“No no no… what you need to understand is, that went exactly as I intended,” Spitfire said while looking at Bucky with wide nearly unblinking eyes. Her glasses lay on the table in front of her and she was slouched over in her seat, completely unphased by everything that had happened.
“Intended?” Bucky asked incredulously, his only eyebrow raising slightly.
“I knew from a couple of sources that the high command were planning on giving me a savage beating if I challenged them on the floor. They’re all good friends with General Iron Sky, who is no longer in command. So… knowing about it in advance, I delivered the most emotionally charged knee-jerk reaction speech I could think of. I had a team of writers give me an outline and I winged a couple of parts. I went into this ready to take my beating because I know that what I am doing is right. I also knew that those motherplucking bastards wouldn’t be able to resist, they would have to follow through with their threat. So I kinda figured that it was worth taking a beating to make sure they are no longer in command. Only I didn’t get much of a beating, Ripple and Rising Star sorta saved me… which actually went against my plan. I wanted to be beaten up so I could put on a brave face and show the world how strong a mare can be. Except Ripple, a filly, she showed the whole world how strong a mare could be when she severed somepony’s spine after he got a lucky and punched her in the snoot. The murderous look in her eyes chilled my blood by the way… I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but she can be really intimidating,” Spitfire replied, blurting out everything on her mind in one long steady stream of verbosity.
“Ripple is my sweet loving little filly… I love her a great deal. As her father, I can only see her as my sweet precious harmless little thing,” Bucky said dismissively, taking in everything that Spitfire had revealed. “I will say one thing… my sweet little filly can become a little pouty if you punch her in the face. She worries about being girly you see… she wants to be a prim and proper mare. She wants to be pretty in her own special way.”
“So I saw… some ponies… you don’t punch them in the face. Or shoot them in the head for that matter,” Spitfire responded as a grin overtook her muzzle.
“So you knew in advance,” Bucky said, rubbing his neck with his talons.
“Well, a lot of ponies knew in advance. The anonymous threat was made. Plus, Soarin overheard them discussing the plan while he was taking a dump and having a wank in the officer’s latrine. They figured if it was going to be the end of everything they knew, letting mares have combat roles, they were going to make sure it was the end of my damn good looks,” Spitfire explained, now looking just a tiny bit bored. “Look… Bucky… I was willing to throw myself under the wagon to give other mares a chance. Somepony had to go in and set this bomb off, and somepony had to be hurt. I figured it would be me. Somebody had to get the old guard out of the way.”
“Well, that certainly happened. Careers have been ended. Lives have been ruined. The upper command structure has been dismantled,” Bucky stated, shaking his head as he spoke.
“I had a back up plan you know… I had dirty secrets ready to go. Photographs of certain high ranking leaders in compromising positions, like walking out of hotel rooms with mares that are not their wives… or even the occasional underage filly or colt. Paternity records that have been hidden, covered up, and sealed away from the public eye. I have dirt on each and every one of them and I was ready to spill it all if they got cold hooves and decided not to put me in my place during the assembly. So it was going to go down either way,” Spitfire admitted, looking a bit surprised. “Wow, this geas… I just spilled my guts and said the truth on my own without anypony even asking me a question… neat! Now I can be a total bitch and just say I can’t help it, I’m being honest, it’s my geas.”
Chortling, Bucky could not stop himself from having a bit of laugh.
“I find Spitfire’s confession extremely troubling,” Celestia admitted as she paced to and fro across the room. The big white alicorn looked troubled. “I saw this coming but I had hoped that they would reach retirement age and then things could be rebuilt. There is too much of the old Noble Houses in the current command structure.”
“At least your decision to have all of them relieved of duty was wise, which means your instincts are worth listening to sister,” said Luna as she poured herself a glass of wine.
“As we speak, somepony is gathering up and collecting Spitfire’s documentation and blackmail material. She voluntarily gave Bucky the location of said documents and a trusted courier has been sent to retrieve it,” Twilight Sparkle reported.
“Who, if I might ask?” Celestia inquired.
“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered, turning to watch as Celestia paced the floor. “I sent her along with Lugus and Ripple, just in case. I uh, really don’t trust your guards right now, no offense.”
“None taken,” Celestia muttered. The alicorn was distracted and somewhat infuriated from the recent events and it was plain to see upon her face.
“Um… I kinda want to keep Spitfire in office,” Twilight remarked, looking a bit apprehensive as she spoke. “She’s brave. Misguided? Maybe just a tiny bit, but she’s brave, brave enough to make something like this happen just so changes can be made. I do not fully agree with what she has done, but I admire her courage for doing it,” she revealed.
After gulping down some wine, Luna snorted. “I find what she has done admirable. I would like to see her placed into a position of actual command,” Luna said in a rather belligerent tone, eyeing her sister with a challenging look.
“Luna, I am not in the mood,” Celestia warned, not looking at her sister.
“Too bad… Spitfire used superiour intelligence gathering skills. She showed remarkable courage. She was resolute in her course of action. She was organised. There is also the fact that she knew how to motivate and inspire others. The level of planning she has shown to be rid of her enemies is astounding. She has out-thought them at every turn. What have your current commanders done lately?” Luna said, goading her sister with some carefully selected words.
“You and Buckminster both… smug arrogance and this cocky self assurance. Infuriating!” Celestia responded, struggling to spit the words out while she stood in one place to glare at her sister. “It is easy to see why you two get along.”
“We are pragmatists, he and I,” Luna remarked, not caring that her sister was glaring at her. She snorted, raised her glass to her lips, and then finished it off in just a few swallows. “When you want something gently nudged you are content to do it yourself. When you want a problem actually dealt with, you send one of us to do your dirty work.”
“Luna! Stop it! We don’t need the both of you bickering!” Twilight snapped.
“I included you in the ‘us’ part of my statement Twilight,” Luna snarked as she poured herself another glass of wine.
“I have had enough,” Celestia said in an annoyed growl.
Crossing the room swiftly, Celestia pounced upon her sister, knocking the blue alicorn from her chair and pulling her down the floor. The pair struggled for a bit and then Celestia managed to get her foreleg around Luna’s neck, getting her smaller sibling into a headlock.
Showing no mercy, Celestia gave her sister a hoof noogie while Luna whined in protest.
“It’s nice having friends,” Tourmaline said. The black filly with the soft pink mane was sprawled out on the floor next to a pile of crayons, colouring books, and word game books. Her green framed glasses were low on her nasal bridge.
“Uh huh,” Dinky replied in a nonverbal grunt as she used a yellow crayon to fill in sunbeams on a sun shining over an apple farm. She too was down upon the floor, laying on her belly, her head hunched over her colouring book.
“I’m not allowed to go off and play with Scootsie and her older friends,” Glass Slipper said in a pouty voice, her muzzle scrunched and her lower lip protruding as she spoke. “At least Spike plays with me.”
“That’s because you’re sweet,” Spike said, looking over at the crystal pony foal.
“You’re awfully quiet Diamond Tiara,” Piña said as she looked at the pink filly staring out the window.
“I’ve never been in a castle before. This might be normal for you, but this is my first time,” Diamond Tiara replied in a sleepy sounding voice, her half opened eyes drooping. Sitting on the window bench, she leaned her head against the window sill, looking out the window and enjoying the breathtaking view. Far below, Ponyville could be seen.
“Missing Sentinel?” Piña asked as she climbed up onto the window bench to sit with Diamond Tiara. She leaned against the slightly larger somewhat older earth pony and placed her foreleg around Diamond Tiara’s withers.
“He has to be a squire. I understand. He’s off meeting important ponies and discussing politics with diplomats from places like Mustangia. And I should be helping him… I should be at his side, but I’m here and I’m drugged and I can barely walk and I keep drooling on myself and I don’t feel good,” Diamond Tiara said, some of her words slurring slightly. “He’s gonna make a great knight someday. The kind of knight that gets mentioned in storybooks.”
“Those knights in storybooks usually have some important lady that keeps dropping her snot rag,” Dinky said, still colouring, a red crayon now in her magic as she worked on some apples.
“Dinky! That’s a neckerchief! It is given a token or a favour to your one true love to inspire them into acts of virtue or valour. Not a snot rag!” Piña protested, shaking her hoof at her sister.
“Because a snot rag is so romantic,” Dinky giggled.
“Gross,” Spike grunted, watching as Glass Slipper slobbered everywhere as she tried to hold a crayon in her lips.
“Slippy and I was saved by a knight,” Tourmaline said in a low voice.
“We sure was,” Glass Slipper remarked.
“Sentinel is going to grow up and be like his daddy,” Diamond Tiara mumbled, still staring out the window. “And I’ll give him my snot rag so he’ll be inspired to do good deeds. I will be his lady fair.”
Rolling her eyes, Piña heaved a sigh of disgust but said nothing, and then she leaned a little more on Diamond Tiara, trying to make her friend feel better. Sometimes it was nice to just to cuddle up close and be close to somepony. As she gave Diamond Tiara a squeeze, she felt her friend’s stomach gurgle and felt Diamond Tiara’s whole body tense up for a moment.
“It hurts,” Diamond Tiara whimpered.
“I know,” Piña said in her friend’s ear. “Wanna lay down?”
“No,” Diamond Tiara said, shaking her head slowly.
“We’ll just sit here and keep looking out the window together,” Piña said in a soft voice.
Getting up off of the floor, Spike waddled across the room, climbed up onto the window bench, settled in beside Piña, and then wrapped his foreleg around the two fillies, giving them both a squeeze. holding them close, and squeezing Piña against him.
Tourmaline, seeing another pony that she was only starting to know in a lot of pain, felt a sick sense of worry. Lately, she’d been more than a little drained trying to provide enough spit to make ponies feel better. She knew from hearing her auntie talk that there were three sick foals in Ponyville that desperately needed healing, Shining Armor had nearly died and she had coughed up everything she had to try and make enough spit to save him. She could only cough up small amounts at a time.