arex stood and shrugged off her purple uniform. She disappeared in green fire and a male yak appeared in her place. Yona studied him critically before nodding and beginning a sophisticated stomp that Arex copied flawlessly. She smiled and moved to the dance floor.
And finally, Ocellus followed Sandbar with nervously buzzing wings. The earth pony turned around in an empty space, having to twist his head to see her with his one eye. The changeling held out her hoof; even from the bar, Flurry could see it was shaking. Sandbar inhaled, then touched his hoof to Ocellus’ and began to guide her in a short jig.
Flurry exhaled and closed her eyes as the song began properly. Piano notes rang into the rafters. Muffles whispers of instructions blended with squawks and whickers of derision at missed steps. The alicorn opened her eyes to see Gallus chastising Gilda for missing steps, clearly enjoying teasing the taller griffoness for once.
Rarity and Rainbow stumbled against each other more than actually dance. Rarity was attempting a waltz while Rainbow was trying a jig, but it seemed they were too drunk to realize it or coordinate. The two Elements of Harmony weren’t in harmony, but they were still together and not bickering for once.
“You have her look,” Sunset said beside Flurry. The alicorn shifted her peripherals to see the amber unicorn against the bar.
“Twilight’s?”
“Your mother,” Sunset clarified with a lower voice. “She got that look whenever she matchmade a couple.” She rolled an empty bottle across the bar, then stopped it with her horn. “She liked doing that more than anything Celestia taught her.” Her voice slurred again.
She’s drunk. Flurry might have been the last sober person in the bar, though Jacques was most likely faking how drunk he was and Benito was checking the door and window. The lone dog had not looked for a dance partner, more preoccupied with any activity outside.
Henrik laughed, a deeper peal of laughter than Grover’s. Katherine laughed with him, high and energetic as they slapped their claws together and spun as the piano gained speed. Tempest Shadow and Zecora tapped their hooves to the beat along the edges of the makeshift ballroom, both still drinking. The broken-horned unicorn finally seemed comfortable.
“It’s not fair,” Sunset whispered again. “I worked so hard, then your mother just waltzed into Canterlot and got everything. And she didn’t even want it.”
“I’m sorry,” Flurry apologized.
“She said the same thing,” Sunset said listlessly. “I couldn’t even hate her properly.” The unicorn’s eyes stared past Flurry through the window, lost in some memory. “I tried calling her ‘auntie’ once. She said it was too personal. But she barely knew…” the unicorn trailed off.
It took Flurry a moment to follow the conversation. Auntie Celestia. “My mom told me she was happier in the village.”
“She told me that too and I yelled at her to go crawl back there,” Sunset laughed hollowly. “She met your father here, so I don’t think she would have made a different choice if she could. If there ever was love at first sight, it was your father and the Princess of Love. She wouldn’t have traded that for anything.”
Love is the death of duty, Flurry.
“I don’t know about that,” Flurry Heart sighed.
Before Sunset could respond, Benito sagged against the bar on the end. He grabbed a lukewarm beer, then set it down with a grimace. Flurry’s horn glowed and a layer of ice formed around the glass. He tugged his glove on with a long look at the alicorn, then took the beer again and popped the cap off.
“You’re welcome,” Flurry said for the dog.
“You know many spells, Princess,” Benito observed. “Your mother knew spells as well.”
“She was born a pegasus,” Flurry answered. “She wasn’t that skilled.”
“Spells that make ponies fall in love…” Benito left hanging.
Flurry rolled her eyes and hopped barstools until she was next to the dog. “Where’s Grover anyway? Back at the castle?”
“Why?”
“Well,” Flurry shrugged a boot, “it is my castle, and he’s a guest. It’s his birthday.”
“Indeed.” Benito raised the beer to his muzzle. “He prefers to be alone.”
“On his birthday?”
“Just so.”
Flurry chewed on the inside of her cheek. He offered to celebrate our birthdays together. But that was a long time ago. She shook her head and fumbled behind the bar for her cap. It only smelled a little bit like a brewery, so she stuffed it atop her mane without complaint.
“Would you like to dance?” Sunset offered the dog. “I can do bipedal. Even drunk.” She stood on her hind legs with her forelegs braced on her cutie marks under her pants.
“Impressive,” Benito remarked with surprise. “But no. Maya will kill me if she finds out I danced with another female.” He tugged a glove off his paw a quick bite of the leather, revealing a golden wedding ring and a long, pale scar.
“She give you that?” Sunset snorted.
“War wound,” Benito deflected. “No fancy magic healing.”
“We still get scars,” Sunset countered. “I’m drunk enough to argue the old magic versus technology debate, dog.”
Benito regarded his beer. “I believe I am as well. Shall we?”
Flurry nodded to them, spared one last look at mismatched dancing, then teleported out to the street. Apple Bloom and Babs tossed away beer bottles into an alley, shuffling to attention. The ponies guarding the street stomped three times at Flurry’s abrupt entrance. The piano and muffled shouts of laughter were audible in the street.
The alicorn brushed her sleeve back and checked her watch. “Break up the party at midnight.”
“General Limestone’s already on it,” Babs stated. “She’s coming down with some regulars to uh, confiscate all the remaining alcohol at midnight.”
“I don’t want a drunken brawl.”
“Nopony picks a fight with a Pie,” Apple Bloom laughed. “No matter how drunk. That’s like picking a fight with an Apple.”
“Never seen General Limestone drunk,” Babs added. “Think she likes breaking up fun.”
Flurry Heart nodded. “As you were, everypony. Try to sober up in the next few days.”
“As the Princesh commands,” Babs stamped her hoof.
Flurry looked up the road to Canterlot Castle, still lit up despite the energy conservation. Many of the windows were dark, boarded up as the castle was gutted, and several of the rooftops were bare marble as the obsidian was chipped away from Chrysalis’ remodeling. It was ugly and misshapen now, no longer reflecting Celestia’s reign or Chrysalis’ tyranny.
Twilight’s old tower still stuck out on the east wing. Lights shone around it, highlighting flying patrols. It was too far away to make out, but Flurry was certain light still shone through the balcony window on the tallest part of the spire. Twilight’s suite resembled the flame atop a candle from the outside, meant to reflect the spark of knowledge or status as Celestia’s student. The bulb had been defaced with black obsidian instead of the previous gold, but the shape remained.
First Luna’s tower and now Twilight’s. I’ve never even been up there before. Flurry Heart hummed and vanished with a crack of magic.