//------------------------------// // I. Mt. Kali'gryph, Kingdom of Gryphonia. July, 1251. // Story: Equestria: Total War // by emkajii //------------------------------// I. Mt. Kali'gryph, Kingdom of Gryphonia. July, 1251 The King spoke, his voice raspy. "Raspy" didn't do it justice, really. She could hardly believe he was alive when he spoke. Listening to his voice, there couldn't have been more than a cup of water in his entire body. But still he breathed, still he commanded, and still he spoke: The Earth is the Dualty of Harmony and Discord. Harmony is a great banyan; the banyan will die, and fall, and rot. Discord is an empty field; the field will sprout, and grow, and flourish. All that is harmonic will be discordant. All that is discordant will be harmonic. So was the Earth made. So is the Earth preserved. So will the Earth be sustained. The dust danced in the shafts of light cast by the narrow windows. The young gryphon looked around. She had been here before, of course, but it was always impressive in its vastness. And the chamber was empty, save a few assorted artworks, the throne, and the dust. Always the dust. "What is that from, Twistbeak?" The gryphon king followed a mote of dust with his eye, then returned his gaze to the scroll in his hands. "Those lines. Surely you've heard them." Twistbeak ran her talons through her crest. The king looked up sharply. "Well, Twistbeak? What is that from?" "The Beginnings, sir?" she ventured. Seeing no response, she opened her beak to guess again, but the king resumed speaking. "Yes. The Beginnings. Beautiful, isn't it? All of the Earth was once so. The Dualty. Harmony and discord. The sun rises. The moon sets. The trees grow. Eggs hatch. All driven by the intricate interplay of chaos and order. That's how it works, isn't that right, Twistbeak?" He set the scroll down, by his leg. Twistbeak shifted her weight, and glanced around the room. Her pinfeathers were beginning to itch. She hated when the king made him guess where he was headed. He continued. "Yes, of course it is. But not...not everywhere, is it, Twistbeak? How do they do things to the south?" So that was why she was brought in. Her fact-finding mission. "Ahem. Yes, sir. Er, that is, no, sir. That is not the case in Equestria, sir. There is no Dualty there. There is no discord, there, sir, as a direct result of the ancient war between the Avatar of Discord and the remnants of the alicorns, in which the Elements of Harmony were used to--" "--Twistbeak!" the king spat, "I didn't ask you for history. Bunch of rubbish and myth, that stuff. If a king spent his time reading hatchery tales, we'd all declare war on the Flowerpot Fairies, and fix our budgets by spinning feathers into gold! Now!" He paused, then continued, gently. "How do they do things in Equestria?" The shafts of light dimmed as a cloud drifted in front of the sun. "As I said, sir--" she sputtered, "there is no discord in Equestria, so there is no Dualty, so life does not proceed normally. The Equestrian Queen herself raises the sun and moon. Her minions grow the plants, and raise the animals, and cull the excess, and move the clouds, and so on." "Everywhere in Equestria, Twistbeak?" The king raised an eyebrow. "Yes, sir. Everywhere." There was a pause. Two seconds. Five seconds. Twistbeak coughed. Seven seconds. She glanced at a particularly fine portrait on the wall, then back at the king. "...ev-er-y-where in Equestria, Twistbeak?" "...y...yes sir. Everywhere." "Have you been to the Everfree Forest, Twistbeak?" The king leaned forward in his throne, and rested his elbows on his knees, and his head in his hands. A chummy posture. A dangerous posture. "Did you go there, too?" Twistbeak swallowed. "...I...I have...not, sir. I did not. It's...dangerous." The king smiled. "And why is it dangerous, Twistbeak?" "The ponies say...it's unnatural." "Heh. Heheh." The king chuckled. Twistbeak smiled uneasily. "Heh heh heh. Unnatural. They call it unnatural. Heh heh heh. Isn't that funny, Twistbeak?" "Er...yes! Yes, sir, it is. Very funny." Twistbeak smiled painfully, her eyes darting around the room, looking for any sort of clue as to what was happening. "Yes, Twistbeak, it is. Very funny. And tell me." The king's eyes narrowed. His voice lowered. At the entrance to the chamber, the guards suddenly crossed their pikes. "Why, Twistbeak. Why is that funny." Twistbeak just stared. She didn't understand. She was told to find out about the ponies. Why was the king fixated on some little patch of trees the ponies never even went to? She glanced behind her shoulder. "No, Twistbeak. Answer me. Not the guards. Why. Is. That. Funny." "I...I. I don't know, sir. I don't know why that's funny." The king stood up. Twistbeak froze dead still. Her pupils narrowed to a dot. Her feathers were pulled flush with her skin. The king took a few steps forward. He was slow. Deliberate. Controlled. He was right in front of her, face to face. She could feel her heartbeat crashing through her body--in her chest, her ears, she could practically see it in her eyes. Suddenly, she was crumpled on the cold stone floor, her face stinging, her ears ringing. The king opened and closed his right hand tentatively. He crouched next to her. She slammed her eyes shut. He whispered, almost affectionately. "Heh. You've got a hard skull, Twistbeak. That stung more than I expected. You're quite fortunate. Few sting a king and survive to brag about it." The king stood, and returned to his throne. At the entrace to the room, the guards returned their pikes to vertical. Twistbeak picked herself up off the floor, and began rearranging her robes. The king raised his palm, and spoke. Loudly--louder than he needed to. "No, Twistbeak, do not concern yourself with that now. You have bigger problems than appearances. I sent you to Equestria to learn about how their society operates. You have told me nothing I did not know, and despite living there on my gold for a year, you know quite a bit less than I did when you began. It is funny, Twistbeak, that the ponies call the Everfree Forest unnatural because it is the only natural place in their damned kingdom. "For whatever reason, some time ago the Queen refused to allow ponies entrance to the area surrounding a ruined castle, and she withdrew her protection from it. With neither harmony nor discord, the area returned to its primal state, those forces were reborn, and now it is the only place in Equestria that acts like the rest of the Earth. What does that tell you, Twistbeak?--No, please don't answer that question, you've depressed me enough today with how little my investment bought. That tells you--or, in your case, should tell you--that Equestria need not be so unnatural. Remove the Queen, remove Order, and the whole place would return to normality within a generation." Twistbeak fought back a tear. She was better than this, she knew it. She had lived in Equestria for years. She had written pages and pages on Equestrian culture. She knew more than anyone in Gryphonia about the kingdom. She had to try something. A long shot, even. She had lost so much face. She had to recover it. It was time to roll the dice. She breathed in sharply. Now. "Sir!" Her voice pierced the room. It was almost a squawk. The king drew back a bit, eyebrow raised again. A smile crept across his beak. "What's this? Something else? Some new and exciting way of invalidating my prior faith in you?" "No, sir. It isn't just the Queen, sir, not any more. Her sister has returned. Luna is back." "How nice! I shall send a letter of congratulations. Anything else? Sports scores, perhaps? I have quite a bet on the Polo Finals!" He spoke so warmly, her heart was lifted for a moment, before it hit her. Sarcasm, then. That was new. Still, she was in too deeply. She had to keep going. "Since Luna is back, sir, the night is again at her disposal. And she hasn't held that responsibility for a thousand years." "Yes, yes, I assumed she wasn't exercising her regal duties while imprisoned in the sky. Are you going anywhere with--" "--and because of that, their night-time defenses are likely to be weak now. When the Queen is asleep, and when Luna is fixated on trying to carry out her duties, how much attention do you think they'll be paying to their northern borders?" Twistbeak talked excitedly, trying to get in as much as she could as fast as she could. "And with the harvest coming up in a few months, the townsfolk will have returned to their farms. And most ponies will be travelling to the south; that's where the fair will be in the fall. It would take ages to call a muster. We could have an army of lions on their borders before Canterlot knew we had raised it. We could be in Fillydelphia before they had even begun raising an army . Or we could take Manehattan, that would shut down their foreign trade. We could--" She stopped, looking for a reaction. Had she gone too far? The king just sat, silent, stonefaced. She swallowed again, and opened her mouth to continue, but the king shook his head. After a few seconds more, he spoke. Slowly, enunciating every word. "Twistbeak, Equestria is unnatural. It is profane. Its existence spits in the face of the Dualty. It is a cancer, Twistbeak, and a cancer that grows every year. Every year I write the Queen demanding her settlers stop encroaching on ancestral Gryphon territory. Every year she informs me that those lands were 'unclaimed' and therefore she will not evict the settlers. Every year more distraught gryphons write me saying that the lands of our fathers have fallen dead and still, doing nothing unless a--a pony bids it happen! "I sent you back to Equestria to find out more about the nature of this profanity. You have failed to do that, and failed completely. But you have, perhaps, done me a greater service. You have given me hope that the cancer might be excised entirely. " Twistbeak felt her heart open. She nodded, more emphatically than she needed to. Perhaps she was redeemed. The king thought for a second, then shouted to a guard. "Find Malachi. Tell him to write another letter to the Equestrian Queen demanding the offending settlements be abandoned. Request that the Zebra, Buffalo, and Antelope ambassadors grant an audience when possible. But wait! First summon the Marshals. Quickly, as quickly as you can. Tell them we have much to discuss." He looked down to the young gryphon in front of him. He looked kind. Grandfatherly. "Twistbeak. Do not speak a word to anyone of what you have said in here. When you exit this room, do not go to the main entrance. Turn to the left, and go down the long staircase. When the guard stops you, tell him this: 'my talons need sharpening.' Say those words exactly and nothing else. He will take you to a part of the palace you have not yet been, and there you will begin the next step of your career. Go now. The time for rest is over. We must all move quickly. You have pushed a pebble down the mountainside, Twistbeak, and you must be ready when it is time to ride the avalanche." Twistbeak bowed, knocking her forehead to the floor. Then she stood, walked backwards ten steps, then turned and walked out of the chamber, straightening her robes as she went. She burst into a grin. She was elated. She couldn't remember having ever felt so low, or so high. And in the same hour! The chamber's sunbeams had never seemed brighter. The dust sparkled magnificently. As she passed the lion guards, one of them snickered, swishing his tail. "Hey Gilda. Nice skull. Real thick." Twistbeak turned sharply. "Stuff it, creep." All her former subservience, all her recent giddiness, were instantly replaced with her customary attitude. The guard took an involuntary step backwards. "S...sorry Gil-." "-No. You call me Twistbeak. I'm a gryphon. I have audiences with the king. You're a lion. You wear a bucket on your head. So it's Twistbeak. Got it?" She stepped closer, putting her face right in his. It was so much nicer to be on this end of the intimidation. "Got. It?" He gulped. "Yes, Twistbeak." She smirked, raised her head high, then turned and walked down the left hallway towards the staircase. She paused, and glanced at her hand. Huh. How about that. Her talons did need sharpening.