Piece of Parchment

by Metemponychosis

Court Intrigue

Cadance stood next to the main mast of the Break of Dawn. That monstrosity was so big it had such large masts she could practically hide behind it, pink coat, huge alicorn wings, golden accessories, and all. But she simply stayed there, casually. Just an alicorn princess doing nothing important or suspicious right after sunrise and before breakfast. Simply admiring the sunrise over the hilly horizon of the inner Mareland County.

She knew the countess of Mareland. Really nice mare that kept making bad jokes about her county’s name and her gender. She was also only attracted to mares, and that also became a joke, of course. Really effective administrator though. Cadance liked her. She even hit on her once, while visiting the Crystal Empire. Whose name also became a joke, though less tasteful.

Anyways, the royal guards and crewponies stared at her but she just stayed there, doing nothing in particular. They all had ‘ship stuff’ to do and left her alone to do whatever she was not doing there.

The pegasus ponyvillian local mitiapony, Flight Worthy, relaxedly came up from the underdeck, using the stairs in the middle of the ship. The guards didn’t bother him with more than a polite nod to a brother in arms, and he walked around the main deck until he found the princess.

“I got it, princess.” He casually sat by the mast and yawned into his hoof. “They have some sort of directed magical energy weapons down there.”

“What?” That was new. Sounded cool too.

“Crewponies didn’t even mind me looking at the things. They looked like normal cannons, but they had all sorts of magical stuff in them and big pink crystals in the muzzle. They load them from behind with what look like mana batteries… Like the ones the airships use to power the magical induction engines.”

She knew something was fishy. Shining noticed that the underdecks had their gun ports closed during the battle and he even figured that Celestia was hiding something. She just expected it would be something different, like her ship wasn’t ready, or something. Well, she should have expected that Princess Celestia wouldn’t see the griffons develop new weapons and let the Royal Guard fall behind. That was a good thing.

What did bother her was that those crystals likely came from the mines in the Crystal Empire. They could come from the Canterlot Mines, but the Crystal Empire thaumatophylic crystals were better, while the ones in Canterlot were pretty things you would make jewels with. Good for money, but not magical components.

It mildly infuriated her that she knew nothing about that. What was wrong with Celestia and Luna? Why would they hide something like that from her? Oh… She had some ideas… It could be that if she knew that they were using the crystals for that sort of thing, she might put her hoof in the negotiations and take a healthy cut for her empire.

Or maybe they wanted her not to worry about things. She didn’t like it, but it seemed like there was a war on the horizon. Maybe The Sisters meant to fix this without worrying her and Twilight. It made her wonder for a second how many things had gone wrong, and she didn’t even know about it.

But what if things didn’t work the way they expected? She would have to do something about it. Well, maybe not, but she would certainly like to know that something was going on! Not knowing made her wonder how much more they had hidden from her since ‘that’ time. Looking back at her adventure with Twilight, it seemed that there more secrets in her life than things she actually knew.

“There is more, princess.” He went on. “It’s kinda obvious, but there is also a huge crystal that they said generates the shields, but the repulsion fields, the thing that deflected away the shots from the griffon airship, are generated by a specialized airship. They didn’t say which one, though. But I suppose that there are two ships that look strange. The hospital airship and the support ship. But they didn’t let me into the support ship. Said they only contain provisions. Though I did get an invitation to join the Royal Guard, if I was interested…”

Interesting, but useless… She didn’t know what she expected. It was so stupidly obvious in retrospect that there wouldn’t be much she could use. She supposed she was just bitter and wanted to catch her aunts doing something wrong, but unfortunately, that business with the crystals wasn’t enough, and even if it was, nopony would care.

“Would you join the Royal Guard?” She asked more out of curiosity rather than any actual importance the information might have.

He shook his head. “No, Princess… My heart is in Ponyville.”

She nodded in silence. She knew he was a good pony.

“Oh! They are also keeping the griffon deserter in the brig. You can access it from the rear castle.” He said with his eyes shifting every which way, watching for anypony too close nearby. “I didn’t see him, though. They’re keeping him locked so that the other griffons don’t hurt him or anything.”

Hum. That might be useful. He might know something. Why did he even betray the griffons, anyways?

She should go to the breakfast with Princess Celestia and Luna, though. But doubted they would disclose a whole lot more than they already did at dinner. Unless Twilight had some brilliant idea during the night, which she doubted because she went to deal with the griffon prince. Well, not really prince, but it was a detail and a matter of time.

Anyways, Flight Worthy did his job better than she expected. “Good job, Flight Worthy. I’ll get to deal with Candy Crush as soon as I have some spare time.”

“Thanks, Princess… I… I didn’t do anything wrong, did I? I mean… Accepting your help with her. Right?”

She scowled softly, even though he couldn’t see. What was so hard to understand about it? Love was Cadance’s deal. She got to decide. She even had the inclination to be nice and not do… Bad things with her Gift. Though it would necessarily be good if she decided, right? His hesitation was simply annoying, but she supposed that she should be patient because ponies simply weren’t used to the whole thing yet. “Nopony tells princess Celestia the sun is raising too early or too late.”

She turned around the mast to meet him, staring down at the deck and with his ears flopped down. She lifted his chin with her hoof. “Don’t worry. You are not doing anything wrong.”

His ears did perk back up again, even if he didn’t smile. “Thank you again, Princess. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go around telling others about this.”

“That is probably for the best for now. I have to go now. You should rest for a bit.” She gave his shoulder a soft punch with her hoof and went her way toward the aftercastle. The crewponies and the few royal guards around bowed but didn’t bother her. Apparently, she could go anywhere in the ‘common areas’.

Twilight should be getting ready for breakfast soon. She should join, so she hoofed it to the doors and stopped. She could swear someone was watching her, but when her head swiveled around, she saw nothing. Weird. It was the same kind of feeling that she had had when she was in the Crystal Empire. Hum…

She blinked at the guards by the door. “Did… Did you see something?”

They stared at her and the one on the right answered. “What do you mean, Princess?”

“I could swear somepony was watching me.” She frowned.

One stared at the other, both confused. “We didn’t see anything, Princess.”

“Huh. Weird. Well, I need to go in.”

They opened the door for her and when it closed, she looked around the empty entry hall. “Hum… I must be hungry or something.”

Then she trotted to the rightmost corridor on the second floor. It swept left, towards the airship’s aft with doors to the rooms. The one to her room, the rightmost one on the end was hers and Shining Armor’s. On her way, something bothered her, and she figured that she ought to hurry. She didn’t have the first clue of what it was, but something nagged on her mind. She pressed her step to reach forth with her magic and open the door. The first thing she saw was that yellow griffonness on her hindlegs and supporting her weight with a forepaw on Flurry Heart’s crib and curiously touching her chest with a talon.

“What the hay do you think you are doing?!” She flared her wings and her horn charged up with magic, ready to unleash every unit of hornpower she had on her at that griffon. At the same time Miss Calcite came out of the bathroom and squeaked at the scene.

Gallensa simply looked at her. “Relax, princess. I just want to talk to you.”

She didn’t relax, instead walked in griding her teeth so much it hurt. “Get away from that crib before I turn you into fried chicken!”

“Geez… Alright.” Gallensa sat on the floor and looked at the crib again. “I just had never seen a baby pony. Much less an alicorn. Looks so fragile.”

“You know…” Miss Calcite deadpanned. “Flurry could’ve killed you if she had woken and you startled her.”

Cadance stood next to the crib too. “You should’ve asked, instead of invading our room and standing over her creepily like that! I would’ve haven shown her to you!”

“Okay! Fine! I didn’t hurt her or anything.”

After looking at Flurry and ensuring that there was nothing wrong with her, who giggled and looked up back at Cadance, she turned to Gallensa again. “What did you want?”

“Is it true you can make ponies fall in love?” She asked trying not to seem too interested.

“Yes…” Cadance rose an eyebrow. “Yes, I can.”

“What about griffons?” Gallensa rose an eyebrow too.

“Yes! My magic should work!” Cadance grinned. “Tell me more so I can help!”

“I want to know if you can make someone hate another.” She avoided Cadance’s gaze for a second.

Cadance blinked a few times and pouted. “Hum. That is a weird request. I don’t know. I never even considered doing something like that.”

“Ah…” Gallensa stared at the floor.

“Is this about your coltfriend? Grigory?” Cadance lowered her head to look at her.

“Grigory isn’t my ‘coltfriend’.” She stood and frowned a bit too angrily. “He’s my mate. He is my… Husband. But there is this molly that keeps trying to get in between us.”

“What’s a molly?” Cadance’s ears perked up at her curiosity.

“It’s like a ‘bitch’… But you know… Felines…” She rubbed her paw on her crest and tried explaining what she was sure was an offensive word, as though it might deathly offend Cadance, and the princess thought it was one of the most adorable things she has ever seen an obviously evil griffon doing. Her crest feathers even bent a little. “What the hell am I doing? I’m mumbling like an idiot, asking for help from a pony princess.”

“It's okay, Gallensa.” She sat next to the griffon. She looked big and dangerous, but… How old was she, really? “Tell me about this… Molly.”

It took every ounce of self-restraint not to giggle.

“Her name is Gwineth and she’s a sort of sword fighter. She’s big and… Well… She’s older and… Experienced… And… And… Look… I’m just a nerd with anger issues! I have nightmares that she’s gonna steal Grigory from me, because she will if she has the chance!”

“I understand.” Cadance nodded. “What about Grigory? How does he feel about her?”

“He thinks she is vulgar and annoying.” The griffon rubbed her paws together nervously. “But… But you know how males are. She is very attractive and… So experienced.”

Why did Cadance feel like she was talking to an insecure teenager instead of a big and dangerous griffon? “Can’t you three come to an agreement? If she won’t leave you alone?”

“The only agreement I want to reach with her is one where I stab, stab, stab, stab and stab her with a dagger!” Cadance stared at her for a few seconds while she gestured angrily. Definitively teenager. Not that she could blame her… But definitively a teenager. “A poisoned dagger, preferably.”

“Okay…” Cadance grinned at the griffon’s angry stare. “How about we get all four of us together and we have a heart-to-heart conversation?”

“I can’t do that!” Gallensa cried. “Not only Gwineth is far away, but Grigory would never do that! I mean… You are a pony princess! Lady Gwendolen would be furious with me for talking to you about this. She might even nullify our mating.”

“Lady Gwendolen can do that?” Cadance felt an odd combination of slight at the fact that some griffon noble was getting in the way of her ‘heart business’ and of surprise that anyone could tell a couple that their union was invalid for whatever reason. Anyone that wasn’t herself, that was. Not that she would ever, but the point was that Love was her business.

Sounded like Cadance ought to have a conversation with that Lady Gwendolen. But the issue at hoof was Gallensa and her mate Grigory. She had to figure out a way to help. She felt like it was her obligation, even if they were griffons. The kind that didn’t like ponies… But Gallensa had come looking for help.

“Hum… How about this then: I’ll look for Grigory and see what I can do.” She wouldn’t make him hate another, even if she actually could do that, but the point was to calm Gallensa and get in touch with the griffon ‘prince’. “Does that sound good?”

“I supposed I couldn’t expect more.” Gallensa frowned. “Thank you, Princess. Please don’t mention this to anyone.”

“I won’t!” Cadance giggled and watched as Gallensa made her way to the door to encounter Shining Armor entering the room.

She glared at the confused pony and poked his chest with a talon. “I was never here, understand?”

He watched her leave and then looked at Cadance with a slightly more confused expression.

“Love woes…” She said, still all giggly. “I suppose I should open a clinic, or something!”

***

Discord sat in the main hall of Griffinsky mansion. In the side area with the fireplace and the sitting furniture. He sat on a sofa, rested his elbow on his knee and his jaw on his fist. Serious contemplative expression.

They had just finished breakfast and the Mother of Creeps left with the kid and the other griffon lady to do whatever. Lord Gilad had to go deal with something military related. That gave him some space and time to think in peace.

So, he couldn’t teleport because Lady Gwendolen knew some shifty magic that allowed her to mess with the magical properties of the whole Hold. Okay. She was supposedly old and there was some weird magical hierarchy thing going on. Also, she just knew ancient formulae, or something that he didn’t know how to mess up. Yet. The problem was also that she was substantially powerful.

However the heck her magic even worked. Griffons had magic, sure, as all things in Equestria. They could fly, walk on clouds, manipulate them and, as attested by the structures and magical weapons he saw them using, could infuse things with magic. Thought it might be something of a lost art.

He frowned and his mouth bent downwards. It was a shame Lady Gwendolen was such a creep. She could teach them this ancient art. Not only that speaking magic he witnessed, but how to effectively infuse such powerful magic into stuff.

Wait… She said their kid, Grigory couldn’t cast a spell without her help. What did that mean? Did Gilad need her to cast spells too? What about Gwineth and her magical sword? He should make a point of understanding how exactly that magic worked. It could be very important information.

By all rights it seemed as though griffons ought to be out there hunting dangerous monsters and helping the others protect their homes. Not that other races were helpless, but… Come on! It was so obvious! And they also hunted the monsters in the north that wandered. Such a cool thing.

That was a good reason to try and slap some sense into Lady Gwendolen, if possible.

Anyways, back to the matter at hand.

She didn’t put anyone to keep their eyes on him, and that, most likely, meant that she kept track of him though magical means. Certainly, some sort of trigger would tell her if he tried messing with her spell and then she’d just adapt it. Kind of like Celestia and the Elements of Harmony that one day. Yeah, that made sense.

Rather than going straight against her, he was more likely to get results from a tangential approach. Like eating the borders of the plate first not to get burned with the soup it held. It didn’t work with Celestia and Fluttershy… Fortunately… But he did learn something from that.

A distraction. That was what he needed. He couldn’t try to mess with her spell because that was too much. But he could use a few minutes to do something. Maybe get a message out. Somehow.

Hum… Who could help him? None of the griffons would. Not to mention that they would take too long to reach Twilight. They needed to reach her before she came to Snow Mountains, and avoid Celestia, Luna and all the eyes they had under their employ. All he had within reach were griffons, though.

Magically getting a message out would likely require a lot of magical energy and would certainly draw her attention. The whole plan could backfire.

Hum… His muzzle turned to a smile. He had an idea. A crazy idea, and it was a crazy plan, but crazy often worked in that crazy world of his.

***

Candy Crush wasn’t very happy. With all the griffons and rogue princesses, she had been drafted to assist in the airship’s security. She didn’t like it initially, but it wasn’t like she had something else to do other than avoiding anypony and everypony.

Her new station at least allowed her to be a jerk while she stood guard at the top of the Break of Dawn’s aftercastle. All she needed was somepony doing something wrong. At the least nopony bothered her. Until she noticed a griffon flying in the middle of the airships. She blinked twice. It was a cute bluish-gray griffon lady carrying saddlebags and frantically beating her wings, flying like crazy towards the airship.

“Waaaaaaaait!” She cried.

“Ma’am, flying this close to cruising airships is not only dangerous, but it is also a fineable misdemeanor.” She kept a blank ‘Royal Guard expression’.

“Slow this thing down!” The griffon struggled and flapped her wings furiously.

“The airship must maintain a constant speed with the fleet to avoid accidents, ma’am. And even if I wanted to help you, they wouldn’t listen to me.” She explained. She had no idea, but she explained anyway. “Why are you still flying close to the airship?”

“I work for the Griffonstone Postal Services!” The griffon finally grabbed on to the railing. “I have an urgent letter for Rainbow Dash!”

“Did you seriously come all the way from Griffonstone?” She approached her. “That takes some drive!”

“No! I used the teleporter to Baltimare and took a ride on an airship coming this way!” The griffon screeched. “Does it matter? Help me!”

“You cannot board the airship, ma’am.” Maybe Candy should join the Royal Guard. Being a jerk with royal authority was much more fun than being just a local jerk. “It is a military vessel. By the way, can you prove that you work for Griffonstone’s postal services?”

“For crying out loud!” She showed her an identification card with a photo, the logo for the Griffonstone Postal Service and her name ‘Gabriella’. “There! Happy?!”

“Yes… Everything seems to be in order.” She had no idea, but the document seemed real enough. Not that she cared, anyways. “But… You still can’t board the airship.”

The griffon girl growled in the cutest way possible and took an envelope from her saddlebags. “Can you give her this thing, please?”

“I’ll see what I can do, ma’am.” She bit the letter from her paw soon before the griffon squeaked and lost her grip on the railing.

Candy stared at the letter on her hoof while the squeaking griffon squeaked into the distance. Unfortunately, the wind didn’t carry it away, but she supposed that was for the best since she could get in trouble for not delivering it after she picked it up. Oh well, time to find Rainbow Dash…

***

Twilight met with Cadance and Shining Armor in the corridor to their rooms in the Break of Dawn. The couple had just left their room to find Twilight sitting on the corridor, looking at her notepad next to Spike.

“So…” He pointed at the notes with a quill. “There is the issue that nopony got too injured in the fight. Aaaaand… What about other versions of Equestria.”

“Hi, Twilight. Spike.” Shining stopped next to them. “What are you doing?”

Cadance looked one way and the other. “What about the others?”

“Hi!” She looked up to them with a smile. “They’re getting ready. Spike! Add to the list that I would like to ask Prince Grigory about the spell he tried casting.”

He put down the feather and looked at her. “He’s not going to talk about that in front of Princess Celestia, Twilight.”

“It is still worth a try.” She shrugged. “The others aren’t coming. They want to use the airship’s mirror room to talk to relatives and friends in Ponyville. Also, Rainbow will be eating with the Wonderbolts because she wants to see if Spitfire is alright.”

Cadance nodded, satisfied and they left the corridor, into the hall where a white griffon lady sat by the large double door to the ball room. They approached and Twilight tried being friendly, even if it didn’t work with Gallensa the last time.

“Hi! You’re Gracielle, right?” She grinned.

“Good morning, Princess...” The griffon lady didn’t sound cheery, though her voice was naturally raspy. “Yes, that’s me.”

“You don’t look very well.” Spike declared. “Do you need anything?”

She yawned with a paw before her beak. “I’m waiting to see Princess Celestia.”

“It’s about that weapon, isn’t it?” Twilight’s ears pulled back.

“Don’t you have anything else to worry about?” Cadance frowned at her. “Like your coltfriend, or however you guys call it?”

“Yeah. But he won’t help me talk to that stupid grasseater.” She stared for a second. “Sorry. I’m not in a good mood.”

Shinning frowned at her and spoke like he talked to a misbehaving filly, or something. “Do you have any idea in how much trouble you would be if Princess Celestia decided to press actual legal charges against you? She’s probably just going to ask The Lion give you a stern talk.”

“This is stupid!” She crossed her forelegs. “It’s not like I could even hurt her with that gun!”

“You griffons really need to learn how to relax.” The other princess said categorically.

“I can’t relax knowing that she stuffed my baby in some dirty armory!”

“I suppose that thing really is important to you…” Twilight rose an eyebrow and then turned to Shining Armor. “Is this a military thing? I mean… You guys like guns, don’t you?”

“Geez, Twilight. Talk about stereotypes…” Her brother frowned at her in response.

“Board games are much cooler.” Spike rose a finger. “Comics too!”

“Now you’re talking!” Shining bumped his hoof with his closed fist and they grinned while Cadance giggled.

“Well, it is understandable you ponies don’t appreciate the fine nuances of our superior weaponry.” She stared inexpressively with her curious raspy voice. “You don’t even have the technology to produce semi-automatic firearms. Not even decent revolvers.”

“Anyways…” Twilight smiled friendly at her. “We’re going to eat breakfast with Princess Celestia. If you wish, you can come in with us and maybe ask her again.”

She exhaled loudly. “Fine. I guess there is no evil in trying.”

With that Twilight nodded and her magic reached for the door to open it. The same ball room used for dining room. Princess Celestia sat at the end of the table in front of a selection of typical pony breakfast foods and drinks. She read from a long scroll, with Luna at her side and Chocolate Velvet next to Luna. There were places set for several more. She certainly expected at least some would attend to breakfast with them.

“Good morning, my little ponies. Spike. And griffon.” She put down the scroll while Luna waved at them and Chocolate seemed to be entertained with a book of some sort and just mumbled a greeting. “Would you like to share breakfast with us?”

“Good morning, Princess!” Twilight greeted her and the others followed, also sitting at the table where convenient, except for the white griffoness that sat opposite to Celestia and stared as angrily as she could.

Celestia ignored the griffon and instead focused on Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, would you be interested in explaining what you were doing with our griffon prince in a bathroom in the middle of the night?”

Twilight stared at her with barely controlled panic. “Uuuuuh…”

Cadance came to the rescue. “Princess Celestia, with all due respect, interracial relationships are not a problem since ages ago.”

Celestia though gave Cadance an amused glance. “I am aware, Cadance. Mostly due to me. I am, however, also aware that while most of the fleet loves to pretend that Twilight and Grigory have an affair and met in the middle of the night to avoid scrutiny, I am more concerned that you might be planning a daring escape.”

“Now, that would just be silly!” Cadance gave Celestia the best ‘I’m offended at your wariness’ Twilight had ever seen. Celestia simply giggled.

“We’ll see.” Then, she turned to the griffon lady on the far end of the table. “Lady Gracielle, you can sit there and stare angrily at me all day if you wish, but that is not going to get you any closer to getting your toy back. I am used to politicians doing that to me since ages before you were born.”

She just stared harder.

Royal guards in their uniform, rather than their armor, served them dutifully, offering them juices and whatever the others were eating. Twilight liked the appearance of the yogurt and berries.

“Anyway…” Twilight went on while they served some of the berries and yogurt, and she meant to talk to the princess, but Spike spoke before she did.

“Princess, can I ask you a question?”

Gracielle, sniffing at the berries with yogurt the guard served her, drew Twilight’s attention while she listened.

“Of course, you can, Spike.” The princess smiled.

“Why don’t you just fix the whole situation with the griffons?” He strummed his claws together. “I mean… You have the power to make things work, don’t you?”

“I do. But griffons cannot seem to figure out if they like Gail or not. Neither if they would rather elect a new Chancellor or reform the whole system. It would be possible to remove Gail and elect a new Chancellor or allow his replacement to remain until a solution is found. But either way, I should not interfere. The losing side will invariably blame their defeat, and every problem that follows, on me.”

“But you do know what the best way is to deal with the situation, don’t you?”

“The problem is that there is no best way, Spike. A new chancellor would fix the issue, as he would likely replace all of Gail’s government machine anyways. But griffons believe that it would mean simply changing one corrupt leadership for another. They believe that The Lion would bring a new system that would necessarily be less corrupt, but in reality, it’s never the system that is the problem, it’s the creatures that make the system work.”

“It worries me, because while I do believe that Lord Gilad is well intentioned, I have no idea of what his plans for the future, beyond the Griffonian throne, are. It seems that he would rather consolidate his power base and fix internal issues, but I cannot be sure. He has never talked to me about that.”

“Throughout the ages I have convinced myself that what makes things work are bonds of understanding and cooperation. Education allows citizens to understand what their government is doing and if it is good or bad for them and gives them the tools to deal with that.”

“Hah!” Gracielle stopped eating the berries. “Says the ‘goddess’ that literally lied to the whole world. How did you get to be in this position? It seems so weird, to be honest, that other races simply let you lord over them.”

“This is a misinterpretation of my position. Ruling doesn’t necessarily mean that I make them do what I want. It means that I ensure that everyone does as they should and help when it is necessary. Your chosen representatives are the ones who decide what that means. My place is to legitimize and enforce.”

“I was, however, entrusted with power that most leaders through the history of our world were never trusted with, Gracielle. I am literally above the rule of law and I used that trust to protect the world. As is my job. That is why the Senators and Majesties in the Hall of Friendship trusted me to annex the Changeling Swarm into the Confederacy without their vote. They trust me, my experience, and my benevolence to make such decisions and I haven’t disappointed them yet. And my decision on the griffon situation is to allow them to resolve it for themselves. Until there is a need to intervene, I will not. Even if it makes griffons believe that I have abandoned them, once the situation is resolved they will see that it worked. Generations from now, the representatives and their electorates will add this to the list of reasons they trust me with such power.”

“But how did this start, princess?” Twilight stared curiously.

“Millenia ago a baker and her husband had two daughters who happened to have the power to control the sun and the moon. Ponies much smarter than they told them they were the Goddesses Reborn and that they were ordained to rule Equestria. After some unpleasant business, they were crowned the Queen and Princess of Everfree.” Celestia fumed. “I didn’t want to be queen! All I wanted was for creatures to live in peace and to get the sun to play nice. But not only ponies insisted on either calling me ‘Princess’ or by the name of the goddess, that they pronounced incorrectly, they started doing what I told them… Such as ‘don’t kill each other’, ‘let’s try to be nice to one another’, ‘how about we share this food instead we let it spoil?’ like it was some hermeneutical knowledge lost to the ages!”

“Then there was a griffon emperor and his subjects that didn’t like him, so one of them went to other races begging for help in dealing with the emperor. But no one answered because they were all beaten helpless by the griffons. Enslaved, bound by tribute, or simply hoping that the Emperor didn’t destroy them because he woke up in a bad mood one morning.”

She angrily took a sip of her apple juice, which amused Twilight to no end. “Well, there was one that came to his help, because what was I supposed to do? Grigor was killing everycreature and wanted to kill or enslave all the ponies just because some dumb imaginary bird kept telling him to! I went to what is today the Saddle Arabian desert with six Battlehorn Legions and joined Grover’s rebellion. It seemed like an insurmountable challenge, but as we won battles, we freed slaves. Diamond dogs, saddle arabian ponies, hippogriffs and members of all the races. Buy they didn’t want to go home. They wanted to stay and fight because they wanted to help their friends and free the others. So, we made room for them, and suddenly other races started sending their armies to fight too.”

Celestia frowned and actually seemed so confused Twilight almost burst out laughing. “But for some reason I never fully understood they all kept reporting to me instead of Grover, and even he reported to me and before I knew, they started calling me silly things like ‘The Dawnbringer’ and ‘Celestia Sunheart’ and making up silly stories about ‘the brightest dawn after the darkest night’. ‘The Last Great War’ and ‘The Battle of All Armies’.”

Celestia frowned even deeper. “When the war was over, they just kept asking me what to do! And I felt like a failure because half the griffons hated me, the other half hated me because I didn’t kill the others, Chrysalis wanted me to kill all of the griffons, the diamond dogs almost went extinct, The Dragon Lord died, the last great wyrm dragon died, the hippogriff king died, most of my friends died, four Battlehorn Legions were completely destroyed, and I start hyperventilating whenever I try to remember how many lives were lost over the years, but they kept telling me that I had saved the world, even though I had just presided over one of the worst pyrrhic victories of known history! Just… What is wrong with creatures?!”

“I told you yesterday! I was scared mindless of The Harpy!” She covered her head with her wings. “I kept dreading she would show up in one of these battles and I didn’t know what I was going to do! The only reason I kept going was because I was afraid that if I stopped the others would leave Grover alone.”

She sighed and returned her wings to her sides. “The Confederacy grew from this. It started with the defeat of Emperor Grigor and… Well… Just the other day the changelings finally joined. Grover and I decided that it was best to erase Grigor, The Harpy and that whole mess from history and so we did. As generations past, most creatures forgot. I won’t deny that I have benefitted from that, but I did it with the best of intentions. I don’t want to see the world end.”

“You got the whole world under your wings.” Grigory’s white friend sounded like she was accusing Celestia of something. She seemed to have liked the berries, though.

“Hardly. The Dragons won’t join the confederacy, even if they are more than willing to listen, thanks to Ember’s ability of using her brain and willingness to employ her position to actually help the helpless. But every now and then some overgrown monster does something that they soon regret.” Celestia sighed. “I learned how to deal with the responsibility, but I wish creatures would just be nicer to one another. It would make my job so much easier. If certain griffons would understand that they are my subjects too and that I care for all of them equally.”

“Bullshit.” Gracielle accused again. “You don’t like griffons.”

“No, I don’t.” Celestia frowned. “But I still care for all of your race all the same. It pained me when each one of you died in the Griffon Wars, just as much as it pains me when you kill some helpless creature that didn’t need to die.”

The griffon left her spoon on the table and she looked around for a second. “If The Harpy… Hypothetically, existed. Would you share your position with her?”

Celestia frowned at her question. “No. I believe she has proven that she could not be trusted with such power, even if she was to rule over only the griffons. Moreover, I doubt she would be willing to accept anything less than everything.”

“I would however be willing to accept it if she were to become my subject, as every other ruler, and acquiesce to the resolutions from the Hall of Friendship. I would even welcome her as a member of the House of Majesty under those conditions.” Celestia let her spoon go too and frowned again, and not in a good way. “Would that hypothetical question have any underlying meaning?”

The griffon looked down at her meal and poked at it with her spoon. “No… Just asking.”

That only made Celestia more curious, and she stared at the griffon. “In reality, I’m afraid I wouldn’t take the risk of letting her live… It sounds grim, but she was too dangerous. She’s caused too much pain and death. And I cannot imagine her doing anything other than that today. She would seek to subjugate the hippogriffs simply because of whatever bizarre ideal of purity she held for griffons and not only that, but all the species in the world.”

“Your question is very curious, Lady Gracielle.” Celestia pressed further. “As far as I know, The Harpy didn’t exist in Grigor’s time and it baffles me that griffons of today, even if only the ones from your home region would know of her. I assumed that the traditions you retained, such as protecting the southerner holds from monstrous incursions out of the Frozen North and your language would have remained from his time, or might even be older than that, and it makes me think of oral traditions that kept the memory of her alive despite my best efforts.”

“Even more curious, though, I still don’t know how the griffons in the past knew of her. But I find it alarming that her name has resurfaced in the past days, particularly when this whole unpleasant business emerged. Part of me wonders if, in a similar way I and the others came to be, she was not summoned by the griffons in Discord’s time and isn’t hiding somewhere. If that would be the case, I would be grateful if you were to tell me, because she is dangerous, and her insanity consumes the minds of griffons around her. The sooner she is destroyed, the better.”

The griffon coughed into her fist and stared blankly. “I’m just asking. I bet you just don’t want to share your position.”

“I share my position with my sister and in our absence, Cadance would retain rulership over the entire alliance, and then Twilight. Additionally, the Hall of Friendship would have complete control over the entire alliance if something were to happen to all of us.”

Twilight coughed louder before the two started fighting, or something. “Speaking of that. Chocolate told me that nopony, or griffon died in the battle. I don’t believe that.”

“It is true.” She said plainly.

“How?! It sounds impossible!”

“Well, when you grow as old as I am and you study magic your whole life, you understand that magic is much more subtle than formulae and spell effects. That the magic in spacetime itself can be twisted and causality explored. You become capable of influencing… ‘Luck’.”

“You are kidding me!” Twilight and Cadance both gasped.

“I’m not!” Celestia grinned. “If you understand that luck does not truly exist, you see that everything is a facet of magic interacting with the world. And for magic, time is just another thing to influence. Whence powerful time magic, such as the Black Sun.”

“That is why you weren’t present during most of the fight. You were busy with whatever you were doing.” Twilight mused.

“Once I saw that the griffon airship had the potential to greatly damage our airships, and that our support airship wasn’t in position yet, I decided I should take precautions. It works best with some forethought, and in larger scales where subtle interference can have a greater effect.”

Suddenly, before she could explain, or Twilight could inquire further, Raindow Dash flew into the room and landed right next to Twilight, holding a piece of paper in her hooves along with Twilight’s shoulders. “Gilda is in trouble!”

“What? What do you mean trouble?” Twilight gasped once she Rainbow was done shaking her.

“I just got this letter from her! Things are bad in Griffonstone!” The other yelled again.

“Please, let me see this, Rainbow Dash.” Celestia’s golden magic enveloped the paper and took it to her. Luna and Chocolate Velvet lumped together to read.

“What is going on?!” Spike cried.

“Gilda said that they took away the monthly income because of the war with the northern holds of Griffonia! She was making enough with her scones, but then she got charged with assault when she punched some jerk that tried stealing from her!”

“W-what?!” Twilight gasped.

“I mean…” Spike wasn’t too surprised. “Gilda’s not the nicest griffon around.”

“She’s going to do community service so that they don’t send her to jail. And she can’t sell her scones anymore because she has to work in the afternoon and… And she thinks that the mayor and his family are out to get her!”

“There is something very wrong in this.” Celestia put the letter down. “Aggravated assault of a minor does not warrant community service. Furthermore, by her description of events, the injuries on the other party were exaggerated and a legal reconciliation would have been much more sensible. This mention of the mayor’s wife and their children is concerning.”

Luna deadpanned. “She punched the mayor’s son?”

Celestia frowned. “No to mention that she says foodstuffs are too expensive. The only thing that should be expensive is game meat that the north stopped selling to the southern holds. And there is no reason UBI should have been interrupted because one small military force was sent.”

“What?!” Cadance gasped. “Military force?”

“Discord found a group of griffons marching to capture the Lion.” Luna explained. “They were captured and Griffonian government was supposed to be negotiating their release. I don’t understand how, but our Justiciars never noticed any of that, and worse, none of the members in the Hall of Friendship ever mentioned this.”

“This isn’t good, Celestia.” Luna frowned. “I trusted that the Griffonian government would’ve been satisfied with the mess that were those soldiers that shouldn’t be marching against The Lion. And now this.”

“Luna…” Celestia stared at her. “Please, help Admiral Gloria care for fleet operations. I need to see to this. The situation shouldn’t be this bad, and I certainly should’ve been notified that something was wrong before it came to this. Not to mention I feel that someone intentionally mislead Miss Gilda in her situation. This is all overly concerning, particularly so in light of recent events.”

Luna nodded and Celestia stood. “Excuse me. Please enjoy the rest of your breakfast. Come with me, Chocolate Velvet.”

The brown alicorn stood next to Celestia and they vanished when her horn shone its golden magical light. Left alone, the others turned to Luna.

“What? I don’t have anything to say about any of that.”

Graciele rose a finger. “Can you give me back my baby?”

“No.”

“Why?!” She slammed a fist on the table. “I’m not going to go around shooting at stuff! I just want it back!”

“Celestia is probably going to give it back to you once this is all over. Right now, you are merely wasting your time obsessing over that thing. You should find something more entertaining to do.”

Since the griffon just huffed and went back to her berries, Twilight called the princess after spike showed her the list. “Luna, can you tell us about other versions of Equestria?”

“I don’t know much, Twilight. Celestia is the one that remembers things from the time of The Harpy or even from beyond the last time the Black Sun was triggered the last time. I can tell you though that there was a version of Equestria where she and I retired, and you became the ruling princess.”

While Twilight simply blinked her surprise at the information, Cadance seemed ‘stirred’ by that information, with flared wings and huge eyes. “What?! What about me?!”

Luna shrugged.

Spike frowned. “Hum… That ended with the Black Sun, right? What did she do?”

Luna then started giggling and covered her muzzle with a hoof, trying not to laugh. “I do not know. But there was another version where the zebras and the ponies developed powerful spells of mass destruction that literally destroyed the whole world, and that still didn’t trigger the Black Sun.”

Twilight sat by the table. Staring at the giggling princess trying to decide if she was serious or if it was a joke. Spike, Shining Armor, Cadance and the stupid trigger-happy griffon just laughed.

***

It greatly aggravated Gilberta, but it was kinda obvious that after breakfast Lady Gwendolen would put her to study in the library. Lady Geena went to one of the rooms to rest properly before her return to Frozenlake, and there wasn’t much that Gilberta could do to avoid being stuck there. Especially when her teacher would sit right in front of her and read something of her own. What did she even read about? She knew everything!

She did think that the reading stands were fancy though! She sat on a pile of large (for her size) cushions so that she could sit at the correct height to read. Apparently, she was reading her comics all wrong before, laying on her bed, because you were supposed to sit with your back straight, staring forward and under good lighting.

She wished she had her comics, though, because that book about the history of the Saddle Arabian desert was difficult to read, being in that High Griffonese she was still learning how to read! But she had to read it because Lady Gwendolen told her it was important. Apparently, some griffons ate bugs in there, and looked for underground water that they filtered through the sand with silk to drink. Huh. Imagine that.

Meanwhile the big griffon that was Lady Gwendolen sat on her own cushion and. Oh. She wasn’t reading. She was writing! She wrote something, using black paint and a small metallic and sharp pen that looked like one of the quills she had seen, but it was all cylindrical and the tip resembled a griffon’s paw.

“Pay attention to what you are reading.” She said without stopping what she was doing. She didn’t even look at Gilberta. So, she immediately focused back on her book.

Like it said earlier, griffons in the Hader, or the Saddle Arabian desert, didn’t build any cities and they took what they wanted from tall pony cities and some towns even paid large sums of money so that they wouldn’t attack.

Dumb ponies… Instead of defending themselves.

That was until they founded their first city, which was Shadysands and many others, such as Oasis, The Bleak, and many others until, after the reconquest of the Hader, Emperor Grigor built Aen Hader. Apparently, it was a large temple…

“What’s a temple?” She looked up from her book.

“It is a structure griffons built to celebrate me.” She said, keeping her eyes on whatever she was writing. “It is a place of contemplation, of worship and sacrificial ceremonies. Or it was… There are no real temples today.”

“You mean… Like the ceremonies where they killed the tall ponies?” She asked curiously.

“Yes. But not only that.” She stopped writing for a second and looked at Gilberta. “All celebrations related to the greatness of our race were performed in such places. They used to be caves in the Stormy Eyrie, then shrines in our cities. Emperor Grigor built Aen Hader for me, and I lived there. It was an exotic place. The desert was very different from the snowy mountains, but he built the pyramids to resemble the mountains, since the Windigos had destroyed Stormy Eyrie. But the desert was also a good place. I liked it there. Temples should never be a place that is too easy to reach.”

“I once asked mom why is it that dad didn’t use real bullets and she told me that it’s really sad when someone dies because they leave behind creatures that loved them. So, he always tried not to kill any creature. Wasn't it bad when my ancestors sacrificed a pony?”

“Of course not! It was a way that their cities used to avoid being obliterated if they didn’t have treasures. Imagine if all of them died because some selfish desert pony didn’t accept the honor that it was!”

That didn’t sound very nice to Gilberta. But then again, there were many things she didn’t understand, and Lady Gwendolen was always right. “Do you miss Emperor Grigor?”

Gwendolen smiled. “Not anymore.”

Gilberta frowned. “Hum… Did the ponies build temples to their princesses?”

“They made idiotic stone circles and bonfires next to statues.” She grimaced like she talked about something unpleasant. “Only after they had contact with the griffons they started building things that resembled temples. But never built them correctly.”

“Oh. Then the ponies started celebrating… The Princesses? Are they gods too?”

Gwendolen chuckled. “Don’t be silly. I am the only god there is.”

“Ah? But what about Discord?”

“He is not a god; he is an elemental. Of Chaos.” She became serious.

“But you called him…”

“I know what I called him! It was a figure of speech!” Gilberta squeaked and hid behind her book. “Now, don’t confuse your pretty little head with pointless details yet, Gilberta. Keep reading the book. Then we will talk when you are ready to understand more.”

Well then… Aen Hader was a large temple complex to The Harpy, with tall black spires and pyramids. The largest temple, in the center of the city contained the Holiest Sanctum where she would commune with the Emperor when he offered her the heart of the sacrifice. She would impart into him her wisdom and knowledge.

Huh… The image in Gilberta’s mind was of a nice room with a table, candles, and a piece of meat and Lady Gwendolen would sit on one side with some big mean griffon on the other side and they’d chat while they ate. Maybe drink some wine, she supposed.

‘Kay… She meant to keep reading, but Lord Gilad entered the library. It was hard not noticing a bulky and imposing griffon such as he was. He stopped by the door, not looking particularly interested in anything before he went next to them.

“You are distracting the cub.” Lady Gwendolen complained, paying attention to her writing.

“I am sorry, Gwendolen.” He smoothly came behind her and started massaging her shoulders. She opened big, surprised eyes, and then smiled with a hum, letting her wings relax.

Gilberta just stared at them and blinked.

“I felt like I should apologize.” He said sullenly, rubbing his beak on the feathers on her neck, and Gilberta was sure she was hearing things because she could swear that she heard Lady Gwendolen purring.

Wait! Gilberta knew this! They should tell her to go do whatever and that was when she could ask for anything!

“I think that you have done enough reading for now, cub.” She said, stretching her neck and with lidded eyes. “You may go play. Try and meet some of the cubs near the mansion. But don’t go past the richer mansions.”

“But Lady Gwendolen…” She blinked her innocent eyes and whined with her ‘I’m such a good girl voice’. “I was going to read about Aen Hader…”

“You can read about it later, Gilberta.” She stared, clicking a talon on her stand. “Tell Miss Gerri that I said you can eat whatever you want.”

“Yes! Thanks Lady Gwendolen!” Of course, she hurried out of the room before she changed her mind.

Then the white griffoness turned around, all sultry smiles and alluring eyes. “You were saying?”

“That I came here to apologize… I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. You know. When I arrived.” He spoke with his deep bass voice, while he caressed her crest above her head and her diadem fell to the floor.

“Hmmmm. Tell me more about that…” She laid herself over the stand and closed her eyes.

Then Gilad grinned and gestured with a thumb up to Discord by the door, who returned the gesture with the same devious grin.

No time to lose, he left the two alone and hurried out of the mansion to find the gates open, but with a young male griffon in the city’s cuirass armor holding a halberd before the gate while others minded the walls and beyond. He had shades of cyan on his feathers and eyes, but Discord couldn’t see his fur because of the armor and the cape he wore. He had that red scarf that inner wall guards wore, though.

“You can’t leave.” The griffon said with his halberd to the ground. “By orders of Lady Gwendolen.”

“Oh. Come on.” Discord argued back. “I just want to see the valley. You know, there is some really interesting magic there.”

“I’m sorry. But Lady Gwendolen has said you are not to leave the mansion.” He frowned. “You need her permission to leave Griffinsky.”

“Ah… I understand.” Discord nodded. “I really do. But Lady Gwendolen is kinda busy now. You know. With Lord Gilad.”

He lowered himself to the griffon’s ear and covered his mouth. “I don’t think that you want to bother them now… With trivial stuff that a common guard could solve on his own.”

His feet shuffled nervously. “Well, then you have to wait.”

“Aw, come on!” Discord grinned friendly. “Please? I mean, it’s not like I can flee with the spell she put on the entire hold, right?”

“I suppose…” The griffon frowned and mused to himself with a finger to his beak.

“See? I just want to see the valley. I won’t take long.” Discord grinned some more.

“Fine…” He wasn’t too sure, but he relented. “Fine, but please don’t take too long. I don’t want to push my luck with Lady Gwendolen… I almost got burned earlier because of a misunderstanding.”

“Don’t you worry your feathered head!” Discord grinned and petted the griffon. “I promise it won’t take long at all.”

***

A bright flash announced the arrival of the two alicorns. Celestia with her typical golden accessories, and Chocolate Velvet who wore his customized Royal Guard golden armor with white, blue and silver highlights. Flapping their wings, they hovered in the air amid the clouds and Celestia immediately looked downwards at the sea beneath them to see a line of large sail ships headed towards an archipelago and a few airships. Celestia hummed angrily at the sight.

“Is that Hipogriffia?” It was a collection of many sized islands, a giant archipelago of volcanic islands that surrounded Mount Aris, way in the distance. Shaped in a funny way, too, forming broken concentric circles.

“Yes.” She nodded. “Its islands protect ships from damage by the violent seas and winds to the south. Skirting up north would take the ships too close to the Frozen North and monster attacks are so common that shipping companies blacklisted the route. So, the only way into Griffonia is too far to the south and then north into Saddle Arabia, or through hippogriffs waters.”

“Small wonder Emperor Grigor attacked both in the past.” He hovered next to her while she examined the line of ships beneath. “One would expect the griffons to play nice with both.”

“Unless they were planning to conquer their territory from the start.” She scanned the sea and line of ships, looking for something.

“That too.” He must have sounded so sad that Celestia looked at him.

“Don’t worry. It’s not coming to what you are thinking. I won’t allow it. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened.”

“I’m worried, Celestia.” He frowned. “Hidden things seem to be happening and suddenly blow up. And it all spins around these griffons.”

“We are dealing with someone that knows what they are doing, Chocolate. But their veil is quickly falling apart. I’m afraid that Miss Gracielle should have kept her beak shut, but I cannot make accusations yet. I must speak with Gilad, but before, we must fix this situation with the hippogriffs and then see Chancellor Gail. But, immediately, this…” She pointed at the line of ships stopped dead on the water. “Will be easy to fix since neither Hippogriffia or Saddle Arabia is the problem. Novo is scared and her fear is rubbing off on Withen.”

Yes, he agreed. “Shouldn’t we just go see Gail? Why are we here?”

“Because we can fix this quickly. And this should get supplies to the griffon population reasonably soon. These ships must have been here for weeks.”

He was still worried. “Novo never told you she was doing this. I’d be a little miffed about it.”

Celestia shook her head. “I am disappointed, but I know it is nothing personal. She neglected telling me about this because she is scared and was afraid I’d side with the griffons because I support The Lion. We will find out what her motivation was, and this will make sense. A little nudge should get things on the right track. What worries me more is that none of the senators or Gail ever mentioned this.”

“Of course, they didn’t.” Chocolate frowned. “Gail is full of…”

He was going to use a word that referenced to digestive wastes, but Celestia wasn’t very fond of such words. So, he just grinned and used another word instead. “You know… Nonsense.”

Wherever she noticed it or not, she went on. “Everypony is scared of the situation and I feel like that fear is paralyzing too many of them. They fear that if they brought this up, all the bad things they’ve done would turn up. Maybe The Lion is right and Griffonia’s entire political system needs a reforging.”

“I trust you to know what you are doing, Celestia. But I think that this sort of thing is dangerous.”

“I don’t have to tell you that these griffons lost wars and egos are hurt enough without whatever it is that the northeners are doing. We know that the northerners are using the hippogriff for escape goats and someone is filling heads with that ‘us versus them’ mentality. This can get ugly in a hurry, especially with a charismatic figure in power.”

She nodded. “I can’t find a flaw in that argument. We will be careful. Come on, let’s talk to one of the captains.”

She closed her wings and allowed herself to fall. He followed, albeit more carefully, diving in a spiral, following her. Closer to the sea, she opened her wings and spiraled down with him following in her wake until she oriented her flight towards one of the ships.

It wasn’t a large ship and it didn’t stand too tall above the waterline. It had a varnished look to its wooden hull with one large red sail that looked like it was made of some vegetal fiber and had several horizontal strips of what looked like bamboo that kept the sail rigid. Had a long deck with a ‘house’ that covered most of it and a covered entrance to the underdeck. Quite endearing. Chocolate liked it. No weapons whatsoever, but a few colorful kirin hurrying to meet them when Celestia landed on the open space by the bow, followed by her personal guard.

They bowed to her while she closed her wings and Chocolate Velvet kept to his place, a little back. It was his place as her bodyguard.

“Well met, Princess Celestia!” One of the kirin stepped forward to greet her with a huge smile. A tall blue kirin with white mane and tuft at the tip of her tail, not to mention cute antlers. “Are you here to fix this mess?”

“Why, that is exactly why I am here!” She chirped with a hoof to her chest. “What happened?”

“We sold a load of tofu on Manehattan and then we loaded up a huge load of coke we meant to sell to the Stormvalley armory. They have the best in Manehattan! But, anyway, we ought to dock on Beachhome first. And… We can’t reach it if the hippogriff won’t let us through. No way I’m taking my ship through the Maelstrom.”

She meant to go on, but Chocolate Velvet made a funny face and interrupted. “Uh… Coke? The drink? Or…”

The kirin giggled. “Nopony drinks coke, silly. It’s a fuel for their forges.”

“Oh! Coal coke!” He laughed. “Sorry… Go on!”

“What did you think?” Celestia tilted her head curiously.

He chose not to speak anymore and kept chortling, hiding his mouth. “Nothing. Nothing!”

The two mares stared at him for a few seconds, but then went on to their conversation with the kirin continuing. “Basically, we can’t get to Beachhome because the hippogriff decided to tax everything, and I can’t pass the taxes to the griffons because… Well… Queen Novo is going nuts… I won’t be able to sell when I get there. I can’t even get this stuff unloaded and go get other stuff ferried because we’re stuck. They won’t buy our load back in Manehattan and we can’t get through without paying the taxes. Other captains say that things are just as bad in Hoofba Port! Even if we dump our load, we need supplies and they’re charging simply to pass the gates!”

Celestia nodded and opened her wings. “I am going to get this sorted out with Queen Novo. Don’t worry. Come along, Chocolate Velvet. Let us find one of the hippogriff officers.”

He followed her into the air and skirting the ships. Ponies, kirins, some hippogriff and even griffon crews stopped everything (not that there was much to do with the ships stuck in a line) to watch them fly by but Celestia kept looking at the water until a large manta ray with a blue-shaded spot coloring surfaced. It had a short chariot-like structure tied to its back where a seapony held its reigns with one of its long forelegs and a coral-stylized trident on the other.

“Wow! Cool! It’s a manta ray!” Chocolate blurted all excited and Celestia giggled at him before shifting her flight to the seapony and their ride.

It was a bulky male seapony with a beautiful shade of blue and cyan fins, wearing a pearly aquamarine armor stylized like corals. Like his trident and the appendage strapped to the manta ray.

“Greetings!” Celestia flew next to them and called their attention, waving a hoof which caused him to command his ride to stop.

“Princess Celestia?!” He gasped. “What are you doing here?”

“Who’s in command of this operation?” She stopped to a hover and Chocolate kept next to her.

“That would be General Seaspray, your highness!” He pointed with his foreleg holding the trident. “That way, at the entrance to Hippogriffian waters.”

“Thank you!” She reoriented herself and flew in the direction while Chocolate Velvet still hovered next to the seapony.

“Can you guys control sea creatures telepathically?” He gave the other a huge grin, but the seapony merely seemed confused.

“Come along, Chocolate Velvet!” Celestia called him and he left the seapony to rejoin her side. “It is the first time we have come to Hippogriffia, isn’t it?”

“Yes! Wait. Queen Novo rules both the hippogriff and the seaponies?”

“Yes. It is not complicated.” They flapped their wings, gaining speed. “They were all hippogriffs once, but when the Storm King attacked, they fled under the sea. Queen Novo used her magic to make them into seaponies. But once it was safe again, they came back up and are swiftly rebuilding their cities. But some wanted to stay underwater, and that is a good thing: they have significant fish, oyster, and kelp farms. They also collect corals and make beautiful artisanship with them. But the event gave them a bit of a reputation for cowardness, which is unfair, but you know how things are.”

She looked at him. “There are a few things you should know about them. The first one is that they cannot change back and forth in between seapony and hippogriff, but we are hoping that the changeling medical sciences should help. You should keep that in mind during your studies.”

He nodded to her. That would be an important thing. Probably with a combination of zebra potions, changeling magic and some unicorn magic. Well, the hippogriff’s own magic. Wait… “How did they change to begin with?”

“The Queen has a magical pearl she uses to focus her magic. It’s a family heirloom and their greatest treasure. Unfortunately, she is the only one who can use it and it is quite taxing to all involved.” He nodded as she explained. That was another thing to keep in mind. “As of today, she trusts her sister, Ocean Flow, to relay to her all the happenings under the waves and carry forth her authority.”

“You should also know that Queen Novo has a daughter. Princess Skystar. A niece, Lady Silverstream; and a nephew, Master Terramar. They are a happy family, if her sister lives under the sea and her husband is a hippogriff.”

He nodded. Better get cracking, then. “How come you’re not queen? I mean, with that conversation we had yesterday…”

She shrugged. “Makes little difference.”

“But it would be cool.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“I don’t really mind.” She grinned. “But you can call me Queen whenever you want!”

He chuckled. “Hey! Who’s Skystar’s father?”

Celestia came closer and hid her mouth with a hoof, whispering over the wind. “It is said that General Seaspray often visits the queen’s chambers. But I didn’t tell you anything!”

She grinned. “Other than that, she is a good friend of mine. Be nice to her. Skystar is adorably naïve and Silverstream is one of the happiest younglings I know.”

“Don’t worry, Celestia. I’ll behave.” He grinned and made her giggle some more.

Then she pointed forward with a hoof. “Ah! There they are!”

Before them, a tall wall closed the passage between two islands, with a giant gate which bars made a winged seashell motif decoration. It didn’t seem particularly sturdy to Chocolate Velvet, but he supposed that it was built more to control the traffic of ships and that magic would fix that if needed. It would also be probably bad if they completely isolated the inner waters from the outer waters.

There were several warships around the entrance. Nothing like the Break of Dawn, but smaller seafaring ships with things that reminded him of airfoils on the sides which held magical engines. Reminded him of some sort of catamaran ships. Some were so big that their structure grew over the wings. They were also armed with guns and crewed by hippogriffs in armor carrying muskets. Also, seaponies mingling in the water around the ships or on their manta ray mounts, carrying tridents and a few flying chariots pulled around by hippogriffs.

“There he is.” Celestia pointed towards one of the towers that held the gate. It was a round shape with enough space to house a few naval cannons and a small tent with a few hippogriffs standing guard.

Hippogriffs pointed at the Princess and her escort, as well as crews on the ships, except the later celebrated while former became apprehensive. It would be a little dumb for them to do that, but Chocolate was happy no one raised a gun, or something as they approached. They seemed on edge and he wouldn’t have approached like she did. But then again, he wasn’t ‘The Mare’.

They landed on the top of the tower and one of the hippogriff, a tough cyan-purple guy with aquamarine mane and tail and wearing a pearly-rosy armor with maritime motifs and helmet that turned his feathered crest into a decorative crest approached and bowed to them with flared wings. Looked a lot like pony armor to Chocolate Velvet.

“Princess! Prince-Consort! Welcome to the Westerly gate!” He then rose and grinned. “As you can see the situation is well under control and the blockade to Griffonia is going swimmingly!”

“That is wonderful, General Seaspray.” She grinned with all her good mood. “The only problem is that there shouldn’t be a blockade.”

“Oh…” He deflated like a punctured balloon. “Uh… Then I guess things aren’t going swimmingly…”

He removed his helmet and his crest exploded with exuberant feathers, but he also scratched his head. “I’m confused. I thought we were going to war with the griffons… I mean… Griffon Chancellor even threatened a war if we didn’t block access to Beachhome.”

Chocolate’s eyebrow raised and Celestia let him talk. “He demanded you blockaded access to his own country? That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“I imagined he meant to isolate the northerners. Beachhome is the only port with the infrastructure to import large volumes of cargo into their nation… Though, it does seem he’d be noosing his own neck. Hum… I’m just following Queen Novo’s orders.”

“Well, considering that Beachhome is under the southerner territories, and is loyal to the Chancellor, there would be something strange, wouldn’t there?” Celestia blinked at him.

“I assumed that the Chancellor would be acting so to prevent private enterprises from supplying the northerners…” He explained as his eyes shifted away.

“Well, that does make sense, General.” Chocolate said and looked at Celestia.

“It also makes you seem like the bad guys, and not the chancellor.” She added.

“Oh…” Somehow, he deflated even further.

“Let’s fix this, then! Shall we?” Celestia chirped and grinned. “Order your subordinates allow these fine civilian ships through the gates and only charge them the normal fees and taxes.”

“I can’t do that!” His wings flared again, and he recoiled a few steps, shaking his head with huge, scared eyes. “Queen Novo has put a lot of funds into training of new soldiers and equipment that is still undergoing production. We owe millions to forgeries and manufactories in the Equestrian Heartland! Hippogrifia would be broke overnight!”

“General, I don’t believe that Hippogriffia has the ponypower to fight a war. Even if only against Snow Mountains hold. This is folly. And that is the reason the Royal House has reserve funds. I will buy Hippogriffia’s debts and then I will work this out with Novo. Now, please, allow these ships through. This is only hurting the situation.”

He sat on the floor and let his wings and hippogriff ears hang. “I should obey my queen.”

“Queen Novo can scream at me all she wants. Right now, it is most important to fix this situation so that your queendom’s reputation is not hurt further. Please inform her that I will meet her on Mount Aris after you have allowed the ships through. Trust me, Seaspray.”

“I am sorry, Princess.” He frowned. “Nothing is changing until Queen Novo says so.”

Well, that sounded final. Chocolate looked at Celestia and she didn’t seem too worried, instead spoke soothingly. “It is alright. I meant to speak to her anyways, and this is no problem at all. May we proceed to Mount Aris?”

“Absolutely, Princess. I will ask the signalers to inform Mount Aris of your imminent arrival.” He relaxed somewhat. Enough to speak confidently.

“Thank you very much, General. Come along, Velvet.” She nodded respectfully and took flight, soon followed by the brown and armored alicorn.

“Well?” He asked once they had distanced themselves a fair bit in a relaxed flight.

“I expected he would be too loyal to Novo to commit. This is actually a good thing, but I wanted to try my luck anyway.”

He looked around as they spoke. The waters seemed shallow for the most part, with the most beautiful waters he had ever seen. Many beaches and it seemed like the hippogriffs lived on several villages and small cities on the larger islands that surrounded the largest island and tallest hill that was Mount Aris. If he paid attention and focused, he could see groups of seaponies swimming every which way and hippogriffs flying, living on their lives in their small paradise. Some areas seemed deeper and shifted to a deeper shade of blue and he could imagine underwater caves and galleries where the seaponies had built their homes and their farms in the wider, deeper, areas of sea.

The whole place gave him a very Ponyville-ish feeling of countryside nostalgia with a flavor of tropical beach, and there was a strange sadness attached to it. Right next to the griffons that had built a giant flying warship.

“This place is a paradise…” He finally spoke again. “It needs to be protected.”

“Queen Novo is immensely proud, and so are her subjects. They vowed that they would never be treated as the Storm King treated them again. It is a small blessing that they are ignorant of just how vulnerable they still are. Not a good thing, but a small blessing, nonetheless. They don’t want to prepare for a war. As all creatures, they, much like the Diamond Dogs above all, must be allowed to thrive and to enjoy their times alive. And in our positions, it falls onto us to ensure that they can.”

He spent some more time, contemplating the natural beauty of that place, with its beaches, the volcanic mounts. The tourism potential was outstanding, and he didn’t need to know much to say that. Maybe he started seeing things a little more like Celestia, but they were not meant to be warriors. They were meant to be happy hosts on the best place for vacations on Equestria. Somehow, it made all that they suffered under the Storm King sadder and turned the threat from the griffons all the grimmer. He could easily see The Lion going after the Hippogriff once he was done consolidating his power in Griffonia. It wasn’t even a matter of him being a bad guy. Just… How things were.

Maybe there were also the memories of his past life, on another, as Celestia mentioned, less forgiving, less caring world.

Then Celestia giggled, all happy, putting out her legs in their flight. “We also have to indulge in their seaweed-wrap massage and coconut sweets and drinks!”

“It’s a shame.” He smiled at her. “Griffons ought to love this place too, with all the fish and seafoods.”

“Precisely!” She chirped. “You understand! Don’t you?”

“I think that I do, Celestia. But you do remember why we’re here, right?” He kept smiling at her happiness.

“You can’t be blunt, Chocolate.” She waved a hoof at him.

“I think that telling Novo’s General to disobey her was kinda blunt…”

“Dealing with the Majesties is different than dealing with the military and that is different from dealing with the people in general and that is also different from dealing with the nobility. You’ll see. Pay attention and you’ll learn something important.”

Celestia flew fast, faster than she normally would, but Chocolate kept up with her and the beautiful scenario helped keep his mind off the exercise, and what she had said about dealing with different classes. He could already attest to that. Nobles were a pain in the hindquarters. He imagined the Majesties were similar. He had some contact with them, but mostly not. Nobles were the source of his annoyances, for the largest part. But he knew that Celestia constantly had to deal with the Majesties and sometimes they didn’t agree with their people’s representatives in the Hall of Friendship and then chaos ensued.

He thought it was curious that rather than teleporting right away, she chose to fly to their destination. Maybe she needed some time to think and thus he left her alone with her thoughts while he feasted his eyes on the natural beauty of that place. Obviously, he had a preference for the Equestria Heartland, and the Crystal Empire had its own beauty, but Hippogriffia had one of its own too and made him think of those nice, exotic locations for vacations. He could easily imagine him having a nice vacation in that place, enjoying their beaches and their seaweed dishes. Oh… And coconut desserts and drinks. Yeah. That sounded like a good plan.

They spent quite a lot of time flying. Thankfully, Chocolate was on day with his flight training and that didn’t really bother him, even with his armor. The nice scenario certainly helped too, but they eventually arrived at their destination, and that was the beach at the shadow of Mount Aris, before the city that occupied the base of the mountain with Novo’s palace at the top.

Rather than landing on the beach or city Celestia flew all the way to the top and he followed, landing by the top of the impressive staircase that enlarged from the long one that came all the way from the base of the mountain. It fanned out and embraced the entrance to the palace, a silver-ivory base with a tall spire with the statue of a hippogriff at the top. Many windows in the rounded, dome-shape and a rounded archway for entrance.

They landed by the entrance to the palace and a couple of guards simply stared at them, not knowing what to do until the hippogriff queen rushed out the door, screeching to a halt when she saw them and flared her wings.

“For pony’s sake, Celestia! Would it kill you to let me know with some antecedence when you come?! I can’t prepare a half-decent welcome like that!”

The princess giggled. “I am sorry, Novo. But I came here as a friend. To talk about something important and rather urgent.”

They hugged each other, and for some reason, it filled Chocolate’s chest with a warm feeling.

“Can I offer you something to drink, at least?” The queen offered a paw after they let go of each other. “I mean, since you came all the way here, I assume you will wish to spend some time dealing with whatever.”

She stopped for a second and her fluffy ears flopped like a deflating balloon. “It’s about the taxation, isn’t it? I’m only doing this to protect Hippogriffia! I was going to tell you when I could prove that things were working!”

“I see.” Celestia actually looked curious rather than slighted or angry. “And are they working?”

“Of course!” The other grinned. “Yes. I think… Uh… I mean…”

Then she gave Princess Celestia the most apologetical smile Chocolate had ever seem. “Chancellor Gail says it is…”

“Did he tell you that he sent an army to the northern holds that support The Lion.” She said plainly. “That he ended basic income in the southerner holds and I bet he will go on a full out war against them with the money that should be going to his citizens... My griffon subjects. And that you are withholding supplies that they need to survive. Again, my griffon subjects. They will end up joining the Griffonian Standing Army against an enemy that they cannot defeat, and they will hate you because of what you are doing. They will see you as the reason they were forced into a war. When The Lion wins, the entire nation will have you and your people to blame for all their problems while The Lion will deliver all the food they could ever need as soon as he takes control of the nation, blaming you and Gail for their suffering. There will be months, if not days before he can justify a war against Hippogriffia to a nation full of angry griffons that will look at how well you are doing for yourselves while they starved!”

Novo gasped comically loud and almost jumped back. Chocolate supposed that royal decorum, or something, kept her from it.

Still… ‘You can’t be blunt’, she said… The alicorn thought to himself with a blank stare while the conversation unfolded before him. Seemed to have worked, though. Novo seemed to understand that she was digging her own grave.

“But… But Gail said…” The hippogriff didn’t know what to say, and her eyes shifted nervously while she still tried to stare at Celestia. She did the same nervous tap-dancing that ponies did when things were bad, though. He worried a bit that her two guards witnessed the whole thing. Novo had screwed up and these rumors could get out of control quickly. Celestia was too used to trusting her own guards’ discretion.

“I though… How… This… This is all wrong!” She whined. “I didn’t know that! Gail said that he meant to better control supplies so that he could make sure that the northerners wouldn’t get the stuff that they need.”

She also sat on the floor and held her head in that panicked way that ponies also did, including disheveled mane. Though hers was technically a crest of large feathers. It seemed to work the same way.

“By the Maelstrom! I feel like an idiot!”

“Now, now…” Celestia waved a hoof at her. “We can fix this. Please, order General Seaspray to allow the merchant ships through at the normal taxes.”

“I can’t!” She almost panicked again. “I have made a giant debt in the purchase of equipment and resources with the money from the taxes that the larger shipping companies agreed to pay! Griffonia will be broke overnight!”

Well, at least her general’s assessment wasn’t too wrong…

Celestia kept calm, though. “I will buy Hippogriffia’s debt and Gail will help deal with the backlash from all this, because he knows full well he is to blame, and so will know the whole world. Especially when he will be dealing with the loss of his mandate and charges for corruption and every single little petty thing I can pin on him after this stunt.”

Oh, boy… Gail’s gonna get his griffon ass roasted.

“Alright… Okay…” Novo breathed a little easier.

“Now, write a letter to Sultan Withen. Explain to him what I have explained to you and persuade him to open his ports for goods going to Griffonia. We caught this problem right on time and can fix things before it grows out of control. But actions must be taken with celerity.”

Novo nodded, more focused. It was that way Celestia spoke to them that made ponies (and hippogriffs) focus and get stuff done. “Yes. I will use the mirror.”

“Ask him to act immediately.” Celestia added. “I suspect that someone may be interfering on this whole affair and we must coordinate our actions before they have a chance to interfere again.”

“That sounds bad. And worrying.” The queen frowned and grimaced. “What is going on?”

“We are dealing with someone that knows how to get to us, Novo. I need to talk to you about some things that may come as a shock to you, but they are important.”

The queen nodded again but shifted her head curiously. “I’ll get us a private place to talk.”

Then Celestia turned to Chocolate. “Do you mind if I talk to Queen Novo alone?”

He simply shook his head. “Not at all. I’ll find something to make myself busy. Can I have my research stuff and a quiet room?”

Might as well make himself useful if she wouldn’t need him for a while.

Celestia nodded, and Queen Novo seemed curious, but she acquiesced. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I will ask the staff find you a place while I talk to Celestia.”

With that the two mares… Should he call Queen Novo a mare? They went inside and he remained behind for a second before he looked at the guards by the door. Apparently, they studied the same technique of pretending they weren’t there that the Royal Guards had perfected.

“So, can you guys be trusted not to go around squawking about that?”

The one on the right simply nodded all sure of himself and the other gestured shutting his beak.

“Cool. See you guys later, then.” He grinned and followed the two inside.

***

“We gotta do something to help Gilda, Twilight!” Rainbow hovered in front of the princess, flying backwards while she walked in the main hall of the airship’s aftercastle. “She’s our friend!”

Cadance and Shining went back to their room and Twilight decided she ought to do something instead of wasting her time on some pointless thing. She knew that the two probably had to see to Flurry heart, but she figured that she would better spend her time being useful somewhere else because in between the two of them and Miss Calcite, they had the baby under control. As much as it was possible to control Flurry Heart anyways.

“Don’t worry, Rainbow!” She stopped. “We will. Princess Celestia is going to do something herself. The problem is that for the time being, we’re stuck here. But I am worried about Gilda too.”

“Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash!” Spike raised a fist. “We’ll help Gilda as soon as we can. And Twilight said it, Princess Celestia knows something wrong is going on.” If there is one that can fix whatever the problem may be, it would be her!”

“This is all because that stupid Chancellor won’t let go.” Gracielle declared from behind them. “We didn’t want any of that mess he created. I didn’t even know that he had sent an army to Snow Mountains. All he was supposed to do was let go of his office and let griffons crown Lord Gilad already.”

“Why exactly are you hanging out with us?” Rainbow sneered at her.

“Ah… I guess the princess will give me back my baby if I learn some of that friendship stuff…”

“That screams second intentions…” Spiked crossed his arms at her.

“What am I supposed to do anyways?” Gracielle stopped with the drake in front of her. “I’m not going to beg!”

“Well, I think that is a great idea!” Twilight grinned. “Why don’t you go see how Spitfire is doing? Even if she doesn’t like you, that is a step in the right direction! We could all go, since Rainbow wanted to see her too!”

“Fine…” The griffon blushed a little and Rainbow didn’t like it at all. “I guess there is no harm in trying.”

“Works for me!” The princess grinned at her.

***

Cadence laid on her belly, on their bed with Flurry Heart between her forelegs and the baby played with a noisy toy hammer, hammering away at the sheets and entertained at the highest degree at the annoying squeaks that thing did every time. Cadance was too amused and enchanted by the filly’s delight to let that irritate her.

Miss Calcite sat by the side of the bed and just giggled at Flurry. Or at her. Cadance didn’t know for sure. What she did know was that Miss Calcite went above and beyond for them through that confused mess she had dragged them into, and she finally had a chance to say something.

“Thank you, Miss Calcite.” She spoke softly, still staring at the baby.

“Hum?” The crystal pony blinked at her.

“I don’t know if we could’ve dealt with this whole thing if you weren’t here to help us with Flurry heart.” Cadance let her head hang a little.

She blushed in an adorable shade of sparkly pink, as the crystal ponies did. “I’m just doing my job, Princess. I mean, you and Prince Armor did so much more for us. It’s been an honor, helping you with Flurry Heart, in reality. And you can count on me for anything!”

Cadance chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Thanks, Miss Calcite. I think that I will need to take you up on your offer.”

“I understand, Princess.” She lowered her muzzle sheepishly. “But please be careful. I die every time I see that you are putting yourselves in danger. You and Prince Armor are very important… I wish I knew better words to express that.”

Oh… That was so sweet. It really warmed Cadance’s heart. Not that she didn’t know that Calcite held them very close to her heart, but it was always so heartwarming to hear that. She really should do something nice to her.

“Don’t worry!” She grinned at the sweet crystal pony. “We will be very careful!”

“Well, I’ll do my best to help!” She giggled a little.

Almost on cue, Shining Armor came into the room from the corridor with a tray on his back that he magicked to the bed. It had a collection of mashed berries and some white yogurt on a small plate and with a small spoon.

“I bet she’ll like this! The cook said that his kid loved it and even I think it tastes delicious!” He smiled at Cadance while the little filly put up her hooves and called ‘da!’

Cadance giggled again. “Well, let’s try it, then.”

She picked the spoon in her telekinetic magic and scooped a sample of the now reddish yogurt to offer to the baby. But she was more interested in her toy and suddenly that wasn’t as cute as it was before.

Shining and Miss Calcite chuckled at Cadance’s expression. “Why do we even try?”

“Because it’s our job!” Shining did his best not to laugh.

“She’ll get hungry eventually!” Calcite giggled. “She’ll eat it all then.”

Cadance agreed, and then she just let the baby play with her toy. “Shinny, I need to talk to the griffon prisoner.”

“Hum…” He didin’t seem very excited about that, but as he always did, he had Cadance’s back. “Not gonna be easy. Princess Luna might be the best bet. And Grigory.”

“I also need to talk to Prince Grigory about his mate.” She rubbed a leg with the other. “There’s something weird going on in between them.”

“Well, we should be able to reach him easily enough.” Shining Armor agreed. “We better not waste too much time. We don’t know when they’ll be able to get their plan going. Twilight made it sound like it wasn’t very failproof.”

“It seems that time is important. I can watch over Flurry Heart if you need to go.” Calcite pipped. “I’ll just let her play and then offer her this to eat. It does smell delicious… As soon as she’s not so distracted anymore, she’ll want it.”

“Thank you miss Calcite.” Cadance stood carefully not to hurt the baby or spill the meal and joined Shinning on the side of the bed.

They left the room and then the aftercastle to take a ride in a flying chariot that had been made available to transport passengers between the airships. They flew over some pretty farmland and the clear sky made the whole thing as pleasant as it could be. It struck Cadance as curious how the hospital ship was different. Rather than a ship, it looked more like a building constructed on the hull of an airship. But she supposed it made sense. It was meant to have as much room as possible for the medical installations and not meant to see combat.

They landed on a designated area in the roof that was close to an entrance and next to a sort of external leisure area. Cadance meant to enter but Shining directed her at the other area where Grigory was with Gallensa and other griffons. The big and serious types that made her think of the Royal Guards, keeping watch while Grigroy talked to another griffon and Gallensa sat next to them, paying attention.

They talked in their different language when Cadance and Shining Armor arrived but silenced and Grigory turned to them. Gallensa just sat there with the wind in her feathers and pretended not to be interested.

“Princess Cadance. Prince Shining Armor. I’m afraid I need a favor.”

Well, good, because she needed one from him too, but she let him speak first and smiled.

“I need to see the deserter. It is important.” He declared with few niceties.

“Well, I wanted to see him too.” Cadance did her best not to grin.

“Maybe we can help each other?” Shining offered. “What can you tell us? Do you know why he deserted?”

“Grigory.” Gallensa called him and then spoke something in their language, but the shook his head and made a dismissive gesture after talking back to her.

Then he turned to Cadance and Shining Armor. “He is a good officer and I want him back. He deserted for a stupid reason and perhaps an agreement can be reached, somehow.”

Gallensa, seemingly disinterested, said something that sounded like a sarcastic remark and Grigory retorted crustily. It seemed rather bad from Cadance’s and Shining’s perspective, but the griffoness barely seemed affected.

Cadance looked at Shining Armor and he hummed. “I don’t know of any stories of something of the sort. Then again, we are not really in wartime. I think that if can talk to the princess and get her to understand the situation, maybe she could let him go. She probably got some information out of him.

Cadance gasped! “You’re trying to avoid him telling the princesses things!”

But Grigory shook his head. “He has been condemned to a personal torture because my mother has ideas some would consider unsavory and has been led to believe that he is less worthy than he really is. I want him back because he is a good soldier that didn’t deserve the treatment he received. I don’t care what he may have already told her. I doubt that even in treason he did much damage. Seems to me that his betrayal was more out of lack of options.”

“Can you explain what happened?” Cadance frowned and Shinning nodded.

“I will.” Grigory complied with a nod and Shining agreed with a nod.

“Let’s talk to Princess Luna. I’m sure she’ll meet us with Cadance and Twilight want it… We should look for her too. Princess Celestia is gone for the moment, and that may give us a hoof up, but it would be great if you explained to us what the whole thing is about before we met her.”

Cadance grinned. “Easy. Twilight should be talking to Spitfire right now and then we can go meet Princess Luna. With some luck, we may get to see this guy tomorrow, if not even tonight. She’ll probably want to speak to him before.”

Gigory nodded.

***

Twilight, next to Rainbow Dash and Spike skipped lightly on the beige-carpeted floor. Gracielle, the white and caramel griffoness followed, carrying a wrapped bouquet of daylilies in her beak.

Off the sides she could see the actual floor of the corridor, white as its walls. That wing of the hospital airship had more adequate ‘pony’ décor, with a few side tables every now and then with a potted plant. More colorful signs and nice looking light-orange doors to the rooms and the ceiling had pretty golden highlights with the magical light fixtures. Not that many medical staff and she wondered if it was some sort of place for the patients to recover after they were out of danger and closer care wasn’t needed anymore.

Not too deep past the living room that was the central hub for the corridors they found their destination, clearly identifiable by the two Wonderbolt stallions. Namely Thunderlane and Soarin. They sat in front of one of the doors and they talked friendly and excited to one another. Thunderlane said something, making gestures with his hooves, as though he was trying to simulate flying creatures.

With his back to their arrival, the gray and cyan pegasus didn’t notice their arrival, but the other frowned and pointed with a hoof. Not an ideal start.

She also noticed they wore the Wonderbolt’s light combat armor, complete with their wingblades and firearms strapped to their legs. She would be interested and curious if the excitement hadn’t fallen to glacial levels as soon as they were sighted.

Rainbow took the lead. “Hey guys!”

“Heya, Rainbow.” Soarin was friendly, but not much.

“Yo, Dash.” The other greeted her too. “I can get over fighting against us because of the Princess… I mean, that is kinda expected. But you got some unsavory company there.”

Gracielle stopped and blinked at the remark.

Twilight gave a nervous laugh. “Ah, ha ha… Hello there! Gracielle is here to apologize to Spitfire. She even brought some flowers she bought in the hospital’s gift shop!”

“Don’t know who that flat-face jerk is, do you Princess?” Soarin pointed a hoof and Thunderlane took a position by his side before he spoke.

“She was supposed to be a Wonderbolt. The Scout Division.” He accused her with a hoof. “She trained with us and the recruits and then ghosted on us. She was even going to get into the presentations team. The first griffon in the force was making it into the scouts and the PR team. We were bucking proud of her! Then she shows up and shoots the captain with real ammo!”

Gracielle blushed and picked up the flowers to show them. “Look guys… I brought these for Spitfire… I mean… I didn’t shoot her to kill, you know. It was part of the fight.”

“Stow it!” Thunderlane scared Twilight. “You’re not seeing the captain and I hope you choke on those things, bucking traitor!”

“I don’t care you came with the Princess.” Soarin added. “We’re gonna start a bucking mutiny if you don’t beat it! Like, right now!”

“You aren’t welcome, hairball!” The other concluded.

“Fine!” Gracielle finally flared her wings and threw the flowers to the floor. “Hope that jerk never flies again! Not like I care about any of you anyways!”

Then she stormed off, muttering about stupid ponies.

“Guys, you could’ve been nicer!” Twilight scowled at them. “She was trying.”

“Some things you don’t come back from, Princess.” Thunderlane frowned.

“Tell that to Princess Luna, will you?” Twilight argued back. “I’m disappointed in you guys! We’re supposed to be excellent to one another!”

“Yeah, she’s not ‘us’.” Thunderlane hoofed angrily at the carpet.

“You don’t get it, Princess!” Soarin insisted and the other nodded. “It’s gonna be a war and she’s gonna be shooting at us! She coulda killed Spitfire! You can’t fix that with Friendship!”

Instead of insisting, she just groaned, then Rainbow took the front. “Hey guys, can I see Spitfire?”

“Yeah, you can, Dash.” Soarin knocked on the door and then opened it for her to enter.

Twilight thought of going too in, but she honestly didn’t feel like it anymore. So, she turned on her hooves and walked away. Spike followed but didn’t say anything. She saw Shining Armor coming the way they had come.

“Hey, Twily. Got a minute?” He grinned.

“Yeah…” She didn’t feel very excited.

He stopped before her. “Grigory asked to see the deserter. Me and Cadie decided to go talk to Princess Luna. We could use your support.”

She nodded. At least that seemed like it was going to be interesting. If she can keep the griffons from fighting between themselves.

***

“It reminds me of Queen Chrysalis yelling at me.” Said the big changeling sitting in the chair.

It was a comfortable sitting room that Luna asked the Royal Guards to change the furniture around. It became a pair of pony sitting chairs in front of seven others occupied by Chrysalis big changeling soldiers. The queen sat with Luna, in front of them.

“Well, then.” Luna showed them another piece of carton. “What do you think this one looks like?”

The seven of them stared intently at the carton until one of them finally spoke.

“Queen Chrysalis angry!” He said. Luna didn’t know his name, but he looked around to the others and they agreed collectively with nods.

“What about this one?” Luna showed them the next carton with an inkblot.

“Queen Chrysalis telling me that I did something wrong.” The one known as Bossy declared and the others agreed with the same nods of certainty.

Luna stared at the inkblot herself, and then changed it for another. “What about this one?”

“Queen Chrysalis angry that I did something wrong!” The one that kept his hoof off the seat declared all certainty and the others agreed again.

“Is there any of these that doesn’t look like me to you?” Chrysalis took the cartons from Luna and threw them in floor before them. Luna blinked and waited while the seven changelings stared intently at the pictures in the floor.

“Aye!” One of the females chirped with her ears perking up and pointed at one of inkblots in the cartons. “This one looks like a pony telling me that Queen Chrysalis said I did something wrong.”

“Stupid test.” The Queen growled.

“I don’t think that the test is the problem, Chrysalis.” Luna frowned at her.

“Are you going to recycle us for that?” The scaredy one asked with her ears hanging and a sheepish stare.

“Will you stop with that?! I never said I would do anything like that!” Chrysalis did her best not to yell, but still raised her voice. At least the big changeling didn’t look so scared while Luna rubbed a leg on her chin.

“I know! I want you to draw the Reclaimer for me!” Luna grinned and offered each of them a clipboard with a series of colored pencils. “Take all the time you need and put as many details as you wish into it. Use all the colors that you need, and you don’t have to be ashamed of anything. Anything at all.”

Chrysalis sighed. “They’re just going to draw me, Luna.”

“Don’t interfere with them.” The princess admonished and hoofed at the queen’s shoulder.

“I don’t know what the Reclaimer looks like, though.” The one with the lame hoof looked at them.

The one next to him shrugged and the female one on the other side pointed at the scaredy female. “She’s the only that’s seen the Reclaimer.”

For some reason that worried Luna. “I see. What was your name again?”

The one they pointed had already started drawing, with her green tongue hanging off the side of her mouth, but she looked up to speak. “I’m Lusty.”

Luna blinked, looked at Chrysalis and she groaned. “We already stablished I gave them terrible names! Can we get over this, please? Her name was going to be even worse!”

“She is the only one that goes on and on about that Princess Luna.” Bossy rose a hoof and spoke. “We don’t really have a clue what’s she on about.”

“I see…” Luna muttered. “Anyways, I want you to draw the Reclaimer for us. And I want the others to draw what you think the Reclaimer looks like. Can you do that?”

They nodded and set to work. Luna spoke again “We’ll be gone for a while, but we will be back. We will be just in the other room. Take your time.”

She picked up the cartons with the inkblots and walked through the door with Chrysalis who followed her. Then she closed the door.

“I don’t think that this is working, Luna.” Chrysalis complained and let her ears fold down at the same time her ‘crown-thingy’ flattened, but Luna shook her head.

“You’re just impatient. You must be patient.” The princess gestured so with a hoof. “They will likely complain a lot of you. Indirectly. But we’ll eventually reach something we can explore to help them alleviate their apprehensions of you. Without that over their heads, we can give them the cognitive tools to deal with stress and they will grow more secure and happy. And happier makes for better soldiers, workers, friends… Everything.”

“They often seem foalish, however. I find it curious. It may be due to their anxiety.” Luna shrugged. “Anyways… We are on a path to help them.”

The new room had a few sitting chairs for ponies and a table with cookies and different drinks meant for the changelings once they were done, but Luna felt like there should be enough. So, she sat at one of the chairs while Chrysalis took another for herself.

“How about you tell me what you felt when you realized there was a problem with them?” Luna asked casually.

“What? Oh… I… Oh, no. We are not doing this!” Chrysalis frowned and shook her head.

Luna just stared at her and noted some things down in a clipboard. “Um-hum. And why are you so insecure about this?”

“Cease with this, Luna!” Chrysalis growled while the blue alicorn noted some more things down.

“Ah-ha… And what scares you the most about exploring that subject?” She looked intently at Chrysalis, but she simply remained silent.

Still Luna wrote some more. “And just when did you think you started projecting your mother into Celestia?”

“For the love of everything that is sacred, stop!” Chrysalis blushed madly and covered her face with a leg.

“I’m kidding. I’m not even writing anything.” Luna laughed and showed her the empty paper.

Chrysalis didn’t know exactly she was going to do, but before she did, Luna spoke a little too seriously. “I think I need to take a closer look at Lusty.”

She raised an eyebrow at the name. “I find it curious that she can recall memories of the Reclaimer, whatever it is, but the others can’t. It may simply be the case that she has a more active imagination, but I can’t shake the feeling that something different happened to her.”

Chrysalis shrugged. “I can’t tell you. I never did anything different with any of them… I… I never paid her much attention in that regard.”

She silenced and turned her stare down, but Luna didn’t react. Simply kept thinking until someone knocked on the door and she said they could enter. It was one of her thestral guards.

“Princess. Princesses Twilight and Cadance with Prince Shining Armor, Master Grigory and one of his officers wish to see you. With urgency, if possible.” He formally declared from the door.

Since Chrysalis didn’t seem ready to complain, she told the guard to let them in, comfortable that there should be seating for all of them. Cadance came first, then Grigory, followed by Shining Armor, Gallensa and a griffon of shades of metallic gray she didn’t know. Seemed rather young, as the other griffons. Following them came Twilight and Spike.

“Why is it that whenever I want to talk this thing is in the way?” Grigory complained, staring at Chrysalis.

“The Swarm is inevitable, Grigory.” Chrysalis told him all ominous, but at the same time disinterested.

“I’m sorry but do you mind leaving us alone for a while, Chrissy?” Cadance smiled at her. “We need to talk to Aunt Luna about the griffon deserter.”

“Yes, I do.” She just said nonchalantly. “Now you’ve made me curious.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Grigory groaned with a frown at the changeling “I must see the deserter, Princess.”

“That would be a very bad idea.” Luna shook her head. “He is not mentally sound.”

“I have the solution to that.” Grigory looked at the griffon they brought with them.

Luna frowned a little and looked at the other griffons. She knew Gallensa, but the other one was new. “I imagine you are his friend.”

“He’s told you about me?” He seemed embarrassed of something.

“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Luna gestured to the seats. “Make yourselves comfortable. We should have some time to spare. Start by telling me what exactly you want with him, Grigory.”

“He is an exceptionally good officer. I wish to have him back in our military.” The griffon prince explained it as simple and plainly as he could have. Gallensa yawned into her paw.

Shining gestured a hoof as he spoke. “I know that the reason deserters aren’t returned is to protect them from retaliation. But Prince Grigory has convinced me that he means to fix the problem. And that he has the means to do it.”

“Let us not jump to conclusions.” Luna nodded. “Explain to me the Court of The Harpy, Grigory. I don’t think that the situation can be fixed right now. He has told me that he is forbidden from marrying… Mating… As ridiculous as this sounds, even from producing offspring… Because he is impure. It seems that your mother has deemed him so.”

“You can start by saying how you know of The Harpy.” Chrysalis added with her own accusing glare. “I consider this issue slightly more important than some random griffon grunt.”

Grigory didn’t like it, much less because Chrysalis was there, it seemed, but he directed his words at Princess Luna and sounded incredibly frustrated. “The Cult of The Harpy is transmitted from a generation to the next. Every year we have a festival. The Gathering Storm. Griffons from every village gather in their lieges’ castles and halls and it is the responsibility of the Lady of each city to sing the Cry of The Harpy to our youngest. But there is more to it. When they arrive, the Loremasters will scout out the best and purest examples of each of the main lineages of griffons and mark them with a brooch, or a scarf. After the traditional retelling of the Cry of The Harpy, those old enough are taken to a party with copious amounts of good food and alcoholic beverages. They are introduced to the older members of the Court and taught about the value of their strong blood. And also, things that adult griffons do.”

“Glorious!” Chrysalis laughed and clopped her hooves together. “It’s an annual orgy of horny griffons with a superiority complex!”

“That won’t purify the lineages.” Luna complained, not amused. “All that does is mix them further in between themselves.”

“By purifying, the objective is to clear away the lineage that gave rise to the hippogriff and that miscegenated with them. Actually, purifying the individual ancient lines is a future goal and not that important.” Grigory explained and explained further on because Luna’s frown didn’t seem very friendly or satisfied. “Hippogriff have transmitted pony blood to us, which interferes with our ability to access our most powerful magical abilities.”

“This is infuriating.” Luna whined with a hoof on her forehead before glaring at the young griffon. “I swear I would adore your traditions if they were turned to something less destructive than a tool of discrimination.”

The princess shook her head, frustrated. “Even if that is true, griffons seem to be doing rather well in places where they commune with ponies and hippogriffs. It seems petty and unnecessary. Not to mention that griffons don’t stop considering their blood superior when the festivals end… Discriminating against and spreading hateful notions about hippogriffs and even ponies is not enough, you have to deem your own as inferior too.”

Grigory sighed. “Females of higher social standing are taught to identify the traits of a ‘good griffon’, and they can be rather cruel with the ones of lower standing. Less privileged females will mimic that, and the result is a whole slew of young, disillusioned griffons that believe they are inferior. Add to that that the Court is mystified beyond reason and that members can only mate or even approach other members.”

“Hum… “What is keeping the ‘lesser griffons’…” Twilight made giant air quotes. “From being with other griffons of their standing?”

“Some of them just accept that they are inferior and mate normally with females of their standing. It’s not only the males too… Females of lower standing suffer just the same. Others don’t deal very well with it. Some will never meet a mate that will accept them. They usually focus on their jobs. Others seem ready to spend their lives trying to prove that they are good enough and suicides are not unheard of.” He sighed again. “Though Loremasters will discourage suicides by appealing to their sense of duty to our race. Which is exactly what they did to Grinolf.”

“For how long?” Luna asked.

“Not too long.” He shook his head. “Lady Gwendolen was the one that implemented this system when I was a cub. Princess, I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.”

“You are hurting your own efforts.” Luna shook her head, mystified. “I could imagine the whole battle going vastly differently if Celestia had feared you could hurt Chocolate Velvet. Whatever it was that you wanted, you might have achieved it if you hadn’t driven one of your own into hopelessness.”

“I am well aware of that, Princess.” Grigory grunted. “That is why I want to fix the situation.”

“This whole thing is just cruel!” Twilight cried. “Everyone should have a chance of a happy and fulfilling life.”

“Excuse, me Princess…” Gallensa frowned. “Nothing is keeping them from a happy life. They just can’t find an opposite gender mate and produce cubs of their own. Hardly an issue for most professions. Or am I expected to put up with an ugly duckling because he is sad he can’t get laid? Nothing is keeping them from mating together all they want and adopting some orphaned cub.”

“Well, there is another side to this story, isn’t there?” Cadance raised her voice and almost scared Twilight and the yellow griffoness when she walked to her and glared at a wide-eyed Gallensa. “You have a few ‘high-value’ males that bring competition that won’t leave couples in peace. Right?”

Then Cadance turned to Grigory. “But I suppose that this is not a problem, since a male can impregnate many females, especially if all that matters is the purity of their bloodline. Whoever is behind this is making a cruel and demeaning breeding project with your race and must stop!”

Luna waited for a second before Cadance calmed herself. “Tell us more about Grinolf.”

His friend, Gonrur spoke, rising a paw. “When we arrived at Griffindel for the Gathering Storm a Loremaster identified us as members of the Court right at the gates. We enlisted to The Lion’s army and the soldiers and other griffons that saw we had the brooches started telling us about the Court. I mean… It is exciting. You find out that you are special, and everyone starts treating you different. After Lady Gwendolen sang the Cry of the Harpy to us, we were taken to a place called the Sanctum, but I lost contact with Grinolf. I only found him three days later half-drunk and passed out on the street outside the inner gate.”

“Worst. Winggriffon. Ever!” Spike pointed an accusatory claw at him.

“It’s not my fault!” Gonrur defended himself. “I thought he was having fun in the party!”

“What actually happened?” Luna insisted.

“Well, by what he told me, Lady Gwendolen dragged him out of there and took him to one of her Loremasters. They looked at the records for Brokenhorn, where we lived, and they found that his family had come from Beachhome and he had a hippogriff ancestor. Then I found him. Only reason he wasn’t discharged dishonorably for the state he was found was that I vouched for him to Lord Gilad. Lady Gwendolen even was against that. She got furious and yelled at him. Said he ought to know his place and that he would be a liability.”

“You have to let me take him back.” Grigory spoke again. “If I don’t, Lady Gwendolen’s appraisal of him will be justified in the eyes of others. I will place him back in his position… Or something of equal importance now that the Skoll has been destroyed and let him show his competence. I will take a good soldier before any pureblooded noble from Griffindel any day.”

“That is never going to work.” Luna shook her head. “He’s already ingrained that he is inferior and now that his desertion has led to the destruction of the airship, he will never be accepted back. I would fear for his life.”

“Give him to me.” Cadance put a hoof on her chest.

“I don’t know, Cadance…” Twilight’s ears pulled down. “Something tells me that he would want to be with the ‘cool griffons’ and not with the ponies.”

Luna nodded, but still thought for a second before she spoke. “What do you have in mind, Cadance?”

“I’m gonna find him a nice, non-crazy, griffon to marry.” She grinned. “All that nonsense of impurity is going to fall apart with a little acceptance.”

“I am not willing to give him away.” Grigory complained and waved a paw hastily. “I only told you all that because I expected that he would be returned home!”

“You already lost him. Cadance will try her way. If that fails, I will try mine.” Luna declared with finality and stared harder at Grigory. “Perhaps you should take this lesson back to Griffindel and show Lady Gwendolen that she is wrong and causing more trouble than her purity nonsense is worth.”

Luna sighed after an instant. “I will ask him if he would be willing to give his old lieges a second chance. Because you have failed him, not the other way around. But the decision will be his.”

***

Walking in the snow wasn’t as bad as it could have been since Discord could keep his feet above it but flying became impossible as he distanced himself from the city and the winds became harsher and harsher. His beard had frozen three times over, already.

But at least he made progress and could already hear the Windigos in the wind. They weren’t happy he was there. As though he intruded in their territory and that was exactly what he wanted. All he needed was for them to grow weary of his presence and make themselves present so that they could talk.

As much as they could talk.

If they could talk at all.

Well, he had already accepted that his plan was crazy. Making it work should be trivial for someone crazy enough to come up with the idea.

He stopped walking. Magic coalesced fast, draining from thin air into the frozen ground and a snow leopard rose, growling and staring with cold malevolent lights for eyes.

“Oh, come on!”

The thing lunged at him and Discord screamed turning and running. “Stop! Sit! Aaaah! I just want to talk to your masters!”

After a short chase, the creature jumped and latched on to Discord’s arm, but he didn’t feel a thing.

“Oh…” The snow leopard stared at him and chewed insistently without causing any harm.

“Get off! I’m here to talk!” He shook his arm up and down, flailing the monster around, but it didn’t let go. The howling wind filled with malevolent magic just made the whole thing more ridiculous until Discord stopped and materialized a T-bone steak he slapped the magical creature with a few times. “Here! Go get it! Go!”

When he threw it, the snow leopard let go of his arm and chased the flying piece of meat until it was simply undone when the magic that animated it dissipated. Something about it disturbed Discord and he became sad for a second.

But he didn’t have much time to process that. The storm clouds opened with a strange howling neighing that not only hit him with its weirdness, but also with the bizarre and distorted magic it carried, manifested in snowfall as harsh as it was malevolent.

He covered his face. “Yeah, yeah… Evil incarnate and all that stuff. Been there, done that… I get it. Come on! It is in your interest that you listen to me.”

He could see them from under his arm. Galloping in the air around him with their ghostly forms. The storm so violent he figured it would have ripped apart a normal being. “Come on! We need to talk. It’s all I’m asking!”

They responded with stronger winds that almost made him lose his balance and a wailing neigh that would have chilled a less powerful soul. “Do you guys want the Black Sun? Is that what you want? Because that is what you will get if you don’t listen to me! Things are great the way they are. You got your own piece of the world and you can keep entertaining yourselves playing chicken with the griffons and making evil plans about how you’re going to overwhelm the ponies on the other side. We all have it nice, and nobody wants it to stop!”

The winds calmed and he managed to lower his arm. Well, at least they’re willing to listen to him.

Then their malevolent magic hit him like a hammer to the chest, and he actually felt it this time. They spoke directly to whatever part of his being hurt like that and whatever they sounded like, it made him think of pure and simple corruption with the guttural sound of fear itself.

“Hundreds of moons ago we spoke to the Griffon King. We counseled him he flirted with annihilation and that he brought wanton slaughter and debauchery to his kind. That, as the one before him, he too would sacrifice his race on the altar of Her debased ego. He ignored us, delighted in surrender to the Raptor Queen, and he told us it is the nature of all things that they should end. If they so did in spectacle and that he would have part in it, all the better.”

Welp…

“And so…” The monsters roared on inside his mind. “Since countless existences before, the Matriarch of the Great Herd and the Mother of Storms wage their endless war, and mortals dance to their insane aria, and will continue to do so without end.”

“Wait!” Discord shook his head. “You mean… The problem is that she and Celestia can’t figure out how to coexist in peace?”

He had some notion that could be the case, but he hadn’t figured that Celestia was part of the problem. Well, that was good! If both had to compromise, it would actually be easier!

“All we have to do is get them to understand that they have to play nice and make the ponies and griffons play nice too. Or everybody loses.” He opened his arms as though it was easy. Well, it would be easier than seeing everything ending. “Twilight Sparkle and her friends can help them reach a middle ground. Help me reach her and get her a message!”

“You misunderstand. Such is the fate of all beings tied to Creation. Their unfathomable presence drives mortals to worship. They feed their endless hunger and unyielding power makes for poor anchor to sanity as mortals themselves justify their own madness through them. Yet letting go is beyond them and they cannot see it for themselves. Doom is only avoided is if they are themselves disallowed a presence in the realm of the mortals.”

Discord frowned. Did they mean that the problem that caused everything to break came from the Alicorn Goddesses? That wasn’t true! The ponies themselves caused that. He saw Luna become Nightmare Moon and return. He knew the tales of Celestia and what she did to the unicorn kings, he saw how deep she fell, but she has recovered. Fluttershy made him see that he was wrong. Twilight and Cadance were probably the most mentally sound of the four! If The Harpy wanted to destroy Celestia and would cause her to fight back, then they would stop her too, because he knew that Celestia, after all she had been through would chose peace over war! Always!

“There has to be a way!” He certainly didn’t want to die. He liked it damn much to be alive and he didn’t have the time to stop and think if everything could be blamed on the alicorns. “Celestia and Luna… Cadance and Twilight… And I include myself. We managed to live in peace. The Harpy can learn it too!”

The monsters laughed in the wind. “The Mother reigns supreme, and her authority is not challenged. The Harpy will not compromise for anything less than all. It will invariably escalate to war on a scale as of yet unseen, and inevitably to end everything with the Black Sun. Thus has been witnessed and thus has been deemed true.”

“I will prove you are wrong!” He pointed a claw at the circling wind. “Take a message to Twilight Sparkle! Tell her that Lady Gwendolen is the Harpy and that she has to find a way to get her and Princess Celestia to coexist. Or they will drag the ponies and griffons in their war.”

He made a small pause for dramatic effect. “Or else you and your smugness are going to end too. You may not agree with me, but it is still your best chance at surviving yourselves! Because if you don’t, all you’ll do is sulk here in the Frozen North and wait for them to decide your fate!”

He didn’t know how effective he was, but the wind mostly ceased, and everything returned to normal, despite the chilling cold. It seemed as though they decided they would help.

And Discord had a few things to ask Lord Gilad.

He started on his way back to Griffindel. Better not to waste time and take a risk Lady Gwendolen will figure out what he did.

He stopped for a second with huge eyes and a hanging jaw. Holy cow… He just sent the Windigos after Twilight!

He shrugged and resumed his walk. Eh… She should be fine. It was not like they could actually leave the Frozen North anyways.

Comments

[Silentwoodfire]

10760841
It's even better since your other story links to it from another direction. I get the feeling they're going to meet up at some point

[Metemponychosis]

10761016
I'm glad you enjoy. All the stories in this AU during this phase will serve to add different points of view on different events or to add further insight into the characters. Particularly The Lion, Lady Gwendolen, Grigory and his friends.

[Silentwoodfire]

10785699
unless its related to commands used in Hacknet, I'm afraid I wouldn't know what commands to input

[Metemponychosis]

10786153
The Sudo command allows an user to temporarily get higher access privileges to the system. It's similar to the Windows' 'run as administrator'. It allows the system to grant access to functions while executing a program that it normally wouldn't.

Cadance, being who she is, or carrying the soul that she carries, depending on your interpretation of the whole identity thing in 'Dines with Griffons', has the same 'access level' as Luna does in the magical hierarchy of the system. So she 'has the authority' to cut Luna off and take control. The thing is that her mind wasn't doing as it should and was breaking down. Normally... You'll see.

Other than that... The important detail was that the magical notation of the pony mind didn't use pony glyphs, but symbols that reminded Cadance of a griffon alphabet

[Kevin Lee]

“The only agreement I want to reach with her is one where I stab, stab, stab, stab and stab her with a dagger!” Cadance stared at her for a few seconds while she gestured angrily. Definitively teenager. Not that she could blame her… But definitively a teenager. “A poisoned dagger, preferably.”

Snort! Absolutely, totally nothing at all inappropriate there....

“I work for the Griffonstone Postal Services!” The griffon finally grabbed on to the railing. “I have an urgent letter for Rainbow Dash!”

Well, at least we finally now know this chapter happens after Chapter 2 of Fólkvangr

Hey! I'll have you all know that's a SERIOUS SPOILER!

“Well, it is understandable you ponies don’t appreciate the fine nuances of our superior weaponry.” She stared inexpressively with her curious raspy voice. “You don’t even have the technology to produce semi-automatic firearms. Not even decent revolvers.”
"Maybe not," Twilight sighed. "But we do have shipboard phasers. They can turn you into less-than-smoke in a shorter time than it takes to look at you."
"..." Gracielle replied, her left eye twitching.

♪♫

Since the griffon just huffed and went back to her berries, Twilight called the princess after spike showed her the list. “Luna, can you tell us about other versions of Equestria?”
“I don’t know much, Twilight. Celestia is the one that remembers things from the time of The Harpy or even from beyond the last time the Black Sun was triggered the last time. I can tell you though that there was a version of Equestria where she and I retired, and you became the ruling princess.”

Huh. So, Nathan Brazil did a reset on Equestria, too? That guy certainly gets around! Well, that paints a brand new picture.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/ReturnNathanBrazilSmall.jpg

[Metemponychosis]

10881605
DUDE, YOUR COMMENTS ARE BETTER THAN MY STORIES! Lmao!

Snort! Absolutely, totally nothing at all inappropriate there....

I mean, Gallensa isn't exactly nice, but Gwineth is rotten.
It's gonna be fun seeing Gilda putting her in her place...

[Jinnchin]

“I can tell you though that there was a version of Equestria where she and I retired, and you became the ruling princess.”
--
Spike frowned. “Hum… That ended with the Black Sun, right? What did she do?”

A goofy part of my brain likes to think the MLP:FIM canon universe got “Black Sun’ed” when Starlight Glimmer thought it would be funny if she replaced Princess Twilight’s breakfast with a stack of quesadillas… (Also, love the FoE shout out!)

Interesting that the Windigos possess knowledge of previous cycles of creation, and that they do not wish for the current cycle to end. That's a level of self-preservation I did not think they possessed. I also didn't realize just how accurate the characterization of Aya Harpia the "Unstoppable Force" clashing endlessly with Celestia the "Immovable Object" really was. Seems Cadence and Twilight now have a far more concrete reason to go against Celestia's will!

Also got a good chuckle at Discord near the end there:
Discord: "I'm going to warn Cadence and Twilight of the impending apocalypse!"
Audience: "Yay!"
Discord: "And I'm going to use the physical manifestation of corruption and hatred to do it! What could go wrong!?"
Audience: ""