Evenfall: Verdant White

by Yinglung

Chapter 10 – Aching Recollections

You see, Sunset Shimmer is not a unicorn who ascended to power through brutal dominance with sheer magical prowess, like Sombra and many other mad unicorns in history. She is a powerful and extensively knowledgeable unicorn, and she knows about the apparatuses of the state. She uses them to the point of perfection to achieve total control and effective propaganda.

Unlike Sombra, who earned the hate of the crystal ponies by his disregard of laws and institutions, and had to resort to mass mind control through thought helmets, Sunset Shimmer wanted to actually make the masses love and adore her to the point that they would not bat an eye if she tell them to jump off a cliff.

Yes, Spike. But I don’t know whether this makes her a worse or a better pony than Sombra. A- At least she’s giving her subjects a choice? Even though there is only one option given how overpowering her propaganda is.

I also don’t know what her exact reason was that she did not employ mind control on a more massive scale, like Sombra once did. Of course, removing the free will from the draftees using low-level mind wipes tends to reduce their capacity to carry out more complex tactical orders, but seeing how devastating Sombra’s wars were, it did not seem to be a serious concern if you have enough fodders to throw onto the battlefield. Crystal ponies are certainly no strangers to pony wave tactics.

Higher-level, more customized control… like what she did to me, might just be too difficult to cast on everypony. I also suspect that she did not quite know the full extent of her spell, seeing how she put me to the test when she made me do… rather nasty things in the beginning.

But then again, she had shown herself to be a highly magical unicorn, worthy of the name of a former royal student. If she puts her mind to it, something like that might not be completely out of question. So I would guess that she withholds casting mind control spells on more ponies, because she had some ideological concerns… and even reservations.

… Now, Spike, you look surprised that I seem to be speaking for her. I- I must be perfectly honest, I…

*sigh* I don’t know if I am still under any lingering influence of her command. I don’t exactly remember any of them, probably because she commanded me to forget about the hypnosis itself. I only know that when I was under her control, I considered her my best and only friend in the world, and I would do everything to help and protect her. I- I am afraid, Spike… I am afraid that it would come back one day and I would betray-

Umpf! S- Spike, you…

*blush* I- I see. Two-faced stones… huh? I must admit that not even the ancient tome, in its long observation, have ever heard of this item. I- It would be great if there are no longer any complications of her spell on me. Can I keep one on me…?

Thank you! Anyway, she… she’s not a pony that’s completely lacking in moral. I know it’s hard to accept the idea that an enemy is not a pantomime villain out of a comic book, but she is a complicated mare… Sometimes she is an ideological crusader and staunch Crystallian nationalist, determined to recreate Pax Cristalica; sometime she is only there to create more havoc and watch the ‘mandatory labors’ toil with glee, like a Sombra with more subtlety. It’s as if there are two Sunset Shimmers at times, and I, even when I think back with my clearer mind now, can never tell which one I was being with.

I- I know, what she is like personally doesn’t exactly matter if she can be defeated, but it is still good if we can understand her end game, isn’t it? The problem, though, is that not even I quite understand her. I don’t think she does either. Sometimes she looks like a stranger in her own mind and body, and sometimes she literally said something to that effect, as if she’s only Sunset Shimmer a moment ago. It’s weird I know.

Speaking of which, she had said something about the specific magical signature on me when we first met, and that she had stayed in a place where that signature was detected. As she referred to all six of us at that time, and that the signal was the strongest on Twi, I’m pretty sure she was referring to the lingering magic from the ancient tome. Now, I don’t know how exactly Sunset Shimmer has to do with the tome, since they really never had any sort of communication or interaction. So this points to the suggestion that she’s… abnormal, and probably not just what she appears, at the very least. In any case, she never brought it up again, and I had no chance to know about that further.

Regardless, she showed that she’s not a lightweight in manipulating public opinion and getting the myriad interests in the Empire to align to her will. She knows that the media and public perception can be her most powerful weapon, so she made sure she controlled the flow of information from day one. That was what got her to the top so fast.

After she had brought Crystal Empire back using a spell that she devised, and purportedly defeating Sombra, she immediately leveraged her fame into a place in the Crystal Assembly.

Crystal Empire after Sombra was a demoralized nation. None of her citizens had anything to celebrate or to be proud of. They were a thousand years behind in time, their old bonds broken, and what remained of their colonies were buried in the dust of time. In better times, that could have been redeemed by slow reintegration and revitalizing events… the prestigious Equestria Games were to be held in Crystal Empire this month if the war hasn’t broken out.

However, Sunset Shimmer exploited the grudge among crystal ponies, and promised them greatness, if they put in their trust and give her power. Her heroic feats and demonstrated bond to the Crystal Heart made her a much more obvious symbol of hope. Love is itself an unqualified thing, misguided love is still love, which could be used to bond with the Crystal Heart…

Princess Cadance and Shining Armor might have a chance if they were not consigned to irrelevance by her hypnosis, but *sigh* she did so to make sure that the newly forged loyalty is to her and to her alone.

She calls for crystal ponies to be martial, to be ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep. She calls for unity within the Empire, and covertly denounced foreign influence as the reason the crystal ponies declined. She convinced that they were betrayed by the southerners, and so they need to take control. This proves to be wildly popular with the Crystallians, and they support her in droves without a real need to plop helmets on them.

She is also savvy enough to know that even though she had popular support, she needs organization to for her base to be more than a bunch of rabbles. So she formed the Voluntary Squadron, a brown-shirted paramilitary group that acted as her hooves to enforce her power.

The most prominent opposition within the Empire against her were primarily the patrician clans and noble families in the Empire. They saw her as a foreign appropriator of Crystallian culture, basically a pretend Crystallian and a brutish vulgar. Her rapid rise of power as a unicorn also worried somepony in the grassroot, who saw her as a mare-version of Sombra that might enslave them all again.

She knew the age-old adage of divide-and-rule. Against the clans, she deliberately antagonized the Vinidis and made an example out of their matriarch.

Y- You said Pisacan is with you, right? That makes me so glad and relieved. Thank Geuse for sparing a thought for her when she broke out, or else she might really… meet with a terrible fate in the dark cell- No! Of course I don’t begrudge Geuse for not managing to rescue me from Sunset Shimmer’s hooves! There’s no chance that she would be able to get past the magical defense even if she punched out the physical walls.

After terrifying the clans into submission, she dealt with the nagging opposition by placating the proprietors. She used the VS as enforcers, breaking up strikes and enforced ‘mandatory labors’ for even the most minor of offense. It’s in essence slave labor, but a lot of the ponies were not concerned as long as they were not the ones put to work, and instead praised her for cleaning up the streets and putting bread on the shelves.

Of course, there are still representatives in the Crystal Assembly to deal with. These ponies were mostly appointed before Sombra even came to power by the old Princess. They came from the clans, nobility, and other important ponies of the Empire. They had a mostly advisory role, but now that Cadance and Shining Armor were made to be quiet, some of them took action against her meteoric rise by taking to the floor.

Her response was simple and clinical. Citing popular support and a need to put a stop to the ‘squabbling’ among assembly members, she organized a ‘spontaneous’ march, consisting of tens of thousands of brownshirts in plain clothes, to the Crystal Palace. Fearing their own safety and lives, the opposing members resigned, and the president of the assembly was forced to confirm her supremacy over the Assembly.

Afterwards, she removed one by one the legal and conventional restraints on her power. After Cadance and Shining Armor’s ‘kidnapping’ by the yaks, she began to simply call herself the ‘head of government’, implying that she was now in charge of the nation, and at least the Princess’s equal. She also removed the ability for the Assembly to set political agendas, make laws, and declare a lack of confidence in the First Consul, effectively making them a body of rubber stamps.

After turning the Empire into a dictatorship, she ramped up the propaganda machine. Her lackeys from the brownshirts formed a new body called the Grand Council of National Revitalization, which replaced the Crystal Assembly as the real power-broker, and also kept a tight grip on all communications. She and her followers heavily emphasized the virtue of youth and vigor, as a front for her aggressive foreign policies.

The first victims were of course the yaks, who was unprepared for the possibility of war because they’re self-assured that their defense would foil any invasion.

Sunset Shimmer… She knew that I have a talent for tinkering, and she also saw the powerful guns and cannons I brought with me on the trip. Most damningly, I have failed to completely conceal my knowledge of advanced weaponry from the ancient tome. So she quickly put it to use against the yaks… to devastating results.

P- Prince Rutherford? He is captured by Crystallians after he was subdued by Sunset Shimmer. Ugh… he- he was paraded around the streets of the Empire afterwards, and it was terribly humiliating. He refused to eat any food given by the Crystallians afterwards as a sign of defiance, but he somehow did again after Sunset Shimmer visited him… I- I know… She probably m- made him obey her using her spell again. I- I can’t really speak for her for this, b- but a- at l- least s- she’s doing it so he wouldn’t have s- starved?

Spike… I am glad you understand. My biggest fear is to come off as somepony who’s still attached to her, I… *sigh* I know, Spike, this is silly, but…

So… Yakyakistan was swiftly subjugated, and its territories were directly incorporated into Crystallian control. Yaks were immediately put to menial work in mines and fields, and ‘pioneers’ were encouraged to settle in the new territories.

There had been a strict blockade to prevent the news of the invasion from spilling to the south and causing the peace-lovers in Equestria to rise up in protest. But soon the heavy military presence along the Crystal Mountains was causing concerns in the Ville, Vanhoofer, and to a lesser extent to Cloudsdale and Canterlot. Princess Celestia and Luna were unsettled by the situation, and the lack of response from either Cadance or Sunset Shimmer herself.

*sigh* Sunset Shimmer was quite certain that I was completely under her control and on her side. So certain that I was sent south to speak on her behalf. She exploited the trust in me by the Princesses and the girls to ease their guards, which allowed her precious time to go further in her plans.

That was also the first time ‘I’ met with the girls and other friends after being sent north. Twilight was not there, though, probably still recovering in Ponyville. They also probably sensed that I was acting rather weird, but they weren’t keen to make assumptions after...

*sniff* I told them and the press a terrible cover story. It’s a plan conjured up by Sunset Shimmer to explain away the strangeness around my circumstances and the odd military presence in the north. I don’t even dare to look at Geuse in the eyes now that… now that…

*breath out slowly* Spike, I can never forgive myself for this. I have falsely accused Geuse of being a traitor in cahoots with the yaks, in a plot to kidnap Cadance and Shining Armor for some nonsense ancient rituals. And I told them the siege of Yakyakistan was a sad but necessary operation to rescue them. I- I even said that she used you and Kanny as living shields as she escaped to the north! I am a horrible, horrible excuse of-

– a while later –

Thanks, Spike, I… I am better now. Thanks for the cup of warm water.

But I am ashamed. Geuse might be a roughened mercenary, but I also know that she took the concept of honor and vows very seriously. I besmirched exactly this and made her a pariah in the national press. Of course, now that the civil war have broken out, many are seeing her as some sort of failed revolutionary, but it’s still an untruth and it… it would never go away.

… So after making sure the south stayed quiet, she moved to the next step. Vanhoofer and Ville de Platine are two major city-states that once took order from Nova Roama than Canterlot. To the tune of national revival, she ‘suggested’ the two states to switch their allegiance to Crystal Empire, while marching around the perimeter of the cities in an attempt to blatantly coerce them. Vanhoofer is a famously a city of peaceniks, its residents tracing their roots to the homeless Equestrian refugees, since ‘Bosforo’ was deserted after Crystal Empire disappeared. They do not have any sort of defense force whatsoever, so they folded rather quickly, granting valuable sea access to the Crystallians. What were left of their former residents were able to return, which was a great propaganda coup for Sunset Shimmer.

Ville de Platine, however, was another story. It had been the first capital of Unicornia in the Pre-classical period, and with the integration of pegasi refugees from Griffiny, it had since been the center of the unique Prench culture, an envy to all high-class Equestrians, only being eclipsed rather recently by Canterlot. It is a city with proud roots, and Crystallian dominance only accounted for a relatively short time in its long and illustrious history.

It was also a city with strong undercurrents of political forces not seen in any other place in Equestria. For much of its history, La Ville was ruled by Princes of the Prench. They were absolute rulers with utter and complete power over the state, much more so than even Princess Celestia with her self-imposed constitutional restraints. It’s only several centuries after La Ville joined Equestria for good that one of the foalless Prince deeded the city to a distant royal cousins related to both him and Celestia. The Principality was quietly demoted to a duchy to diminish its identity, causing consternation among its nobles, but the inheritance went on… until the duchy went into the hooves of Blueblood.

La Ville had been a city of autocrats. It basically produced and exported all the haughty noble types in Equestria throughout history. But for every arrogant noble that ordered others around, there were ten downtrodden ponies that had to work for basically nothing to support that lifestyle. The nobles here are unaccounted for and unchecked like it was in other parts of Equestria, thus the lower class here had long endured a rather harsh life. But the union with other parts of Equestria had ensured the stability of this system, even if it’s so unbalanced. There is little that the royal government can do without straining the union, and Princess Celestia had resorted to setting a good example for the noble herself in the hope that at least some would emulate her good behaviors.

On the other hoof, small underground communes always existed as a mean of mutual support for commoners and merchants. They look to classical republics like Ancient Roam and the Vinidian Serenissima as their ideals. They had been outlawed multiple times in history, but could never be truly rooted out. They did not necessarily vilify rule by a prince or a princess, but they longed for virtue and common good to be held in government, and that the nobles should not have unrestrained power to take away their personal rights. The moderates among them thought Celestia to be a perfect example of an enlightened despot, but she was still not entirely infallible and was limited by the autonomy in the member states.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer reached out to Griffonstone. Now… the griffons are rather skewered in pony accounts, given that we had been serious rivals before the Gutian Cataclysm…

Um, you don’t recall that bit of history? You brought me out to eat hay fries afterwards after we revised that bit together! S- Still nothing? Alright…

*sigh with a smile* You see, the first Griffonstone King, Grover the First, had retrieved the Idol of Boreas and used its power to unite the squabbling griffon tribes. Griffons, in all pony accounts, were described as a greedy species, like… I’m sorry, Spike, but indeed, they are often likened to dragons. I won’t deny that there’s a bit of casual racism there, but there is certainly a sliver of biological truth.

But unlike dragon greed, which oriented towards materials, griffon greed is more territorial. The Golden Idol’s biggest use is to magically transcend that urge to squabble among griffons into an outward national pride against foreign rivals. Therefore Grover didn’t need to do much nation building to unify the griffons into mighty Kingdom of Griffonstone, which went on to become to most powerful nation in the Near East. They frog-leaped the camels and filled in the power vacuum created by the sinking of Roam into the Atlantean Sea, and the subsequent fall of the ancient Crystal Empire.

The griffons kind of took on the mantle of ruling over the remaining ponies, even calling themselves the Holy Roaman Empire… heheh, yeah, you won’t find that bit in Equestrian textbooks, because it annoyed the crystal ponies to no end. You see, as they had fought the Crystal Empire as one of the ‘barbarian tribes’, and due to the sheer fact that they were not ponies, a mass exodus began in earnest, and this caused another wave of emigration to Equestria. Still, they lorded over a vast patchwork of races in myriad princedoms, dukedoms and counties.

Griffons had a glorious past indeed. They held the dragons to the south at bay, and even the ravenous bears and ‘wild’ ponies across the Hyperborean mountains were weary of attacking them, and some of them even moved in, attracted by its grandeur. They competed for the lucrative node of trade in the Atlantean Sea with the savvy camels and mules, and Griffonstone was rightly called the City of Lights in the world.

*gasp* … I- I guess you’re right. It *was* a tool of mind-control, even though it has mostly benevolent effect. But after the Arismaspi Ascendancy raided Griffonstone for the Idol during the reign of King Guto, the unity among the griffons collapsed. After King Guto, the griffons were in a long, continuous decline. No king had been elected for thousands of years by the prince-electors since King Guto, since they have been too divided without the magic of the Idol. Real power shifted from local prince-elector to another, that’s why the royal capital of Griffonstone proper now looked worse than the most backwater town in Equestria, and its residents all miserable pan-handlers. Still, the nobles elsewhere in Griffonstone did not go fully independent due to the ancient prestige associated with the name of the Kingdom.

The current most powerful prince-elector in Griffonstone is Guillaume the Bald of Griffiny. That’s right, Spike, the name is Prench, even though the prince is a griffon. This is because the Villians once conquered and held a large part of Griffonstone and Griffish Isles for centuries after Guto. They were eager to reconquer the near east for ponies, before the union of Equestria forced them to give up overseas territories to preserve unity.

Thus for a long time, the label of Prench culture was even more prestigious to some griffons than Germane, or Griffonian culture. Many griffons had been assimilated to local Prench-speaking unicorn nobility, and their marks remained even after Villian influence receded. Remember the griffon pastry chef in Canterlot? He’s one of these ‘Prench’ griffons. That’s also why now Griffonstone is a melting pot of High Germane, West Germane and Prench…

O- Oopsie, I have gone too deep into griffon history, haven’t I? I have said so much about griffons because it highlights how dangerously practical Sunset Shimmer is. Griffons and crystal ponies are natural rivals, having fought and competed historically, not to mention the Roaman pretense that stung Crystallian sensibility, as well as the complicated but generally cordial bond between ‘La Villa Mère’ and the Prench griffons.

But Sunset Shimmer somehow managed to broker a deal with Guillaume, who was secretly promised full dominion over Griffish Isles and later military assistance to subdue other opposing electors when he calls for a royal election, in exchange of full military alliance with their former foes.

With the seaway secured, she went on a covert mission to the north… which now I know that she went to the white wolves because you’ve told me. No… I have no idea how she could’ve known about the white wolves, seeing that not even the ancient tome knew about them. But I do know that she quickly returned to the south and began to plan to swallow Equestria in whole like a rattlesnake. She called it Operation Collegamento, or ‘Collage’.

Ostensibly coming south to meet with Celestia and Luna about why Crystal Empire independently reached out to foreign nations and circumvented the Equestrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she planned to seize control of all Equestria by seizing control of its nucleus, thereby controlling the entire Equestria without having to shed a drop of blood.

I… I wasn’t there, Spike, I’m sorry. This time, she left me back in the Empire to research weapons and equipment for Crystallian soldiers, since there have been some advances during the thousand years they’ve been gone which they hoped to catch up. I also seemed to be their perfect candidate to spearhead the creation of ‘Armi-meraviglia’, or wonder weapons… just in case.

From what I know though, she sent a large number of hirelings and agitators into Canterlot beforehand. Princess Celestia and Luna naturally questioned her over the aggressive actions, and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Cadance and Shining Armor.

Outside the castle, a carefully propped up demonstration in support of Sunset Shimmer and her efforts against ‘foreign anti-pony saboteurs’ and ‘Yakyakistani extremists’ flooded the streets. In what I assumed was a false-flag operation, several explosions hit the crowd and injured many, as her accompanying Crystallian soldiers which so happened to be near chokepoints and strategic locations quickly exploited the chaos and seized control of the capital, in what can only be described as the smoothest coup in history. The Royal Guards were immobilized and arrested within their barracks, barely with a chance to fight back. Ministers and generals were rounded up and diplomats were quarantined, with a planned efficiency like clock-work.

What happened inside the castle, though, is only something that she would know. I don’t know exactly if she was to pull her old tricks of brainwashing ponies, even if it’s against two powerful alicorns, into doing her bidding. Although it’s safe to say that she hadn’t succeeded whatever she did. I’m sure if Celestia and Luna had fallen into her control, she would likely make them come out and publicly support her claim to merge the two nations into a Greater Crystal Empire.

Instead, they were said to have ‘gone missing’, giving her a convenient excuse to take control anyway. Sad as it might be, I doubt that they had escaped, because she didn’t even bother sending out a search party. I don’t know if they’re locked up somewhere, but it’s clear from the lack of celestial revolution that they are deprived of their ability to intervene.

All was not lost, however. It seemed that her plan was somehow partly intercepted by the girls in Ponyville fortunately. As the clamp-down on resistance began in earnest, a counter-insurgency disrupted the Crystallians from asserting full control.

I- I can’t help but think that the girls have noticed that I had been acting weird in front of them during the previous meeting, and therefore they did more investigations into Sunset Shimmer. Y- You see, because we have a big common secret, which is our connection to the ancient tome, and the very fact that a piece of Twilight is in us, they can easily notice if I was being weird…

*sigh* I know… We failed to notice Twilight was being controlled by Chrysalis back then as well, but then it was Twilight herself that wanted to win her trust… This time I was presented to the girl as a somehow oblivious Pinkie, surely this would have raised some alarm, right…? I really hope so… I- I don’t want the other girls think I’m a traitor!

*sniff* Umpf-! Spike… Your hug always makes me feel so much better…

Umm… right. Sunset Shimmer had ordered a complete blackout of media reports of how they did it, but the girls threw Sunset Shimmer’s playbook directly back to her. They infiltrated the royal capital and created various distraction and false cues. After drawing the Crystallians to the gateside, away from the Canterlot Castle, they sent in a brigade of volunteers… Reports are sketchy, but there seemed to be Zebricans in it. These volunteers fought their way through and evacuated those who wanted to escape from Sunset Shimmer’s brownshirts, which numbered in probably up to tens of thousands. They probably searched the castle for the princesses but found nothing. Then Crystallian soldiers speak of an impressive array of inflatable slides that were blown up in the middle of the night and were used to evacuate all the ponies, sliding all the way down to the valley floor.

Seriously, I have no idea how they manage to make all ponies, some of them deathly afraid of height, line up and slide down orderly and safely, without making a heap of ponies down there or igniting some plots out of sheer friction. Some magic was probably involved, because the next day when Sunset Shimmer scoured the valley floor for those who escaped, she was seething mad because she could find not a trace. So many nobles and big wigs that could have been forced to speak on her behalf just stolen and gone.

She could not immediately go and pursue these ponies to Ponyville, though, because she had other things to deal with. The traditionally militaristic Cloudsdale would not just sit there and accept a new head of government, given their autonomy, pride and rights. The Crystallian army had been stretched thin to cover potential uprising in the east and the south as well.

Sunset Shimmer wanted her prize without a fight. She sent messengers to all city-states in Equestria, proclaiming herself to be the legal successor and head of the caretaker government in Equestria. Whinnyapolis, being practically just next door to Crystal Empire, was first to fold.

Blueblood, desperate to protect his inheritance from being taken away by the Crystallians, also struck a deal with Sunset Shimmer and surrendered a number of rights to Crystal Empire, and proclaimed La Ville to be a Crystallian protectorate.

Infuriated by the nobility who saw their inheritance as more important than the autonomy of the city, the disgruntled young officers and the communal ponies joined forces. Cleverly using the post-Vanhoofer fears of being subjugated, Lion Muzzle rose from the fray and successfully convinced the Villians that Blueblood was about to sell La Ville and her citizens out to the Crystallians.

Curiously though, Lion Muzzle himself seemed to have distant relationship with a small Crystallian clan, his name an oblique reference to Corleone ‘the Lionheart’. This by no means diminished his popular support. He led the protest against the nobles and asked for redress. Then when coldly shut off out of the palatial gate, he plotted with the others to plan for a rebellion.

Other cities were not so convinced of Sunset Shimmer’s legitimacy. The East Coast was initially lukewarm, but they would then be unnerved by later events, such as what happened to Cloudsdale, that they would join together against the puppet Equestrian government under Sunset Shimmer.

West of the Foal Mountain, situation was much tenser. The small town of Tall Tale openly rose in defiance of Sunset Shimmer, and insulted her in front of her messengers. She responded by sending in a disproportionate amount of soldiers and let them loose in the town for three days and three nights… I can’t imagine that they behaved nicely in there, because the poor settlement was practically flattened to the ground and looted empty, its residents drafted and its defiant mayor forced to toil in labor camp.

Sunset Shimmer was angry that there’s so much resistance shown among her newly conquered people. Cloudsdale, in particular, had been giving her the cold shoulder since the beginning, even refusing to let her messenger in. To be honest, it’s less about their steadfast loyalty to Princess Celestia and Luna, and more about their disdain of an upstart claim to power while they, a proudly militaristic city-state with an ancient warrior fame, had not made a move yet. Besides, they did not believe that the pegasi, who are responsible for making rain and regulating weather in Equestria, would be treated with nothing but care and respect whomever the new head of government was.

However, Sunset Shimmer took this snubbing very personally. She’s very sensitive to ponies snubbing her because of her social status and birth, and she swore, enraged, in front of all Crystallian officers that these pegasi were going to pay very, very dearly for their ‘insolence’.

And pay dearly they did.

Little happened for the next week. The other actors in the brewing civil war thought that it must be because Sunset Shimmer was hoof-tied by the lack of supplies and the need to suppress dissent. That was only partly correct. Supplies were indeed tight, especially since food production had gone down since the sun and moon stopped moving. However, her indiscriminate looting from towns and villages that showed dissent had filled up the granary for the time being. Dissent was indeed brewing, and you simply could not underestimate the staying power of a thousand-year princess even if she is missing. But they were thus far without leader and organization, except in La Ville.

Little did those ponies know that Sunset Shimmer was merely biding her time to cast a mega-spell of devastating power. Her vengeance fueled her quest to punish the pegasi in the most spectacular way, humiliating them and striking fear in the others who sat on the fence.

Oh… It seems that Marin had already told you. Hmm? Marin? Uh… He’s a… good pony, actually. He just put all his heart to believe in the wrong mare. Don’t fault him for being simple-minded. He’s somepony who always want to make everypony happy, and it so happens that everypony he knows seem to be loyal to Sunset Shimmer.

It had been a normal day for the Cloudsdale pegasi. Well, as normal as somepony knowing that their eternal princesses suddenly got replaced by a ruthless unicorn anyway.

Suddenly, giant, sharp crystals, as black as the night itself, fell from the sky and down onto each and every cloud in Cloudsdale. Like enormous stakes, the gracefully floating cloud bases were pinned down to the ground. The Cloudsdale Cloud Chamber was directly hit and completely destroyed, and the Cloudeseum, proud symbol of pegasi, was torn apart and reduced to rubbles, split into several pieces like pie. Many pegasi were trapped and maimed, and it was like Tartarus suddenly opened a portal in the sky and rained furious vengeance on the pegasi.

It was Sunset Shimmer’s mega-spell, aptly and simply named Vengeance. It was prepared over a week, and probably researched on for even longer. She needed so many magical crystals and gems that she was willing to be price-gouged by the camels. She also gathered any and all willing unicorns to help her create and power the giant magical circle.

The survivors, shell-shocked, were quickly rounded up and herded into a temporary camp directly built with broken rubbles and materials under the former cloud bases. Campobasso, a contraction of Campus Vassorum, Ancient Roaman for ‘plain of the vassals’, which signaled to everypony that she’s not going to be as subtle and respectful to the member states of Equestria as Celestia did. The pegasi were made to do their old job with much reduced pay and ration. It was either that or outright slave labor, imprisonment or…

Well, it is a mere rumor, but I really hoped that isn’t true. Sunset Shimmer certainly preferred her subjects to be alive. But she had had enough of elements openly disloyal to her, and she ordered the CNR to conjure up a plan to make these ponies ‘disappear’. A lot of ways were discussed, some of them more benign than the others. For example, there was a voluntary program for ponies ‘not compatible’ with the new rule to simply emigrate to Griffonstone with a small amount of state subsidy. But it had been taken away on the ground that it’s silly to give money and food to somepony they hate.

Next they discussed the idea of shipping them all to a remote island, and after scouring old maps, they chose the island of Tanindrazana off the East Zebrican Coast as the preliminary site. However, the plan was quickly abandoned because they realized that they had not nearly enough ships to transport everypony across the Luna Ocean.

So this left Sunset Shimmer practically no means of disposing these ponies. Other than one… A horrible plan that had only been on paper, or so I heard… A plan that would stun her opponents with its abject terrorizing cruelty that would silence her critics once and for all. The details were omitted, but in all versions of the rumor, it ends in the mass physical annihilation of dissenters in a chosen location. Mass, deliberate killings, atrocities that had never happened even in the darkest point of Equestrian history.

I don’t know if I should call this fortunate, but so far Sunset Shimmer did not seem interested in putting the words into action. Perhaps she had other more burning concerns, perhaps even somepony like her had a moral standard, which stops her short of such lows.

In any case, after the brutal subjugation of one of the founding members of the union, many cities and towns in the west gave up their fight, fearing that they might suffer the same fate. A fate that could be plainly seen with their own eyes.

Confident that the rest of the cities in the east, La Ville included, would simply raise hooves and surrender after her ‘masterpiece’, she first turned her attention to the south, a place that shelter her hated meddlers that robbed her of her valuable noble prisoners and useful workforce.

Amassing the best and the most elite forces of the Crystal Empire, she ordered one of her two main armies, the South Equestria Division, to the source of her trouble, our home… Ponyville.

Before they could assault our home, though, they must cross the Saddle Plain. It had been changed massively by Rarity’s work. Diamond dogs had come from all corners of Equestria and expanded the vast underground network of caves. The Saddle was surrounded with mines and foundries, and Raritan sat in the middle of them all… You know they used to say bad things about Rarity for this. Inviting the diamond dogs there and ruining the verdant view of the Saddle from high up Canterlot… And I bet you those who said that were breathing sighs of relief that Rarity did just that.

As Sunset Shimmer was indulging in her revenge for the perceived slight, Rarity must’ve been working tirelessly to turn the Saddle Plain into a nopony’s land, where not a soul could’ve passed through to hurt her and her friends.

As soon as the Crystallian army entered the Saddle Plain, they were met with an endless stream of diamond dog militia, seemingly popping out of nowhere. After ambushing them and stealing their supplies, they would disappear into the caves again, nowhere to be seen.

This wore down the invading force and plummeted their morale, but they pressed on to Raritan. They believed, wrongly, that once they took over the ‘main settlement’ of the diamond dogs, they would just stop harassing their army. It’s pretty clear that they never heard of the concept of a guerilla war and asymmetric warfare… Um, well, we can talk about those later, they are battle concepts from beyond our world.

They talked of seemingly walking into a maze among the countless mine openings and strange mist, so I think some strange magic was again involved. Hopefully it was Discord who’s helping out…

The combined effect of unfamiliar terrain and constant harassment of from diamond dog militia had stretched their army into a long thin column. Still, confident in the superiority of their armor and weapon compared to the diamond dogs, the commander was sure that he would take over Raritan and possibly important supply depots within two to two-and-a-half hours. This confidence was boosted by the fact that diamond dog resistance seemed to have thinned out as they approached the town, and some of them, apparently unarmed and standing in their way, ‘fled’ at the sight of their army.

Raritan had no city wall, so the column simply strolled in the main street. They have let their guard down after the diamond dog threat simmered away, the commanders were standing out from the hatches of their armored ‘rams’, which are tanks in all but name after my upgrades.

Meeting no resistance, the column reached the intersection at the Generosity Square, when they encountered heavy attack and fire. Explosives used in the mines were gathered and made into rounds for paw-thrown, hoof-thrown and even rocket-propelled grenades – weaponized explosives in a container, if you will. There were also various light arms… guns, which were basically miniaturized cannons. Bullets rained down on the column from every possible direction, even the ground and the sky.

The Crystallians had only ever engaged in limited firearms and gunpowder weaponry at that point… The same as other Equestrians really. They were completely unprepared for a thunderous hail of lead. The rams caught fire, and the commanders, exposed out of the hatches, were almost all hit and wounded.

The column came to a halt, as the Crystallians panicked. They ran out of their formation, and those in the burning rams leapt off hurriedly, they all wanted to take cover in the nearby buildings. The remainder of the column turned around and retreated, which was disorderly. On their retreat, they came under attack with bottle bombs – glass bottles filled with fuel oil which would ignite a sea of fire when broken.

The ability for the militia within the town to coordinate perfectly within physically being with each other deeply bemuse and unnerve the remaining Crystallians. Either they have the help from the changelings, or the Flim Flam have touched up the radio technology enough for actual application, which is excellent news.

The elite Fire Opal Assault Regiment was at the rear when the ambush happened, therefore largely spared. They however, instead of pulling out of the town to carefully assess the conditions, quickly marched down the street to try to salvage the situation. And though they were much more prepared this time, they could not distinguish where the attacks were coming from among the sight of their fleeing compatriots, and they too were heavily hit. But they eventually managed to erect a barricade outside the Raritan Cinema and took shelter inside the spacious building.

However, Raritan Cinema was actually a giant rat trap. Booby traps lined the corridors and seats and stages, and they could not move out after shutting themselves in. Effectively, the bulk of their army were trapped inside the cinema and the several surrounding buildings. Anypony who dared to poke their head out of the windows were immediately attacked. After a while, shots and shouts could be heard from even within the buildings, and it was a total pandemonium. The ranking uninjured commander contemplated ending his life to spare the ignominy, but his vice-lieutenant knocked him out and instead ordered a general surrender.

As the shell-shocked and wounded Crystallian soldiers were herded to the streets the same way they once did to the Cloudsdale pegasi, they were stunned to see that the victors were merely a bunch of local policeponies and diamond dogs, plus a smattering of lightly equipped militia. A small group of Crystallians managed to escape from behind the square when the Raritan militia were ‘unaware’, but I suspect that it was deliberate and it was to send a message to the invaders.

According to them, Rarity was definitely there too. The survivors told of seeing a purple-maned white mare, who fought on fiercely alongside the militia with her ‘fire-lance’ even when she took a spear to her cheek. Generosità di Sangue, or ‘Bloody Generosity’ was the ironic name they gave to this devastating battle, which was the first major defeat suffered by Sunset Shimmer’s forces. The captured far exceeded the number of soldiers who escaped.

Enraged beyond limit by her generals’ ‘incompetence’ and ‘betrayal’, she personally led a force from Canterlot to take back the captives. But this time, shortly after she went into the Plains, the second phase of the girls’ plan was on. Rarity… she lived up to the name of her Element to the fullest, as she must’ve ordered the diamond dogs to pull out of their caves, but not before leaving high-grade explosives in each and every tunnels.

Once the second Crystallian force came, all explosives were detonated at once. The resulting blasts were almost like nopony had ever seen before. Even the East Equestria Army of the Crystallians heard the blast from high up the Crystal Mountains. The Saddle Plain was turned into a complete impassable waste.

Sunset Shimmer herself had to be pulled out of the rubbles among the descending guerillas and transported to safety. The fate of the rest of the army was unknown, because an even more disorienting mist soon covered the entire Saddle Plain, probably Discord’s hoofiwork again to stop the Crystallian from even touching Ponyville. If so, bless his heart…

After the humiliating defeat and subsequently being shut off the entire south Equestria, Sunset Shimmer bid her time in recovery, while turning her attention east.

La Ville was at the time subservient to Sunset Shimmer and allowed passage of goods and ponies to the east, because Blueblood had agreed to her demands. He was only there on a short trip, but opted to stay after seeing that Canterlot had been engulfed in conflict. The locals hated his guts for selling out and lording over them after ignoring them for so long. Again, he’s not actively malicious, just terribly lily-livered and obliviously offensive. His lack of intent of course did him no good in the eyes of his subjects, and the communes were quickly radicalized. Now both the intellectual leaders and the common followers were openly calling for the removal of him and his cabal of nobles.

Seeing the seething mass of ponies and worrying that he might get overthrown by the mob, he first appealed to Sunset Shimmer for help. But freshly after the defeat in Raritan, Sunset Shimmer was pinched of hoofpower. She was at the time waiting for the East Coast to formally fall in line. She also misjudged the mood of the leaders there. With the pretense of being the ‘legitimate Equestrian government’, she attempted to conscript troops from them and order them to surrender food and supplies to support her next attack on the south. And this would become apparent as a big mistake on her part.

At La Ville, Blueblood was basically told to sort himself out. He first half-heartedly clamped down on the protesters with the gendarmeries. After achieving nothing other than fanning the flames, he tried to flee the city and recruit from the countryside, which he probably thought contained more loyalists, and where he would have greater freedom of action than when he was in the chaotic city. Some of his minor vassals in the countryside seemed to have encouraged him to take shelter there instead as well.

He couldn’t be more wrong, though. The escape was prepared in typical Blueblood fashion, a disastrous series of mishaps upon mistakes. He didn’t even bother to communicate with his Crystallian advisors, who would have helped his escape. As he was stopping by the nearby village of Sainte-Manehould, now probably deserted because of Crystallian attacks, he was recognized by the local postmaster. Anti-royalist crowds had then gathered and neutralized the cavalry at his destination before he even arrived, and he was arrested in his slow-moving and extravagant carriage, before being returned under guard in humiliating captivity.

Blueblood was greeted with silence and complete shock in La Ville when he returned. Before that, only a small part of the crowd thought to actually depose him and take control themselves. You simply don’t undo thousands of years of teaching that nobles are supposed to be superior and take care of everything at the drop of a hat. But Blueblood’s cowardly flight ripped his remaining credibility to pieces, and caused a lot of people to realize that they might be able to take care of La Ville better than Blueblood did.

He at first wasn’t outright dethroned. He was confined to the Palace as the legislative assembly convened on his fate. He had the chance to cooperate with the moderates and retained some power, but he trusted that the Crystallians would save his plot, and thereby rejecting any plan that reduced his power. He secretly pleaded with Sunset Shimmer again, and this time she issued a manifesto that ran in the vein of her style – she likes to make an example out of things to terrorize her opponents into silence. Basically she threatened destruction of La Ville if the safety of Blueblood was again endangered.

This was the last straws for the Villians, as it was seen as a definite proof for his ‘treasonous’ activity. His palace was stormed by angry mobs, and the physical letters were found. He, each and every one of his boot-licking nobles, and the corps of Crystallian advisors, were dragged out on the streets and locked up in the prison towers. Lion Muzzle was quick to use this popular momentum to formally dissolve the Villian monarchy and reformed the assembly into the Revolutionary Council, consisting of the old middle classes as well as poorer artisans. He proclaimed himself the director of the Prench Republic after a quick and decisive plebiscite.

It was even worse, because the east coast seemed to have taken the Villians’ successful arrest of the Crystallians as an inspiration. They really did not want to submit to Sunset Shimmer, who asked so much from them but basically promised them no right or power, nor was she interested in drafting a new article of union.

The royalists and loyalists in the eastern cities were swept aside when ponies heard that armies under the Equestrian flag were wreaking havoc on their own citizens. They in general are supportive of Princess Celestia and Luna, but now that they are missing from the picture, and the one unicorn leading the royal government was an unapologetically brutal dictator, they were very tempted to secede, and the Villian declaration was a big boost to that idea.

I believe that the cities came together in a convention later to determine their next course of action, but subsequent events are sketchy due to Villian blockade and heightened counter-intelligence efforts. I am sure though that they have turned hostile to Crystallians and the puppet Equestrian government, which caused Sunset Shimmer to in turn call for Guillaume to raid and blockade the port cities as punishment.

Sunset Shimmer was angry, of course. But when she called me forward to talk about this, she also looked… a bit shaken? I don’t know…

*sigh* I said she wasn’t a pantomime villain, and she sometimes… showed a bit of weakness in front of me that she absolutely won’t show in front of the others. Not that this excuses any of her actions or anything, but she’s not an anti-social monster. Even though my friendliness towards her was a result of brainwashing, but sometimes she seemed to be melted by my bubbly optimism and saw me as somepony more than her puppet… As if my constant pleading with her to be my friend worked.

I- I really hesitate to tell you these, Spike, because I must’ve sounded like a victim that grew attached to her captor. But I swear that I am being truthful. I think she realized this as abnormal as well, so she deliberately avoided to see me lest she softened too much.

But when she called me up, she looked tired. She lamented aloud that she just wanted to make Crystal Empire the envy of all pony and the light of civilization again. She then even momentarily doubtful whether she would succeed or not. Being her unconditional ‘friend’, I offered words of comfort and even hugs. To the surprise of even my brainwashed self, she nodded! She never accepted that before, and she even threw me onto the floor like a rug once!

After a brief hug, she looked a bit less tired, and she asked me about the wonder weapon that I had been assigned to work on.

Since before I was subdued, I managed to seal most of the most dangerous knowledge along with the secrets I had with all of you, so she thankfully knew not much more by questioning me. But some of my skills were still exploited. The giant gun you smacked into a pile of metal… It is, or rather, was the ‘Big Dora’.

It was her dream wonder weapon. Something mighty such that it would finally bring the ponies who sat on the fence to her. It had been worked on since the very beginning. However, after the disaster in Raritan, she knew first-hoof the devastating power of gunpowder weapon, and she told me to focus all my energy into making the dread cannon that could obliterate a small town in a hit.

This was the very first time Big Dora was brought to action. Most of the rails to other parts of Equestria had been damaged by fighting or deliberate sabotage, and only the one from the Empire proper to La Ville is preserved. But at the end, other than tumbling a wall and hurting my drakefriend, it didn’t do much.

The original battleplan was to have La Ville surrounded with a large amount of soldiers and starved for a while, before transporting the Big Dora here and having it firing explosive shots on the thick walls, completely demolishing them. If the Villians still resist, then the Crystallians would pour in from all directions and begin their reign of terror.

Lieutenant-General Asclepias commanded the East Equestria Army, newly reinforced by the remnant of the southern army. The new army was about one sixth of all operational forces under Sunset Shimmer. Asclepias’ promotion was situational, because he’s a Vinidi, a clan that despite its size, was disgraced due to their early opposition to Sunset Shimmer. However, so many high-ranking commanders have been lost and captured in Raritan, Sunset Shimmer had no choice but to promote him, who seemed to be the most competent and silently loyal of them all.

To boost his position and ease the tight hoofpower situation, Vinidis in the mines and labor camps were assigned under Asclepias, effectively making it a Vinidi-majority army from officers to recruits.

Spike, I am stressing this point because I see that Miss Pisacan is with you, and the Villians are not going to be kind to the Crystallian prisoners of war. If what I gather from the intelligence was true, it was only the Directory’s restraints keeping the people from outright enacting ‘mob’s justice’ on them.

The events that unfolded afterwards are also known to you. Asclepias was summarily defeated by Lion Muzzle. Sunset Shimmer then did the desperate thing and sent me out, along with Laske who just arrived to request protection as a reinforcement. And here we are.

Now we’re at a crossroad. I understand if you and your followers want to go back to the north to finish the white wolf business, but with your army, we might be able to do something to bring down Sunset Shimmer and return Equestria to peace.

First, I think it is important to make sure that the captives would not become the victim of a purge borne out of hate. What the Crystallians did and stands for are… wrong, but as they were mostly following their leaders, they can be led to join the good fight. Now that we have Pisacan, Cadance and Shining Armor on our side, we could’ve switched their allegiance to the ‘true’ government of Crystal Empire. We can’t stand to antagonize all crystal ponies, and pulling at least some over to us is our key to victory.

I hope to honest harmony that it would not end badly. Then what we do next will greatly affect our outlook.

We can immediately assault the Empire proper through the Crystal Railroad. This way we exploit the vacuum of military presence after this major defeat, as well as the faltering confidence of the people on Sunset Shimmer’s ability to wage wars.

H- Heh… Uh… Well, I would still say we shouldn’t underestimate our opponent. But even though she’s a great speaker, a very magical unicorn as well as a grand strategist, she was not so… um, great in tactical planning. And yet she insisted in putting her hooves and micromanaging decisions on the frontlines. So yeah, that’s a plus for us.

However, the Empire proper is also heavily fortified, and any assault would be very costly. Having dealt a deadly blow to the yaks by dismantling their defenses, Sunset Shimmer are very conscious of the possibility of being defeated in the same way –broken through by speed and surprise with short, fast and powerful attacks. Hence she was very careful in building up defenses determined to deter fast enemy movements.

The Winter Lines anchored around the Crystal Mountains, and were a series of newly built and repurposed crystal-reinforced stone forts that overlooked the major throughways to the Empire proper. If we still have Big Dora, these forts are easy-peasy to deal with, but now… I- I’m not blaming you, Spike, I’d never do that! It’s a weapon that’s designed to hurt and destroy, and if the situation doesn’t demand it, I’d hate to keep it intact. In fact, I hate myself for having making it and other weapons in the first place…

*breath in slightly* Another option is to bypass the Empire altogether and try to reach Canterlot, thereby restoring a rightful Equestrian government… possibly under Cadance? I know that her status as the Crystal Princess would complicate things, but she’s the best choice we have. Anyway, to do so, we must march through the Neighagra Escarpment and then the Foal Mountain. There will not be a road to march on, and it could be perilous. Although we might be able to stop by the town of Hollow Shades. It’s a major bat pony settlement that had not been involved in the conflicts so far. The railroad into the town had been abandoned and inoperable for years, and the town was so secluded and secretive that few knows where it stands, both figuratively and physically.

The last option is to sail down the Whinnypeg, cross the Echo Notch and go to Manehattan and the other eastern cities. Although we have no recent information as to what happened after the grand convention, there should be a wellspring of support against Sunset Shimmer, and we can leverage those support if we play our cards right. My worry is that the sheer number of Crystallians that might end up attached to us would be too great for them to put their trust in us. Heck, I have been paraded as the happy face of the new regime for so long, I bet I am going to be vilified and spat on by those ponies as well…

Speaking of which, one reason that Sunset Shimmer banked on when she sent me east was my connection to the donkeys. I guess she must’ve dug it up when she was doing background checks on me. It started with me reuniting Cranky and Matilda, and it ended up leading to me being inducted within the donkey community in Manehattan.

Donkeys came from north of Saddle Arabia, but they are long integrated in Equestria. Still, there are considerable biases against them, so most of them banded together in Manehattan as a tight-knitted community. A lot of them are successful business operators, having stakes in finance, retail, media and real estate. Sunset Shimmer hoped that I can persuade them to support her cause and eventually turn the whole of Manehattan to her side. Now that I have… shaken off her control thanks to you, I might be able to do something similar for us.

So, Spike, what path would you choose?