Ch40: Time Will Mend All Wounds
When word spread that the cultist insurgency was successfully repelled, the Gryphon forces immediately surrendered. When questioned, the Gryphon leadership stated that the cultists had slain their former king and took up rule for themselves. They promised to bring back the glory of the old Empire. Some saw through their lies and knew that they would only use the Gryphons as their pawns, while others like Sharp Beak didn’t want to pass up the chance to become a powerful country once again.
After the war, the Gryphon Empire was dissolved and temporarily put under equestrian jurisdiction, until a final decision would be made. Said decision was thoroughly discussed in court and, for the first time in my life, I came to see that beyond her normally motherly nature, Celestia could also be a very strict and almost… vengeful ruler.
The council was basically split into two factions: those who saw economical potential and those who saw military potential in the former Empire. Those, who saw it economically wanted to help them rebuild their nation, so they could then make them tributaries, while those who saw it militarily wanted to rebuild their military first and make them an ally.
I personally thought that neither of these options was going to work in the long term. Rather, I wanted to allow them to form an independent state again and teach them to live in harmony like we do and Luna supported the idea. Celestia, however, had entirely different plans.
“I think it better to annex their territory.” She said, as the discussion found no end.
Immediately, every eye in the room was on her. She got up from her throne and walked down to the large table that we sat assembled at. None could really believe what we had just heard, yet there had been no mistake. Her look and the tone of her voice clearly confirmed what we had thought as unthinkable from her.
“Princess, are you sure?” One of the nobles spoke up. “Just think about how our public image would suffer from this! Our benevolent Princess of the sun, annexing a foreign country… that is just unthinkable!”
“I can’t afford to think about my image, Red Carpet! The Gryphons have shown yet again that they are a threat to Equestria. I can’t let my ponies suffer just because I have an image to uphold!” Celestia seethed. None of the nobles dared oppose her and I didn’t have the authority yet to overrule her, so it all rested upon Luna`s shoulders.
“Sister, we think that thy decision is too rash. Think about what will happen to the Gryphons. They will still see you as their enemy and likely won’t accept thy rule without resistance.” Luna reasoned, but Celestia didn’t seem to listen. She started to move again, slowly making her way to the doors.
“Sister, if you won’t listen to me now, at least take some time to think about it yourself!”
Celestia stopped just before the doors and stood silent for a moment. “Fine. I will postpone my decision until after the Funeral.” With these words, she then left the throne room.
Markus, for his deeds and sacrifice, had been recognized as a national hero and had thus gotten a state funeral. His coffin was carried through the streets of Canterlot, surrounded by the company he once commanded and followed by the rest of the regiment. He was then set to rest among the other national heroes and shall serve as a symbol that one does not need to be a pony to become a hero.
Pinkie Pie had been in charge of the planning for the ceremony and, true to Markus’s last command to her, it had become the biggest one Equestria had ever seen. Sure, his last command was to throw a ‘party’, but it seems not even Pinkie is able to muster up this much happiness after losing a friend.
After multiple artists and bands had played a piece or two to commemorate our fallen hero, everypony held a minute of silence, before a few ponies then gave commemorative speeches. Among them was Shining Armor, who cleared up the secret about the training Markus gave him and how they’d planned for one of them to be contacted and feign an alliance with the cult.
While those speeches were held, I looked around and saw that Princess Celestia was looking as if she wasn’t fully paying attention. Furthermore, she seemed in thought, almost troubled. I decided to go over to her and have a few words with her. However, when I addressed her, she didn’t react at first. I actually had to call out to her multiple times and even poke her a few times before she noticed me.
“Oh, Twilight, I’m sorry, I seem to have been quite deep in thought. What were you saying?” Celestia asked, startled.
“I asked if Markus’s spell had worked.”
“The spell? Oh, yes, the spell, it did work, don’t worry.” Celestia said, yet it seemed as if there was something else that she wasn’t telling me.
“Princess,” I said firmly, “you know that you can trust me and I know you well enough to see that there is something troubling you. So: what do you have on your mind?”
The Princess looked over me once, before sighing and answering me. “I was thinking about the Gryphons again. No matter how hard I try, I still can’t bring myself to allow them to build their empire again.”
I immediately wanted to protest, but Celestia held her hoof over my muzzle.
“However… I have to agree with you and Luna that annexing them would only bring more problems than it would solve. Therefore, I sought advice from… an outside source and with their help, I came up with something else. We will help them with their reconstruction efforts and allow them to largely govern themselves, however it will all happen under our supervision and we will teach them in the ways of Harmony. Basically, we will make them a dominion.”
I was relieved to hear that the Princess had finally seen reason and even if she wasn’t allowing them full independence, it was still a better decision than outright annexation.
Thus, the Gryphon Empire became the Republic of Gryphonia and a Dominion of Equestria. At the time of writing this, it has been only two months since the war had ended and yet, the Gryphon-Equestrian relations seem more stable than ever before. All this was possible because Markus Becker fought to the very end to keep Equestria safe and bring peace and now, it lies upon us to keep it.
Twilight let out a relieved sigh as she finally lifted her quill from the parchment. Before her lay the script of a book she had been working on. ‘Markus Becker – a hero from another world’ was its title. For this, she had used the journal Markus had left her, as well as transcripts of interviews with those who were close to him, mainly from herself and Rainbow, though.
Twilight got up from her seat and trotted a bit through her room. After all, she needed a bit of movement after she had just spent hours sitting and writing. The book was ready as far as she was concerned. All that needed to be done now, was to send it to the ‘Canterlot Institute for Educational Literature’ to have it proof-read, edited and published.
Still… she could make their job a lot easier if she read through it herself before she sent it, so she went back to her desk to give it a final look-over. However, just as she was about to sit down, she heard a knock on the window. She looked over and saw Rainbow Dash waving at her.
She magically opened the window to let her friend and herdmate enter her quarters and set down beside her.
“Hey, Twilight!” the prismatic mare greeted, “Still writing that book, huh?”
Rainbow looked over to Twilight’s desk, where a few sheets were neatly sorted, piled and bound together to form what already looked like the beginnings of a book.
“Yeah, well, actually I’m just about done. I just wanted to give it one last read before I hoof it in.” Twilight said. However, Rainbow Dash’s eyes had spied another interesting thing on Twilight’s desk, lying directly beside the script.
“Ooh, what’s this?” Rainbow chirped, as she quickly snatched the few additional pages up in her hooves and started to read before Twilight could stop her. Not that she even wanted to stop her. After all, if she was allowed to read Markus’s journal, then so was Rainbow, right?
“Oh, just two entries that didn’t make it into the final version.” Twilight answered. Not that Rainbow was listening… she was already too occupied with reading her deceased lover’s perspective.
“Hehe, we really did that, didn’t we?” The first entry was about heat season. Twilight didn’t want to include it, for personal reasons.
Rainbow went through the entry relatively quickly and started to read the next. However, as she progressed in her read, her eyes slowly grew wider, until she came to the end and her mouth fell agape.
“Did Markus really do this? I mean, the General sure was a jerk, from what I can tell, but… Well, Markus surely had his reasons…” The second entry was the last entry she found in the journal. The one where Markus admitted to the murder of General Pillbox. The reason for this wasn’t to keep Markus’s name clear, though. Truth be told, if she had included the entry, due to the background on the incident, the public would likely have treated Markus as an avenger, rather than a murderer. No, the reason she didn’t include it was the last paragraph of the entry. The one, where he explained why he reported falsely to the princess. Because he wanted to keep Pillbox’s family’s name clear. If she had included the entry, then Pillbox’s family would’ve had to fight with the dishonour of having born a selfish tyrant. Even though such personalities were not at all uncommon among nobles, it would still have been used against them.
“Anyways, what I originally came here for:” Rainbow started, as she set the papers back onto Twilight’s desk, “I wanted to ask you if you want to come to Canterlot with me. I wanted to go and visit Markus’s grave.”
“Yeah, sure.” Twilight didn’t even need to think about the answer or look at the clock. She knew that she had been working overtime already and that some fresh air will help her clear her mind a bit. So, they packed a few things and went out onto the balcony, from where they started their flight towards Canterlot.
They landed in front of the cemetery’s gates and walked into the main area, as flying was regarded as very disrespectful towards the dead. They went straight to the other side of the yard, where another gate separated the normal graveyard from the more important personalities. There, among personalities like Starswirl the Bearded and even Queen Faust herself, lay Markus’s grave.
Rainbow and Twilight took a minute to just sit in front of it and think about the many fun times they had together. How they met, how they ended up and how he gave his life to protect them.
They didn’t shed a single tear. Rather, they smiled. They smiled over the past they had and into the future that was yet to come and when they were done, they went to clean the gravestone and left a few flowers, before they went back to make their way home. However, when they passed through the ‘normal’ graves, Rainbow glanced to the left and saw a young, orange Pegasus filly with stubby wings.
“Scootaloo?” Rainbow thought, as she turned and walked towards the filly.
Scootaloo was sitting before the grave of her parents. They both died during the battle of Canterlot. Her aunts said she could be proud to have had such brave parents, that they died defending their fellow ponies, but that didn’t help one bit.
Scootaloo didn’t cry. She didn’t allow herself to cry. Her cheeks shall remain dry, because her parents didn’t deserve her grief. After all, how could they be so selfish and just die and leave her behind? Why didn’t they just hide like everypony else?
“Hey, squirt.” Rainbow Dash said from behind her. Scootaloo turned over her shoulder to look at her, before looking forward again and giving a monotone answer.
“Hi, Dash.”
Rainbow looked at the gravestone and didn’t need long to figure out what Scootaloo was here for. She looked at the filly again and saw that she wasn’t crying. No, that wasn’t quite correct. Her cheeks were dry, but her mouth was contorting slightly and her eyes were watery already. She was fighting her tears.
Rainbow smiled and sat down beside her. “You know, when Markus died, I almost couldn’t stop crying. I lost something very important to me and I thought that I would never be normal again, but eventually, everything was well again.”
“I know.” Came the reply from Scootaloo.
Rainbow scrunched up her nose for a moment, before continuing. “What I want to say is: it’s okay to cry, you don’t need to hold back.”
“I know, but I don’t want to cry… I don’t need to cry. They just left me behind, they aren’t worth crying over…” Scootaloo sniffled.
Rainbow was shocked for a moment, but when she looked into Scootaloo’s face again, she saw that the dam was just about to break. She smiled and pulled her quasi-sister in for a hug.
“Hey! What’re you doing?! I just said I won’t cry!” Scootaloo protested between sniffles.
“Of course you won’t! You’re just cleaning your eyes, is all!”
Scootaloo pressed her face into the fur of Rainbows belly. “Yeah, that’s right, I’m not crying and you know that!” Then, she started crying. She cried off all the regret she held. From almost never seeing her parents to every single fight she had with them. She cried for their loss, she cried for everypony they had saved.
When she finally calmed down, she kept the hug for another few moments. Twilight had found them in the meantime, but decided to keep silent to not interrupt their moment. Then, suddenly, Scootaloo gave a few testing pokes into Rainbow’s belly, earning her a yelp of surprise from the older mare.
“Hey, what was that for?” Rainbow asked in confusion.
“Have you been working out more? Your belly feels a bit… stiffer than usual.”
Rainbow released the filly to look at her belly herself and gave a few prods against it.
“Huh.” She intelligently commented.
At that moment, Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty rounded the corner and walked straight towards Scootaloo.
“Ah, here you are. Have you said goodbye to your parents? Come on, now, the lawyer is waiting, we need to hurry.”
“Lawyer? What do you need a Lawyer for?” Twilight asked.
“Oh… you know, Aunt and Auntie apparently don’t count as va... vi… via—UH! They aren’t allowed to be my foster-parents and now they want to go to court for it. If they win, I can stay with them and if they lose… I’ll likely be sent to an Orphanage…” Scootaloo explained.
“Wow, that’s awful! Can we do anything to help?” Rainbow asked, but Aunt Holiday shook her head.
“It’s nice of you to ask, but I don’t think there’s a way for you to help. Anyways, we are running late now. See you soon!”
With that, they vanished through the gate and, after sharing a short look, Twilight and Rainbow followed suit and made their way back to Ponyville.
An hour later, they set down in front of the Library and were just about to enter it, when Rarity suddenly came running from behind them.
“TWILIIIIIIGHT!” She screamed, looking panicked. “There’s a massive, three-headed DOG at Sweet Apple Acres!”
“A three-headed dog? Yeah right, I thought only Pinkie and I could pull such cheap pranks.” Rainbow dismissed.
Twilight prodded her elbow into Rainbows side, giving her a sharp glare, before motioning for Rarity to lead the way and following her. After giving a very unenthusiastic ‘Okay, fine.’, Rainbow followed suit.
When they reached Sweet Apple Acres, they indeed saw a massive, black dog with three heads, which was rolling on the ground, writhing and howling in pain. Applejack was jumping around beside it, trying to keep it from squashing her Appletrees, while Fluttershy was examining it for wounds.
“Fluttershy, what’s up with him?” Rainbow asked, trying not to acknowledge that Rarity wasn’t pranking her.
“Oh, uhm, he seems to have a cut in his… uhm… behind. It’s not very big, but it’s very deep and it seems to be infected. I can fix it, but uhm, I need a salve from Zecora, so if you could, uhm, you know… get it for me? Only if you want, that is.” Fluttershy answered.
“No time fer banter, girls! That dog is squashin’ mah Appletrees! We need tah get this salve, now!”
Applejack ran off and Rainbow, Twilight and Rarity quickly followed suit. They got to Zecora and the salve was quickly made. However, on the way back Rainbow suddenly stopped and looked into the Forest.
“Rainbow, dear, have you seen something?” Rarity asked in concern, quickly ripping Rainbow out of her daze.
“Huh, what? Uh, no, I just realized that… I need to go for little mares. You can go ahead, I’ll catch up with you.” She said.
“Oh no, Ah ain’t leavin y’all alone in tha forest. Go on, but make it quick, will ya?” Applejack said. Rainbow gave a quick nod and vanished into the bushline.
Moments turned to seconds and seconds to minutes and Rainbow didn’t come back.
“Dangit, Rainbow! Make it quick, there’s a giant dog killin’ mah Appletrees!” Applejack complained.
A few more minutes passed and Rainbow still didn’t return. “Okay, that’s mighty enough, I’mma go ‘n get her back.” Applejack said firmly as she stepped into the bushline.
“WHOA NELLY!” She suddenly cried, causing Rarity and Twilight to quickly jump after her, ready to help their friend. However, what they saw wasn’t quite what they expected to see.
There, in a small clearing behind the bushes, lay a dead rabbit with its belly partially ripped open. Beside it, there stood Rainbow Dash with the blood literally fresh on her hooves… and muzzle.
“What in tarnation are you doin’ here, Rainbow?!” Applejack more shouted than asked.
“Applejack, wait, I can explain this!” Rainbow tried to defend herself.
“What do you want ta explain?! You’ve killed a rabbit!”
Rainbow quickly shook her head. “NO! I just found it here and then, when I looked at it, I… I…”
“Y’all took a bite outta it and went eatin’ meat! Why did you do this, Rainbow? You know that Ponies can’t eat meat!” Applejack scolded and Rainbow had no answer to her. “Listen, you’re goin’ to Nurse Redheart right now an’ get that meat outta yer system! Ah’ve already lost one friend, don’t wanna lose another.”
Rainbow nodded quickly and flew off towards Ponyville, while Applejack moved out of the clearing with Rarity close behind.
“Oh my, how could she even think about that? I mean, WHY in the name of Celestia?”
Applejack turned to look over her shoulder with an almost bored stare. “Honestly, Rares: This ain’t the weirdest stuff we’ve seen until now. Ah just hope she makes it to Redheart before the food poisonin’ kicks in.”
Rarity paused for a moment and pursed her lips, before giving a long sigh. “I guess you’re right. Let’s just hope she’s alright after this.”
Twilight had remained in the clearing and said nothing… because she could see, why Rainbow did it. She could feel it as well. The slight, underlying urge to just have a single bite out of that tasty rabbit. She was almost tempted to do so, but quickly shook her head to clear her mind. She turned to leave, but before she did so, she teleported the cadaver well out of sight, lest somepony, or worse, Fluttershy, came by and saw this mess.
Rainbow, meanwhile, took a slight detour to dip into the Ponyville river, before heading to the clinic. She didn’t really want to show up there with blood on her hooves and muzzle, now did she?
She stormed in and immediately went to Nurse Redheart. “Redheart, I ate meat, HELP!”
Nurse Redheart didn’t miss a beat. She immediately grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders and pulled her into the ladies’ bathroom, where she forced her to vomit it all out. Sure enough, there were multiple lumps of still-bloody meat in the mix.
“Oh dear, that’s quite a lot. How did you manage this?” Redheart asked.
Rainbow started sweating slightly. She couldn’t really tell her that she did this out of her own accord or else she would probably be branded a meat-eater for the rest of her life.
“Ehehe… ehm, you know… Gilda sent me a gift from Gryphonia… as a little apology for the war ‘n stuff. It was some homemade food, but she apparently forgot that Ponies don’t eat meat and I didn’t see it in time…”
Redheart squinted and looked back into Rainbow’s former stomach contents. “This looks rather uncooked for a dish, don’t you think?”
Rainbow started sweating even more and scratched the back of her head. “Ehm, that’s because… the dish was a specialty with only raw meat! Yes, that’s it!”
“… Uh huh…” Redheart didn’t quite believe her, but saw that she was getting nowhere, so she decided to drop this line of questioning. Instead, she led Rainbow into another room, where she was thoroughly examined for food poisoning. When nothing was found, she was released again.
Outside, Rainbow could basically feel Gilda slapping her from the afterlife, for using her as a cheap excuse. She quickly apologized to her and to all the Gryphon chefs she may have insulted with her lie, just in case. After all, when she dies, she doesn’t want to be pecked to even-more-death by a mob of angry gryphon cooks.
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Wow
Thier both pregnant with human-pony hybrid?
This will be interesting.
10252387
This is gonna be Very interesting, hell I'm kinda surprised sunbutt or any doctor and/or nurse haven't noticed yet
I wonder how he will come back?
ok that last line was really funny xD
Oh geez, Centaur time coming up.
Well guy died 2nd time. Eh at least he didn't die virgin
Lmao that last line
What in the fresh flying fuck?