Gilda rose up over Griffonstone, only sparing a moment to glance back down at the crowd below her. The narrow street was packed with griffons, all of them watching her as she caught a thermal and banked towards the main square. She wanted to get away from them as fast as possible, to get back to her bakery and away from all the attention.
She had no idea if she had done the right thing. It seemed wrong to punish a griffon for taking food that he had always taken. It wasn’t his, but did that really matter? The rule of Griffonstone had always been that if you could take it, it was yours. Did the fact she was now a princess change that?
She wasn’t even sure if it was the right sort of punishment to give him, forcing him to do work—unpaid work—for others. It was about the most humiliating thing you could make a griffon do, but it was the only thing she could think of as punishment. What else could she have done? And it was making the town better, at least for a few griffs. Wasn’t that what she was supposed to be doing?
A quick glance down told her that she had overflown the square, so she tilted her wings to circle back around. There was a lot of activity going on below her, with ponies setting up tents and others pulling carts into the square. She wasn’t surprised to see that three of the princesses were standing outside of her shop; the only one missing was Luna.
With one last twist of her tail, Gilda descended, flaring to a soft landing right in front of the trio of mares. Without a word to them she walked back into her bakery. There was no sign of Luna inside, just Greta and Skychart, watching her as she returned to her seat and dropped down into it with a heavy thud. The princesses followed her a few moments later.
Gilda had never done anything like that before. Sure, she had been in her share of fights, pinned griffons and ponies to the ground and even broken up a few scuffles. Yet she had never tried to solve why the fight was happening in the first place. It was a stupid fight, but the kind that happened all the time in Griffonstone, more so in the fall as everygriff struggled to hoard food for the winter.
Her introspection was brought to a quick end as the door to the shop was flung open and Luna trotted in. “That was commendable!” she declared, her voice too loud for the space they were in, causing it to reverberate off the walls. “It was truly outstanding how you quickly grasped the nuance of the situation and found a solution that punished the perpetrator as well as provided aid to others. The fact that you did so in a way that would leave him in a position to start a profitable business, as well as encouraging the injured party to do the same, was a shining example of leadership.”
Gilda could only stare at Luna, her beak hanging open, as the mare sat down at the table, a wide grin on her muzzle.
“I had my doubts about my sister’s choice, but having seen you in action I do believe that she did indeed chose well,” Luna added, glancing at Celestia for a moment.
“I just did what seemed right at the time,” Gilda replied, looking down at her claws. “I didn’t consider either of them starting a business.”
Celestia chuckled softly, giving a sidelong glance to Twilight. “In most situations, leadership is doing what appears to be the correct course of action at that moment. It’s rare that you will have to mull over a decision, but when you do, it will be because it is critical.”
Gilda looked over the four ponies. “So, this is all just a big shell game?”
“It’s more like a game of chess,” Cadence replied. “You have to think about the big picture, to see how your choices will affect it, but you have to be quick to adapt to any opportunity that might present itself.”
The griffon hen blinked, then slowly shook her head. “I have no idea how to play chess.”
“I can teach you,” Twilight said with a smile. “It’s an interesting game with a lot of deep strategies. I’m pretty good at it myself, but I wouldn’t play against Celestia. She is a grand master of the game.”
The elder princess just smiled at that. “I have had a few centuries to practice.”
“And yet you have never won against Fluttershy,” Luna teased, gently jabbing her sister with the edge of her hoof.
Gilda just looked between Celestia and Luna, watching the two of them act like children. It seemed incredible that these two mares were among the most powerful creatures in the world, yet they hardly seemed to have the maturity to stock up for the winter.
Cadence cleared her throat, “Well, as interesting as that might be, we’re not here to discuss games. We are here to help you make some immediate decisions about the future of the Griffon Kingdom. That includes the overall structure of the government,” she spoke with the tone of a mother annoyed with her chicks.
“Please,” Gilda said, glad someone could take control of the group.
Twilight’s horn began to glow as a pair of thick books were lifted from her saddle bags. “There are a number of different forms of government that have been proven to function in the past. From the Canterlot System to Mazin’s more… pugilist style. Each one has their advantages and drawbacks, which must be carefully considered when making your decision.”
She set the books down on the table, then reached back into her bag to pull out a thick stack of notecards, a large smile on her face as she aligned them all together. “Now, starting with the Canterlot System—”
Thankfully, a knock on the door brought a temporary reprieve from the oncoming lecture. It caused Twilight to scrunch up her nose in annoyance as she set the cards down.
Greta quickly went to the door, pulling back the cover on the window to look outside. “It’s one of your guards,” she said. With a quick twist of her talon she pushed the door open, allowing the stallion to step inside the shop. He was wearing different armor then the other guards Gilda had seen, the most striking change being that it was silver and not gold.
The pony turned to Celestia and gave her a quick salute. “You Highnesses, the secure wagon has arrived. I have the guards moving it behind the building for the time being.”
“Thank you,” Celestia replied with a slight nod of her head. “Gilda, this is Captain Sidereal Equinox of the Equestrian Guard. I would like for you to work with him until we can arrange a more permanent security detail.”
Gilda narrowed her eyes, giving the stallion an intense look. He seemed like any other pony to her, with a blond mane and tan fur that was marred with white splotches. She wasn’t sure she wanted some pony providing ‘security’ for her. “Surely there must be a griffon in the royal guard,” she finally said.
“There are three, but all fairly low ranking. They do not have the skill or the security clearance for this task,” Celestia replied.
That didn’t make her feel any better.
The stallion used his magic to pull off his helmet, allowing his mane to fall along his neck. He gave another quick salute, but this time to Gilda. “A correction your Highness, I’m not part of the Royal Guard, but the Equestrian Guard. The royal guard serve at the behest of the princesses, protecting them and their homes, whereas we serve the country as a whole.”
Gilda didn’t see how that was really any different; in the end a guard was a guard, no matter what sort of armor they wore.
“For the moment, my main concern is with protecting the secure wagon,” he continued. “Anything else will be at your discretion.”
She wondered how true that would be if she told him to leave. The last thing she wanted was some unicorn hovering around and telling her how to do things the pony way.
Greta was quickly at his side. “We should speak later tonight. There are some griffons that aren’t pleased with what has happened and I would be more comfortable if there was a guard on duty.”
Gilda shot her a dirty look. In response, the green hued griffon snorted and shook her head. “Don’t forget, this is my home too.”
With a grimace, Gilda realized that with everything that had been going on, that fact had slipped her mind. If there was any griff who had the right to ask about security it was her housemate. “Fine, whatever,” she said, dismissing it with a wave of her talon. “Now what is this about a secure wagon?”
“It will be best if we show you,” Celestia said, rising from her seat. “Do you have a piece of jewelry, something with a large gem that you can keep on your person at all times?”
She shook her head. She had never really had jewelry before, other than a few talon rings. Though in the past weeks, several griffs had given her pieces of all sorts and sizes. Necklaces, broches, tail bands and rings. Many of them had been hidden away for decades, protected from thieves and family, it felt wrong to take them, yet it felt just as wrong to refuse them.
“Well, we can address that later,” the elder princess said, then motioned to Sidereal.
The stallion put his helmet back on, though not all his mane made it through, causing it to sit at an odd angle on his head. He turned and walked towards the back of the shop, the rest of them following. He pushed through the door into the kitchen and with a quick flick of his magic, he unlocked the back door and stepped out into the small area behind the shop.
It wasn’t much back there. It consisted of a small fenced in area covered with paving stones, a dead garden and the privy in the back. The wagon in question was sitting in the very middle of it. The wagon was enclosed, with every corner and seam held together with thick bolts and then covered in metal. There was a single door at the front, which had no handles or any way to look inside. A small set of stairs had been placed by the doors, so a pony could at least walk up to it.
Celestia strolled right up to the wagon as the glow of her magic started to focus on the large amethyst gem in the center of her golden chest piece. With a twist the gem lifted out of the setting and floated up to the door, touching it at the center. There was a small flash of magic between the gem and the door, followed by the sound of shifting metal. As she pulled the gem away, the door opened outwards.
“Look inside,” Celestia said as she stepped out of the way.
Gilda walked past the mare and grabbed the door, pulling it all the way open and revealing what seemed like a normal looking wagon. She climbed up the steps and in through the door, which was small enough that it scraped across her wings. The inside of the wagon was lined with small cubbies filled with boxes. Most of the boxes were the size of her fist, but others big enough to hold a cake. Each one had a small golden plaque with a number on them, which had a matching plaque on the cubby.
Picking one at random, she slid pulled it free; nearly dropped it as it was much heavier than she had been expecting. Cradling it up against her keel, she walked backwards out of the wagon so she could turn around. She gave a glance at the princesses, then to her friends, before she lifted the lid off the box.
It was filled to the brim with bits.
She stared down at the box, the bits shining in the sunlight. She had no idea how much money she was holding, other than it was more than she had ever seen in her life. It seemed unreal; this little box was worth more than most of Griffonstone… and there were many more of them in the wagon.
Gilda ran her tongue across her beak before slowly putting the lid back on the box as her eyes scanned the sky above them. There were no griffons around to spy on them, but that didn’t mean anything. “How much?”
“In the box, or the whole wagon?” Celestia replied with a smirk.
She pressed the lid down tightly onto the box, like it might explode in her claws. “Either?”
“Two hundred thousand bits,” the princess replied.
She hadn’t even realized she dropped the box until it floated past her in a light blue field, the guard moving it back into the wagon. All the work she had done to fix up the shop, to get the stoves, the counters, all the work outside… that had added up to only a few hundred bits. Now suddenly she had been given access to more money than she had ever conceived of.
Gilda turned to look at Greta and Skychart. “Do not tell anygriff about this, at all. If word about this gets out, the riot will burn the town.”
Skychart nodded while Greta made a zipping motion across her beak.
“The wagon is reinforced with both steel and magic,” the guard said, stepping out of the wagon and pulling the door closed. It shut with a thump, a hint of a glow shining through the gap around the door. “It would take an army to rip it open, or an alicorn.”
She just ignored him for the moment and instead turned to Celestia. “That gem is the only thing that can open the wagon?” She asked, poking the gem in question with the tip of her talon.
“My sister’s will open it, and Captain Sidereal has a gem as well,” Celestia replied. “Once you find a gem of your own to use, I will cast the key spell onto it.”
Gilda looked back at the wagon, her head spinning at what was held inside. The ponies had promised a great number of things, food, aid, and bits. She knew that the train the princess had come on had brought food and medical aid for the griffons, but she had yet to see it for herself. Here was proof, real, tangible proof that Celestia was going to be as good as her word, that she really was going to try and help them build the griffon kingdom into something better than it had once been.
“Thank you,” she finally said, giving the princess a small smile. “This is going to help more than I can say.”
Celestia returned the smile, “I’m sure you’ll come up with something for tomorrow, once the treaty officially comes into effect,” she replied.
She rolled her eyes at that. What kind of speech did Celestia think she would give? She was a griffon, not a princess… well not that kind of princess. She had no idea what she was going to say at the ceremony tomorrow, and was just planning to take it by wing.
“And once that is done, we can start moving the troops across the border,” the princess added, almost as an afterthought.
That brought Gilda up short, her head snapping around to look at Celestia. “Troops? What the buck are you talking about? You’re not going to need troops to pass around the supplies, we can arrange that for ourselves.”
“It’s only a single brigade of the guard, and it’s not about the supplies. There are some issues that need to be dealt with, and only once the treaty is in effect can they be handled.”
Gilda just glared at the mare, eyes narrowing, her wings starting to fan out and tail trashing behind her as every worry, ever fear, she had about the princess’s motives suddenly started to crystalize inside of her. “How big is a brigade?” she asked.
“Fifteen hundred ponies,” the guard answered.
A low growl started to build deep in her chest, vibrating under her keel. Fifteen hundred armed ponies, marching into the Griffon Kingdom. She couldn’t believe it! She couldn’t believe just how stupid she had been to trust the ponies!
Luna stepped forward, placing herself between Gilda and Celestia. “I believe my sister may have neglected to tell you one of the driving factors that brought about our treaty.”
Gilda spat at her hooves. “Of course, you have a real reason. I can’t believe I fell for the dung you were spewing, about doing this out of the goodness of your heart, about wanting to help us. You never wanted to help us at all, it was just a convenient way to get what you wanted. You never cared about griffons!” her voice was starting to rise with each word, wings fanning out almost to her full span.
“There were—” Luna started to say, but was cut off as Celestia stepped to her side.
“Queen Chrysalis has created a new hive outside of Garnett Point. She and her changelings are a threat to everyone, griffons and ponies alike. She must be dealt with before she can bring harm to you or your griffons,” Celestia explained in that damn perfectly calm tone of hers, not a single sign of any sort of guilt for what she had done. She probably couldn’t feel anything of the sort.
“And you didn’t think to tell me this when this bullshit started?” Gilda snapped, “You didn’t think we deserved to know that there was a threat inside of our country, our homes? Did you even think that maybe, just maybe, we should fucking know?!”
That didn’t seem to faze Celestia at all. “There were more pressing concerns at the time,” she replied.
Gilda had to hold herself back from raking her claws over the mare’s face. She had no idea what could have been more pressing than protecting her griffons, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “I see,” she growled out, her tail tuft lashing almost too fast to see as her talons dug into the ground. “Is there anything else you conveniently forgot to tell me about?”
“I don’t believe so,” she answered, looking as smug as ever. “Well, if there are no further issues, we still have much that we need to discuss.”
Gilda just continued to glare at Celestia even as she turned away, like somehow the conversation was over just because she wanted it to be. She should have been told; then she could have tried to do something instead of just sitting around worrying about running a country. Now she was going to have to deal with over a thousand armed ponies marching their way through the kingdom to Garnett Point. They would have to go almost the whole length of the country, through Griffonstone and Grover’s Gap to get there.
How would that look to the everyday griffon? Being told that ponies were going to help only to see a bucking army? They would think it was an invasion… and they wouldn’t be that far off. Having Celestia send her army into the Kingdom was an insult to them and to what little pride they had, and she wasn’t going to idly sit by and let it happen.
Gathering herself, she thrust out her chest and fanned her wings out. “You are not going to bring your army into the Griffon Kingdom,” she declared.
Celestia’s mask seemed to crack for an instant, showing a flash of anger. “Once it becomes part of Equestria, you will find that I can.”
A smirk crossed over Gilda’s beak and she realized that the princess was wrong. “No, no you can’t. Section twenty-six, point seven. Outside of a state of a national emergency, the Griffon Kingdom is responsible for the defense of its own borders, unless military aid from Equestria is explicitly requested. I have not, and will not, request that. If your army sets one hoof in my country, I will personally take it out of your hide.”
That brought the older princess up short, mouth hanging slightly open in surprise.
“Yes, I finally read the damn treaty!” Gilda snapped. “I’ve read it so often I’ve nearly memorized it. That’s how I know I’m right, aren’t I?” she asked, the question being directed at Princess Cadence.
All the other princesses had been standing by, watching all this unfold, various looks of horror and disappointment on their faces. Cadence jumped at the question, her wings snapping for a moment before being pulled tight against her back. “Yes, the Crystal Empire has the same clause in our treaty.”
Celestia rolled her eyes. “You don’t even have one guard, let alone an army.”
“Not yet we don’t,” she replied, then glanced back at Greta and Skychart, they were both watching in silence. Neither one of them were the sort of creature that could put together an army, that left her with only one choice. She turned her attention to Sidereal Equinox. “So, you’re supposed to be working with me, well I want you to put together the start of my own guard, made up of griffons.”
The captain took a step back. “I don’t think that—”
“Captain, if that is what she wishes, then I will release you from any other obligations,” Celestia said, her smirk starting to return. “Once Gilda realizes how serious this situation is, you can coordinate my guard.”
“Yes, Princess Celestia,” he said, giving her a salute. Though from the tone of his voice, he didn’t seem happy with the order.
Gilda snorted. “You know what, I think we’re done for the day,” she said, then turned and stalked back into her shop, grabbing the handle of the door with her tail and slamming it closed in her wake. She knew it was a pointless gesture—her friends were still outside and she was going to have to talk with the guard at length about what he knew about these changelings—but for now she was just done with all of it.
Ah Celly, you might find that Gilda is not as easy to manipulate as you had thought.
AT LONG LAST
Aaaand I just find myself liking this Gilda even more.
Her calling out Celestia for trying to pull a fast one on her was quite good , if unexpected.
That's the problem when trying to find a puppet or a yes-man , it doesn't work that well if you pick someone actually somewhat competent for the job
10047446
10047502
What makes you so sure Gilda didn't react exactly the way Celestia hoped she would?
Looks like Gilda has to try and form a Griffon army, find it severely lacking(in skill or just numbers) before formaly requesting those troops. I half expect Celestia was pulling a Xanatos Gambit. Those troops are going to come int the Griffon kingdom of Gilda stands up to her or not, but having them sent when Gilda says has the bonus of making Gilda look smart for asking for help. Presentation is very important in politics, good ideas presented badly fail, and with a good enough argument you can convince people to support terrible things.
I must read that story.
Heh, it's quite like my imaginary nation.
I think the distinction would the priorities of their allegiance, and accordingly who – or what – they swear their oaths to. Royal Guards serve the Princesses first and foremost, while Equestrian Guards would serve the country and its citizens.
Of course, this distinction doesn't have that much practical effect other than deployment location and mission unless in certain situations like say, a coup d'état or popular revolution. (Let's hope that doesn't happen).
At least, that's how I imagine it.
10047505
Huh. That's a good point.
I mean, I don't know if Celestia would go through the trouble of hiding the information and mobilizing a brigade, but good point.
Her plans probably have backup plans with backup plans.
Okay seriously, what the actual fuck Celestia?! Either this was a brilliantly cruel and risky manipulation to get Gilda to react exactly as she just did, or her royal sunbutt is way more out of touch with reality than I thought, how could she possibly think any griffin let alone Gilda would take a blatant lie and an armed host marching over the border before the treaties were even properly signed to be helping?
Biggest downside is that it is going to take a lot of time. A lot of work will be needed to build a standing army from scratch, even with someone who has direct experience on how such a thing is supposed to function. She may have to do some research, or ask for some extra advice. Even with that, it will still take time to recruit, train, and fill in sufficient ranks to have an effective troop. Which, unfortunately, also means that Chrysalis will have more time to build up her own forces and such.
Upside is that there will be plenty of volunteers for it. Not only would it mean that there would be griffons able to get a paying job with steady income, but it would also mean for a chance to directly protect and defend their homes. A sense of patriotism would be very useful here, and seeing as some have already shown national pride, they will certainly want to keep what they have.
Loved it! Totally drawing more art now!
I wonder if Tia forgot or just assumed she could push through due to Gilda’s theoretical ignorance.
Eh, Celestia is not wrong for trying to do what she did, even if it was a manipulation. The changeling situation has to be dealt with, whether by ponies or by griffins. If Gilda can raise an army of her own, so much the better for everyone. If she can't, then Celestia has one on standby to render assistance to Equestria's newest province, while coming away looking like the benevolent ruler her ponies and allies know her to be. Win-win for Sunbutt. Excellent chapter!
10047562
Anyone who's played Civilization knows exactly how this will play out; there's nothing risky about it.
At least, there's nothing risky about it for Celestia Bonaparte.
Celestia really should have mentioned the Changelings before.
10047593
Celestia is just passing.
10047636
It was at need to know basic. Gilda before becoming royalty did not need to know. She was essentially a civilian under no government rule. State secrets has several layers of secrecy because information is always key to any form of government. Having information of a national threat that is still surging is at top secret level, aka high profile government figures and espionage, to prevent the threat to act out of the fear they have been made.
10047785
Nevertheless, an indication that there was a security issue of some sort, even if no specifics were released would be at least common courtesy. It's just lucky for Celestia that Gilda didn't question how she knew this, or she would have been forced to reveal her espionage.
heres an idea.Gilda sends a diplomatic party to chirssy. the changlings can live openly and freely and Gilda will work with them to find a way for them to feed somewhat safly since griffens are made of harder stuff the ponys.
10047888
That's exactly what she did with respect to the Crystal Empire.
Nice touch. Celestia's not the one who got through to Discord, after all.
... Oh! I'd forgotten about that story.
I really hope this was a deliberate play on Celestia's part. If she was actually trying to shove troops through a client state's closed borders... Yeah, not a good look for Sunbutt. Either way, she's definitely soured future cooperation for the time being.
Honestly, I really didn't like Celestia's portrayal in this chapter. It felt pretty out of character for her to assume that Gilda (and/or the griffins in general) would be ok with the pony military waltzing through their territory. She's been at the political game more than long enough to expect the completely reasonable response to such a request. Having her immediate response at being told off to be 'get angry at Gilda' seems even more out of character.
I honestly would have expected her to twist things around and position things in such a way that Gilda would be the one requesting military support.
Wow, Celestia, that was way more tactless than I’ve come to expect from you. Gilda is entirely in the right here.
10047902
Problem with that idea is that it goes against Chrysalis's nature. She is a conqueror, she won't ask for permission and any alliance she makes she will probably betray. She is a parasite and as long as the changlings are under her control they are as well, she will take what she wants by force and laugh at any attempt at diplomacy.
10047981
Likewise, Sombra wasn't going to appear. He was there.
That is was a chess move by Celestia is pretty clear this was in character for her, given the Chekhov's Gun remarks about chess not minutes earlier.
technicly speaking, if celestia angered gilda enough she could derail the whole thing by officialy refusing the treaty during the cerimony, sure legaly it wouldnt mean much but in politics legality sometimes comes second to apearences, gilda's public rejection of the whole thing could lead to the gryphons makeing no end of trouble for any attempts to bring anything, much less a small army, into gryphon teritory...if we are likening this to chess, this move was a gambit, and a risky one at that..if even one move is made out of order it could cost far more then anyone realized...
i look forward to the look on celestias face when the gryphon army makes ehrs look bad. we're talking apex predator's here, give them arms and armor and a bit of proper training, one gryphon well be worth ten ponies.
10047505
What i feel actually happened here is that our dear Tia WAS trying to pull a fast one on Gilda by assuming that she hadn't read the treaty. (Or at least hadn't remembered that section) And that Celly adapted to the situation and turned it around for her advantage, as i think this quote indicates.
She found a strategic advantage in a otherwise unfavorable situation, so to speak.
10048317
It's important to take note on just how long it would take to train up an army.
10047505 10048000
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Celestia’s playing a game of Xanatos Speed Chess, here. Look at the options she’s presented Gilda:
It’s a win-win-win situation for Celestia, while all along, Gilda is getting a crash course in what’s involved in running a successful country, i.e., dealing with internal as well as external threats. Any bets Celestia will offer Twilight as an Equestrian liaison, both to provide Gilda with advice as well as further Twilight’s own education?
Now this is getting interesting... Would it be wrong of her to recruit Gruff as the cook for the army?
10048147
that's one interpatation of her. another one is that while she is indeed a conqerer, she is a mother to her hive fist as such as much as the idea discusts her/ she will do whatever it takes for her children to survive .
10048712
cook?
Gruff probably does the drill Sargent even without having that role assigned to him.
10048976
It’s just that the Cooks are the grumpy ones and you really don’t want to make them mad.
10048490
the problem is celestia who is has supposedly been playing the political game for centuries is makign every political faux pas in the book and then writing new ones.
10048851
That interpretation only works if you ignore everything season six and on. She cares about power and uses her army to get her that, plain and simple. She can and will take love from her changelings if they dare to not work for her and even when one finds a better way to survive she rejects it and considers him a traitor because that way does not involve stealing love. She doesn't care about keeping her changelings fed, she cares about power and conquest and uses that as an excuse. An excuse that her apologists (e.g. you) fall for hook, line and sinker despite massive amounts of proof to the contrary.
On top of that, it's somewhat implied that she is NOT the mother of all changelings. Ocellus's family seems to have a mother and a father, for instance. Furthermore, Thorax and Pharynx call each other brothers while not extending that title to anybody else, and they arguably have the biological distinctiveness (both being royals) to back this up.
Face it, the caring mother who went to far interpretation is canonically dead. It died with season six and it's corpse has only rotted more with every season.
10051380 Canon in general in the show died in Season 6. It just kept getting worse as they shoved the movie, EqG, and other random developments in without apparently even looking at what had already been established.
10049196 It's the same problem the show writers had with Celestia, and later Discord: how do you limit them enough for the plot to happen?
The actual answer that you can't unless you're very very clever with your writing.
So most writers (and the show) just throw idiot balls everywhere and had the characters stumble all over them.
10048317 Yeahhhh... because the griffons in the show were CLEARLY competent at working as a team.
They're also up against shape-shifters with mind-control powers and unicorn-level magic... NONE OF WHICH griffons possess.
You can quit the wankery, the griffons wouldn't stand a chance against Chrysalis by herself.
I really hope training an army from scratch works out for them, but I know it's unlikely.
Who knows, maybe being predators will give them an edge, or let a citizens Malta be sufficient. It's not like the royal guard set the bar very high, and giving them the added ability to revolt in the future through arming the populace could be an extra handful of sand In Celesta's eye.
10048851
That's fair, but she does take pleasure in tormenting others, that's canonical, she enjoys conquest and fighting
10052502
who doesn't. winning is addictive . the feeling of knowing that dispite wht the other people tried, your still better.
10051839
There's a certain irony that someone who tends to spam mostly off-topic comments largely consisting of self-aggrandizing circlejerking on so many stories would get on to somebody else for "wankery".
10052848 Oh, so you DO agree that I am all-powerful... cuz if the griffons could legit beat magical unicorns, then I could easily blow up the planet.
10052831
True but she revels in the infiltration and the conquest, she shows no signs of desperation, nor does she admit her hive is starving. She doesn't hate the idea of forcibly taking over a nation she does it to do it, sure she wants the love but it's a power trip for her.
10054576
sure
that's canon but then again who cares about canon
10047888
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I'd like to note that Celestia has been out-of-character this entire story. From the moment that she uttered the word "Annexation" it became clear that this story's Celestia is not acting like her canon self at all, and is, well, kinda a #### head? I can only assume wanting to punch her in the face the entire story was the intended reaction the author wanted from the audience, because the alternative is... disconcerning.
On the subject of raising the army one thing I would like to see is Gilda or her friends digging up some Griffons with existing combat experience, be they mercenaries, hardened militia, hedge knights or what have you, there has to be at least some Griffons somewhere in the Kingdom keeping some of the monsters at bay right? This would give her a core unit of experienced troops to build her army around or use as officers, encourage more tactics and fighting styles specifically for griffons(as the physiological differences are going to affect how they fight), and also decrees the time needed to train the troop thanks to the additional trainers. In addition raising the army shouldn't be economically crippling, especially if a amount are volunteers (motivated by the imminent threat) at first and you downsize it somewhat after the hive is dealt with. The amount of work and funds it will generate the smiths, armorers, and other war critical industries will also help inject the local economy with funds, boosting efforts to get it growing again. Another point I'm not really seeing brought up much is how raising and army would greatly stimulate national pride and unity and solidifying it with the defeat of a major foe such as Chrysalis will undoubtedly boost it even more, perhaps even swing a number of Gilda's domestic critics to her side, remember another factor here is Gilda winner hearts and minds in here Kingdom. In addition it would be a symbol of independence from Equestria, a reminder that their lang and future is their own and that once the reconstruction is done they can secede any time they want.
Then again considering the apparent average quality of Equestrian troops the Changlings may just a easily be decimated by a roving gang of hobos and their small (but vicious) dog.
I think this chapter highlights several flaws in pony society. One we as fans picked up on from the show, even if the writers hadn’t planed it that way.
The first is their blind devotion to the princesses. Simply put, they get revered as goddesses, but their persona is on the PG side of Greek. Celestia is, quite frankly, spoiled. Not so far as spoiled rotten, her goals are genuinely benevolent, but she is used to having things HER way. The show acknowledged this via Daybreaker.
Celestia also feels that she has no need to explain herself to anyone, and for nearly 1000 years, nopony even tried to get a straight answer, not until Starlight Glimmer that is.
The second is a cultural superiority complex paired with deeply ingrained xenophobia. The writers definitely did not originally intend for this, but then we got the School of Friendship and Chancellor Neighsay as confirmation.
Horses are a prey animal, and mythology portrayed gryphons as a predator of horses. It’s likely that pegasus martial culture stems from that, as pegasus territory is the most likely to overlap with gryphon inhabited areas. So while an armored pony is seen as a symbol of order and security to the common equestrian, to a gryphon, the sight of an armed battalion marching through their territory is decisively less comforting.
Either Celestia has only considered the pony point of view, or she’s nudging Gilda to making her own choices and being more proactive. Gilda’s actions at the start of the doc were entirely reactive, and she still tries to take cues from the other princesses. That’s a recipe for a puppet ruler if I ever heard one. But now, Gilda is starting to take charge for herself. Either way, Celestia seems to consider this as going all according to plan.
Aaaaaahh.... Patriotism. Pride. Hope. I look forward to seeing what Gilda does with her new empire.
The only thing I don’t like about this is when I get caught up on reading and have to wait for more to be written.
Can't wait to read it!!