Cigar Dream was a psychologist. An earth pony, he’d moved to the Crystal Empire shortly after its return. It was a move he made out of a belief that many crystal ponies would struggle to adapt to a world that had forgotten them for a thousand years. He counseled those struggling with grief for relatives long-dead, and helped those without purpose find new reasons to continue living.
When the first war came, he changed the focus of his practice, becoming an expert in traumatic stress so he could help those crystal pony veterans who screamed in the night. When the second, third, fourth and fifth conflicts came, he soothed the fears of the general population, who were consumed by anxiety that their nation would soon fall.
Eighteen years after he arrived in the Crystal Empire, when he was just realizing he was no longer a young doctor but was in fact an old doctor, he got his first changeling patient. Her name was Mirage, and she was fifteen years old.
She was one of Cheval’s clutch sisters—one of the other grubs that had been given to Cadence, who Cadence had in turn given to noteable crystal pony families to raise. Her parents were named Quartz Strike and Rose Cut, and she had two crystal pony sisters named Fire Stone and Heliodor. Her family brought her to therapy because they were worried about her.
Every time she turned into a pony she started crying, and nobody knew why.
Cigar Dream worked with her for years. He wrote a paper on her, with the first objective proof that changelings could suffer from clinical depression. When standard techniques proved ineffective, he experimented, and the two found ways to make her feel better. She began to heal. When the war broke out, she swore herself to the Crystal Empire without hesitation, and sought to join the army.
The army refused her, saying it would be too easy for her to be mistaken for a hostile changeling soldier. So instead she joined the nursing corps, studied medicine with all her free hours, and devoted herself to healing wounded soldiers.
When the secret police came for her, Cigar Dream hid her. He stuffed her under the loose floorboards in his office, and then had an Equestrian pegasus friend fly her to Ponyville, with her transformed into a book in his saddlebags. He never saw her again, but he hoped she was okay.
Years later, when the war was over, Cigar thought about going back to Equestria. He was a well-respected expert in his field, and his practice in the Crystal Empire had done very well, but it didn’t hold the charm for him it once did. He was single well into his forties, but he entertained the thought that he might find an earth pony wife yet.
He was sitting in his chair, smoking and considering the thought, when there came a knock at his door. Two crystal ponies were there, each dressed in identical camouflage uniforms. Their expressions were hard, and they carried weapons. “You will come with us now,” one of them said.
For a long moment, he stared at them. The smoke from his cigar curled up into the air. His dreams of finally meeting the right mare faded before his eyes.
“Finally caught me, did you?” he asked.
The two crystal ponies didn’t answer. They grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him into the back of a waiting carriage.
The carriage had poor suspension. In the back, Cigar Dream felt every bump in the road. He hoped it wasn’t a long ride to wherever he was going to be killed.
He passed the time analyzing his own emotional reactions. He’d seen so many patients struggling to cope with death. Now that it was his turn, he felt almost disappointed his state wasn’t more dramatic.
But as he analyzed, he realized that the quality of the road under the carriage was improving. They were not headed out into the countryside, but into the uptown, where the roads were made of solid quartz and polished smooth. The carriage pulled to a halt, and the two ponies pulled him from the back.
He was outside the Crystal Palace. A wall that did not used to be there surrounded the entire square, protecting the Crystal Heart. It was topped with barbed wire, and manned around the clock by hundreds of guards. The palace itself, once an elegant spire, had been turned into a fortress. Weapons bristled from every balcony and battlement, and squadrons of pegasi circled it at all times, mindful for threats from above.
They brought him inside, to a series of rooms that seemed to be a luxurious apartment. There they sat him down, and told him to wait.
Flurry Heart arrived an hour later.
Her official title was the Warrior Princess of the Crystal Empire, but many ponies simply called her the Alicorn of War. She was eternally eighteen, no child, but a warrior captured at the moment of her greatest vigor. She had the strength of an earth pony knight, the agility of a pegasus raider, and the arcane power of a great mage. And she was armed.
It was her raiment. Celestia would never be seen without her hoofboots and crown, and Flurry Heart would never be seen without her battle armor and glaive.
“You must be Doctor Dream,” she said, taking her seat. She didn’t wait for him to answer. “I’ve heard you’re the most respected psychologist in the Empire. Let me be clear that I detest your profession and all other flavors of hoof-holders. But I’ve heard that you have a history of producing results, and I require your help. If you serve me well and discreetly, you will be richly rewarded.”
Cigar Dream’s mouth had gone dry. It took him several seconds to remember to nod. “What symptoms are you experiencing?”
“Paranoia. I have difficulty trusting ponies.”
“Ah.” He rubbed his hooves together and wished for his notebook, if only so he had something to keep his jaw occupied. “Most ponies with paranoia-like symptoms don’t seek treatment. They don’t believe that they’re unwell. They just think they’re surrounded by very untrustworthy ponies.”
“I’m not a common patient, doctor,” Flurry snapped, a sharp edge entering her tone.
“No.” He croaked, his throat suddenly tight. “But was there a specific incident that made you believe you needed treatment?”
Flurry blew out a breath. “There’s a vacancy in the cabinet. We need a new minister of finance. I thought I’d have to pry my administrators apart to stop them from fighting for the position. But nopony wants the job. There’s a mare named Fairy Gold. Brilliant economist, sharp bureaucrat, and a very ambitious mare. She likes power and she likes money. And as soon as she heard the position was open, she had her own husband break her leg so she could use a hospital visit to Equestria to remove herself from consideration.”
“Mmm.” Cigar nodded once. “And why did she do that?”
“She’s afraid of me.” Flurry stiffened her spine as she said it, sitting up straighter.
“Afraid of you in general?” Cigar gestured. “Or afraid of something more specific?”
“She…” Flurry shifted in her seat. “Felt that… many members of the cabinet end up being… sent away, and—”
“Killed,” Cigar interrupted her. “You mean she felt that you’ve had many members of the cabinet killed.”
Flurry’s eyes narrowed, and her face twisted into a snarl. “They were plotting against me.”
“If…” Cigar felt hot under the firefly lamps, pinpricks of sweat breaking out over his body. “If they really were plotting against you, then you aren’t paranoid. You just have enemies. And if your problem is that ponies think you’re paranoid, you need a public relations advisor. Not a psychologist. Paranoia is when you believe ponies are plotting against you when they aren’t.”
Flurry said nothing. A croak emerged from Cigar’s throat. “If you want treatment, I am…” He struggled to speak. “I will be, happy to treat you. But no good ever comes of trying to treat a pony who doesn’t believe they’re ill. I can’t cure you, if you don’t want to be cured.”
“Silver Scales was a corrupt pony and a terrible minister of finance. He stole from the people and he would have conspired against me, given the opportunity. I do not apologize for demanding genuine loyalty from my subordinates.” Flurry’s words came out hot, and the snarl remained on her face. But as time passed, it slowly faded, replaced by something more hesitant.
“But…” she said, “having him beheaded may have been…”
Her eyes prompted Cigar to bail her out. But he refused, forcing her to say the word. Finally she mumbled: “Unreasonable.”
“Well. Well then. Let’s…” He cleared his throat. “Let’s start you on one session a week. Do you have an hour now?”
Sometimes, patients came to sessions because they needed medical help. Sometimes, they came because they wanted somepony they could talk to.
When the yak raised a statue of Yona in their capital square, and Equestria sent an expeditionary force to protect the yak’s independence, Flurry raged. She screamed obscenities into Cigar Dream’s face, smashed furniture, and threatened to drown Equestria and the north alike in blood.
“It’s Celestia,” she shouted, pacing back and forth across the floor in front of his chair. “She’s always hated us. Always! She tortured my mother by making her a ruler, then left us all to suffer under Amaryllis, and now that the yak are plotting against us in turn, she helps them.”
“Is raising a statue to a war hero really plotting against the Crystal Empire?”
“A war hero for the other side. A collaborator. I put her on trial,” Flurry screamed so hard her voice cracked. “I made her confess to war crimes against her own people!”
“Maybe so,” Cigar weathered the storm, “But is raising a statue of her the same as plotting against the Crystal Empire?”
“You don’t get it. This is how it starts. First, they honor Yona as a war hero. Then they start to say, if she was a hero, she must have fought for the right side. Heroes don’t fight for the villian. Then they say that we must have been the villains. And then one day,” she gestured sharply with a hoof, “years from now, when the Crystal Empire is weak and they’re strong, they’ll turn on us!”
“So you want to attack them. Occupy their nation.”
“Yes, obviously!” she snapped.
“For how long?”
“Until they accept they were on the wrong side of the war.”
“And how long is that?” Cigar asked. “When is it over?”
“It’s over,” Flurry snarled, “when all my enemies are dead!”
“Are the yak your enemies?”
Flurry’s horn glowed. Her glaive swung around, and pressed up against Cigar’s neck. “I don’t find your jokes funny,” she said.
His face had gone white as a sheet. A thin line of blood ran down the edge of her weapon. “I wasn’t joking. The last race that lifted a hoof against you was exterminated to the last child. The yak have raised their hooves against you. And so I’m asking. Are the yak your enemies?”
“I…” Flurry hesitated, then withdrew the blade from his throat. “No. No, they’re… they’re not.”
“I’d like to hear you repeat that. Please say, ‘the yak are not my enemies.’”
“The yak are not my enemies,” Flurry said. It seemed to make her uncomfortable. She stood in silence for several moments after, shifting her stance on the floor. “The yak are not my enemies,” she said again, unbidden.
Cigar rubbed at his throat, and his hoof came back red. “Why don’t we take a break? I think I need a bandage.”
“The changelings were different,” Flurry said as he rose. “They were monsters. They couldn’t be reasoned with.”
Then she said, “I’m not a bad pony.”
The next week, Flurry missed her appointment because a cabinet meeting went long. The week after that, she missed her appointment because she was busy searching for a new Minister of the Interior. Cigar Dream could see the ashen expressions of the ponies in the palace. Guards watched them at all times. A unicorn bureaucrat in a resplendent uniform cried softly at his desk.
When Flurry walked into the royal suite, she sat in her chair quietly. She didn’t rage or smash the furniture. Her glaive rested by her side.
“I didn’t used to be this way,” she said.
The scar on Cigar Dream’s neck hadn’t quite healed yet. But he said, “I believe you.” Then he asked, “Could you tell me your cutie mark story, please?”
“Everypony knows that. Cheval overthrew my mother, I thwarted her, my mother wasn’t fit to rule, blah blah.”
“Everypony knows that story, yes. But those events would have taken place over several days at least. Your cutie mark appears at one specific moment. What was that moment?”
“I, uh…” Flurry gestured at the wall. “I was in the throne room. My coronation.”
“Was that it? They put the crown on your head and your cutie mark appeared in a flash?”
“Yes.”
Cigar hesitated a moment, then he put down his notebook and pen. “A cutie mark doesn’t appear in response to external events. It’s internal. Something about you. Was there something about you that changed when they put the crown on your head?”
Flurry didn’t answer, and so he prompted her again: “What were you thinking at that moment?”
“That I wouldn’t be my mother,” Flurry said. “I… knew the journey ahead would be hard. And I knew I would have to do hard things. I knew there would be ponies who would call me a monster. But I would not hesitate to do what needed to be done.”
“There’s a phrase you use a lot. ‘It’s not over until all my enemies are dead.’ Is that what you were thinking at that moment?”
“I…” Flurry nodded, slowly. “I suppose. More or less.”
“And do you have any enemies left?”
“Yes, it…” She froze, then she shook her head. “No. It’s not like that. The changelings were a scourge on the universe. They needed to be crushed. I did what had to be done.”
“Respectfully, your highness, I didn’t ask that. I asked if you have any enemies left now. You have rivals, certainly. Petty irritations. Incompetent subordinates. But the changeling race is gone, and communism has failed. There are no nations left who seek to conquer us. So today, right now, at this moment, do you have any enemies?”
“I will, one day. I’m immortal. Creatures will grow to hate me.”
“Are you comfortable with hate as an emotion?” Cigar asked.
“I don’t…” Flurry clenched her jaw. “I don’t know what that means.”
“You said you didn’t used to be this way. Do you think you got along better with the bureaucracy when you could all hate Amaryllis together?”
“Hate can’t make a pony an alicorn,” Flurry said softly. “I’m good. I’m a good pony. I embody harmony.”
“We are harmonious with the changelings,” Cigar said, his voice tight. “We haven’t had a dispute with them in years. And with the International Party. There are no discordant notes in silence. Will we be harmonious with the yak next? What about the diamond dogs? What about Equestria?”
Flurry lifted her head. “You’re a sympathizer.”
“I had a changeling patient. One of Cheval’s sisters,” he said. “And you murdered her family.”
Flurry picked up her glaive.
She stared at Cigar, then at her weapon. “You should flee the country,” she said, “before I change my mind.”
Later, Flurry called Twilight to the Crystal Empire. Though long healed from her injuries, Twilight entered the throne room with a contemptuous sneer on her face.
“What is it, Flurry?” she demanded, “Looking for some quality time with your aunt? Or did you want to bend my ear about how your latest atrocities are all for the greater good?”
“No. No.” Flurry lapsed into silence, and stared at the floor for a long time. Long enough that Twilight became uncomfortable, and noticed the haggard expression on Flurry’s face.
Then Flurry said: “It’s over.”
If I may be so glib, it's never over until the fat changeling lady sings.
Cheval better find some sheet music.
Oopsy, I think you might have meant Flurry instead of Cheval.
I'm really loving the ghost of Amaryllis, whatever the reason for her to be there, and how despite having a lot of great self-recrimination moments, Cheval just doesn't give a crap about anything she has to say.
Christ almighty. I know Cheval is probably going to forgive Flurry or whatever in the face of her aging sister. But she ought to just let that bloodthirsty old crone die ignored. She is frankly that easy to hate, here. Excellent chapter!
So Flurry did realise she became an absolute monster and sought redemption through death. But as a pony, it took decades until she had the courage to face her greatest mistake, truly raising her hoof against the one she loved.
I'm honestly curious on how will this have a "happy ending". Happy endings are not about happiness itself, but about a satisfactory conflict resolution that allows for future happiness.
The Third Wheel had a happy ending, for it solved the teenage conflict of a growing girl and the shadow her siblings cast, giving the first step on the road to conciliation and growth.
Courtesans had Double help Cadence through a harsh probation and discovering new love in what was before what she saw as proof of get failure - also a happy ending.
The Virgin Princess was about the truth of Twilight's condition, and honestly? It's a dark story with a cursed hero who accepts her curse due to a perceived duty towards others. It's not a happy ending, for it doesn't matter if she's happy through it. The conflict has no resolution, the responsible party is not confronted and the hero's still cursed at the end. It's a tragedy in the original Greek sense, if I'm not mistaken (the hero gets screwed due to their own faults, in the end). With plenty of terror from the realization that alicorns are a cursed being incapable of growth or even change, ever.
This has the potential to have a happy ending? It does, as long as the conflict is resolved in a way that allows for happiness, even if it doesn't happen immediately or even soon. If it's just an exposition piece like The Virgin Princess, though, it'll just be the sad story of a broken family.
Still amazingly well written and a joy to read that'll be forever in our minds, though.
And finally the endgame of this story comes into view...
I see one of my main suspicions was correct, the moment Flurry gained her cutie Mark, she became just as mentally trapped in amber as the other Alicorns; Twilight's Alicorn reversion spell is her only hope of escape. She has a lifetime's worth of mistakes and atrocities to set right, sadly much of the damage she has done can never be undone; her violent paranoia and fondness of summary execution has seen to that:
She has also thoroughly poisoned the well of public discourse. Her wartime propaganda has been hammered into the common citizens of the Crystal Empire so hard and for so long that the lies are now far beyond Flurry's ability to ever stamp out or contain. Ponies like that museum tour guide will continue believing those lies as the literal truth, long after Flurry eventually passes on, and nothing will ever completely change their minds on these matters.
I wonder how much of this is what Amaryllis did to her (both during the war and earlier by proxy against her parents & nation), and how much is Flurry's personality.
Because, frankly, paranoia is a survival trait when fighting Amaryllis. We already have a story example of a pretty good assassination attempt that was only thwarted by Shining Armor's seemingly only victory in his life. There were surely others.
Did getting her mark cause the alicorn-ness personality stasis to kick in at a point where she was more than a little unhinged? A normal, growing pony might move past the trauma but Flurry seemingly never did.
This also suggests that Luna will surely end up going insane once again, once Celestia and Luna both 'revert'.
Well..... fuck man....
Guess Twilight found an occasion to use that alicorn-purge spell after all.
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Honestly, this stasis trait of alicorns seems like one of the most disturbing things in this series.
Cadance is eternally a naive young mother.
Twilight is eternally an awkward teen.
Luna is eternally a resentful younger sibling that will eventually snap.
Celestia is eternally an optimist assuming that things will work out on their own.
And Flurry is eternally a paranoid warmonger, arguably the most stressful set of traits to be stuck with forever. Small wonder she wanted to leave that behind.
Well, that's certainly something. Flurry was eternally 18 right up until she realized she had no more enemies. That's the age she got her cutie mark I assume? It certainly sounds like she got hit with the emotional stasis problem as much as the other alicorns, Now she's somehow become a normally-aging Pegasus, almost certainly with Twilight's spell. I... really don't know how to respond to that. I'm pretty sure that Cheval's hypothesis is incorrect, but I've got no clue what Flurry's actually thinking here. Is she going to let Cheval make a new hive? Use the Ponyville hive buildings now that they're all empty?
I'm doubting the story will have a truly happy ending rather than a bittersweet one, but I look forward to it nevertheless.
should be "had poor"?
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Well, it depends on how long Flurry wasn't an alicorn. Has she not been an alicorn longer than she had been one? Or was she one until recently, and having her alicornhood removed caused her to rapidly age to what she'd be otherwise.
It matters because the first scenario has her with time to move on from the state she was before, but she still held a grudge for awhile against Cheval to leave her petrified, and kept up the propaganda that there were no innocent changelings despite not being stuck in her state of paranoia for decades. Thus, any claim that she brought Cheval out to repopulate the changeling race, so that Flurry Heart's legacy isn't exterminating a sapient race of beings, many of whom were innocent, would fall flat considering the Crystal Empire's current attitudes displayed to both Cheval and the other alicorns.
Honestly, I fear for the future of the Crystal Empire and Flurry's legacy in that case, whether it will involve a civil war over those who kept their opinions to themselves in secret verses those that bought the party line, or if the government will go through the equivalent of De-Stalinization (with regards to Flurry Heart), or if it will become an aggressor to other nations after Flurry Heart passes on. And Cheval or Cadance taking the throne won't make a bit of difference, in fact I expect assassination attempts, especially against Cheval.
The second scenario might account for a series of rapid changes that resulted in Cheval being released, and Flurry honestly wanting to make up for what she did as an alicorn for so long. Her legacy is still completely messed up, but she can at least try to make changes for the better.
I guess there should be want instead of was.
His throat?
Dammit, I really like this story it has great drama. But damn Alicorns sure do get the boot in this series.
Okay! I'm kind of tired and also low on time and intend to really try and rein the commentary in a bit (sorry), but I'm eager to go ahead and get these new updates read (since my next really good opportunity might not be until Tuesday)!
(Oh, one thing, though: while for the most part I'm content to let you get to my comments in your own time, I am still wondering what's going on with Gallant's age.)
Chapter 8!
"that, than either you’re"
"that, then either you’re"?
"They’d become her thousand most bitter enemies and they’d never stop until I was free or she was dead."
Or, potentially, her thousand most fervent supporters if Flurry tries for that, Cheval's amenable, and some things go right for the plan.
Because I'd be shocked if Flurry didn't have a plan here more detailed than "send them to Equestria and just hope it works out".
"And I was us to be family"
"And I want us to be family"?
"Sometimes I think it’s supposed to be that way. I’m the alicorn of love. I embody love. And all I do is grieve for the husband and the children I lost. That maybe that’s what this world is. Love is pain, and losing the ponies you care about."
...And new hypothesis for at least part of why Flurry may have unfrozen Cheval when she did: to try and head off the Love counterpart of Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker.
Hm. I wonder if "Amaryllis" might be Discord? Probably not, but the thought drifted across my mind. I wonder what he is up to these days, at any rate.
"and therein secured it"
"and thereto secured it", perhaps?
"against her side, Amaryllis"
"against her sides, Amaryllis"?
"The cord went taught."
"The cord went taut."?
"Twilight enchanted the building. It’s impossible to commit suicide on the castle grounds."
...Which raises many questions, such as "When did Twilight do that, and was Cheval the original intended beneficiary?" and "Where did she find a spell for that, or did she make one?"
Not problems, to be clear. Just many possible implications.
"She thought it was my destiny to kill you since we were both fourteen."
Hm. Cheval was only twelve at the time, but maybe that was connected with the "murderous whore" incident? Flurry thinking that Cheval wouldn't just leave, and what might result from that?
"and pegasai took up"
Ah, hm. So are you using that plural deliberately now?
...Huh.
Well, now my leading hypothesis for why Cheval was unfrozen is "successor".
I'm guessing this is Twilight's doing?
Well, perhaps that will be in the next chapter, from the title!
Chapter 9!
"hoofboots and crowd, and Flurry"
"hoofboots and crown, and Flurry"?
(I do wonder, by the way, what the soldiers thought Cigar thought he was being caught for. Or perhaps they thought it better not to question it.)
"When they yak raised"
"When the yak raised"?
"are plotting us against us"
"are plotting against us"?
"to a war-hero really"
"to a war hero really"?
"on trial.” Flurry screamed"
"on trial,” Flurry screamed"?
"There is no discordant notes"
"There are no discordant notes"?
So, that was interesting. :)
(...I now somewhat wonder if there being gryphons left is because Flurry stopped at the communists or just wasn't able to go all the way due to the much higher rate of fertile female gryphons compared to changelings.)
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Oh, missed that second one; thanks for catching it.
I hope Cigar Dream made it out.
So this then would be Flurry’s moment of lucidity to complement Twilight’s, only unlike Twilight, Flurry managed to actually hold on to it. Flurry Heart. Who, for all intents and purposes, is an OC in this series. In the near future that’s going to be relevant.
I note that she also managed to keep her throne. Both wasn’t stopped by Twilight while still an alicorn, and was allowed to keep it afterwards.
Have you ever read a comic entitled JLA: Act of God? Because in the near future it’s going to be relevant too.
I also note that I was right about her cutie mark story.
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I already pre-typed up my final thoughts on this series days ago and am simply intending to edit it as needed as the narrative plays out. If something happens to invalidate it I’ll happily type up a new one but I don’t anticipate that at this point.
Let’s see, what was the metaphor I used concerning happiness...ah, right. It’s the sort of happiness you can reach after a chainsaw-wielding maniac cuts off both your legs while an armed cop watches. Sure, eventually, you can be happy again despite your mutilation. But that doesn’t change that you shouldn’t need to find happiness despite your mutilation, because the cop with the gun should have acted.
JLA: Act of God. You should read it, or at least watch Linkara’s review of it.
There's a lot of unsaid action going on in that paragraph.
At least the most horrifying option no longer seems on the table: releasing the last changeling queen to give the world unity via mutual hatred of The Enemy.
Woah, ok then! Wasn't expecting that out of Twilight.
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Considering how their last known conversation went... Twilight's Alicornhood may be mentally distancing her from the memories of being used like a living wrecking ball, but she does still remember that fight, and waking up afterwards with multiple broken ribs and all four of her legs broken so severely the bones were poking out in places... Plus we can be sure she was keeping tabs as best she can on Flurry's seemingly never ending parade of paranoia and bloody executions... I'd say Twilight's reaction here is completely justified and within character.
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You would? Because to me it feels rather like if Lex Luthor was visibly killing folk on the street in broad daylight and Superman just sort of wagged his finger and was like “hey now. Stop that.”
The reaction is too mild to be in-character.
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If this was canon Twilight from the show we were talking about, i would absolutely agree that this reaction is far too mild.
But, whether you or i agree with the plausibility of it or not, this story has already clearly established that Twilight and Flurry are not like Superman and Lex Luthor; Warlord Flurry Heart here has been clearly shown to be quite capable of trouncing Twilight in a straight up fight. I suspect Twilight has little desire to relive that curb stomping, Cadence isn't around to support her this time, and this time Flurry may not stop at just breaking her legs. Hence under these circumstances, i find Twilight's reaction appropriate and believable, she's not even going to attempt to hide her contempt for Flurry's actions, but neither is she not going to pick a fight, nor waste time arguing with a brick wall.
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I meant in terms of a hero standing by and observing a villain doing crime but not doing anything about it. The specific characters don’t matter for the analogy. This conversation is out-of-character because it suggests that Twilight has been healed from her battle for some time now but hasn’t since attempted a Round 2 with Flurry, this time with proper backup and a plan.
It’s also difficult to argue that we shouldn’t be viewing this as canon-Twilight when Jaxie has gone out of his way to establish that the show is more-or-less canon to this universe, by referencing episodes sporadically in the narrative and including comments like “we know Thorax! He’s an adorable little cinnamon roll and Twilight’s friend”. It’s not enough of an alternate universe to make excuses for Twilight based on the AU tag.
But, we’ll deal with most of that in detail in my final thoughts.
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I think that her being an old crone now is a sign that she's no longer the same bloodthirsty ruler as she was.
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I think it no longer matters what sort of epiphany she had after a lifetime of murder, terror, and blood trailing behind her. The psychotic bitch has done far too much to ever be considered anything less than bloodthirsty.
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You go ahead and argue that out with the author to your hearts content, i'm just watching how this conga line of tragedy plays out, with morbid curiosity, and occasionally tossing my two cents into the comments.
As for canon continuity, AUs reference show episodes all the damn time, as to it's relevance here, just like with many AUs the show canon provides the starting point of this series, but this series has drastically veered off onto its own path over the course of roughly 72 years, if i am keeping count correctly.
Besides, i can already tell you one very key detail where this story decisively does not adhere to canon: when asked about the possibility of Twilight being immortal, the show creators explicitly stated that Twilight in the show is not immortal. Barring accident, illness, or foul play, Twilight will grow old and eventually die, just like the rest of her friends. Twilight's regular character in the show canon, simply has not ever had to address how immortality would affect her state of mind, and certainly not how she would be affected by an absolute conga line of tragedy, bad politics, and a body count so high that it has long since faded into a statistic.
Finally, there is one last detail you are forgetting, if Twilight did come back with backup and a plan, either she would be declaring war on the Crystal Empire on behalf of Equestria, or Celestia and Luna would have to disavow Twilight and those following her into the attack. The unfortunate truth is, as much as we both would have liked to see Equestria put down Flurry Heart, doing so would require launching another war.
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I.e., “if only Hitler had lived to be an old man, I’m sure he would have regretted everything and done something to make up for it.”
I am aware of the difficulty in trying to make that claim and judge Flurry for her actions and feel that forgiveness isn’t in the cards for her, when I just finished a story centered on a Dalek-turned-pony and each Dalek is basically a super-Hitler in Who canon. Then again they are made that way from the moment of their birth at a genetic level and have that enforced on them by their tanks. They never have a choice, and Daleks that manage to escape their enforced desire to exterminate everything - if they survive the process - rapidly change and regret their prior actions time and again. Sec, Caan, Rusty (before the Doctor screwed it up)...
Flurry had so many choices even before becoming an alicorn. And Jaxie has been maddeningly vague on what Hellicornhood actually entails in practice, but this latest chapter certainly makes it seem like there are moments of lucidity where choice is possible. And still she committed genocide. Still she took the throne at all.
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Actually what they said was that Twilight would not outlive her friends. That is not the same thing as saying she’s mortal
A considerable feat, given the circumstances.
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Actually, remember, by the time of the war, the northern hive was rocking the reformed look (candy shells, gossamer wings, etc). Cheval is walking around old school. Ponies who remember their history class exceptionally well know what she is, but most don't.
Certainly not a typo, that's for sure!
I have and it is THE WORST THING.
He's a very minor character in this story, but I like Sky Guard. It's good to show that the Element of Laughter isn't just being a goofball, but doing what it takes to make people smile.
"Luna, you can have your own throne when you stop sleeping through entire wars."
'It happened one time, sister!'
Like someone in full Nazi uniform showing up in the back of a WW2 museum tour.
Well, I'm glad that came across clearly.
This is the intention. The population of the Crystal Empire would not endorse wholesale slaughter -- just like most of the population of Germany didn't actually know exactly where their Jewish neighbors were going. They just "left."
Misty is a bit of a coward, but she eventually managed to find her spine.
Once she was sure Cheval wasn't going to bite her.
This and other typos fixed. Thank you!
9646307
Well, no. Because there's no sign of Hitler ever showing remorse or wanting to change. Flurry Heart, the Alicorn of War, did not show remorse, and was incapable of changing, but she wanted to change. That's why she's no longer an alicorn: because she wanted to be able to change. I have no idea how good or bad a pony she is now, but I'm pretty damn sure she's not the same pony she was back when she was an alicorn.
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Light did have to explicitly say that Twilight would protect them from anyone Flurry sent after them.
It definitely is not.
They just want to preserve the old traditions!
CHARACTER BUILDING INTENSIFIES
It was. Grammer was never my strong suite. Thank you for pointing this out!
I'd love to claim brilliant foreshadowing, but no, that's just a timeline fault. I believe he should be fifty at this point, reviewing the numbers. Keenly spotted!
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A heroic deed, to be sure.
(Thank you, fixed!)
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9645496
Don't ever apologize for being awesome.
Your comments are a joy to read and remind me that people like my writing.
I am not a clever pony.
This and many other typos are fixed! Thanks to you.
Nightmare Cadence! Alicorn of Shipping!
Whoopsie-doodle. That was supposed to be a reference to the scene near the end of A Foreign Education, where Flurry admits that "for the last four years" she assumed it was Cheval's destiny to kill Cadence.
So yes, Cheval would have been 12 at the time.
What an interesting theory!
It might be true. :D
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Yay! I'm glad you liked it. Only a few updates left to go.
I mean, the Red Baron flew for the side we all recognize to have been the bad guys, and yet we all still recognize his dogfighting prowess... just saying
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I don’t know anyone who knows anything about World War I that considers the Triple Alliance to be the bad guys, or the Triple Entante to be the good guys. Or vice-versa. The war was more complicated than that.
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The point I was trying to make is that affiliation does not a war hero make or break.
Perhaps a better comparison would've been the Desert Fox, though... brilliant tactician. Shame he fought for the Nazi war machine
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It’s a shame anyone fought for the Nazis.
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A man walks into a bar and kills the 10 people inside of it in cold blood just because he feels like it. He makes a clean getaway and is not caught until advances in crime scene investigation allow the police to finally peg him as the perpetrator 20 years later. In the intervening years the man has been a model citizen, giving to charities and such. He admits to doing the crime and expresses regret, which is backed up by some seized journal entries from the intervening 20 years, but he never turned himself in in spite of those regrets.
He’s a different person than the man who killed all those people 20 years ago. What do? Because any nations’ laws you care to mention says that the man should go to jail for the rest of his life regardless of his personal feelings.
Flurry did a lot more than kill 10 people. And murder doesn’t stop being a crime just because it’s been carried out to the point of being a statistic, or because the person who did it changed their mind on whether or not the murder was really warranted.
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Ha! Ain't that the fucking truth
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"Don't ever apologize for being awesome. "
Oh, I was apologizing for the reining in, yes. :) I know you like my comments.
"Your comments are a joy to read and remind me that people like my writing."
Thanks; I'm also glad you like my comments. :)
"I am not a clever pony. "
Ah. :)
...I notice it's not changed, though, so... haven't gotten to it yet, or indeed going with it being the aftereffects of that encounter with Doctor Chronohorse (or something)? :)
"This and many other typos are fixed! Thanks to you."
Heh, you're welcome. :)
"Nightmare Cadence! Alicorn of Shipping!"
:D
(Though from what Cadence was saying, I'm still not sure that didn't factor into Flurry's thinking.)
"Whoopsie-doodle. That was supposed to be a reference to the scene near the end of A Foreign Education, where Flurry admits that "for the last four years" she assumed it was Cheval's destiny to kill Cadence.
So yes, Cheval would have been 12 at the time."
Ah, thanks.
Though I am still wondering whether it was that scene or something else, that we didn't see, that happened when Flurry and Cheval were 14 and 12.
"What an interesting theory!
It might be true. :D"
:D
"Yay! I'm glad you liked it."
Thanks for writing. :)
"Only a few updates left to go. "
Ah, well, looking forward to them still. :)
...Aaaaand then I scrolled down to check other comments, and here's another reply to me FIMFiction didn't alert me to, so, again, sorry if there are any of those I didn't find on my own.
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"Actually, remember, by the time of the war, the northern hive was rocking the reformed look (candy shells, gossamer wings, etc). Cheval is walking around old school."
Ah, not sure I did remember that at the time; thanks.
"Ponies who remember their history class exceptionally well know what she is, but most don't."
...Which means, ironically, many of them might actually find the old school look less frightening. I mean, sure, she might look a bit naturally scary, but if she doesn't click with the "that is the rainbow candy shell of EVIL!" propaganda they've been raised with, well, she might just be another strange creature to start by trying to extent the benefit of the doubt to.
"Certainly not a typo, that's for sure!"
Well, I note you've decided not to change it, so I'm guessing either it genuinely wasn't or you thought it was interesting enough to keep too. :D
"I have and it is THE WORST THING. "
[nods sympathetically]
"He's a very minor character in this story, but I like Sky Guard. It's good to show that the Element of Laughter isn't just being a goofball, but doing what it takes to make people smile."
...And reading that made me smile, and then laugh a bit at realizing that, so :D
""Luna, you can have your own throne when you stop sleeping through entire wars."
'It happened one time, sister!'"
:D
"Like someone in full Nazi uniform showing up in the back of a WW2 museum tour."
I mean, how does one react to that?
"Well, I'm glad that came across clearly. "
:)
"This is the intention. The population of the Crystal Empire would not endorse wholesale slaughter -- just like most of the population of Germany didn't actually know exactly where their Jewish neighbors were going. They just "left.""
I mean, we know some changelings genuinely did just leave.
But so did some members of the minorities the Nazis were trying to get rid of.
And from the way Mirage had to be hidden and smuggled out, I doubt she thought those secret police just wanted to make sure she got her free ticket to Equestria.
"Misty is a bit of a coward, but she eventually managed to find her spine.
Once she was sure Cheval wasn't going to bite her."
Ah. :)
So I'm guessing that phrasing was more deliberately pointed, on her part, than I'd originally thought? (I'd thought it was more her reframing the situation in her mind a bit towards something she could more easily cope with, or something like that.)
"This and other typos fixed. Thank you!"
You're welcome. :)
...And then I find another one while looking through the comments more:
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"Light did have to explicitly say that Twilight would protect them from anyone Flurry sent after them."
Aye.
"They just want to preserve the old traditions!"
:)
"CHARACTER BUILDING INTENSIFIES"
:D
"It was. Grammer was never my strong suite. Thank you for pointing this out!"
Ah, thanks, and you're welcome. :)
(Also, er... "Grammar"? :))
"I'd love to claim brilliant foreshadowing, but no, that's just a timeline fault. I believe he should be fifty at this point, reviewing the numbers. Keenly spotted!"
Ah, thanks.
(Still didn't change it, though? Bit puzzled there, now.)
And hopefully that's all of them! :D
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Aye, not that the Central Powers didn't have their problems, but they were lied about quite terribly in Entente propaganda. Which actually made Nazi atrocities worse, as I recall, because it led to reports of the horrible things the Nazis actually were doing being dismissed as just more of the same.
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Aye, the Nazis were much better at tainting anything they associated with.
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Right, back from work now, so now I can respond to something that I wanted to in detail.
Oh, no, I'm not forgetting this, I'm just wondering why in God's green Earth a war with the Crystal Empire would be a thing to avoid at this point.
Flurry spelled out to Twilight, in plain English (or whatever), that she's acting the way she is because Equestria was lethargic in dealing with Amaryllis. She also spelled out, in plain English, the intent to keep killing people until she felt she had no more enemies. While the alicorns are slaves to their condition (when narratively convenient...) they are not unaware of it, or at least Twilight isn't, meaning that Twilight and Cadance (but especially someone as intelligent as Twilight) should know, for a fact, that Flurry at the time of her fight with Twilight is only beginning to kill people and that a lot more are going to die.
Then she starts killing changelings. Wiping out the species herself before time can do the job for her, even though the war is presumably over once Amaryllis is dead (or at least the Northern Hive's part in it is). The Ponyville Hive chapter makes it pretty plain that she isn't even being very secretive about it, no matter what Jaxie attempted to claim in the comments above about "relocations" and Germany, or at most she may be fooling the Crystal Empire but she isn't fooling anyone outside of it.
"I’m the sister of Princess Twilight, and she will protect you from anypony who comes after you. If you can make it to Ponyville, you’ll be safe. Flurry Heart can’t get you here."
That's not the sort of thing you say to people who aren't afraid for their lives. And that's not the sort of thing you say to someone if you don't know they're in fear of their lives.
Like I said in an earlier comment, Flurry's plain English description of Equestria's failures plus her apparent corruption of what it means to be an alicorn (a Nightmare Moon-esque justification could very easily be made) plus her actions against her own people plus her determined genocide, means that Equestria's run out of excuses at this point. Either they don't care what happens beyond their borders as long as nothing affects their private little Sim City game, or else they do care and should march to war. There is no longer a room for middle ground, and attempting to take a middle position is just de facto recognizing Flurry's right to kill people in her own borders for any reason or no reason.
Which Jaxie sort-of suggested here, in this comment, but if you buy in to the idea that this Twilight will let something morally wrong, particularly as morally wrong as killing people and wiping out a species, stand just because it's not happening in Equestria and there's no law against it...well, I hope that's a version of Twilight you keep in mind while reading the rest of this story and whenever you re-read the previous ones: "An autocrat murdering her own subjects isn't something I care enough about to act against as long as it doesn't happen in Equestria. I have better things to do, like get Ponyville to sing a song to teach people about [insert friendship problem here]."
Or, Hell, no war, just depose Flurry and put Cadance back on the throne, or if Cadance doesn't want it give it to, like, literally anyone. Twilight. Starlight. Rainbow Dash. Maybe Sunburst is still around. Flash Sentry was mentioned in Courtesans. Formally annex the place, give it over to an Equestrian noblepony and create them as the Marquess of the Crystal March. Fucking Spike, I don't care. Flurry's claim to the throne is usurpation and right of conquest, the same as Amaryllis, the same as Cadance, the same as Sombra. The crystal ponies have already demonstrated by dint of accepting Flurry and Amaryllis and Cadance that they view the throne as a prize to be taken by the strongest three times over the course of a single generation. What's a fourth?
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A fair question...
At the end of World War Two, when Japan surrendered, why didn't the United States turn on the Soviet Union, and put down Joseph Stalin?
The Soviets had kicked ass during the war, but they ravaged their population, infrastructure, and economy to do so; while the USA was approaching the height of its power, and they had the bomb (the USSR wouldn't have a working atom bomb for another four years).
9646589
The Crystal Empire under Flurry doesn't exactly seem like the kind of push-over nation you just decide to invade and conquer one day because you think they need a new ruler.
I believe it was Aristotle who, in Ethics, noted that courage was doing the right thing that you were able to do, while foolhardiness was attempting to do the right thing you were unable to do, and thus causing more suffering for the world as a result.
Just one opinion on what we've read so far.
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The plan was called Operation Unthinkable and it wasn't carried out because, quite aside from war exhaustion on the part of Britain and France, if I recall correctly the Soviets outnumbered the Western Allies something like four-to-one in Europe (actually I think it might have been much higher, but I don't feel like looking it up since it's enough to know that it was huge) and had a substantially larger population and industrial base than the Nazis ever did.
As for the Crystal Empire...
First, an important fact: Jaxie has established this as a world where technology advances over time; perhaps not at the same pace on Earth, but the point is that there isn't a Medieval stasis going on.
Let's do some math. Since Twilight is 20 (chronologically) at the start of The Third Wheel (she's 4 years older than Light Step, who is 16 at this point) this means that the Crystal Empire could have returned at most 5 years previously while Twilight was somewhere between 15-16, before her apotheosis (which in the show happened less than one year after the return of Nightmare Moon, since the Season 4 opener is exactly one year after Luna's return and Twilight is an alicorn in it but is not an alicorn when the Crystal Empire returns). What I'm going to call Equus War One for clarity's sake began 16 years or so after Courtesans, which itself began about 1 year or so after the start of The Third Wheel (might be slightly more but to be honest for what's about to come we could add 10 whole years and it wouldn't matter). So that's a total of about 22 years or so (5 + 1 + 16) between the return of the Crystal Empire and the start of Equus War One. Or in other words, assuming ponies age roughly like humans (and this is a safe assumption since Jaxie treats 16-year-old Twilight like a 16-year-old human, or at least what he perceives 16-year-olds to be like), about one generation, the time it takes for a given group to be born, grow up, and then have kids of their own, generally reckoned at about 20-25 years.
Now let's look through history and see if we can find an example of a pre-industrial society attempting to rapidly industrialize in order to catch up to other already-industrialized nations. First thought: Japan, Meiji Restoration. You can do the research yourself, but long story short an American semi-military expedition to Japan in 1853 felt to the Emperor Meiji like a swift kick in the balls where Japanese technology was concerned and directly led to Japan rapidly beginning to modernize itself. Still, this is a process that took more than 22 years. By 1875 Japan was still very much a pushover compared to any Western nation. In fact I can't think of any pre-industrial society catching up to an industrialized society in just 22 years, one generation. It took Japan 50 years to get itself into a position where it could barely win a war against Russia in an environment where Russia could not effectively bring its full power to bear, was ineptly lead, and plus was, y'know, Russia in 1900. And Japan didn't even begin the Meiji Restoration with Medieval-level technology, more something akin to, say, late 1500s- to early 1600s-era Europe.
The other problem is population. We don't know what the Crystal Empire's is, but whatever population it did support 1022 years ago would have been supported with a Medieval understanding of medicine and Medieval farming techniques supported by Medieval technology, in a land we know to be largely wintry and cold and probably not capable of supporting a large population anyway - plus there's just plain 1,000 years of fucking that was skipped. As a point of comparison, the population of France in 1,000 AD (which admittedly occupied a somewhat smaller land area than modern France, but not by enough to seriously affect my point) was about 7,200,000, but in 1900 AD it was about 38,900,000 (and yes, for the record, that's Metropolitan France only, not the French Empire as a whole). About five, nearly six times larger.
Now I can't say for certain that this general growth rate would hold true across every nation, but I do feel comfortable in saying that there is no way in Hell that the crystal ponies could fuck out enough foals in a short enough time for their population to make up for the 1,000 year timeskip (you'd basically need every single mare in the nation to get pregnant and give birth each year for the first 5 years after coming back), and the only way immigration could do so is if the immigration came in such a huge wave that the crystal ponies became an extreme minority in their own nation.
Basically if anyone expects me to believe that the Crystal Empire could, in terms of either industry or population, advance to a point of serious contention with Equestria during the timeframe of this series, then those people also expect me to believe that pigs can fly.
Gardez, you brought up Jaxie being a student of 20th century military history back in The Virgin Princess. Since it wasn't Jaxie himself who brought it up I haven't been holding it against him, it was you swinging around his credentials like a baseball bat. That being said, I am going to go now to a 20th century military quote I'm particularly fond of, which seems relevant, and through to the end of Courtesans was something I had every confidence that Jaxie knew well.
"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics."
— General Robert H. Barrow, USMC
EDIT: An earlier version of this post did give the population for the French Empire as a whole instead of just Metropolitan France. Mea culpa, it has been corrected, and it doesn't affect the overall point of the Crystal Empire requiring a frankly absurd, in fact bluntly impossible, population growth to become a serious problem for Equestria, unless Equestria has an unnaturally small population
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Oh, all of this is leaving aside the magical food production of Equestria, and remember that a surplus of food always leads to a larger population, always. Certainly Applejack never seems to run out of apples to buck at Sweet Apple Acres except during the winter months; the implication from this has been that the Apple family, and by logical extrapolation any earth pony farmer, somehow can magically get their crops to grow faster and produce more food than would happen on Earth (where apple trees produce apples only once or twice a year). "Magically" in this case isn't meant sarcastically, I'm pretty sure the intention is that it's an example of earth pony magic at work.
Since we know the crystal empire is overwhelmingly crystal pony, with few if any natives of the other tribes, it naturally follows that even without advances in farming techniques or technologies, your average crystal pony farmer is just not going to produce as much food per year as your average earth pony farmer even if everything else is equal. Which means that it should definitely be notably less populous than Equestria when you take that into account and add in 1,000 years of fucking that the Empire skipped and 1,000 years of technology advancement they missed out on and remember their colder and thus less productive environment. They shouldn't even be close, it should be something like the the difference between modern France (about 70 million) and, I dunno, let's generously say the Polish-Lithuanian Union in the 1500s (about 7.5 million).
I think I'm one of the only fanfic writers to have noticed this food surplus thing that Equestria should have going for it, thought it through, and thus expect Equestria to have a bigger population than expected for its size and technological level, rather than smaller.
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I was planning this big long rebuttal about you missing my point, but then i realized we would just keep going in circles like this, getting ever farther off topic:
I have no doubt at all that Equestria could steamroll the Crystal Empire, but at what cost? Deposing Flurry Heart without going to war isn't even a viable option; Amaryllis, Cadence, Flurry Heart, and Cheval all have legitimate claims to the throne of the Crystal Empire. Amaryllis is dead, Cadence refuses to raise a hoof against her own daughters, and Cheval was still a statue at this time (and Shining wasn't around anymore to keep her safe).
Equestria could have tried to force Cadence into taking the job, but the citizens of the Crystal Empire who'd now been stewing in Flurry Heart's propaganda for decades, would have seen this as outside meddling by Equestria. At best it would have been a political cluster fuck of epic proportions, and that's only if Murphy had gone on vacation for a few months.
If a majority of the Crystal ponies decided to stand with Flurry, and let's be real here, they probably would; then Equestria would have needed to grind the Crystal Empire into the dirt, and with warfare having clearly modernized on all sides a great deal, and the Crystal Empire being bunkered up like a fortress; Equestria would have to lay siege to the city, and almost certainly level much of it.
The defenders in the city would have remained nice and warm under the Crystal Heart's shield, while all besieging forces would have been fighting in perpetual hard winter conditions. It's a fair bet Flurry Heart would have turtled up in that fortress city, and create a nice big anvil for Equestria to beat its armies ragged against; the city would still fall eventually, but the casualties to both sides would have been horrific, and barring an absolute procession of miracles one after another, many of those Crystal Pony citizens Equestria was looking to save from Flurry's tyranny, would have been killed during the siege.
A Pyrrhic victory for Equestria to cap off one final bloody chapter of this sordid tale of incompetence, tragedies, insanity, and atrocities.
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You're probably right about the circles and getting off track thing thing...
...but unless I'm very off in my interpretation of the timeframe Flurry Heart hasn't been on the throne for very long by the time she has her little tete-a-tete with Twilight. Like, less than ten years.
In The Ponyville Hive chapter Light Step makes a remark that Double Time still acts like she's a changeling infiltrator "like the last 20 years were playing around". By this point Amaryllis is definitely dead. But Amaryllis is very much alive during the Crystal Throne chapter, specifically mentioned as being such, in fact, so we know this happens some time earlier. Now we don't know for certain if Light Step is talking about 20 years since Double Time was a spy or 20 years since the two first met or 20 years since the two more-or-less officially became a couple (context makes it seem like it's the first), but if we generously use that last one (the tail end of Courtesans, furthest down the timeline), and then let's assume that Light was rounding and call it 25 years instead for the sake of argument (though note it could just as easily be 18 or 19 years), our rough timeline of events becomes...
Year 0: Crystal Empire returns, Cadance becomes Crystal Princess
Year 1: Twilight's apotheosis (approx.)
Year 4: Flurry Heart is born not later than the start of this year
Year 5: The War in the North occurs, The Third Wheel begins, Light Step meets Double Time
Year 6: The Third Wheel ends, Courtesans takes place, Cheval is most likely born this year, Light Step and Double Time become a couple
Year 22: A Foreign Education takes place, Flurry overthrows Cadance and becomes Crystal Princess, Equus War One begins
Year 31: The Ponyville Hive chapter of The Last Changeling takes place not later than this year (deliberate overestimation), Amaryllis is definitely dead not later than this year.
So, actually, by the time Twilight and Flurry have their little tete-a-tete Flurry has been on the throne for at most 9 years, and more likely much less.
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Let's take that 9 year figure as a given.
Hitler went from his appointment to Chancellor in January 1933, to full blown dictator in August 1934, holding the German people in the thrall of his party's propaganda machine, in less than two years; and he did all that without an active external military threat or 'Divine Mandate'. During the war the German people had believed Hitler's endless speeches promising safety and security under a Reich that would stand for a thousand years. Then when it all came crashing down in flames, many Germans had a very hard time wrapping their heads around what the Nazi's had actually been up too; many had heard the stories, but few had really believed any of it.
In all, Hitler's rein lasted 12.2 years (4,474 days if you want to get really exact). That's counting from his legal rise to power, through the whole of the Second World War, up to the day he committed suicide.
Now back to Flurry Heart, assuming only nine years pass between her rise to power, and her first confrontation with her Aunt... During those nine years, she has a preexisting legitimate claim to authority, the Crystal Empire is facing the threat of subjugation by Amaryllis' hive; and here Flurry Heart is, protecting the Empire no matter the cost.
Ultimately, nothing about this kind of situation is simple, except that fear of an external threat has historically proven to be really damn effective at making the masses unite behind a leader.