Piece of Parchment

by Metemponychosis

Escape at the Break of Dawn

Admiral Gloria was one of those griffons that had a nice job with the ponies. She owed it to Princess Celestia’s recognition of her successes during the Second Griffon War. On the pony side, no less. The tricorn hat was silly, but it was a symbol of her station and the red uniform went well enough with her cyan and gray. The pay was great too, and griffons often said that she was an example of what a good griffon ought to aspire to.

Other than her skill as a commander, one of the reasons she managed to reach her position was that she was good at predicting the Princess’ moves and anticipated them. During the war, so long ago, the alicorn had noticed that she and Gloria worked well together.

That was why Gloria earned her place as admiral in the Royal Guard’s shining new airfleet. She trusted The Princess, and The Princess trusted her. Yet, sitting in front of the great white alicorn in that fine afternoon, Gloria confused. She came a feather’s length from convincing herself The Princess was playing a prank on her.

She was in the Royal Suite, in the Break of Dawn, and Celestia sat across her desk from Gloria, minding a letter. She wrote with a feather and the chiming from her magical telekinesis didn’t assuage Gloria’s confusion. The sun was high in the early afternoon and its light bathed the princess. It made her look even more radiant than she already was. But the small lemon biscuits were strange. Gloria couldn’t remember the princess ever having those with spirits. In fact, the princess was more of a sweet wine pony, but Gloria supposed the fleet was having supply issues that hadn’t been reported yet.

It didn’t matter. None of that was stranger than the Princess’ order she had Gloria summoned to her room for.

“Excuse me, Princess…” The old griffon lady shook her head and closed her eyes to ward off the confusion, as though she could jumpstart her brain by shaking it around. Maybe then Celestia’s orders would sound reasonable. “You sent two thirds of our fleet to nearby cities of little strategic value to the situation. I’m trying to understand.”

“I am asking that you prepare for the eventuality of Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Cadence escaping.” Celestia looked up at the griffoness from the letter she was writing. “It is a sound strategy.”

“No!” Gloria was sat on the floor and the jerking surge of energy that shot up her spine opened her forelegs and flared her wings. Her spectacles almost fell off her beak. “Keeping our sailors and ships with us is the sound strategy! With the prisoners! You have ordered me to send them to places they couldn’t be called back from in a reasonable time should anything happen!”

“Admiral, please mind your manners.” Celestia glared at Gloria from the other side of the table. “I understand this is disruptive to fleet operations, but it is what I am commanding you do. Last I checked, I was your hierarchical superior.”

“Yes…” The griffoness’ blue eyes aimed at the wooden floor. “Absolutely, Princess. And I apologize If I am speaking out of order, but you usually trust my judgment in these matters.”

“And I do.” Celestia returned to her letter. “But this matter is special, and I have already dispatched orders. I simply wish that you authenticate them. As quickly as possible.”

It was the griffon hen’s turn at glaring, waiting for an explanation. Petulant, yes. Almost mutinous, absolutely. But the princess had put her in command of the fleet for a reason. “I’m sorry, Princess. This makes no sense whatsoever.”

Celestia sighed in a manner most uncharacteristic. Maybe she was tired, teleporting all the way from Hippogriffia and soon to return must be tiring. Even for her. And that was another thing that bothered the griffoness. Celestia could simply have sent her a letter, but maybe that was the reason she had teleported… To impress on Gloria the importance of her new orders.

Gloria didn’t know. She was confused and that was it. “Two of our ships have already resupplied and are on their way… I only heard of it from you now.”

Celestia finally spoke to her, back to her typical patient and reassuring way of speaking. “I don’t believe that our sailors can stop them if they are committed to an escape. Especially with the griffons involved. Instead, I expect better results if we allow them to escape and intercept them again. When their supporters meet to resupply their airship.”

“They have supporters?” Gloria’s eyebrow raised as much as her confusion. The princess’ assessment was plain wrong. But maybe that was what younger griffons called playing three-dimensional chess.

“Yes. I am sending our ships to locations they are likely to meet.” Celestia raised from her seat and walked around the desk to put a comforting wing on the hen’s back. Softly escorting her out of the room. “And the less creatures know, the better. That is why I count on your discretion and diligence, admiral.”

Well, that conversation was clearly over, and Gloria had orders to follow. Strange orders, for sure, but orders from the princess, nonetheless.

Once outside Celestia’s private quarters, pushed out by her large wing, Gloria was slightly more confused that she was before. The hen blinked at the two guards by the door. They stared at her expectantly as the lock in the richly adorned door clicked.

Finally, Gloria stood. “Get me the quartermaster and the executive officer. I have new orders from the Princess.”

***

It was a nice and calm late afternoon. Twilight Sparkle sat on a large and comfortable sitting pillow that was blue and velvety. It was in one of the numerous lounges in the hospital airship. She supposed that they served their purpose of connecting the different corridors that made the hospital part of the airship. They seemed like the wasted space a shipwright was angry they couldn’t use for airship systems and at the same time, the engineers couldn’t use for patient rooms. So, they made the lounges that, at least, were nice, had windows, and connected the different corridors.

The large oval window that wouldn’t ever find itself on a more traditional airship gave her a nice view of the horizon over the untouched prairies of the county of Mareland. They would soon arrive on Baltimare and that gave Twilight an additional source of stress.

Something horrible had happened on Ponyville and she couldn’t be there to help Mayor Mare deal with it. To make it worse, she had dragged Ponyville’s Local Militia force after her. She hadn’t even made it to Manehattan or found Naminé. But she supposed she was making progress in one way or another. If only the griffons were more open, she wouldn’t so on edge.

What was supposed to be an awkward lounge in a hospital airship had become a mixed guardhouse. The airship’s Royal Guard detachment kept watch over the griffons so that they wouldn’t leave their assigned area. They were still prisoners, after all. But the griffons too used that place as a guardhouse. They made a point of not allowing anyone that wasn’t a doctor or a guard they absolutely must allow passage. Of course, Twilight being neither a doctor on a life-saving job, or a Royal Guard that had them under shackles, had to wait. Because it seemed as though in these days being a princess was overrated.

She sat on her pillow and stared at the sunset as though it was to blame. Princess Celestia wasn’t available as she had gone to Hippogriffia, and likely to Griffonia too. Princess Luna wasn’t onboard either, as she had gone to Ponyville to deal with the ‘griffon attack’ in the hospital. And Twilight was stuck there, trying to talk to the griffon ‘prince’, because she was worried it was part of the escape plan. With each sigh that escaped her, the more she convinced herself she was wasting her time.

Ironically, Cadance, the highest authority in that dumb airship was as much as a prisoner as Twilight and the griffons were. Who was the highest authority in that dumb fleet? Nopony knew. Possibly Queen Chrysalis. More likely Admiral Gloria. The griffoness admiral Princess Celestia put in charge of her armada wanted nothing with Twilight because she was a prisoner. And Queen Chrysalis didn’t want anything because she was Chrysalis being as Chrysalis as Chrysalis could be.

And that was why Twilight was sitting in the lounge/waiting room/guardhouse with angry griffons on one side and distrusting Royal Guards on the other. Meanwhile, one of the griffon soldiers went to fetch Grigory for her to talk, since they didn’t want her to go into their hidey hole.

She had lost track of how long she stayed in there, but eventually Cadance and Shining Armor arrived. Their frowns and urgent steps seemed appropriate for the situation.

“Twily!” Her brother promptly hugged her.

“Spike told us what happened.” Cadance hugged her too, as soon as Shining was satisfied, then they sat in front of her. “But don’t worry, I’m sure Princess Luna is going to take care of everything.”

“I know, Cadance.” Twilight’s frantic voice and her frown betrayed her anxiety. “It’s just that… I should’ve been there.”

Shining shook his head. “I glad you weren’t, Twilight. By what Spike told us, you could’ve ended very hurt. Even a powerful spellcaster such as you should be careful fighting certain griffons. These northerner ones, especially.”

“We don’t know the details yet, Shining Armor.” Cadance sighed at him. “It could have been a desperate measure.”

“I’ve been desperate a few times in my life, Cadance.” He glowered at his wife. “But I never thought I would be justified in tearing a small city hospital apart.”

At that moment Rainbow Dash crashed through the door and held Twilight’s shoulders. Was the situation not so dire, it would be funny that Twilight didn’t react at all because she expected it as soon as news reached Rainbow Dash. “I gotta see Gilda! Now!”

“I know, Rainbow.” Twilight softly guided her Pegasus friend’s hooves down. “I know, I sent Spike after you. But we’re prisoners. Princess Luna is looking into it.”

“Oh. Right. Well, I didn’t even know this town called Thunderpeak. Gilda never mentioned it. In fact, all I know of Gilda is that she lived her whole life in Griffonstone and Cloudsdale. Twilight, I know Gilda!” Rainbow insisted, frantically flapping her wings, and barely focusing her eyes on Twilight more than an instant. “She’s got anger issues. And some insecurities. But she wouldn’t kill anyone!”

The pegasus didn’t even give Twilight time to respond, as she turned around once and growled like she was herself going to murder someone. “It’s this Grunhilda… Whoever she is! I bet it’s some evil birdbrained hen that got Gilda into this crazy stuff!”

“Calm down, Dash.” Shining put a hoof on her back despite her flared wings and nervous pacing. “That Grunhilda was looking for emergency healing potions. Gilda was hurt and she was trying to help. I don’t know what is going on, but I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all this. As far as Gilda is concerned, I mean.”

“Reasonable?” Rainbow raised from the floor and hovered, glaring into Shining Armor. “There is nothing reasonable about this! I have to see Gilda! She needs help!”

Twilight sighed for the nth time that afternoon. “Unfortunately, that may be difficult Rainbow. I don’t think that anyone is going to let us leave.”

It lasted but a second, but Twilight thanked Harmony Rainbow wasn’t stupid enough to spill it that they planned an escape. Instead, the pegasus contained her nervous anxiety and landed to the floor with a huff.

Finally, the door on the griffon side of the lounge opened and one of Grigory’s friends came out. The big soldier-type griffon they called Gray, and actually was gray. He was also not amused, in that non-descript way soldiers stared at you through a black expression when they would rather be somewhere else instead of dealing with you. “I told Grigory you needed to talk to him, princess.”

“Great!” Twilight beamed. “Will you take us to him?”

“No.” The big griffon still didn’t show any emotion. “He told me to tell you not to bother him. He had nothing to do with whatever happened on Ponyville. But you better be prepared for a meeting this night as he might have something for you.”

Twilight blinked a few times at him.

The big griffon shrugged, not waiting for her to speak. “Stay on your room in the Princess’ airship. Grigory is not interested in you or your friends and would appreciate if he could spend the rest of his captivity without you bringing upon him attention he doesn’t want.”

“Oh…” Twilight let escape a small hum.

“Bye.” The griffon even waved a paw at her in the most irritating and demeaning way possible.

“Well, let’s go, Twilight.” Cadance huffed. “We have more important things to do than listen to this griffon treating us like this.”

“Yes.” The Pink alicorn added with an offended expression. “I guess we’ll just go read something. Since you griffons aren’t interested in working with us.”

Twilight stared at Cadance with a cocked eyebrow.

The princess turned to leave, and Twilight stood in place, wondering when had subtlety died. Rainbow just followed, after whipping her multicolored tail at the griffon. Shining shrugged at Twilight, and he started on his way out too.

“I swear…” The cyan and blue Royal Guard lieutenant in charge of that place growled from within his golden helmet. “If any of you is up to something, I will personally throw you on the brig and keep the key until Princess Celestia is back!”

“Don’t worry, lieutenant.” Shining put his hoof on his chest and spoke with the most earnest of voices. “I’ll keep them in line.”

“I’m sure you will, Capn’…” The pony squinted at him.

Twilight didn’t stay to let the situation get out of hoof. They retreated into a stairwell that connected the hospital decks. No more than a room with stairs they promptly took towards the airship’s main deck. Alone on the wood flooring, surrounded by only a hoofful of busy crewponies minding the airship, they turned to Twilight.

“Well, they’re on to us.” Rainbow frowned and complained more than she stated the obvious.

“Of course, they are…” Twilight sighed. “They probably have been expecting us to try something since the day we were captured.”

“Well, there isn’t much we can do about it.” Shining stared with a determined frown. “We don’t really have a choice either if we want to get to the bottom of this mess. And maybe do something about it. We can only hope that whatever the griffons have prepared will work. And do our part.”

“We’re just lucky Princess Celestia and Luna aren’t here.” Cadance declared, before she sighed. “And I bet Chrissy is going to make our lives difficult just because she can…”

“Rainbow, you’re the fastest.” Twilight turned to her friend. “Get the others to meet in my room, at the Break of Dawn.”

“Uh…” She just stared back with big, somewhat confused, cherry-colored eyes. “The time of day or the airship?”

“The airship, Rainbow.” Twilight felt so tired. “Right now.”

“On it!” The words barely left the Pegasus’ mouth before she shot into the air.

“Discreetly!” Twilight, almost screeched, but it was too late anyways, so she sighed again. “And we’re off to a great start.”

“I’ll get your guards to meet there too, Twilight.” Shining put a hoof on his chest and then pointed at the small flying chariot that transported ponies among the airships. “Let’s hope that it all goes well, and we can leave. Because if we fail, they’re gonna stop treating us like guests. Specially with Celestia and Luna away.”

“Yikes.” Cadance grimaced. “I’m not looking forward to staying in one of those cells in the brig. Specially with that old griffon lady there.”

“At least we can rest assured that it is in Grigory’s interest that we make it away.” Shining chuckled. “It’s not that bad. They’re now keeping the crew in the Magic of Friendship. At least we don’t have to worry about getting our ponies there, and that’s gonna be half the battle won already.”

Twilight and Cadance sat on the small platform with the winches that held the flying chariot. Boarding it, Shining was away to another ship. They would go to Twilight’s room and wait until the griffons made their move. And hope nopony got too hurt. Scratch that… Hope that she could find a way to apologize to the princesses in the next millennium.

***

Night had fallen outside, and it seemed a bit late, but Twilight couldn’t say for sure. The wilderness was dark, and the moon was covered. Her spartan room had magical lighting and it made looking outside worse. She returned to the coffee table to sit with her friends. The room was small for a group of more than ten ponies and a dragon. Sure, the dragon was small, but Shining was a big unicorn and Cadance was a tall alicorn. Twilight’s mind went to weird places, and she focused on weird details when she was anxious. Of course, noticing that only made her anxiety worse. It was like a vicious circle, and she was glad her friends were there for her.

Applejack put the tray on the table. “And then he asked why was it that we didn’t simply ask the crew to make these cupcakes for us. All friendly and helpful-like.”

“Can you believe it?” Pinkie groused. Ears pulled back with an offended scowl on her face.

“Then pinkie simply hopped over the counter and got in the pegasus face like she was gonna murder him. ‘You can’t handle my cupcakes!’ and started shaking his feathers off.” Applejack glared. “I almost had to use a scraper to get her to let go like old soot from a pan… But they let us use the supplies and the kitchen. Out of fear, I reckon.”

“What part of discretion did you miss?” Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Why, yes, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity’s glare was much more contained than AJ’s, but Twilight was sure it was due to her typical manners, not less annoyance. “I am entirely convinced the guards never noticed as you crashed through my room’s window, spilled out about the meeting and flew off the same way.”

“Thanks.” Rainbow beamed. “Speed was of the essence, you know.”

Rarity simply let her frown and scrunched snout say the rest without mentioning there was a guard inside her room at the time. And that was the reason for the ‘cupcake ruse’. Twilight wondered if yet another ruse would be needed to cover for their ruse, but Lieutenant White Leaf of her personal guard returned from the corridor.

“Royals bit it, princess.” The white and green unicorn mare declared as she closed the door. “We’re alone.”

And Twilight’s spell detection spell didn’t detect any scrying on her room. She nodded at Shining Armor, who nodded back. “So, here’s the situation. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have left the fleet. Luna went to Ponyville to deal with a situation. It seems a pair of griffons trashed the hospital and one of them, it seems, was Gilda.”

Pinkie gasped and her mane spasmed like it somehow received the same surprised shock as her muscles. “What happened?”

Rarity kept her composure. “Shining, ‘trashed’ is not a particularly descriptive word.”

Twilight stared at the colorful cupcakes on the table. Twelve of them, covered in imperfectly distributed frosting. One of the cherries, supposed to be on the top, had slipped to the tray, making the frosting situation worse. She sighed and focused her mind, staring up at her friends around the table. “According to the letter I got from Mayor Mare, a hen that must have been Gilda was critically injured and her companion caused property damage to the hospital. She was after their emergency supply of magical healing potions. Some ponies got hurt and it seems they may have died.”

She neglected telling them that their little sisters were involved. The foals didn’t seem to be hurt in a physical way, and Twilight could avoid the drama. She supposed it was a ‘leadership decision’. “What’s more, Princess Celestia has left for Mount Aris, and it seems she’s moving on to Griffonstone. I’m not sure. What I know is that both are dealing with the situation. Dire as it is, it will help us escape.”

The ponies around the simple round table under the white sheet nodded at her in unison. They paid attention and Twilight was, once again, thankful for her friends. “I went to talk to the griffons because I suspected the attack on the hospital might have been a diversion, or something.”

“That sounds rather extreme.” Rarity kept a serious expression, dramatic even in seriousness. “I don’t believe this is the case, Twilight.”

“That is why I went to talk to Grigory.” Twilight acquiesced with a nod.

“Right.” Applejack nodded, her elbow on the table while Pinkie mouthed an entire cupcake. “We know that Gilda high-tailed it out of Griffonstone. Those accusations she mentioned in her letter seemed a tad serious, to be honest.”

“They framed Gilda!” Rainbow cried. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s not… Evil.”

“All I’m saying, Rainbow Dash, is that whatever happened, Gilda is implicated.” AJ made some appeasing gestures with her hooves. “I don’t know her much, but I know good griffons don’t turn hospitals upside down.”

“This is horseapples!” Rainbow cried with her hooves raised. “Gilda needs help and I’m stuck here!”

The ponies and dragon in the room exchanged a collective concerned stare around Rainbow and that prompted her to slam her hoof on the table. “You guys are doing ‘the stare’. And that means bad stuff. I don’t like it when you do ‘the stare’ around me!”

“Well, Rainbow Dash...” Rarity started, all tact and carefully chosen words. “I believe it may be warranted to prepare yourself for some bad news…”

“What do you mean?” The cyan Pegasus glared. “That Gilda really did something wrong?”

Rarity cleared her throat, still carefully feeling her way around the conversation. “Well, she may not have done anything wrong intentionally… But she seems to have associated herself with a noticeably bad griffon.”

“Yeah… Sure.” Rainbow’s ears fell limp. “But then Gilda’s gonna tell us what really happened, and then she’ll be off the hook. Right? Right, Twilight?”

The alicorn princess wanted to say something, and her mouth hung open for a second as her eyes avoided Rainbow’s. It was Shining Armor that spoke, with a soft sigh. “It’s not that easy, Rainbow… There will be testimonies from ponies in the hospital and Griffonstone’s Local Militia is gonna have a few words to say. I’m afraid Gilda’s in some deep trouble too. Not only because of what happened in Ponyville, but because of what happened in Griffonstone too.”

“Yes… It does look bad.” Twilight put a friendly wing on Rainbow’s back. “But I’ll be doing everything in my power to help her when we come to it.”

Cadance nodded with a grin, despite Rainbow’s less enthusiastic posture. Wings limp on her sides and eyes cast down really didn’t look well on the Pegasus. “Don’t worry, Rainbow Dash. If it comes to the worst, we will be there for her.”

“Well, that much we can help it…” Twilight smiled softly. “The letter mentioned she went to a griffon city called Thunderpeak. We can teleport there from Manehattan once we see Naminé. It is probably our best course of action, anyway.”

“How are we going to use the teleporter, Twilight?” Fluttershy’s ears dropped. “By the time we make it there… They are probably watching out for us already.”

“We’ll worry about that when we come to it.” AJ responded for Twilight. “Right now, we oughta figure out how to escape.”

“Applejack is right.” Twilight nodded. “But I’m afraid we’re not going anywhere without the griffons. I hope they’ll start something soon, too. The more we wait, the more we run the risk of having our escape foiled.”

“They’re supposed to provide a magical device that will allow us to teleport the airship, right?” Pinkie’s mane bobbed with her excited little hops. “That sounds cool!”

“Yes.” Twilight’s eyebrow raised. “Supposedly, it is the device that allowed them to teleport their airship in between thunderstorms. It is going to let us teleport the Magic of Friendship into a storm close to Manehattan. Their ‘cell’ is going to ensure there is a storm, and Mister Flying Snake is going to procure the device.”

“There’s a good chance we’re all going to die, isn’t there?” Spike deadpanned.

“Well, technically there is a non-zero chance that any one of us could die at any moment.” Starlight Glimmer rolled her eyes. “I suppose that we should let the griffons do the brunt of the fighting here… Without our weapons…”

“What are you talking about?” Rainbow frowned at her. “You, Twilight and Cadance are our deadliest weapons!”

“I thought that our best weapon was Friendship.” Applejack chuckled.

“We’re still no match for a fully trained Royal Guard Combat Magi squad.” Twilight sighed. “Or did you forget that we were captured to begin with? And with the griffons helping us.”

“Well, ‘helping’ is such a strong word…” Rarity spoke with a frown, reaching for a cupcake. “I remember their sharpshooter tried to kill Spitfire.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “The point is that we don’t have our weapons, and armors. They must have something planned. They’ll probably take the ones from the guards.”

“Honestly… I’m worried for how this whole thing is going to happen.” Shining Armor rubbed his name behind his neck and frowned. “I would say that the fact the griffons have tried to help us is probably a really good reason we should just drop this whole mess and just go back to our normal lives.”

Then he glared at his sister and his wife. “But I suppose we already had this conversation multiple times!”

Twilight was ready to launch a refined and thought-out argument about the righteousness and importance of their quest when a deep resounding thud interrupted her. A wave of magical energy washed over them with goosebumps and gasping ponies.

“What was that?!” Spike cried.

Twilight’s ears fell limp with an apprehensive frown. “I don’t know.”

“Mana battery explosion?” Starlight grimaced.

“Mana batteries don’t explode.” Twilight responded immediately while Shining Armor went to the window and his jaw hung open.

“They do if you plant a bomb on them!” He cried with his ears pulled back. He opened the window, and the bangs of muskets could be heard above the wind. “Especially if you have a bunch of angry griffons onboard.”

Twilight ran to the window and winced at the sight of the large supply ship going down in flames and shooting a violent spectacle of pink sparks from its rear. Several flying creatures jumped off the airship and she already saw a small skiff launching, filled with wingless creatures.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack cried next to her. “These griffons are out of their minds!”

It was a sound strategy, Twilight admitted in her thoughts. Without the supply ship the fleet would need to call in for reinforcements instead of following Twilight’s obviously escaping group. And they didn’t even know that they planned on teleporting the airship.

Another explosion filled the air and stunned Twilight to sit on her haunches with ringing in her ears. The glass in the window broke and showered inside the room. It was plain luck she wasn’t hit with anything. The fixture for the magical lighting in the ceiling clinked. The table where she and her friends shared a snack toppled and fine cups and plates clattered to the carpet. The floor rocked and a series of explosions shook the airship like it was going to break apart.

They cried and held on to whatever they could and themselves, but panic filled Twilight when the airship noticeably started to dive and to list on its left side.

“The airship is going down!” Rarity cried after a particularly dramatic wail.

“We have to get out!” Green Leaf, Twilight’s white unicorn guard nervously stomped the floor several times.

The door to Twilight’s room banged open. That ‘ocelot’ griffon guy that worked for the mercenary that helped apprehend them was on the other side. Standing on his hindlegs and posing like he was the star in a theater play. He wore a leather armor and had a huge, cocky grin. “Time to shine, ponies! This airship is going down and the admiral is going to order it abandoned any time now! Flying Snake got the teleportation device, and your airship is on its way! Move your pony hindquarters!”

“What did you do?!” Twilight yelled, her back against the inner wall. She recovered her balance as the ship still hadn’t listed too much. “This ship is full of innocent ponies that have nothing to do with our quest!”

“Welcome to the adult league, princess!” He tossed a griffon-made revolver, black and long, to Shining Armor and another to Twilight’s unicorn guard. “We call that consequences. Better get this oh-so-important quest of yours done.”

Applejack helped Twilight stand. “He’s right, sugarcube. The royal guards will take care of the others. We have to take care of ourselves!”

The griffon hopped away as alarm bells started ringing and the ponies hurried out. In the luxurious corridor of the airship’s guest rooms there wasn’t much activity, but Twilight could notice her weight shifting to balance in the airship’s unstable attitude. There was shooting and screaming, but no cannons fired. The griffons had simply started a mutiny. Or a rebellion. The details weren’t very important.

“We have to get our stuff!” Rainbow pointed down the corridor to the door that led to the main hall, and it was in that precise moment a trio of royal guards came through.

“He came this way! Find him!” They wore the traditional golden armor for daily duty, instead of the much better armor they wore when they first apprehended Twilight and her friends. Though, without their own weapons and armor, fighting them would be an issue.

“Hey!” Their leader, a white and blue, particularly big earth pony shot his hoof at them. “You’re not going anywhere!”

“Sarge!” The gray pegasus on his left turned to him. “They’re sounding the abandon ship alarm.”

“Grab them! We’ll take them to the hospital ship and they’re getting locked up with the griffons!” He stomped a hoof on the carpeted floor. “I swear I’m gonna make you eat your crown for this!”

“Whoa!” Rainbow flapped her wings and hovered above the others. “That’s no way to talk to the princesses!”

“Rainbow! Wait!” Fluttershy cried, but it was too late.

The two pegasus guards with the angry sergeant drew their pistols and promptly aimed at them. White Leaf was going to shoot with the revolver the griffon had given them, but Shining pulled it away from her magical aura. “It’s loaded with real ammunition!”

Twilight also thought fast and raised a magical shield that stopped the magical stunning bullets. Next thing she saw, Rainbow Dash flew at the guards and hit the one on the lead with a flying kick. It looked more ‘awesome’ than it was effective against the warding spells on his armor. He stumbled back but was barely injured at all. The guard on his right grappled with Rainbow before she could escape and threw the light pegasus mare to the floor.

“Wait!” Twilight cried to no avail as both Applejack and Pinkie Pie charged at the trio and both Rarity and Starlight Glimmer blinked out of existence to appear again behind the three royal guards.

Cadance flapped her wings to hover above and shot a pink magical beam at the guard on top of Rainbow Dash. While Twilight guards also rushed ahead.

“We should be abandoning the ship! Not fighting!” Twilight did an angry hop, with her ears pulled back. “There will be more of them!”

Her protests went unheard, except for Fluttershy, standing next to her with her typical concerned stare, and Spike, also next to her, shrugging. “At least we should be able to beat them…”

Rarity was kicked in the chest by the earth pony and barreled on her back like a sack of potatoes before she could do anything. The only reason Rainbow didn’t end with a black eye was that Cadance’s magical beam threw back her pegasus assailant through the armor’s magical protections. He was hardly injured though, and quickly stood to get back in the fight. The other pegasus guard drew his magical stun weapon and pirouetted so fast Starlight Glimmer was hit on the side of her head with that thing before she even noticed. Down she went.

Twilight was getting tired of sighing that day.

Shining and both of Twilight’s personal guards grappled and wrestled each with one of the royal guards and it looked ugly like a street brawl. Or a bunch of toddler foals trying to topple each other. Twilight carefully aimed and shot their leader with a souped-up version of her containment spell and the sergeant saw himself stuck inside a pink bubblegum ball. Twilight’s guard freed herself from it easily, though.

Cadance swooped down and swept the pegasus that had hit Starlight with her magical beam. The guard was thrown forcefully against the wooden wall of the corridor and caused a good dent on it, but his armor protected him enough that didn’t faze him. Meanwhile Shining had pressed the other pegasus against the wall and delivered a good punch. Unsurprisingly to Twilight, that had little effect on a royal guard wearing magical armor designed to protect him from physical assault.

That fight was never going to be easy without their weapons.

Fortunately, Shining wasn’t as dumb as Twilight had initially thought. As Applejack and Pinkie Pie tackled the guard like a train, Shining subdued him with a containment spell that wrapped him like a gift.

Only the other pegasus remained and Cadance got a good taste of his stunning weapon, a magical zap to the chest when she approached to attack him again. She squealed like a shocked rubber duck, and he only didn’t smack Cadance with his weapon because Twilight also managed to hit him with her containment spell. He just growled like an angry ball of bubblegum but couldn’t free himself.

“Whatever happened to strategy?!” Twilight yelled. Thank Harmony she could so easily bypass their protective wards with her spell.

“No time!” Rainbow sprung to her hooves. “We gotta go now!”

At least she wasn’t wrong. Twilight could still hear fighting and gunfire. Not to mention the airship engines making banging noises they were not supposed to do. Twilight huffed. “Is anypony hurt?”

Rarity didn’t seem too injured despite the direct kick she took to her chest. Apparently, their training sessions really had prepared them. She stood with little assistance from Spike. Cadance and Starlight Glimmer would be fine as the stunning sticks were more disorienting than damaging.

“Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash was Rainbow Dash, hovering above the floor anxiously threatening to fly away.

“We can’t just leave them!” Fluttershy flared her wings with an angry frown and yelled as much as she usually yelled. “They’re sounding the order to abandon ship!”

“That was my point!” Twilight yelled too.

“Uh… do we free them?” Pinkie cocked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that kinda opposite to what we just did?”

“I’m going to crack your head open like a melon, you traitor!” The ‘sarge’ screamed from his bubblegum prison. “Bucking traitors! This isn’t cute anymore! I’ll get you prosecuted! Not even Princess Celestia is gonna save you from me!”

Pinkie gave Twilight a confused stare and presented the earth pony in golden armor with a hoof.

Twilight squeaked instead of letting her frustration cause her to explode.

“Let’s go!” Rainbow insisted with a gesture. “Their own guys will find them!”

They didn’t have time to argue further. Something exploded and sent a quake across the corridor that almost shattered the giant candelabra with the magical lights. A piece of the floor and of the walls just weren’t there anymore when Twilight looked and what remained was on fire. Suddenly, carpets seemed like a really bad idea on an airship.

“Oh my gosh!” Cadance’s wings suddenly flared, and she screamed. “Flurry Heart! Shining Armor! Flurry Heart!"

“I’ll get her.” Shining cried as he pointed to the exit. “There’s more fighting around the ship still. Get out of here! AJ!”

“I’m coming!” The orange pony pressed her hat against her blonde mane and hurried after Shining Armor towards the fire and into their room.

In a panic, Twilight meant to go help and the others seemed uncertain, looking at her for direction. But the snapping and banging of muskets and muzzleloader pistols coming from the hall stopped her. Rainbow Dash flew ahead, and the others followed with Twilight and Cadance catching up right as they reached the door.

The smell of blood hit her like a kick to the stomach. There were at least six dead griffons in the hall and Twilight had an open view over the entrance to the shipboard ‘palace’. It was never luxurious as Canterlot Palace, but it was richly adorned for an airship, especially with all the reds and golds contrasting with the ubiquitous white and all the glasses in the doors. Now, after more careful observation, it was a smelly red battle scene where at least ten griffons and two earth pony royal guards laid dead in the floor. The smell of powder was also thick in the air, and it didn’t do her well with the stench of blood. It wasn’t over yet, as there was more shooting in the ballroom where they had had dinner.

Twilight almost forgot the airship was going down.

“Go!” Rainbow cried, swooping down to the lower level from the mezzanine. “We have to go!”

Ponies with wings leapt to the floor below and the wingless ones hurried down the stairs. Spike held on to Twilight’s back, and she hadn’t even noticed when he had climbed on top of her. Thoughts of Flash Sentry in that fight caused her stomach to twist again, but she skidded to a halt with the others when one of the griffons moved.

She coughed, sitting against one of the bloody smears on the walls. Twilight ran to her, and while she didn’t really know the cyan griffoness in the red uniform, the princess knew that was Admiral Gloria. She was the commanding officer under Princess Celestia for the entire Heartland Fleet, but she was missing her black tricorn hat and her uniform had an ugly and bloody gash on her side of her torso. Twilight avoided focusing on it.

“I hope you’re happy.” The hen coughed again, before staring at Twilight with hurt contempt and a trickle of blood from her beak. “Although, I suppose it’s my own damn fault for not seeing it coming.”

“Please, don’t move!” Twilight cried. “Fluttershy! Can’t you help her?”

“I don’t have anything with me, Twilight!” The yellow pegasus squealed anxiously.

“I’ll cast a healing spell!” Cadance took place next to the pegasus and her horn’s glow was mimicked in the griffoness’ body.

“Thank you, princess…” The griffoness said half-heartedly.

“This is not our fault!” Rainbow hovered above the others. “We didn’t know the griffons would do… This!”

“How else did your ladyship think they would break out of imprisonment in a military vessel? Did you think they would ask nicely?” Gloria tried to stand, and her words were loaded with sarcasm despite the pain. But her strength failed her, and she fell to the floor again. Twilight was going to tell her not to move, but she felt stupid and foolish with the airship on its way to a fiery end on the ground. Angry, and in pain, the griffoness grimaced and yelled at the ponies. Half-angry, half-sad. “This is all your fault! Celestia protects you too much.”

“What? What do you mean?!” Twilight’s confused stare, much less that of the others, didn’t help at all. “I don’t understand.”

“Are you ponies waiting for an invitation?!” Grigory’s big, bulky friend covered in gray, and called Gray, appeared on the main doors.

“We… We have to go, Twilight!” Starlight urged her with nervous hooves that couldn’t keep still.

“But she’s…” Twilight started, but the griffon by the door yelled at her.

“Get a move on, ponies!” Gray called. “Your airship is on the way, and you have to go before the rest of the fleet returns or all of this was for nothing.”

Twilight looked at the griffoness one last time and the contempt in her expression hurt the pony like a thorn in her heart. She wanted to do or say something, but Shining Armor came out of the corridor to the rooms and hopped down the mezzanine with a wailing Flurry Heart. Applejack came down the stairs immediately after, carrying their crystal pony maid. Her mane was a little charred but neither earth pony nor unicorn seemed hurt.

“We have to go now!” Shining zoomed past her. “The fire is spreading fast from the stern!”

“We let the guards go.” Applejack added, basically skipping down the stairs and balancing the unconscious crystal pony on her back.

Cadance squeaked. “Miss Calcite! What happened?”

Applejack carried her without any real issues, but Twilight thought she saw a red stain on her fair gray mane. “We found her passed out and Flurry crying her lungs out! She must’a hit her head or something!”

“Let’s go!” Shining called from the door, turning around to look at them.

But Twilight wanted to help admiral Gloria, though there wasn’t much she could reasonably do. At least not without Fluttershy’s equipment.

When she looked again, the big gray griffon had approached her and grabbed her leg so hard it hurt. “My brothers died to get you out of here, grassbreath!”

Twilight looked at her friends and they looked as insecure and unsure as she was. She looked again at the injured griffoness and she was still breathing, but unconscious. Finally Gray pulled at her leg and almost caused her to lose her balance. “Move! I’ll get her to the hospital airship.”

Finally, Twilight found she could move again. She started to the door and the others followed her. Shining Armor made way for them to pass and the sight outside was of more dead griffons laying across the airship’s main deck. Some of the Royal Guard crewponies still fought, but the griffons overpowered them with numbers. Even armed guards couldn’t do much against the sheer mass and strength of the griffons in larger numbers. Among the dead griffons were some gravely injured, likely dead ponies and a few that had surrendered. If that wasn’t enough, outside she could see how much altitude the airship had lost and how unsteady it was.

A sour ball of sorrow threatened to spill out of her throat. The sight, the smells would have overpowered Twilight if she hadn’t seen Grigory. Sitting in the middle of the deck, with two griffons on their haunches and holding Royal Guard muskets with bloodied bayonets. All her confusion and sorrow turned to wrath.

“Grigory!” She cried. “This is not what we had agreed on!”

As she stormed closer, the griffons aimed the muskets on her and she seriously considered turning them inside out, or something, with her magic. But she restrained herself and did nothing.

“Your airship should be here any moment.” The purple and mustard griffon ignored her outburst. But as she kept her stare and still approached, he scowled at her. “What did you expect? That I‘d ask the guards nicely? Look around you! The fleet is stripped of most of its airships and the changelings are nowhere to be seen. Celestia and Luna are too busy and there is something going on in Griffonstone. I am sorry we didn’t perform to your expectations, but this is the best we could do, and we have to go now!”

The worst part of it was that he was right. She didn’t really have an argument other than she was angry that he had used violence. And realizing that made her angrier at her own naivety. And where were the changelings? Her head swiveled and there was indeed not a single one of Chrysalis overly dramatic ‘super soldiers’ nor her regular black carapace soldiers. Most of the airships in the fleet were gone and the ones that remained were on fire.

She didn’t have the luxury of time to think. The old griffoness called Gehenna walked up the stairs to the underdeck, escorted by Grigory’s mate, the yellow and white Gallensa and the other prisoner, Grinolf. Twilight was mildly angry at the way the old griffoness pawed at her fluffy chest while they were in the middle of a bloodshed and on a doomed airship. It was when another explosion rocked the airship and pieces of crystalized metal flew from its side. Twilight and her friends screamed, and metal moaned.

“The airship is losing structural integrity and there are plenty of things to explode yet! We gotta go!” Shining cried. “Now!”

Just on cue, the Magic of Friendship came over the larger airship’s side and her Pegasus crewponies secured her to the side with hooks and ropes. Captain was on the railings, calling them in with a frantic hoof. “Hurry ‘board, lasses. The ground be coming fast!”

“Our weapons and armors!” Rarity cried. “Twilight! They’re still on the armory.”

“I really wouldn’t go down there now, princess…” Gallensa had an infuriating petulant grin as she walked past them, following the older griffoness.

The alicorn noticed the other griffon prisoner was gone but said nothing. She was actually amused by the two griffon hens boarding her airship like it was a leisure cruise vessel. Another griffon, one of the two with the Royal Guard muskets gave Grigory a respectful bow.

“Take care of our brethren, Groskar.” Grigory nodded. “We’ll see you back in Griffindell. Or if it comes to it, we’ll drink to this in Our Mother’s halls.”

The griffon prince simply walked over to the airship too, followed by his friend, Gray. Twilight’s crewponies weren’t sure what to do. They had weapons with them, and Grigory’s other friends were soon onboard too: the sharpshooter, the thin medicine griffon and the weaponsmith.

All Twilight managed to do was stare and grind her teeth. The damn griffons were proud of what they had just done. Twilight’s friends simply stared too. Applejack raised a hoof. “What in the hoof-lickin’ Tartarus is going on?”

“Do you know how to operate the Stormdrive device, mudpony?” Gallensa’s bored expression as she fitted a golden device into her foreleg reminded Twilight of Rarity. But overtly offensive rather than endearingly haughty. “You are just delaying us further.”

“Eeey!” The Pegasus at the crow’s nest on top of Twilight’s airship banged his hoof against the support. “Em’ Goldies be coming back! I spy five schooners coming portside level. An’ they be fast!”

“Come on, Twilight!” Shining pushed Cadance to walk. Her friends started on their way too and Twilight could see the airships approaching against the night sky. They were readily visible with their lanterns and the light from the fires.

Moreover, the Break of Dawn had lost a lot of altitude and her airship along with it. She hoofed at the floor and flared her wings. Turned to the griffon that Grigory had left in command. “You better get whoever you can to the hospital airship!”

“I will, Princess.” Something in the way he spoke reassured her that he would. It was the non-arrogant kind of honor that the good Royal Knights liked and that she approved. It made Twilight think that she and her friends could use a Chocolate Velvet with them. More like a Flash Sentry, but he was nowhere to be seen and the airships approached fast.

As Twilight boarded her airship, the griffons that remained behind freed the hooks and Captain spun the Magic of Friendship’s wheel. The ship turned sharply and immediately started gaining altitude. Twilight galloped dangerously on the moving airship to the stern and could see winged creatures flying out of the large warship. She wasn’t free-falling, at least and Twilight supposed that the emergency enchantments in the hull still held. Her own airship gained distance fast and an explosion sounded as a distant pop, but Twilight watched until Celestia’s airship crashed against the almost even terrain covered in a corn plantation. It exploded in a spectacular sequence of blasts and the fire caught quickly in the field.

Only then did she notice her friends. “Something strange just happened.”

“Indeed.” Rarity frowned next to her. “Everything happened so fast!”

“I thought there would be a lot of fighting when we tried to escape…” Pinkie frowned too, but in her unwillingly comedic and exaggerated way, moving her eyes from side to side.

Shining, now free of Flurry Heart, and Applejack of Miss Calcite stood next to Twilight. Cadance was probably with the two of them inside the private quarters. Her brother matched Twilight’s suspicious frown. “Most of the fleet’s ships were gone, and with them most of the crewpony complement. The princesses are busy away and Chrysalis vanished with her changelings.”

“Lucky us?” Rainbow stared with her big eyes.

“Luck doesn’t exist, Rainbow.” Twilight turned from the growing fire. “Admiral Gloria implied the ships were away on Princess Celestia’s orders. It seemed that the griffons knew exactly when to act… Someone tipped them that things were happening in Griffonstone and the princesses would be too busy to intervene.”

“Capn’!” The watchpony in the crow’s nest called again. “They come! Astern high!”

Twilight could see two of the fast airships pursuing them after they had reached what remained of the Break of Dawn’s fleet. She turned to her friends. “Time to see if this piece of griffon thaumatotech does work. Get inside.”

She led the way to back to the main deck where the griffons were still with Grigory, sitting on their haunches like they owned the place and the pegasus crewponies glared at them like unwelcome guests. Twilight didn’t see the yellow jerk, though. One of her pegasi whispered. “Might wanna see the yellow one below deck, princess.”

“I might just shoot’er meself.” Another said under his breath.

“We’ll wait for you here, darling.” Her white unicorn friend blinked fabulously at Twilight. “It’s a bit cramped down there. And don’t worry, we’ll be inside the private quarters.”

Grigory waited for Twilight by the hatch that led below deck and the crewpony at the top of the mast was getting nervous. “Whatever you do, be quick about it! They be gaining on us! Lining up shots with the fore guns!”

As soon as the pony said that Cadance elbowed Shining Armor and the two raised a shield around the airship. If that wasn’t enough, three additional airships approached. Sleek airship frigates and a fourth-rate of the line warship. Good time to make a quick escape, Twilight nodded and went down the stairs with Grigory. She could see Starlight Glimmer and their resident unicorn crewpony with the big yellow griffon hen doing something in the back.

“So, making yourselves comfortable?” She pouted, not looking back to the griffon.

“We will not bother you princess.” Grigory responded as they walked. “And you’ll be grateful for our help.”

“Did you have to destroy the Break of Dawn?” Twilight didn’t feel reassured at all.

“An eye for an eye, Princess.” The griffon walked seriously beside her.

She didn’t say anything further as they arrived at the ship’s mana battery compartment with the four giant slabs of magically charged crystal shining with pink light. The griffoness was in the back, fiddling with something on the wall (right next to the hole the harpoon had created.) Outside, Twilight could hear cannons and muskets firing. When the unicorn crewpony tried touching one of the thick wires that came out of the magical machinery, the griffoness slapped his hoof.

“If you guys are gonna do something, do it fast!” Rainbow’s head cried from the access hatch.

“This is a sloppy job, but it should work.” The griffoness spoke in her thick whistly accent. Then she turned to Starlight Glimmer. “I’m just going to need a little bit of your mana flux.”

Starlight blinked innocently and put a hoof on her chest. “Uh?”

“Gallensa…” Grigory called her like a warning and the griffoness sighed with a roll of her eyes before she pointed at the airships’s machinery.

“Just activate this thing to maximum output to the engines.” Gallensa started pushing buttons on her foreleg device-thing. “It will have to do.”

Twilight could finally see the griffon magical device. Although, ‘see’ was a bad choice of word. Whatever it was, it was hidden inside a clear metallic casing, almost like a briefcase. It had golden terminals on one side and a few crystal attachments on its square front. Twilight had no idea how that thing worked, but connections were made with the golden terminals.

They had used thick cables to jury-rig the thing into the magical engine-controlling machinery on Twilight’s airship. Their unicorn crewpony went there and his magic connected with it. Cannon fire collided with the magical shield outside, and the engines started spinning up as the griffon device lit up in its crystal attachments in different colors. Gauges and meters in the machinery topped off almost immediately.

“This thing’s gonna fry the spell matrices.” The unicorn complained.

Gallensa ignored him and started messing with the device she wore on her foreleg. The cannon fire continued and pounded the shield as Twilight could feel the magical radiation around her, and it made her wings and horn itch. She should feel more strongly about things, but the events in the airship had left her a little numb. She just watched and let the griffoness work.

The sound from the engines became strange. Strained. And the Captain’s voice came from the speaking tube on the wall. “We be losing the engines!”

“Is it working?” Starlight looked at Gallensa, at the device and then at the substantially brighter mana batteries. Gallensa just rolled her eyes. “Is it, or not?”

“Thi thing be stealing juice from the engines!” The unicorn crewpony growled. “We gonna fly adrift.”

“The device is meant to be powered by lightning strikes.” Gallensa sighed. “It needs all the power the batteries can give it. So, yes… Probably. But it won’t work otherwise. It should reach space-time discontinuity soon enough, then it can feed from the storm on the other side. Immediately after, it will complete the spatial displacement almost instantaneously.”

“I thought teleportation was instantaneous.” Rainbow piped from behind Twilight.

“Nothing is instantaneous. There is a minimum frame of time for any information transference between any hypothetical points in the space-time continuum.” The griffoness looked dispassionately at the device on her foreleg.

“Uuh…” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow.

“Gallensa!” Grigory stopped them. “Is it working?”

“Yes, yes…” She began calmly walking away from the wall with the device and past Twilight. “It is going to explode, though.”

“What the-” Twilight was interrupted when the walls were taken by a sudden flash as though they had become pure energy themselves. She probably heard a bang, or someone screaming but whatever magical effect happened hurled her away from that. It was a bizarre sensation, much worse than anytime she had teleported, although similar.

It was also over in an instant and the booming of cannons was replaced by Rarity squealing up deck. The magical shield collapsed and the heavy splatter of rain against the airship’s hull resounded. There was an eerie silence, though. An absence of a particular sound Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on. Then there was more screaming, and Twilight’s acquired flying instincts told her she was free-falling. Just as she remembered the airship shouldn’t ever enter a storm, she felt light on her hooves and lifted off the floor.

“We’re falling! Twilight! We’re falling!” Rainbow flayed her legs as she pointlessly opened her wings and Twilight’s friends outside screamed some more. The griffons too and that gave her some satisfaction.

Meanwhile Grigory held to the airship’s structural spines and Gallensa stuck to the ceiling with her talons, looking at Twilight like a scared cat. “What is wrong with this thing?!”

“The storm!” Starlight cried while keeping herself safely floating inside a bubble of her magical telekinesis. “The thunderstorm disrupted the airship’s fail-safe spells!”

“What is wrong with you ponies?!” Gallensa shrieked. “Fail-safe measures aren’t supposed to fail!”

“They aren’t meant to fly into thunderstorms!” Twilight yelled at her more in anger and frustration than in fear.

“Not an issue!” The unicorn started fiddling with the magical machinery using his magic. “Not an issue! I’ll get the lass straight again!”

“You have to reset the hull spell matrix!” Gallensa shrieked again.

“That is what he said!” Twilight deadpanned.

“There, there!” The unicorn pony beamed as he pushed a button in the magical machinery via telekinetic magic.

Click.

Nothing happened.

He blinked and pushed it again. And nothing happened.

“Grigory! I don’t want to die in a pony airship!” Gallensa squawked something after that, but it was in High-Griffonese and Twilight didn’t understand.

“Uh…” Starlight grimaced and clicked the button directly with her hoof.

Clickclickclickclickclick. Nothing happened.

“Come on, ya piece ‘a junk!” The unicorn managed to get himself to the gold and crystals console and kicked it once.

“It’s not fair! I was going to be an empress!” Gallensa wailed.

At her patience’s limit Twilight gave the malfunctioning machine a good jerk with her telekinesis. She may have used more strength than she wanted due to all the pent-up emotional stress, though. The thing rattled before it sputtered, and all its crystal doohickeys lit with purple light before shifting to pink with a deep hum that filled the air.

All of sudden the airship stopped falling and settled to a gentle stop. Twilight fell to her hooves, Grigory let go of airship’s structural spine, Starlight Glimmer and Rainbow flailed around a little but managed to land on their hooves. The ship’s thaumatoengineer went face-first into the machinery but seemed otherwise fine. The machinery too. Gallensa splatted to the floor on her back with a pained yowl. Upstairs, similar things seemed to have happened to Twilight’s friends and the others. The sounds of rain continued though, as the ship’s engines hummed again.

Then they puffed out again. But the airship was softly gliding this time.

“Aye!” The unicorn crewpony beamed. “The engines restored the fail-safes. We’ll land softly yet!”

Gallensa’s high-pitched moan made them look as she said something, in High-Griffonese and sat against the wall. Whining while she covered herself with her wings.

“I haven’t been with you ponies more than an hour and I am already regretting this decision.” Grigory glared at Twilight.

That trip was going to be fun…

Comments

[new55]

Celestia's not going to be happy. I wonder if she's going to start being tough on Twilight or continue to play nice.

[2tail]

Celestia knows she made herself look like the bad mare to Twilight by hiding 98% of the truth from her. She knows that ponies and Giff's will suffer and die while Twilight tries to save the world from Celestia.
The blood is on Celestia's hoof.

[Metemponychosis]

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Celestia knew she was doing something he might regret later when she helped Grover. At the time it was the only thing she could see that would bring the best foreseeable result. I mean, trying to destroy The Harpy's cult is easy to understand and she even tried to help, not to mention honoring her deal with the northerners. What looks bad for her is that, whatever it was that she tried to hide that had Discord so unsettled, also clouded important stuff about how she came to power, that weird stuff going on with the sun and the fact that she basically lied. But it's worse that in present time she took action to protect the secret, such as messing with Daring Do's expedition that Lost Temple mentions in Fólkvangr.

But here is an interesting detail...
She's not the one that ordered the fleet was spread. She was in Griffonstone during the afternoon, busy with griffonian officials while Chocolate Velvet tried to get the letter to Luna. She couldn't have teleported out by herself because of the magical disruption. And while she could've used the teleporter facility to go to another place, teleport to the fleet, and then back the same way, Admiral Gloria noticed that Celestia was acting strange.

Of course, none of that excuses that she basically has been lying for millennia about what happened. If it was justifiable or not, that is for the ending.

[2tail]

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Yea, but feels like the cover up is worse then the lie.
The stuff she did was not great, but not telling everything to Twilight has got Twilight looking for, and thinking of, much worse stuff.

[Metemponychosis]

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Celestia says that unveiling the secret would, by itself, start the process of the Black Sun and creation would reset. Out of the gate, the less creatures know, the better. Not even Luna knows exactly what it was. Twilight keeps going on because she believes that whatever it was, it was justified at the time. But she also believes that they have reached a point as a civilization that they can deal with the problem and learn from it. She is willing to risk summoning the Black Sun because she trusts that creatures will be able to deal with 'the problem'.

There is no doubt that Celestia is to blame. If that blame is forgivable, it is another story. There is also the fact that the only reason that the cover up is so bad is because Twilight and Cadance insisted on going on. Discord told them it's not worthy it. Luna told them. Celestia told them. It is in the interest of The Harpy that they keep going because it will erode the trust the Confederation has on Celestia. If she manages to split the nations apart, she already won. And the fact that Twilight and Cadance are dancing around that line adds another layer of problems that really ups the stakes, in my opinion.

The big thing here is that you don't know what is it that Celestia is hiding. Maybe she is right, and the mere event of Twilight learning the truth might start the process. Maybe they came to a point where there is no turning back anymore. Outside of the griffonian situation, it all started moving because Cadance found a letter and took it to Twilight.

A small important detail: there are no coincidences in this world. Ponies are born with destinies. Maybe Twilight was meant to begin the end of everything and start a new cycle. Or maybe she was meant to fix it once and for all. And this is something that their visit to Naminé will make very clear.

[Kevin Lee]

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A small important detail: there are no coincidences in this world. Ponies are born with destinies. Maybe Twilight was meant to begin the end of everything and start a new cycle. Or maybe she was meant to fix it once and for all. And this is something that their visit to Naminé will make very clear.

So, Twilight = Data?

[Jinnchin]

Oof, think Twilight is finally starting to grasp how much this little adventure of hers is going to cost!

Also, Chrysalis, sweetie. You wouldn't be up to no good now would you?

[Metemponychosis]

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Chrysalis? Naah... She'd never do anything bad.