Epilogue
It was snowing and Flurry was pretty certain that she had nothing to do with it. At least, she hoped that she had nothing to do with it. Given the state of her emotions, it was hard to tell. A hard snow at the end of summer was uncommon, but not impossible. Looking out the window of her father’s study, she heard Trixie clearing her throat and wondered what dreadful punishment awaited.
“This outcome was unexpected,” her father said in a low voice and Flurry turned away from the narrow arched window to pay attention to him. “Twinkleshine and I had to do a fair bit of cleanup last night to try and straighten out this mess, but this… this is unexpected.”
“I’m a little confused about it myself.” Sumac—who sat in a high backed chair in the corner, the same chair that Flurry herself usually sat in—fidgeted and was unable to sit still. “I mean, I woke up this morning and there was over a dozen of them and I just don’t understand.”
Hunched over in his own chair, Shining Armor tapped his front hooves together while letting out a thoughtful sigh. Without realising that she was doing so, Flurry mimicked her father, and she too, began tapping her front hooves together. It made her look serious and grown up, but she was unaware of this.
“The Nervous and Distressed Trixie is unaware of the required etiquette to turn down a marriage proposal.” After drawing in a hesitant, shuddering breath, she continued, “After what her son did, Trixie is at a loss to understand the reasoning behind these proposals.”
“Sis, is it really so hard to grasp?” Shining Armor asked as he leaned up against his desk. “Such are the vagaries of politics… almost all of these proposals come from mares… mothers, Trixie, mothers who want the best, safest possible marriage for their daughter. Once I made the situation clear last night, once ponies understood that Sumac did what he did in a misguided attempt to protect his best friend—”
Sumac’s breathy adolescent sigh was enough to make Shining Armor pause and Flurry’s head turned to look at her fellow insurrectionist. He looked miserable and his glasses were crooked. Even worse, he didn’t seem to notice and he did nothing to fix them. Yep, things had to be pretty bad.
“Anyhow, once I did all I could to clear things up, those still in attendance were quite understanding. Sumac proved himself to be a good catch, no doubt in part due to all of your hard work. He showed immense courage and was willing to do something immensely idiotic for the sake of his friend… a filly. Let’s face it, that’s a romantic gesture in the most classical sense, a knight in service of his lady fair, and that is something that these ponies understand.”
Extending a foreleg, Shining Armor allowed it to come to rest atop a sheaf of papers. “Flurry, you have no shortage of admirers yourself. These are formal requests for vassalisation… ponies who wish to swear fealty to you and bear your standard.”
Unable to respond, Flurry stared down at the floor. She didn’t feel like she deserved followers, not after what she had done. The events of last night proved that she lacked maturity and that she was in no position to take on any sort of responsibility. Her eyes burned and a single, stinging teardrop collected in the corner of her left eye, making it twitch.
“No political capital is wasted,” Shining Armor said in a calm voice. “Last night, there was a major debacle, but I am convinced that some good can come out of it. Cadance on the other hoof, she’s a bit too upset to see clearly at the moment, which is why she isn’t here with us. She is utterly incapable of being objective this morning, now that everything has settled in. She’s taking this hard.”
Unable to blink it away, Flurry’s tear rolled halfway down her cheek before being absorbed into her pelt.
“As for myself, I see opportunity. This act of monumental stupidity dragged some uncomfortable subjects out into the light of day, the most important of which is the treatment of mares in the Crystal Empire. The attitudes here are woefully out of date… my wife is Empress of the Empire, but many of the male aristocrats make demands of her and expect her to just obey. This is frustrating to her, and she doesn’t have the luxury of having a temper tantrum or lashing out. She has to bite her tongue and work to make progress. She has to make headway with effort and diplomacy.”
Sighing, Flurry knew those last words were directed at her.
“Already, I can see the enemy that my daughter will have to fight, and as a father, it terrifies me. There is a dangerous lurking enemy that is just as evil and insidious as Sombra at his most wicked. There is a shadowy, intangible disease that infects our great empire.” Shining paused for a moment, and Flurry became aware of the fact that her father was staring at her.
Feeling his eyes upon her, she somehow managed to lift her heavy head up to look at him. In his eyes, she saw pride, weariness, exhaustion, and a bit of amusement. She could feel sweat trickling from her wingpits and wondered at which point did such sweatiness become a problem, because she couldn’t remember it being an issue when she was little.
“The first fight went poorly,” Shining Armor continued, “as first fights often go. Flurry, you failed to understand your enemy and the right way to engage it. Now, the stallions of this empire will have an excuse for more mare bashing. They’ll be able to use your little outburst as an example, as an excuse for why mares are unfit to wield power, or rule, or do anything. They’ll be able to use your emotional temper tantrum to support their arguments and convince others of their cause. Last night, you made everything worse for every mare and filly in the Empire.”
“Daddy… I…” Flurry’s words became a squeak and at that moment, she understood the dreadful truth of what her father had said. She had committed one of the classical blunders: giving aid to the enemy, and the most famous of which was to never get involved in a land war in Windia.
“Sorry Flurry, no more soft language, no more padding my words. I’m done with that. You want to play rough? You want to take your lumps? Fine. You will. I want you to win, Flurry. You… you are going to accept these offers of vassalisation and you are going to accept these oaths of fealty. This is your punishment. You are going to learn how your every waking action has an effect upon those around you.”
Flurry started to protest, but her mouth betrayed her, much to her own shock and surprise. “Daddy… that seems fair.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she sat in stunned silence, unable to comprehend the utterance that had sprung from her lips. What had caused this? Would it ever be safe to speak again? Was this an alicorn problem? It was dreadful, whatever it was.
In her mind, Flurry began to pick apart the situation and realised that she had exactly what she wanted. It was not the fight that she had imagined or had daydreamed about, but it was a fight, and she had her father’s support. It was a fight she did not understand though, with difficult, nebulous concepts and a vague, ill-defined enemy that was more shadow or spectre. Saying nothing, she resolved to undo the damage that she had done and that somehow, she would take this fight to the enemy.
But only after she understood what she was fighting, as she didn’t want to commit further blunders.
“Flurry, as Heir of Lulamoon Hollow, I pledge my support and I offer my fiefdom as sanctuary for any of your subjects in need of asylum—”
“Sumac, what are you doing? Do you understand what you are saying? What you are offering?”
Before Sumac could respond, Shining Armor cut in with a smooth, well-practiced interjection: “Trixie, let them take their first steps. Let us see what they will do. Sumac, do continue, if you please.”
Turning to look at Sumac, Flurry felt her heart in her throat.
“As I was saying, Flurry, should any of your subjects need a place of refuge, I offer sanctuary in Lulamoon Hollow.” Squirming in his seat, Sumac wasn’t sure if he was sticking his hoof into his mouth. After the events of last night, his confidence was shaken and his usual faith in himself felt lacking. He could see what was going on, the punishment was being made to fit the crime. They wanted to act like adults? Well, they were now being treated as adults.
It was every bit as awful as he expected.
“Well, don’t just sit there, Fluffalump, say something,” Shining Armor commanded.
At this, Flurry turned a much brighter hue of pink and she seemed to be at a loss for words. Sumac understood; the power of parental embarrassment was mighty. Fluffalump? He stored that tidbit away for use at a later time when he needed the upper hoof against Flurry. The wings against his sides felt heavy, hot, and itchy.
As Sumac sat in the silence that Flurry could not break, he thought about the marriage proposals that had been delivered to his room this morning. It seemed that no time was ever wasted and even in the dead of the night, political maneuverings took place. He had read them, each and every one of them, and the outpouring of emotion contained in them had touched him. Many of the proposals pledged support even if he turned down the offer, which surprised him. Perhaps the proposals were just a veiled excuse to offer support, a means for a mare to contact him that her husband might approve of. Upon thinking of this, his imagination went into overdrive.
“Thank you, Sumac, for everything.” Flurry’s voice was squeaky, but endearing.
Distracted from his musings, Sumac nodded but failed to reply.
“Mistakes aren’t the end of the world,” Shining Armor said in a voice that Sumac could only register as ‘fatherly.’ It was the same sort of voice that Big Mac might use, or Tarnish, or Igneous, or any of the other males in his life.
“From the ashes of this unmitigated disaster will come change. This wasn’t the catalyst I was hoping for, but it is just the opportunity I need. Ponies are so disgusted by what Sumac said and the utter callousness that he drew from that book—”
Trixie began giggling and Shining Armor had to stop talking. The stern looking stallion sat behind his desk, his mouth hanging open, and Sumac watched as his mother was overcome with the most terrible outbreak of the giggles that he had seen in a long time. The giggles progressed into full-blown laughter and his mother threw her head back to let everything out. Nopony else in the room laughed, and Sumac wondered what could possibly be so funny.
“Dear sister, what is so funny?” Shining Armor asked.
Trixie could not respond and she laughed so hard that she almost fell out of her chair. Her barrel rose and fell, heaving, and tears began leaking from from her eyes. Sitting in the corner, Sumac was too far away to touch his mother and he wondered if she was having one of her spells that she sometimes had when her anxiety was too much to bear. She had already been talking in the third-pony, so it was possible that she was having one of her fits.
“My son”—these words came out a strained, near-wheeze in between barking coughs of laughter—“the precocious little malcontent that he is… he eviscerated a roomful of sexists with nothing but words, using their own literature against them! If only somepony had done the same for Trixie and Trixie’s Great and Powerful mom!”
Sumac knew. He knew, and with the knowledge came pain, pain like nothing else, and he wrapped his forelegs around his middle in a self-hug as his guts suffered a powerful clench. He knew what the pressure had done to his grandmother, Dandelia, and how it had affected Trixie as well. He looked at Shining Armor, and when their eyes met, somehow Sumac knew that the both of them were thinking the same thing. The pressure, the stress, the grind… it had driven Dandelia to go to extraordinary lengths to satisfy the demand. In Shining Armor’s gleaming eyes, he saw the pain—he could sense it too—but there was no way that Sumac could put any of this into words.
What might this pressure have done to Flurry over time?
How might Flurry’s life now be different because of what they had done?
As his stomach clenched once more, he understood his mother’s laughter: she had reached the point where one had to either laugh or cry, and she now laughed in defiance of the pain. Slipping out of his chair, he went to his mother’s side and then just stood there, unsure of what to do as his inner-anxieties manifested as physical pains in his guts.
Just as Sumac was about to make an attempt to say something meaningful to his mother, the door banged open and a bright orange pegasus pony stumbled into the room, looking terrified and panicked. His sudden appearance caused Trixie’s laughter to cease.
“I said I didn’t want to be disturbed!” Shining shouted. “Damnit, I don’t ask for much and I want some time to sort out my family! This had better be important, Captain Sentry!”
“Sir!” Captain Sentry drew himself to attention and sucked in a gulp of air. “Sir, we are under attack—”
“WHAT?”
“Sir, we are under attack! The snowstorm! There are reports that some of the falling snowflakes have turned into ice orcs, Sir! There is already heavy fighting in the streets and the guards have engaged them!”
Shining Armor lept over his desk in a fluid movement, landed on his hooves in front of Flash Sentry, and barked out some orders: “Marshal the defenses! Prepare the city for siege! There is snow everywhere which means the enemy is everywhere! Contact Canterlot! Evacuate the citizenry and get them into the palace at once!”
Stunned, in shock, Sumac glanced over at Flurry Heart and knew by her expression that they were about to get into trouble once more…
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What better way to end an insurrection then a little war aye?
I don't know. I liked this story, but the last two chapter, the one before this especially, punch to the gut man.
Now to see the support cemented in the no doubt, complete mess of a battle. I mean, Dim, Sunburst, Cadance, Starlight, Spike, Blackbird, Flicker, Piper, Shining, Trix, Twinkle, and a good portion of the wipeout's. Could it end any other way?
what did I tell you, best posable outcome. now to kill off all the sexiest, oh and the ogers too (and here is to hopeing mares see flurry fight with a furry never before seen in the empire and kicking off a bloody feminist revolution)
Ah, the importance of allowing the freedom to share bad ideas openly so that everyone can see how ridiculous they actually are.
It's not exactly what was intended, but hey, any victory on an open front, right?
Thou art on the main page. In the featured section. Congratulations.
Not much of a resolution, but we got an ending.
I'll take it.
some reason i am just imagining a bunch of tiny white colored lord of the rings orcs running around, trying to get back to fll size before they get beat up XD.
through chaos there is change. And change is as much a part of Harmony as peace is. Flurry heart is a storm that brings said change.
The sexist aristocracy of the Crystal Empire is going to be fighting a losing battle. Cadence, and I assume her foals, are all immortal. Even if one of the future ones were to be a colt, he's likely be a total mama's boy and takes looking after his sisters very seriously meaning that they would have no ally in him. They ain't gonna have a male ruler for a looooong time.
8413991
actualy we got a cliffhanger
8414039
Okay, allow me to be specific.
This section of the story got an ending. As in the story says COMPLETE at the bottom of the page.
A great deal of his work that I've gotten invested in for both story and characters had no resolution.
I can finish this and be happy with it never continuing. If it does, great, if not I am content.
8414079
Flurry Heart Vs. the Ice Orcs comes next, where the ice princess has to fight enemies utterly immune to ice. She'll get a chance to prove herself before the fight is done.
It's a whole new kind of dance.
And the yak in the back cried every yak attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz.
What I would like to see is all the Crystal ponies begging for the Princesses help, and their response being.
"We can't help, we're only girls after all"
Of course they would steam in anyway, save the day and drive yet another nail into the coffin of outdated sexism.
I enjoyed this one a lot Kudzu, thank you.
8413956 I think that Flurry fights with snow, so I'm not sure whether it'd help.
8414086 I can only hope you actually put that in.
Ice orcs!
Here's an idea, let's take all the ponies who think the dreaded book is the correct approach to handling mares and put them on the front lines.
Before the brain is fully developed, people tend to think in extremes: right or wrong, black or white, etc. Children lack the ability to compromise. This stunt only brought the difference in ideology to the surface. The real problem is that when people gather around leaders with opposing ideas, it often leads to conflict. Hopefully a good crisis will bring everyone together long enough for some healthy debate instead of violence.
8414086
I was wondering if the yaks were going to play in the political part of the story at all.
Like Equestrians treat them as dullards but they're secretly Frank Underwoods and Flurry was the first to notice.
8414086
That feeling when you know Tarnish, Maud, Vinyl, and Octavia can probably perform some sort of offense-oriented ritual that is exactly a ballroom blitz. /fans self
8414408
Agreed. Slow politics to try and change the minds of those who are an intolerant and miring sickness on an otherwise healthy and progressive society need to be shown the door, harshly. Otherwise they'll just dig their roots in deeper, gather more allies, and work society over with more numbers than you because they see their power-from-tradition is in jeopardy.
If they try to renege on their noble oaths and aristocratic duties, then strip them of lands, titles, and resources, and then redistribute them. Tell everyone that you are not playing around. The only ones to call you an evil tyrant are the ones who were always going to try and undermine and control you anyway. When everyone else sees stuff is better after the fact and you haven't changed for the worse - then they'll forget all about the little jackasses no one liked anyway except people like them to begin with.
Catering to people who are a threat to the goodness of your society just to avoid angering them legitimizes them and gives them power. Just TAKE their power and give it to those who are loyal. That's how noble lines get started to BEGIN with. At the beginning of an empire or regime no one is born noble, they are essentially regular people who do extraordinary things for the good of the regime, and possibly for the people and get raised to the new peerage because of it.
The wicked should fear you, the just should adore you, the weak should duck into your arms for safety. That is a leader. Flurry isn't the only one who needs learning here. Cadence needs Princessing upgrades and mothering lessons (Shining is essentially best mom and best dad at this point). These people lived with Sombra, even if Cadence was permanently seen as a tyrant they'd -LOVE- to have a benevolent tyrant, anything better than Sombra is already good for them. They do not control their alicorns, that is something they have to learn. Sheep are protected and provide for, the shepherd takes care of the flock - the shepherd is not the flock's slave. They help each other survive.
And now it's time to be even more like adults!
8414516
Honestly that's probably the best course of action but how do we proceed to do that?
Making a decree to do that alone could turn ugly unless we can some how provide a precedent to strip them of that power.
Evidence of authority abuse for instance would work, negligence is also an option, but for any of these to work we need evidence.
8414810
I think the excuse might just be falling from the sky at this very moment
8415058
The Ice orcs?
Hmmm...are their powers similar to the wendigos?
Now that I think about it Starlight has used a spell to bottle and seal anger energy...why not use that stored anger to domesticate wendigos?
8415058
I saw what you did there.
8415159
No, their power is similar to ice orcs.
8414810
Sometimes you just need to get ugly and deal with the fallout by putting forward all your virtues openly. I've dealt with more than my fair share of manipulators. The good ones don't leave evidence. They show up, they act friendly, they make themselves wanted and needed (the people who think 'I'd know if I was being manipulated' are the biggest suckers for them), necessary, and then after laying a foundation, a bulwark, an infinite alibi, and a cadre of important people with good reputations to support and defend them, they start changing things in the society to suit their selfish, damaging wants. Never obvious enough for people to start wondering. They might start being abusive towards an unpopular minority, getting their rocks off while these people cry out for help or against them and no one believes them. They might just start gathering power and authority, rocketing up the ladder.
All you can do is either try to catch them in a mistake with evidence that no one can believe you would have made up (any manipulator malignant worth their salt has prepared for this and no one will WANT to believe you except the unpopular victims - which makes your case look worse) ... Or just barrel in, grab them, throw them out the door, lock it, and deal with what comes next.
The first allows the cancer to grow indefinitely. The chance may never come, and the longer they stay to make a mistake, the stronger they get - to the point that it becomes impossible to remove them even if they openly admit everything simply because they are too necessary to get rid of. The latter hurts you, but if you're skillful and have plenty of credibility, you CAN recover.
Mariner is an example of this. He stayed in the game too long, became the TRUE power of society simply because he was too untouchable and overtly too legitimate, became too big, too strong. And when things went south, Equestria convulsed in on itself. You have to do what it takes to get rid of them before it gets that far - and even then he was sloppy. He could just afford to be.
There is a clash in this that is completely glossed over; the clash between the realpolitik of a hereditary monarchy and the comparatively very new concept of childhood. Trying to rear a royal heir according to modern concepts -allowing them to have a childhood at all- will not work if they are at the same time expected to deal with the duties and formalities of the feudal system. From that point of view, this was ultimately Cadence's and Shining Armor's failure. They meant well, but Flurry was never not going to explode and make a major mess at some point if she were given none of the protective training but all of the attention and exposure that comes with being a princess when that means something. Traditionally, the children of nobles had a very different "childhood" than the modern standard.
Sorry, Cadence, but if the Crystal Cotillion was all for Flurry, then why the everloving fuck did you invite the aristocracy? And if politics necessitated it then why not fill Flurry in on that?
8416549
Because, it is a difficult, tricky balancing act and mistakes get made. Parents (realistically) rarely give explanations or reasons to their children. You tell your children what to do and they obey. This is the fairly standard modus operandi of the parent-child relationship and deviating away from it is a mistake. Sure, you can bargain with your child, but the moment that things break down and there is some kind of crisis that requires instant reaction and your child wants to bargain, it is only then that you realise the monumental mistake that you've made.
Ultimately, Cadance doesn't owe Flurry an explanation. Flurry is a foal and is subject to her parent's whims, which are indeed in her best interests.
As for the childhood aspect, I actually tried to introduce that into the story a few times and different points, and it broke the story down. Every attempt was left in the editing dustbin, which bothers me. I'm really glad that you brought it up!
8416557
This debut at the cotillion, unless I am mistaken, would signal Flurry's maturation into adolescence at the very least. Unless those chauvinist politicians were playing a very long game then they expected her engagement to be imminent. I could easily see the old-fashioned book give them the notion that arranging a child marriage among royalty was fine, but I have difficulties accepting that Shining and Cadence would just tell her daughter to smile and wave when introduced to such an intensely politically charged situation, where every action might have such strong consequences, as the cotillion, and then not accept some of the blame when it turns out catastrophically. Especially given that they indicate they know and accept that Flurry has a streak of independence.
Ultimately, that's what the modern idea of childhood is about, right? To raise a strong, independent person? Flurry had the right idea, that concepts like those presented in the book need to be combated, so her parents are rightfully proud about that, but to know all this about her daughter and expect her to just sit there and take it seems much more like Cadence's and Shining's mistake than it is Flurry's due to the latter's ill-informed attempt at correcting this wrong. Either Flurry has some independence, and should be counted as an agent with a will of her own, in which case the parents are at fault for not duly informing her of the reality of the cotillion (instead of the fantasy that it's all for her), or she has no independence -but in that case why would she be considered ready for something like her debut at the cotillion?
8416557
and THATS how you get people who cant care for themselves or get taken advantage of or kill themselves because they arent allowed to have free will, you act like all parents know best about every little thing, THEY DON'T what candece did was WRONG in almost every single way every reader is holding flurry to a different standerd then you would a normal foal, you have put yourself into a corner and nothing short of the exscuse of outright MIND CONTROL will put candece in a more sympathetic light then flurry, what she was going through IS disgusting and wreched and they are doing FAR more damage to the heard as a whole then flurrys outbusrt EVER could
and example of the disaster if this mentality is left to dig in, a repeat of the buble jelly incident with either the mares stageing a bloody revalution and trying to take males heads on a pike OR it gets so bad that the empire demands candace step down due to the fact that she is a mare.
you have alredy established marena makeing a masive market crash to spite celestia, ergo ponies of power are capable of doing masive damage if they get too powerfull and the damands they make are not met (no matter how unreasonable they are). not only that you have ALSO established that the treatment of trixy and her mother (which is the same treatment the nobles are giving flurry) is outright ABUSE, emotional abuse and that it screwd them up massively (luna herself said she was unfit to run lulumoon hollow).
so yes, candence owes flurry an apology, a BIG one
8417240
If Flurry was capable of making good, responsible decisions for herself, she wouldn't have thrown a spoiled brat tantrum. She would have been responsible and done the right thing.
Her outburst alone is evidence that she is incapable of making proper decisions for her own care. Since she is utterly incapable of making any sort of meaningful decisions, her parents have to make them for her.
8417252
THERE IS NO RIGHT THING HERE, you keep repeating the same thing here"flurry should lissen to candance no matter what" when more then a few of us have told you why thats a bad idea in this particular circumstance.
8417402
And I have a college education in psychology and child development that tells me otherwise. Sorry, that uh, kinda trumps anything being said here.
8417405
and I have witnessed firsthand what happens when someone is subjected to this treatment for a prolonged period of time, no degree will prepare you for reality of this kind of thing, no parent is perfect or choses whats actualy best for their child every single time they can give bad advice, and sometimes that advice can lead to truely horrible outcomes.
8417429
This isn't a prolonged period of time, sorry. This is just a child who isn't ready for responsibility, yet. Remove your biases and be objective if you wish to pursue this, please.
"No, Shining. You and Cadance did when you had Flurry go to that disgusting ball along with the even more disgusting aristocracy. You know... those so-called Nobles who would, oh I don't know--happily RAPE YOUR WIFE AND FOAL IF THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH IT!"
Tactically Flurry made a mistake, Strategically though, she just ousted the enemy an they don't even know it. Now she can focus on them, find them out and destroy their Houses one by one, be it through political or reputational means.
There's an invasion coming.
Head Count: Dim, Sumac, Flicker, and Pebble's there, so Tarnish'll be coming too.
This, this will be the Weedverse story we've been waiting for.
8655842
No Tarnish.
He'll be busy, elsewhere.
"Oh My God I can't believe my mom is throwing me a ball!"
...Someone please smack her. Hard.
amazing story.