//------------------------------// // Part Ninety-Nine // Story: The Princess and the Kaiser // by UnknownError //------------------------------// Thunder rattled the window frame. Flurry Heart watched large droplets of rain splatter against the glass. There were only a few at first, but more fell after each heavy blink of her cold eyes. Eventually, she left her eyes closed and listened, feathers swaying by her sides. Her wings drifted across the floor. “P-princess?” Pyrite said aloud. The colt’s voice stuttered. “We are ready to depart.” Her left wing lifted and acknowledged the words, but she did not turn around. Now will be the time to rebuild, Flurry rehearsed in her head. It is now a time to heal what the Hegemony has done. But the war is not over…I know I will never live up to my aunt’s example- The radio crackled. Flurry opened her eyes with a snort. She twisted her neck to look to the dresser. The alicorn stood in Celestia’s bedroom, cleared out by the Changelings to function as Chrysalis’ guest quarters. Most of the sheets, furniture, and decorations had been appropriated elsewhere. Flurry was left with a mattress that rested on the floor. The specially carved bedframe had holes and the trident crown embossed upon burnished-black wood; it had been used as firewood somewhere in the city. There was a single dresser with empty drawers, a bathroom with one bar of soap and one towel, and a folding table stacked with papers beside a lonely stool. Flurry Heart had been encouraged to move out of her office, in the sense that the Lord Regent moved all her things out of her appropriated closet while she was elsewhere. After she teleported them back, Spike had moved them again the next day. He waited for her in Celestia’s room. The alicorn slept there that night, more uncomfortable on a padded mattress than she had been on her cot. Her ears had flicked as the guards changed shifts on the balcony and beyond the door, listening to whispered reports and feeling the intent in their holstered pistols and slung rifles. All of them were willing to kill for their Princess. The rain grew heavier; the wind blew it against the balcony. Dark clouds drifted around Mount Canterhorn, disgorging a deluge into the valleys below. The roads in the Everfree would turn to mud, and the supply lines would slow to a crawl. It was already happening. As predicted, the shield over the north disrupted the weather patterns. Equus’ spring would be stormy over the heart of Equestria. There were enough pegasi to keep Canterlot clear, but Flurry forbid them via Rainbow Dash. The rain was meant to keep the crowds inside. Besides, I was named after a storm. The alicorn took a deep breath and stared out through the balcony windows. Whinnies still echoed from the streets beyond the castle. Canterlot Castle had been blockaded by trucks and half-tracks to prevent a herd from forming, and a knight patrol sluggishly flew by in the rainstorm, searching for uninvited pegasi. Standing orders were to shoot on sight, and mage unicorns patrolled the outer grounds with standard Reichsarmee soldiers; a gesture of cooperation and test for future efforts. Herds were gathered around radios all across Equus and Griffonia. “The Principality of Equestria stands as one of the oldest nations in the world.” Spike’s voice rang out from the radio atop the dresser. There had been an introduction that Flurry Heart had tuned out, a summation of the state of Equestria to the millions listening. In Griffonia, there was doubtlessly some canned announcement for the Griffonian Reich. Pyrite shuffled his crystal hooves. The crystal mare beside him had more restraint. Neither were willing to tell the Princess she was going to be late to her own coronation. Flurry stood naked, staring at the pressed uniform affixed to the wooden stand across from the balcony. Her purple jacket and pants were smooth, made of the best cuts of Rarity’s material. The pleated flank skirt sat high, and her boots ran up to the knee. It was an improvement over her old uniform by every measure. Gold thread and buttons ran up the high white collar, and the purple cap embossed with the Imperial Snowflake sat proudly behind her horn. “For a thousand years, an alicorn has always sat upon the throne of Equestria, a guiding light in the darkness. For the first time in a millennium, the throne is empty.” The dragon’s voice sounded even more powerful over the radio, reverberating with a deep bass that echoed like the thunder swirling in the sky. Flurry Heart stared at the uniform. It was very pretty, promising authority and power with a hint of protective kindness underneath. Rarity might hate me, but she poured her heart into this. The alicorn scuffed a chipped hoof on the floor while she thought. “Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship and Princess of Equestria, lies abed. Until she recovers and awakens, it falls to us, those that know her best, to judge her will. We stand in the hall she was crowned in, gathered here today to crown another.” It was very pretty. And Flurry Heart was many things. Beautiful was not one of them. She was long legs and large wings on a lean barrel attached to a narrow muzzle. If not for her coloring and eyes, her parentage would be in doubt. She turned to the armor laying in its crate in the corner of the bedroom. Obsidian and his team had repaired and cleaned away the ash and blood, filling in the chips large enough to be true damage to the crystal. “Go to the hall,” Flurry ordered over her shoulder to the guards. “I’ll arrive on my own.” “P-princess,” Pyrite stuttered. “As you command,” the mare knelt. She gave the younger stallion a cold look, and the colt quailed and followed her out. The hallway fell silent as the guards departed without her. Flurry Heart’s horn glowed, and she levitated her black jumpsuit over to her, sliding long, gangly legs into the padding and zipping it up with a flash. “Flurry Heart is the daughter of Mi Amore Cadenza, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, who was named in this hall as the Princess of Love decades ago. She is the daughter of Prince Shining Armor and niece to Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is the only acknowledged born alicorn in the history of the world.” The pieces of her crystal armor swirled around her, encased in her golden aura. She worked smoothly now, stamping the metal plates and adjusting them without truly thinking about it. She raised one hoof at a time for the heavy greaves. “The shield over the north is a monument to her dedication, magic, and willpower. It is my belief that Twilight Sparkle would see her niece rule beside her. I, Spike Sparkle, brother of the Element of Magic, name Flurry Heart as the rightful heir to the Principality of Equestria.” Other voices stepped up to microphones. “I, the Element of Loyalty, name Flurry Heart heir to Equestria.” The alicorn slid the barrel plate down and snapped the flank armor into position. It was quick, practiced work now, and crystal that an earth pony would struggle to wear sat high on her lean body. “I, the Element of Generosity, name Flurry Heart heir to Equestria.” The metal plates and overlaid purple crystal had been polished, but the chips and long divots from shrapnel and bullets remained. She clipped the gorget into place under her neck, forcing her head up and forward. The armor and crystals for her wings went last, clicking into place as she weaved her feathers around the shards. “I, sister to the Element of Laughter, name Flurry Heart heir to Equestria.” The alicorn left her helmet upon the bed, but otherwise stood battle-ready in her scarred armor. Purple crystal and metal plates caught the glow from the wall lights; the crystal drank in the illumination. Fire-like patterns twisted over the chips and ran along the edges where crystal met metal joints. “I, sister to the Element of Honesty, name Flurry Heart heir to Equestria.” Flurry Heart exhaled, and vanished in a crack of lightning. She reappeared in a flash at the base of a long purple rug. The chandeliers above her hummed and surged with more light from the static charge in the air. The alicorn kept her wings folded, muzzle carved from stone beneath cold, icy eyes. The ponies to her right and the griffons to her left turned at the flash. The closest griffon, some Reichsarmee officer in a tall cap, raised a wing over his beak in a surprised flinch. Ponies blinked stars from their eyes. The hall did not know how to react. Banners of her fiery Crystal Heart swung in a magical wind while rain lashed the windows. The alicorn stood for a heartbeat, eyes sweeping the room. They moved downward at the scorch mark left on the edge of the rug. Flurry Heart had teleported to the end of the hall, where she was supposed to enter with an escort of guards. The hall was divided into two by the long rug. On one side, her subjects stood in long rows awaiting her entrance. On the other, the nobility and knights of the Griffonian Reich stood in attendance to watch. She did not look up to the camera crews on raised platforms in the corners of the hall, nor the photographers beside them. She registered the flashes in her peripheral vision, but more griffons and ponies attempted to change burned-out flash bulbs from her unexpected teleport. The crystal ponies at the double doors recovered first. They had been awaiting her arrival to march her down the room. A stallion stomped a hoof and his voice sang out over the crowd. “Behold! The born Princess! Born beneath the Crystal Heart in the Empire, scion of the Amore dynasty and the last family of Twilight Sparkle!” The other crystal ponies lining the rug took up the fervor. “Behold! The born Princess!” They turned on their tails to march forward with her, purple uniforms a shade lighter than the crystal armor. Several trotted ahead of her, eyes sweeping the rows of watchers for any trouble. All of them were armed. Flurry Heart stepped forward, long strides making up the distance quickly. Ahead of her, Spike stood before two hanging flags and a stand with a dozen microphones. Those without crystals had cords running off to the sides, sound equipment and cables running up the walls to the rafters, then out to the broadcasting tower. The swords of the ELF and the Imperial Snowflake swung before wide, tall windows. The storm outside ran the whole horizon; lightning flashed far off to the west, and the shallow, glittering glass crater of the Duskwood sparkled with each lightning strike. Rainwater filled it and finally washed away the ash. “The Miracle of the North!” Flurry Heart passed her lower officers and advisors, those who had met her only once or twice. They stood at attention nonetheless. There was not a fluffy dress or fine suit in sight; everypony had a uniform. “The Princess of Hope!” Her governors and their aides were in the center, the command staff and bureaucracy that would scatter to the winds once the coronation was done. Flurry kept her eyes forward, but noted Alesia, Caballeron, Kingfisher, and a herd of others around them that she did not know personally. Ponies and griffons that would carry her voice and will to the corners of her domain. “The Princess of Ponies!” They did not say her other names. And at the front of the hall before several standing microphones, Flurry Heart passed her war council, those that had followed her from Aquileia and Nova Griffonia. Those that watched her wander around with a bedsheet on Nightmare Night or attend meetings in sweatpants. Or those that she had come to herself to beg for their help. Her wings, half-extended by the armored wing joints, took the width of the rug. Even with the padding, her hoof steps pounded. The crystal ponies led her the length of the rug, then halted and swung around just before the steps to Spike. They faced her with stiff muzzles. Flurry paused for a moment to stare down at them. She was taller than all of them, tall enough to look over their heads easily in her armor. Her mane had been shaved down to stubble again for the coronation. If they were disappointed that the heir to Amore looked nothing like her, it was not obvious on their muzzles. They looked at her in awe. Spike waited up four steps. The dragon wore his full uniform, long purple overcoat and pressed navy pants. His cap was tucked under an arm, green head fin upright. Slit eyes did not seem surprised to see the alicorn in her armor. He smiled down at her, a tired, fanged-filled smile for the cameras. Flurry Heart took the steps two at a time. Her greaves rang through the hall. At the top, she faced the dragon, keeping her head straight but looking up into his eyes. Spike held out a claw to the side. Crystal Hoof trotted forward with a box atop a cushion on his back. The slim, gray, and nondescript crystal pony wore an ill-fitting purple uniform with the sleeves rolled up. He smiled at Flurry as he approached from the side, then knelt with the box balanced on his withers. One eye turned bright blue for a moment before fading back to a dull gray, the side of his muzzle that faced away from the cameras. Flurry smiled with closed lips. There were no changelings at the coronation…but there were a few muzzles and beaks near the front row that Flurry Heart had recognized around the ghetto in Weter. And a few near the doors, waiting for an infiltration attempt. Spike accepted the wooden box and opened it with a heavy claw. He stepped to the side again, tail swinging against the overcoat. Crystal Hoof stepped down to the other crystal ponies, vanishing into the line. Flurry Heart took a deep breath and turned around, head and horn held high. The cameras flashed from the back of the room. Many of the windows had been blocked or boarded, all except the windows directly behind her, and the marble columns had been stripped of their black accents. There were no flowers, no candles along the wall, no silk and linen hanging from the chandeliers. Flurry stood before a sea of uniforms, steel, and guns. Her crystal armor swirled from the flashes, patterns of flames skipping around the visible nicks and chips from the battle. She glanced to the side to see Spike lift up her crown. Obsidian had pressed six gems into the purple crystal band, evenly spaced. They were cut, just overlapping the purple frame and sticking out from above and below. Flurry knew the colors: pink, light blue, emerald, ruby, orange, and a bright purple. The purple matched her uniform, but it did not match the dark armor she now wore. Flurry Heart lowered her horn, eyes forward. The cameras stopped for a moment. With her head dipped, muzzle against the stiff metal gorget around her neck, she saw Rarity in the second row. The mare was one of the few in a dress, a bright, hopeful blue with curled mane and tail. She gazed up at the armored alicorn with complete devastation in her bright blue eyes. Flurry mouthed, “I’m sorry,” to the mare, but Rarity did not look away. It’s not about the uniform. Rainbow Dash stood a row ahead of Rarity with a grin. Her Wonderbolt dress uniform was smooth, as was the Imperial Snowflake clamped around her foreleg. Flurry Heart had not been born when Twilight Sparkle was made a Princess. There were few photographs. No recordings of her speech, only a reprint in newspapers. There had been a stained-glass window of it in the castle, but it had been long destroyed. Her mother had been declared a Princess in this hall even earlier, named before a herd of Equestria’s nobility. Flurry Heart had seen a grand total of one photograph of her mother's coronation, and several paintings. She smiled wider in the paintings than the actual photograph. Lavender Lace said she attended it, Flurry recalled. The mare’s neck had snapped cleanly. I wonder if the Duchess of Vanhoover knew the name of mom’s village. Probably not. Spike lowered the crown; he was the only one in the hall that could reach up and over the long point of her horn without flapping his wings or using magic. Flurry felt the cold crystal rest under her shaved mane; the extra crystals made it heavier, but not by much. One crystal touched the base of her horn, and Flurry knew Spike had put the purple crystal first and centermost. Spike breathed in and turned around, facing the crowd. His wings folded tight against the overcoat. “Flurry Heart!” he roared, “Princess of Equestria, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, and the Princess of Ponies!” Microphones and crystals hummed from the feedback, even though he stood several hooves away from the stand. The crowd stomped once, sounding like the thunder beyond the hall. Griffons pounded a fist to their chest or breastplate. Flurry noted the Reich side of the hall did not stomp. Grover VI stood in the front row beside several knights and Archon Proteus. Benito and his dogs lined the edges of the group, spaced out with sidearms in easy paw reach. They scanned the hall more than looked at her. Spike moved back, wings sweeping. Flurry Heart stepped forward; hooves suddenly heavy. She reached the stand slower than she thought she would. She did not need to lower her head to the microphones; they had been placed for Spike’s height. Cameras flashed again from the back. Flurry Heart opened her mouth, and every word of the practiced speech left her. She froze, icy eyes wide and staring across the hall, standing where her aunt and mother stood decades ago, trying to remember what they said or what they would say in this moment. Her eyes flicked to Grover, then back to the banner of her cutie mark hanging above the rug. The burning Crystal Heart hung before her, and two more behind her, beside the flags. It was not the mark of an Equestrian Princess. She had been born in the Empire, raised and reared in foreign territory; her mark was not on the Tree of Harmony. I do not belong here. Neither did I, Cadance whispered. Love is the death of duty, Flurry. “I wish I had words of comfort,” Flurry Heart began in her foreign accent, unlike anything an Equestrian should sound like. There was no comfort of softness in her voice beyond her natural high-pitch. “I wish I could tell you that things will be alright.” The microphones hummed, spreading her word and voice across two continents. “I claim this crown out of my duty to you, my subjects. A duty I was born with, and a duty I carry proudly upon my withers. My family accepted it, and so shall I.” Flurry swallowed. “The Diarchy of Equestria is restored. Until my aunt Twilight Sparkle recovers, her brother, Spike Sparkle, will serve as her regent and rule in her name. I can think of no better person to do so.” Spike did not react, standing to the edge of the platform. “I wish I could tell you that things will get easier now,” Flurry repeated, “but you have heard enough lies over the radio. I speak to you now from Canterlot, and there has been enough falsities from this city. The Changeling Hegemony has raped and plundered Equestria for years, beaten and battered us down in the name of their Queen Chrysalis. “But they have never broken Equestria. We are winning; we have driven them from the east. The Hegemony will fight for every scrap of land. They know what is coming. To those of you in the west, wherever or however you may be listening, fight with everything you have. "Chrysalis tortured my aunt because she could. She thinks she can be cruel enough to break our will. But she did not break Equestria. No matter how hard she tried, there were always ponies willing to continue the fight.” She paused for a moment. “If I fall before this war ends, I die knowing that Equestria will continue to fight until it wins. To those of you in the east and in the Empire, every strike of a hammer, every shell, every bullet made goes to freeing our home. The road ahead will be difficult, but it is a road I will walk with you." Flurry lifted her wings with a song of crystal. The blades between the feathers flexed with the sound of windchimes. “This is my only vow I shall make in this castle: I will fulfill my aunt’s final command. We will fight the Hegemony, and we will kill Chrysalis.” She looked over to Grover VI in the front row. “I stand here in this castle due to the bravery and sacrifice of my subjects, and to the Reichsarmee of the Griffonian Reich. Equestria and the Reich have been rivals long enough. We fight the Hegemony together.” The Griffonian side of the hall did not respond. “I claim this crown because it is my duty,” Flurry repeated. “I am your Princess. My life is yours, in victory and defeat. My ponies, and my ponies-in-all-but-name, do you accept my oath?” The front row before her stepped up to their microphones one at a time. “I, Frosty Jadis of the Crystal City, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The crystal pony stepped back with a limp, glittering blue cheeks above a purple jacket. “I, Duty Price of Trottingham, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The earth pony stepped back, hatless and his brown mane brushed into his mustache. “I, Rainbow Dash of Cloudsdale, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The pegasus flexed her metal wing, raspy voice clearer than ever before. “I, Dusty Mark of Whinnypeg, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The proud unicorn held her horn high, once an archaeologist, wife, and mother. Now a general. “I, Light Narrative of Baltimare, Tlatoani of the Tzinacatl, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The Thestral wore his gem in the eye socket, and his feathered, colorful outfit of the Tlatoani. He stood out in the crowd, as did all the bat ponies in attendance, almost all wearing their tribal regalia. Flurry flexed her leg, swirling scar hidden by armor. “I, Yona of Yakistown, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” Yona had to lean down to the microphone, and spoke clearly and carefully. The Yak’s white and purple uniform was snug against her thick fur. The few other Yaks in attendance nodded enthusiastically from the middle. “I, Virgil Duskcrest of Frosthill, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” Dusckrest wore his silver-plated revolvers under a suit that the alicorn assumed was stolen from someone, but he wore it well and proudly. The griffon had even combed his head feathers. For once, he looked like an officer before a bandit. “I, Cerie D’Artagnan of Pridea, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The young Aquileian did not stutter, blue cadet uniform buttoned to the neck and Imperial Snowflake proud on her elbow. “I, Katherine of Katerin, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The Herzlander ignored the other side of the room, staring up at Flurry and speaking slowly despite the heavy accent in Equestrian. The red griffoness’ fur and feathers clashed terribly with the bright purple uniform, but she liked it that way. Flurry Heart registered a flash of lightning behind her, and the rain hit the windows at an angle from a gust of wind. The sound faded after a moment. She exhaled, keeping her muzzle still. There was another microphone in front of Kaiser Grover VI. A cord ran up the wall to join the others. The griffon stepped up to it, sash jingling under a black, embroidered coat. He braced gloved claws against the stand casually, but his right wing bent and made a gesture. The alicorn resisted blinking as the other Griffonian nobles formed a small line behind their Kaiser. “I, Grover von Greifenstein, sixth of my name and Kaiser of the Griffonian Reich, acknowledge Flurry Heart as Diarch of Equestria beside Twilight Sparkle, and as the Princess of the Crystal Empire.” He spoke clear Equestrian in received pronunciation, sounding far more like a Canterlot noble than the alicorn speaking before him. He stepped back, stiff-winged and professional. He did not meet Flurry’s eyes. “I, Gerlach Weijermars, Grand Duke of Feathisia, acknowledge Flurry Heart as Diarch of Equestria, and as the Princess of the Crystal Empire.” The Grand Duke spoke with a heavy Feathisian droll, far worse than Bronzetail ever sounded. The Field Marshal was two rows back with his cap pressed under a wing. “I, Ignatius Bronzefur, Count of Bronzehill, acknowledge Flurry Heart as Diarch of Equestria, and as the Princess of the Crystal Empire.” The dog bent to the microphone, speaking halting, practiced Equestrian. He wrung his paws as he returned to the row, eyes looking to Grover. The Kaiser did not look to him. “I, Raison D’Etat, Countess of Vinovia, acknowledge Flurry Heart as Diarch of Equestria, and as the Princess of the Crystal Empire.” The unicorn shared a glance to the other side of the hall, then returned to her place in a flowing green dress. Flurry Heart saw less than a dozen ponies in the hundreds of Reich attendees, compared to at least two hundred of her griffons speckled through the other side. Sunset Shimmer trotted forward from the front row, uniform marred by the purple armband of the Imperial Snowflake on her leg. The Archmage held her horn high as she crossed to the center of the long rug. Flurry spotted her breathing rapidly, trying to hide it in her steps. The unicorn pitched her voice high and projected it through the hall. “I, Sunset Shimmer, former student of…” she steeled herself, “of Celestia, accept and affirm Flurry Heart as our Princess.” The unicorn bowed before the standing alicorn, and the herd behind her followed in a wave. Griffons knelt while ponies bowed with forelegs outstretched. The other side waited until Kaiser Grover VI inclined his head; the Reichstone's jewels caught the light and glittered. The griffons and dogs behind him copied their Kaiser’s gesture. Steel helmets clanked from the knights at the peripheries. Flurry unfolded her wings with a chime of crystals that reverberated through the hall. “Rise.” They obeyed. Sunset Shimmer rose in a purple, high-necked uniform with gray accents, the ELF and Empire merged. “With these oaths, three peoples and five tribes are bound to you, as they were once bound by the Concordat of the Three Tribes and your predecessors. Wherever you lead us,” Sunset dipped her horn, “you lead us as our Princess of Ponies.” Flurry Heart inhaled. “I lead Equestria to war.” The hall stomped once. Griffonian knights beat a gauntlet against their armor. “Long may she reign.” Then again. A roll of thunder echoed beyond the walls, and rain lashed the windows. “Long may she reign.” The last alicorn stood with raised wings as cameras flashed like lightning. “Long may she reign.”