Bird and Metal Hero

by Shark8

Adhuc exciderat capite albi equo

Adhuc exciderat capite albi equo.

Sweetie Belle finally slowed her gallop into a fast trot after tiring out, it had taken a while, but it had happened. She looked around at the landscape and found herself unable to enjoy the beautiful weather and the pleasing vistas… She was just so upset with her sister, and the more she thought about it the more betrayed she felt.

‘I’m never going back! Never!’, she resolved to herself, ‘But, I… where should I go?’

She faltered as she realized that there really was nowhere else for her to go. Except, she recalled always wanting to go see the continent: North America… it was the closest to Equestria and, from what she had heard, was really a wondrous new world.

It would be… realization dawned on her as she contemplated actually going to America, ‘An adventure… a real adventure!’

Quickening her pace she paralleled the tracks, knowing that they would eventually lead her to Baltimare, she remembered her parents talking about the shipping from Horseshoe Bay to the continent, a city the humans had named Los Angles…or, if she couldn’t find a ship going there, then she could fins one bound for Seattle.

‘Yes, I’ll definitely find a ship going to America in Baltimare!’ she thought to herself, before losing herself in the half daydream of imagined adventures.

* * *

Celestia found herself staring into space as the nobles and ministers presented their reports; it seemed that the fires had claimed a quarter of the population at random. The Minister of Finance and Prime Minister both were engaging in a lengthy and worried debate about the economy… all well and good that the two should be able to immerse themselves in their jobs, addressing the serious matters…

But the Solar Diarch, now monarch, could not help but wallow in sorrow over her deceased sister.

While she was distressed and saddened over the reports of her subjects, the loss of her sister dwarfed them all… and, when she found her mind wandering there she felt an immense and consuming guilt: the personal loss of her sister should not so overwhelm the loss of her subjects but…

‘“The heart has its reasons which reason does not know.”’ Celestia thought to herself, an apt saying which came from an old, long-dead human on the other end of the world.

‘I cannot allow myself to become paralyzed by unreasonable guilt.’ Celestia thought as she turned her attention to the statesmen in the current meeting by sheer force of will.

After a few minutes listening to her ministers, she found her mind again wandering to Luna, and how after she’d waited a thousand years she’d finally seen her sister again.

* * *

Raven shied away from the meeting, she had no desire to interpose herself between the two ministers in the middle of their debate, but she didn’t leave.

The reason was simple: Celestia.

As aide to the princess she was worried over how she had been acting in the bast few days. The loss of her sister had to effect her more than she let on, and the demise of a fourth of her ponies, too — yet the princess seemed determined to show nothing, instead burring herself in her duties.

It was almost too much for Raven to bear, seeing the Princess, someone she considered her friend, in this state… yes, she’d lost her brother and mother, but her brother was involved in mining and her mother had been stricken with Luscious-Tyranid Disease, invariably fatal and incurable… and Raven was a hypocrite.

She felt herself flinch at the realization, she had been, and was currently, avoiding mourning them by wholly immersing herself in her role as the Princess’s aide — and that made her feel guilty and another wave of sorrow for the Princess.

‘No! I’ll help the Princess and then take care of myself…’ Raven thought to herself, determined to not only get through these hard times, but ensure that Celestia did as well.

Raven began by looking at the listing of the Princess’s vassalage and putting together a schedule which would allow Celestia to take two months away from everything except raising the sun.

* * *

“…so, in conclusion, due to our missing members all the pegasi in Ponyville are going to have to put in overtime every week for the next six months, at least.” Fire Streak summarized.

“Yeah!!” Bulk Biceps shouted in agreement, earning odd stares from everyone in the Ponyville weather team.

“Well, I’m glad that someone is excited.” Somepony stage-whispered sending a wave of laughter through the assembled pegasi.

“That’s enough.” Fire Streak projected across the cloud-bank that they had assembled for their emergency meeting. He couldn’t help but sigh, it wasn’t as if the other Wonderbolts weren’t doing the same thing all over Equestria, but it certainly different than the normal Wonderbolt fare — and given the severity of the crisis, unless the other nations attacked Equestria the Wonderbolts would be directing weather control operations until everypony could get back on their hooves. “We all have jobs, and we know what we have to do — Dismissed!”

Bulk Biceps was tempted to throw in another ‘Yeah!’, but the atmosphere just didn’t feel right this time. Usually he was enthusiastic and upbeat about life, the universe, and everything… but lately there was a gloom-cloud dampening everyone’s spirits, “raining on the parade” as the humans used to say.

Sure losing so many friends hurt, and it was only proper to mourn them, but to allow that sadness to consume one’s soul… well, that was just a horrible thing to contemplate and he would do everything in his power to be a beacon of cheer and enthusiasm to those around him, to include his attitude about work.

He found himself lost in thought as he made his way down to the solid earth below… it wasn’t that he couldn’t fly, it was just that the sort of thinking he was doing lent itself better to having the Earth firmly under one’s hooves.

Eventually he found himself in Ponyville’s park and it made him feel better to see several ponies taking their foals out on a walk… it was confirmation that things really could return to normal.

Though there was something odd there, a penguin with odd, multicolored feathers that looked kind of like eyebrows was looking upward — apparently craning its neck upward to look up at Rainbow Dash’s house — though come to think of it, something about that penguin reminded him of Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, horse-sh—“ the penguin, who apparently was Rainbow Dash, said, stopping as several gasps and drew her attention to those who were strolling along with their foals, looking at her as if she had bitten the head off a kitten at a middle-school talent show.

”…apples, I totally meant horse-apples.” Rainbow Dash corrected with a nervous laugh that quickly turned into a defeated sigh.

Bulk Biceps was thoroughly confused by all this. How, for instance, had Rainbow Dash become a penguin? Was it another of Twilight Sparkle’s spells? While the purple pony was pretty reliable, there were times when she was a little… flaky. — And Bulk Biceps could totally see how the recent event could bring that out, not just in her, but anypony.

“Er, ‘scuse me miss.” Bulk interrupted, “But do you need some help?”

Rainbow Dash turned and glared at the white musclebound pegasus, “No. No, I do not.”

And with that Rainbow Dash waddled away from what could have been the start of a wonderful romance… but, then again, she’s never been that good about seeing those sorts of possibilities.

* * *

Shining Armor tried to ignore the songs that constantly ran through his head, their infectious beats rhythmically playing off one another until they threatened to consume him… and, by sheer force of will, it was working.

At least he told himself that it was working. The ponies around the palace might have disagreed though.

“Er, why am I here?” Shining Armor asked the assembled ponies in front of him, obviously in some sort of meeting.

“Er, my prince… isn’t that question a bit on the, er… philosophical side?” General Spear Head asked, wondering why the prince would bring it up in the middle of the report on the Crystal Empire’s military strength. On the other hoof, though, it could also be some of the legendary, mythical sense of humor he’d heard about. Of course, the problem with legendary things is that they’re often mythical.

“Yes. Yes, you’re right…” Shining Armor took a moment to look at the pony addressing him, especially the rank insignia on his uniform, “General.”

“Very good, sire,” one of the other generals — a General Discharge — said, continuing with his presentation by unrolling a huge map with markings all over it. “As you can see, there are significant losses along the western border; while the ratio of casualties to survivors is the same as the rest of the empire most of the third and sixth battalions were wiped out. Combining the two, we would have only three companies.”

“Do it.” Shining Armor nodded, then indicated several of the forts that lined the western borders of the Crystal Empire, “Put them here, they’ll be in charge of the upper reaches, consolidate the units originally assigned to those into the other forts on the border.”

“Yes, my prince.” General Discharge nodded, marking a few notes on the map. “I believe that concludes my readiness report.”

“Excellent.” Shining Armor said, nodding. “What about the Eastern Front?”

“All quiet on the Eastern front, my prince.” General Discharge replied, wondering for a moment why that phrase sounded so oddly familiar, yet off.

“Good, then we can reduce the seaside garrisons along the Eastern front to half strength, that should give us several hundred ponies to address the shipping problem. We cannot let the colonies fall.”

The generals nodded, the problems were well-known at this point, and the human world had plenty of space… the problem was that the human world also had danger, in the forms of predators and generally uncontrolled weather, and inconveniences like weeds and huge swathes of non-arable and semi-arable lands — if the colonies had lost a quarter of their population like the rest of Equestria, then the resultant stresses could cause their collapse and doom the rest.

The Generals nodded, nopony really liked leaving the Eastern seaside undermanned, but the truth was that it was the least likely spot that any of the other Equestrian powers would attack — the ocean between Equestria’s east coast and the west coast of North America was awash with shipping between the colonies, which had attracted pirates, which in turn had prompted the institution of regular military patrols by the Navy and, close to shores, their air forces.

* * *

The meeting had run long, mostly due to the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance getting into a ‘discussion’ on how to handle the economic aspects of the nation — while the plan seemed both very sound and very thorough now, it had taken quite a while for them to iron out the details… but it was exhausting.

Which is why Prince Blueblood sighed in relief as he entered the guest chambers that had been set aside for him in the castle, he felt tension melting from his withers.

That tension rushed back with a vengeance when a knock sounded from the door, followed by an entreaty, “Prince… Prince Blueblood, could I speak with you a moment?”

He found himself frowning at whomever was knocking at his door, torn between his desire to relax and what were likely his duties as part of the noblesse… shaking his head vigorously, he reached out with his magic and opened the door and was mildly surprised to see the white pony who served as his aunt’s aide… her name escaped him even as he recognized who she was.

“Ah… yes?” Blueblood enquired, consciously avoiding having to use her name even as he raked his brain trying to remember it. “What might you need?”

“Well, Prince Blueblood, as you likely saw your aunt is in need of our help…” Raven began, suddenly unsure of how to go about proposing the plan to the prince.

“She did look rather…” Prince Blueblood paused for the barest of moments as he stumbled for the right word, “despondent. Dispirited, I mean.”

Raven nodded, “I believe that we can lessen the princess’s duties to the point where the only obligation she has to meet is raising the sun and moon…”

Using her magic, she pulled her plan from her binder and floated it over to prince Blueblood.

As prince Blueblood scanned the plan Raven found herself compelled to explain her reasoning, “I think that she needs time to properly mourn Princess Luna…”

“Ah, I see.” Prince Blueblood replied, continuing to read the schedule of responsibilities.

It was an excellent plan, despite the increased workload by much of the aristocracy, but nothing overly strenuous.

“I find myself in agreement with you…” Blueblood said as he stamped the plan with his seal and floated the plan back to the aide. “I think that may just be what aunt Celestia needs. Take these to the secretariat and have them distribute copies to the rest of the nobility.”

Raven nodded, taking the plan back and returning it to its place in the binder. As she turned to leave the prince interrupted her.

“One question, before you go… if you please.” the Prince said.

“Yes?” Raven asked, resisting the urge to push her glasses up as the prince stared at her.

“What is your name?” Blueblood asked, knowing it was the only way to avoid waking up at three in the morning suddenly remembering the name.

“Ah, it’s Raven.” Raven said, mildly surprised at the question.

“Well, Raven, thank you for taking care of my aunt.” Prince Blueblood said, nodding a farewell as he shut the door and retreated into the privacy of the rooms.

Author's Note:

Sorry about the delay; I got a little demotivated and distracted; hopefully regular updates are on the table, but I can't make any promises.

Comments

[Shark8]

5697361
I know what you mean; writing it was hard because when I was flipping coins (I needed an unbiased method) to determine who lived and died it was like:
No, not Luna! No, not Lyra! No, not Fluttershy! No, oh wait... Flash Sentry's death doesn't bother me. No, not Apple Bloom!