Twilight Sparkle, Princess-Regent of the Crystal Empire

by Eltirions

Chapter 12: Title 8

What a clusterfuck.

‘’Luna will be alright,’’ Star said for the sixth time, and prayed it was true.

Rarity was hugging him as if he was the last thing in the world and Sweetie was doing the same to Crystal as the four of them listened in horror to the radio reports.

‘’Reports of tanks in Acornage… the explosions in Vanhoover have stopped, but gunfire can still be heard… we’re receiving reports that Seaddle and Tall Tale are being bombed.’’ With every word, the fear increased.

Starlight, the other Elements, Mayor Mare and commander Tempest were sure to break into the living room at any moment now, Star mused dryly.

‘’Royal Magician!’’

There it was.

Star lifted his head and looked at the door, where all the ponies he had expected stood. ‘’Good morning,’’ he greeted.

‘’We need to act!’’ Tempest was the first to speak.

‘’Mobilize the troops under your command,’’ Star replied. ‘’Rainbow, I believe you have a Wonderbolt Squadron to report to. The rest of you, I have no idea what you did during the Crystal War, but go do it.’’

It was amazing how easily they listened to him. In a minute they were gone again, leaving the four of them alone.

‘’I’m scared,’’ Sweetie whispered.

‘’Everything,’’ Crystal replied immediately, ‘’will be fine. Love.’’ And she pressed a kiss to Sweetie’s forehead. So sappy.

Rarity looked up at Star. ‘’Will it be?’’

He didn’t know. He knew the numbers: Equestria had some 75 divisions, New Mareland had 12 divisions, the Crystal Empire had 0, officially at least, and Olenia, if the intelligence reports Star received but definitely knew nothing about were true, had around 50 divisions. The Changeling Hegemony, on the other hoof, had around 60 divisions. So the numbers were in their favour.

But numbers did not win wars. The Crystal War had shown that as well.

‘’Equestria,’’ Star said, ‘’will have to change. This is not a war that will be won easily. But we will win it. I promise you that.’’

Rarity snuggled up against him even more. ‘’Thank you, darling.’’ Her voice was little more than a whisper. ‘’I needed that.’’

‘’Anytime, love.’’

|-x-X-x-|

Well, they certainly couldn’t have picked a worse time for discussing uniting the Herzland.

‘’The situation in Equestria… complicates matters,’’ the Herald had said. ‘’Boreas did not expect this.’’ And then he had vanished in the middle of the negotiations.

Negotiations that had been paused by the regentess, as they had all been left in shock by that little revelation. Now Archibald was sitting on the balcony of the rooms he’d been given, looking out over the western part of Griffinheim.

Equestria was at war. His birth-nation. Now, the Crystal War had been different. That had been over in three months, though at a great cost. This, Archibald sensed, wouldn’t be over that quickly. Oh, he hoped it would be, but he didn’t think it would be.

The main question that rested on Archibald’s mind was: where had the Herald gone to? He had tremendous power, Archibald had seen as much when the Herald had healed a blind griff in the streets, but what was he going to do with it?

The Herald had talked about Equestria and harmony a lot. Perhaps he was aiding Equestria? But how then?

Someone knocked on the door of his rooms. ‘’Yes?’’ Archibald called out as he rose from his chair.

‘’Herr Dawnfeather, the Herald has returned,’’ the voice of Erion replied through the door. He sounded excited.

‘’I’m coming!’’ Archibald grabbed his notebook and pencil and all but sprinted to the door, opening it to see a smiling Archon.

‘’Come,’’ Erion said. ‘’The Herald is in the room we used previously.’’

It was a short walk from Archibald’s quarters to the council room they had used for the negotiations. Stepping inside, Archibald saw the flaming Herald, as well as the regentess and her husband, senator Starmourn, and prelate Duskfeather.

‘’Now that everyone has arrived,’’ the Herald suddenly said, and the power in his voice was undeniable, ‘’we can begin again.’’

Archibald and Erion quickly sat down, as did the other people in the room, with the exception of the Herald.

‘’Listen,’’ the Herald ordered. ‘’I have spoken with Celestia.’’

Well.

‘’After that, I spoke with the so-called ‘Archon of Boreas’ in Skyfall. He has… retired, and a loyal, true follower of Boreas now rules Skyfall in his place,’’ the Herald continued. ‘’It is Boreas’ command that the nations of the Herzland unify into a single Kingdom, ruled by Prince Archibald of Greifenmarschen until Grover VI can take the throne.’’

What?

Regentess Eagleclaw looked like she wanted to protest, but her husband put a claw on her own and whispered something into her ear.

‘’Very well,’’ she said a moment later. ‘’Who shall raise Grover?’’

‘’You,’’ the Herald replied, ‘’together with the Prince and me.’’

Fucking brilliant.

|-x-X-x-|

Everything was rapidly falling apart.

Sunset was constantly on the phone, snapping off orders while making plans. Spike had placed the foals, including Flurry, in Flurry’s rooms and set no less than a dozen guards around them, before returning to being by Twilight’s side.

‘’What can we do?” Twilight asked Sunset when the latter finally put the phone down.

‘’Morale, speeches, organizing supplies,’’ Sunset listed off. Twilight could do that. ‘’I have roughly 10 divisions or so. Their training isn’t fully done and they aren’t fully equipped, but they're the best we have. I just talked with field marshal Blueblood; he says the entire army is headed to the border, and 25 to 30 divisions will be dedicated to the front north of Acornage.’’

‘’That’s… good.’’ Deep breaths Twilight, deep breaths. Don’t panic.

Sunset smiled a wry smile. ‘’No one lives that far west in the Empire, Twilight. But we might have to evacuate Evergreen and Quebuck, just to be sure.’’

Twilight nodded. ‘’Okay.’’

‘’Twilight.’’ Sunset hesitated, looked beside Twilight at Spike, then back at Twilight. ‘’Twilight, go to Flurry. There’s not much you can do here that I or Spike can’t, and she needs you.’’

‘’I can’t-’’

‘’Go,’’ Sunset ordered.

Twilight, somehow, ended up in Flurry’s rooms, surrounded by the little alicorn and some other foals she vaguely recognized. ‘’Hi Flurry,’’ she greeted with a tired smile. ‘’How was your day?’’

Flurry, instead of replying, wrapped her legs around Twilight’s neck. ‘’Auntie, I’m scared.’’

Immediately, Twilight hugged her back. ‘’It will be alright,’’ she soothed. ‘’Everyone,’’ she addressed the other foals, ‘’I promise you, everything will work out fine.’’

‘’Are you sure, princess Twilight?’’ the one colt in the room asked.

No, she wasn’t. ‘’I am.’’

‘’Okay.’’ The colt walked over to Twilight and gave her a hug as well.

Author's Note:

And that's it.

I had plans, but I burnt myself out on this story by writing everything in two weeks time, and now I'm not interested in it and likely never will be again. Yes I know it's a cliffhanger, and if you want you can write your own ending or adopt this story, as long as you ask first.

Cheers.

Comments

[Thyrrnatf]

Really good story...

Sucks that you bruned yourself out on this story, really like it :)

And hope that you at some point might pick it up again :)

But really enjoyed it :)

[Eltirions]

11052836
Maybe one day I'll write an epilogue, but I don't think I'll ever come back to it otherwise. Glad to hear you enjoyed it anyway.

[Thyrrnatf]

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An epilog would be nice :)

But even if you didn't make one, it fine :)

I like the build up of the relationships and the world building in the story.

But I knew it wouldn't be finished when I started reading it so I kinda saw it more of a creative look into your story written style :)

And I really enjoyed it :)