Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

CH51: Political Problems

Bickering. Insults. Complete and utter disharmony and eventually, even two wars. To Celestia, the Gryphons had always been a vile race. They knew not much about how harmony worked and they didn’t care about it either. All they ever cared about was their own pride and their own ‘honour’. Thus, when they finally came to bond together and form a nation, it wasn’t much to Celestia’s surprise that it had become another monarchy, much like Equestria at the time. However, the differences between the two countries were easily recognizable.

The Gryphon Kingdom was founded on the very principle of ‘survival of the fittest’. It’s whole society was based on the constant rivalry between its citizens, forcing them to come up with different ways to be better than the others. Much in contrast to Equestria, where everypony worked in harmony together and worked towards a common goal.

With their different approaches, Celestia knew it wouldn’t be long until war would break out. At the time, Equestria wasn’t as peaceful as it was now though. In part due to her ‘one-decade-argument’ with her sister, most of the country was still at arms, when the Kingdom finally made its move.

What followed were two centuries of utter chaos, which Discord would have truly enjoyed, had he not been encased in stone at the time. Whole Generations were born and died again, which knew only one thing: war. It was sad to Celestia, at least looking back now. At the time, though, she herself was too upset about everything that went wrong between her and her sister to even notice the folly she was getting into.

Then, finally, something that Celestia had never even considered possible happened. The newly crowned Gryphon King, Steelclaw the third, sent a messenger and… asked for peace. At first, she was of course expecting a trap, but as it showed, it actually was none. The Gryphons really wanted peace and, after she had finally gotten ahold of herself again, she met up with the young king and together, they formed a peace treaty.

And yet, not even a millennium later, the Gryphon Kingdom declared war upon Equestria yet again and this time, Celestia would not accept them to just make peace again, not after breaking the very treaty she and King Steelclaw had signed together.

Thus, when the peace talks came down, there was one certainty. The Gryphons could never be allowed to become powerful again. Sadly, not all of her little ponies saw it the same. Especially her newly returned sister seemed opposed to the idea, but what would she know? She wasn’t there, when all this started, after all.

Those were Celestia’s thoughts when she closed the doors of the Throne room behind her that day. She had promised them to think about it again, yes, but in truth, she knew that she didn’t need to. All that needed to be done now was for her to retreat herself to her royal chambers and lower the sun.

“Those peace talks were over awfully quick, weren’t they?” Markus suddenly intercepted Celestia in a hallway, the newly revived human having been waiting for her to pass by.

“Yes, they certainly were. Although, frankly, I don’t see why not. After all, I’m certain you know as much as me that we cannot allow them to harm our little ponies.” Celestia answered him.

“I’m… not sure I follow, Celestia.” Markus stated with a slightly uneasy smile.

“I plan on annexing the Gryphon Kingdom.” She told him.

Immediately, his demeanor shifted, as he took on his signature thinking pose. “I hate to tell you this, but I doubt that this is a good Idea.”

“What? I thought that at least you, as a soldier, would say that I’m right.”

“True, as a soldier, this would seem like a valid way to assure that something like this never happens again.” Markus started. “However, as a Strategist, I’ll have to tell you that it’s likely only going to cause more strife.”

“And why would that be?” Celestia demanded, growing slightly angry now.

“Firstly, annexing them would definitely cause them to revolt, which would likely result in a civil war. However, we also have to look at the other nations. Saddle Arabia, Yakyakistan, the Dragon Lands… What you don’t seem to realize is that they all have watched this conflict very closely. What concerns me is that they all know you as the benefactor of all living beings and thus, they would likely be very disturbed if you were to actually annex them now. Even worse, from what I know about them, they might just try to aid the Gryphons in their attempts at freedom, which would definitely result in another war.”

“So what would you have me do instead?! Set them free and allow them to draw their plans on how to murder even more of my ponies?!” Celestia snapped, though Markus remained completely unfazed by this.

“No. As much as I find it unwise to actually annex them, I have to agree that setting them free would be as well. However, there is a third option. Let them form a new nation. One, which is a subject to yours. Allow them to largely govern themselves, while under the supervision of an equestrian governor. In short: make them a Dominion.”

---

Celestia sighed as she thought back to that discussion. After she had officially made it a Dominion of Equestria, she sent Sweet Talk, one of Equestria’s best diplomats to act as the Governor. The stallion had long since held Celestia’s trust and was actually one of very few, who refused her advances.

While there seemed to be some slight difficulties at first, Sweet Talk soon reported that relations with the newly founded Gryphon Republic were slowly evening out and that their efforts to bring harmony to them were showing first results.

That is, however, until that very morning, when a letter arrived. A letter addressed to princess Celestia, notifying her of Sweet Talk’s death. Apparently, he had been brutally murdered in his apartment by a few enraged Imperialists.

“There you have it, those Gryphons can’t be trusted! We need to crush them as soon as possible!” the voice within Celestia’s head called out to her again, after having left her alone for almost eight hundred years.

“What?! I don’t know how you broke free again, but I can’t just wipe out a whole species!” Celestia defended.

“Oh, is it really that you can’t… or that you don’t dare to?” The voice taunted.

“You know as much as me that you can’t lure me with dares.”

“That may be, but it wasn’t my intent to lure you, dear Celestia. I wanted to warn you… Those Gryphons can’t be trusted and you know that!”

“And you know that I won’t send my Ponies into a war yet again! They have suffered enough!”

“Tia? Whom art thou arguing with?” Princess Luna suddenly asked as she entered the room.

“Luna, I… Oh, it was nothing, I was just… talking to myself, that’s all. Anyways, have you brought Markus?” Celestia changed subjects, which earned her a slightly annoyed look from Luna, who then decided to just go with it.

“Yes, actually, we have brought him with us right away.” She answered, gesturing to a light grey unicorn stallion with a brown mane, who was coming in behind her.

Celestia blinked a few times, as she recognized the Cutie Mark on the stallion’s flank as the one Luna had talked about, having used a variation of Markus’s in her illusion, where the Angel and the Deathpony were just exchanged with piles of bits.

“I must say, Luna, your magic seems to have gotten quite powerful, if your illusion spell is strong enough to even fool me.” Celestia complimented her sister.

“As much as we’d like to keep the compliment, sister, it is not the work of our illusion spell that you can only see Markus’s disguise.” The lunar princess responded.

“Indeed. It seems that after you’ve revived me, I didn’t have access to all of my new magic from the get-go and that my powers apparently had to awaken first. Long story short, I can now freely and painlessly shapeshift.” Markus responded.

Celestia was definitely surprised to hear of his new abilities, but she didn’t show it. However, she almost immediately came up with a way how they could be taken to good use.

“That is most impressive, indeed. More so, it even aligns perfectly with the reason I have called you here.”

“Ah, yes. I’ve heard you need my advice once again?” Markus asked.

“Originally, that was my intent, yes. However, with your new powers, I think I know of an even better way to utilize you.” Celestia said.

“Euh, I can’t say, I know what you mean…” Markus pointed out, slightly anxious over what might come next.

“I mean that I will make you the new governor of the Gryphon Republic.” Celestia revealed.

Markus and Luna both remained silent for a moment, before the former let out a very uneasy squeak.

“Oh dear…”

Author's Note:

Yep, a short one once again. However, this time there is a reason: Originally there was something planned to come after Markus's new assignment, however I decided to move it into the next chapter.

Comments

[Ryan_606]

Oh dear indeed

[Hawkx1]

Looks like Princess Twilight and RD will be moving to the Gryphon Republic

[Munro]

imagine the face of the next stupid gryphon assasin "would kindly remove that dagger please, its anoying" xD

[Fireeaters]

That could be unfortunate