Part One Hundred & Three
Chips rolled the jeep to a sputtering stop. The engine faded with a quiet whine of gears and motors. The griffon wiped sweat off his head with the back of a claw. He had shucked off his gray Reichsarmee jacket for a sleeveless white undershirt. Nightshade called it a ‘singlet’ while Chips had groused that Herzlanders called it a ‘wife-beater.’
The bat pony bumped her sunglasses back against her eyes. Leathery wings twitched against the hot wind blowing across the plain. Inky black smoke clouds stretched across the horizon below the noonday sun. Chips and Nightshade slumped against the dashboard, too exhausted to be terrified at the sight ahead of them.
Flurry Heart took a swig from her canteen and poured the rest on her head, grease paint smearing off and mixing with the nosebleed. She climbed off the back of the jeep with fluttering wings, hopping to the scorched ground. Her hooves crunched on burnt brush grass.
The alicorn stalked ahead, ears forward at the roar of fire coming from the burning oil well. She trotted around the mangled remains of a half-track; three great gouges rent the metal along the side, tearing through thick steel before slamming the entire vehicle into a glorified pancake.
Tzinacatl scouts dragged the dead from other crushed and burnt vehicles, stripping them of anything useful. The Changelings were thrown into disorganized heaps afterwards. One mare replaced her overcoat with less-damaged one as Flurry passed, sheltering her wings from the sun. She clicked her tongue and screeched high, and the rest of her warband stopped looting the dead long enough to bow.
Flurry raised her wings up in a quick gesture. Paint flew from her feathers, running in the heat. The Thestrals resumed their scavenging while Reichsarmee squads stayed back, guns raised and facing ahead. The griffons were nervous; Flurry deviated towards a griffoness with a radio pack and her small squad. They sheltered behind an upside down fuel truck. The tanker was ripped open, but it had been empty. The alicorn stopped to inspect the smashed-in cab, then walked around to the griffoness.
“Do we have radio range with command?” Flurry asked in Herzlander.
The griffoness jumped at being addressed. Her helmet fell off, unbalanced by the headset she pressed a claw against. The male griffon peaking around the back of the tube turned around; his beak mixed further terror and relief at seeing the alicorn present.
“S-signal is s-spotty, Princess,” the griffoness stuttered. “W-we need to hold-”
“Tell Mudbeak I’m talking with them,” Flurry dismissed. “Get everyone moving.”
The griffoness opened her mouth, but a distant roar silenced her. She pulled the straps of the backpack over and made a show of looking busy. Flurry rounded the griffon crouching behind the end of the truck. His carbine was pointed far too high.
Flurry continued forward towards the flaming oil well. The fire burned high and bright, and the smoke almost obscured the massive shapes behind it. To the north, several buildings and pipelines funneled out from other derricks, but this was the only one aflame. Smaller shapes waited around the buildings, lined up and watching.
She stepped around a dead changeling; her muzzle scrunched at the smell of fried chitin. She moved around another that had crawled from a destroyed truck before being crushed flat into the ground. The fire roaring from the oil well was almost deafening. The alicorn marched towards it. Her horn glowed.
A shape descended from the black smoke cloud, unbothered by the choking, poisonous fumes. It walked forward, backlit by the burning well. After a moment, the figure paused and awaited the approaching alicorn.
Dragon Lord Ember slammed her staff into the ground, wings flared behind her burnished steel armor. The blue dragon was twice the height of a pony, but slim. Her horned helmet shadowed red pupils. She pulled the helmet off and tucked it under an arm, leaving the Bloodstone Scepter embedded in the charred ground. The gem flashed and pulsed under the pillar of fire.
“Princess,” the Dragon Lord declared. She puffed her chest out and extended her wings. The dragoness exhaled a cloud of gray smoke.
Flurry Heart, clad in jumpsuit and melting greasepaint, trotted past her to the burning oil well. The glow around her horn intensified. She scowled as a golden shield formed around the column of fire and contracted. The shield turned opaque as the magic hardened, and the oil well snuffed out like a candle as the flames withered.
The alicorn snorted blood into the dirt, then gracelessly wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve. Eyes wandered up to the elder dragon laying ahead of her. A pair of massive wings flapped and dispersed the lingering smoke. The dragon stared down a brown-scaled snout at the alicorn.
Flurry twisted her head back over a wing. “You’re late, Lord Ember.”
The Dragon Lord had turned around, reclaiming her Bloodstone Scepter. Her eyes narrowed, but her tail curled inwards to one of her armored legs. The elder dragon ahead of Flurry snorted, kicking up a plume of smoke and dust.
“But,” Flurry continued, “better late than never, I suppose.” The alicorn trotted away from the smoldering well, following a broken pipeline to the wooden buildings. The Equestrian south still used brick and mortar, and whatever infrastructure the Appleloosan Protectorate built after the war remained in that style.
The alicorn inspected the destroyed pipeline. Shit, we’ll need to fix this quick. As far as she knew, the armored core was pushing down the north road without difficulty now. Unexpected dragons will do that.
More dragons, smaller ones, stood on the flat wooden rooftops of the squat buildings ahead. All of them wore a mix of steel armor banded across their scales, but none had weapons. As Flurry closed the distance, it was obvious the plates were nearly as pockmarked as her own armor had been after the battle.
The alicorn looked back over her withers. The Dragon Lord had followed her; Ember’s armor was dented and covered in ash. She wore full plate, including tail protection and bracers just below her feet and claws. The Bloodstone Scepter had been slung between her wings; one wing had a bullet hole through the membrane and a faded smear of blood trailing to the edge.
“You fought?” Flurry asked.
“Yes,” Ember replied after a pause. “We saw the flashes last night.”
“From the Dragon Isles?” Flurry raised a brow. “Quite the distance.”
“I had fliers watching the buildup,” Ember answered. “And the bugs weren’t watching the coast. We’ve been striking-”
“We needed some of the supply points intact,” Flurry interrupted. She stopped and fully turned around, using the metal pipeline to block the eyes of nearby dragons. The two royals were halfway to the buildings. “Where have you been attacking?”
The Dragon Lord’s lips curled and her fangs gleamed. “Enough, whelp. You made your little point.”
Flurry tossed her head and shook her pointed horn. “I’m not the one that only decided to join once a winner was obvious…nor did I decide to try and make a flashy entrance, Dragon Lord.”
Ember growled, a deep, rumbling soprano despite her scratchy voice. “My father died because of Celestia’s stupidity. We lost dozens of dragons to anti-air trying to hold back. Spike asked me to send more dragons to a doomed war.”
A dusty pamphlet was stuck to the pipeline by the wind blowing across the flat grass and dry brush. Flurry could make out Twilight Sparkle’s prone form in her bed. Would the ELF have used dragons in Canterlot?
She did not need to think long. The alicorn looked to Ember’s bloody gauntlets. She had clearly fought in close combat, soaking small arms fire through the sheer protection of dragon scale under thick armor.
Flurry sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s been a long night. We have strategic targets we need to take, and this is delaying the advance.”
Ember snorted a plume of smoke from a blue snout. “Don’t bother. We just carved through everything between here and Appleloosa in one night. The bugs are pulling everything back.”
Flurry grimaced at the smoke clouds to the west. “I’m hesitant to ask dragons to help firefighting, but I need those oil wells operational.”
Ember flicked a claw, discolored with blood and black oil. She scraped it along the pipe and her talons ignited. The dragoness shook her claw out after a few seconds. She rolled her eyes. “We got it. Some of the elders can plug them. Starve the fire of breath.”
“Oxygen,” Flurry corrected.
Ember’s red eyes gave her a dark look. “Right.”
Flurry waved her wing ahead and let the Dragon Lord lead the rest of the way to the buildings. Her armored tail flicked and Ember recovered some of her earlier swagger. “Bugs didn’t know what hit them,” she said loudly as they approached. “Hit a few convoys trying to race back to Appleloosa, cut some off.”
A black pair of pants was covered in dust underneath the pipeline. Flurry turned her head to inspect the discarded uniform. She hummed. “Tzinacatl!”
Ember flinched from the volume. A few keening war cries answered the Princess. “Move up! Check the oil field!” Flurry continued. She lowered her voice. “You take prisoners?”
“Pony workers,” Ember answered. “Rockfeller’s employees, I guess. This is all Rockfeller’s land. I guess Chrysalis’ land, but he merged his company into ‘Und Kaiserin Chrysalis’ or whatever the tankers say on the side.”
“It’s my land,” Flurry countered.
“I heard the speech,” Ember said dismissively. “The Isles have enough mountains to get radio reception…if we had radios.”
“You want some?” Flurry offered. “Brute strength only gets you so far.”
“Funny coming from you, alicorn,” the Dragon Lord chuckled. “Dad always said ponies and dragons believed in the same thing. Ponies were just smug about pretending otherwise.” She stopped. “I’m here because you’re here.”
“You made that obvious when you waited to meet me on a scorched battlefield,” Flurry deadpanned. “I’m sure you figured out by the flashes where I was heading.”
“Celestia told me how sorry she was about my father. Called him a good friend.” The dragoness’ tail swished. “Said a lot of things on her plush golden throne.”
“I am not Celestia.”
“That’s why we’re talking,” Ember rumbled. “You are not.”
The pair reached the first building. It was a simple, one-story wooden barracks. One of the walls was knocked out and the cots were overturned inside. It looked like something burst through the wall.
“Smolder!” Ember roared.
Another slightly shorter dragoness leapt off a nearby roof and landed before the Dragon Lord. She knelt, white horns speckled with blood beside a dented steel helmet. Her armor was scorched and battered.
“Up. Meet the Princess.”
The orange dragon stood and shouldered a heavy machine gun, having wrapped the ammo belt around her arm. Bullets dangled near her elbow. Her other claw pulled her helmet free. A purple frill sprung up while she tucked her helmet against her side.
“Princess,” Smolder nodded. “We never met. I attended Twilight’s school.”
“Gallus has talked about you,” Flurry replied. She eyed the heavy gun. The dragoness held it casually, deceptively strong. The two were about eye level. “He said you could shoot.”
“When I have ammo and I’m not cooking it off with my fire breath,” Smolder chuckled. “How is he?”
“He’s in Canterlot, an advisor for Kaiser Grover VI. Yona and Sandbar are probably still there.”
Smolder scuffed a foot in the dirt, eyes pensive. “Yona’s alive? I mean, of course she is, but, uh…”
“Take the Princess to her ponies,” Ember ordered. “Reminisce about that stupid school later.”
Flurry worked her jaw. Dragons were watching from the other rooftops, several carrying pillaged Changeling weapons. The Tzinacatl flapped to the buildings with more stolen equipment. This entire war is going to be fueled by the Hegemony’s scraps until we get our industry back.
Her eyes tracked the pipeline to where it joined several others in a network leading to a distant refinery. Tall stacks stuck out above the smaller buildings. We do this now. Enough scavenging.
Around a hundred ponies sat around in a clearing between a few of the buildings, gathered into a small herd under the watchful eyes of two dozen dragons. The dragons were young; Flurry wasn’t an expert on how dragons aged but few were taller than Spike. Smolder waved to a red one on a nearby roof that was using a shotgun like a pistol in his large claw. He waved back and she joined him.
Flurry stepped on a black cap half-buried in the dust. She kicked it over and inspected the emblem of Chrysalis’ trident crown, then looked up to the ponies. They were predominantly earth ponies. The Equestrian south was heavily settled by agricultural families in the first place, so it made sense. The few unicorns and pegasi intermixed.
Their coats were dull. Not as dull as Canterlot or Manehattan, but hooves were chipped and scarred with patchy fetlocks. Most appeared well-fed, or at least not as malnourished as her home in the north. Flurry turned her head to one of the wooden walls. A poster for a cannery was slapped onto it.
It was in Herzlander. Sweet Appleloosa! Every can made with love!
Applejack’s orange muzzle was plastered onto the bottom of the poster. Her tall, wide-brimmed hat above sparkling green eyes had Chrysalis’ trident prominent and centered. A can of sliced apples hovered above her head with little hearts coming from the partially opened top.
Flurry took a deep breath and turned back to the ponies. Some appeared far healthier than others, and those did not meet her eyes. All of the others stared back in shock or disbelief. A few wore jumpsuits or overalls.
“This belonged to Rockfeller?” Flurry asked without preamble. “Who’s in charge here?”
Nopony answered at first. A mare eventually said, “Princess?” in clear disbelief.
“Who’s in charge?” Flurry repeated, directly addressing the cream-colored earth pony.
“H-he left,” the mare stuttered. “T-they all l-left weeks ago. The C-changelings t-tried t-to-”
“They all ran with their tails between their legs,” a stallion spat. “Heard you were comin’ to kill ‘em, and they bolted with the damn bugs.” His twang was heavy and voice rough. It reminded Flurry of the Nova Griffonian frontier.
“Who’re you?”
“Forepony,” the stallion grunted. “Worked fer Rockfeller before the war on a derrick out west. Apple Fritter.”
“Part of the Apples?”
The stallion spat towards the poster. “Most of these ponies work for Rockfeller,” he said with a glance through the crowd. “Bastard jumped at the chance to stop paying us. Claimed us all as property, kept us from the Love Tax but worked our hooves to the bone. Anypony that complained got volunteered to the factories.”
Flurry clicked her tongue. Most? “Can you run the field?”
“Princess?” Fritter asked in surprise. His ears flicked. “I can run a team, but I can’t get oil processed where it needs to be all by my lonesome if that’s what you’re asking.”
Fuck. Flurry rolled her eyes to the pipelines sprawling off in the distance. I can’t ask the griffons to take over, it’s one of the last things we have. That means pardons. It made her stomach twist. In her mind’s eye, she saw mares and stallions nodding along in some distant boardroom as the Buffalo-
Her horn sparked involuntarily. She closed her eyes and pushed a breath from her barrel before reopening them. “Can you get the pipes repaired?”
Fritter nodded as the alicorn’s horn dimmed. His eyes flicked to a healthy-looking pony in the crowd. The mare was looking at the ground, eyes tracing something in the dirt.
The Tzinacatl warriors moved between the buildings, eyeing the dragons but otherwise focused on the ponies. A Thestral mare with a bandolier of darts approached Flurry Heart and bowed. Flurry shook her head. “I need them functional, not knocked out for days.”
“Low dosage,” the mare snorted. “We will make it quick.” Her eyes scanned the crowd. “Start with the obvious ones like before.”
“What’s going on?” Ember squinted at the Thestrals surrounding the workers. The bat ponies moved in pairs, one clenching a dart in their teeth and poking an offered hoof while the other stood to the side with an extended hoofblade at the ready.
Apple Fritter looked to the cold-eyed alicorn before offering his hoof. He whickered from the shallow jab and his eyes unfocused, but the Tzinacatl moved on. The solid earth pony stumbled to the others that had been cleared.
“We’re checking for changelings,” Flurry responded. Her ears perked at the sound of engines resuming out in the plain. Griffons must be moving again. She flapped her wings and ascended above the buildings for a moment, spying the vehicles moving forwards and edging around the destroyed Changeling vehicles. Chips flashed his headlights.
Flurry Heart landed beside Ember. The Bloodstone Scepter hummed with magic on the dragoness’ back, carried in a sling like a sword. Idly, the alicorn lit her horn and focused. Not a weapon. Huh, figured it would be. She turned back to the crowd.
The mare looking down at the ground had a knife in her jumpsuit, but the herd was otherwise disarmed. The mare shuffled closer to a younger stallion beside her, dodging the bat ponies thinning out the crowd. Flurry watched her beside the Dragon Lord. “Changelings can turn into dragons, right?”
“They aren’t nearly as fireproof,” Ember remarked. “We have an easy check.” The Dragon Lord folded her arms. “Don’t you have a fancy spell? Twilight told me about it during the war.”
Flurry licked her upper lip. Dried blood crusted under her nostrils. “I’m conserving my strength.”
“For what?”
As two bat ponies approached the armed mare, she pulled out the knife with two hooves and held it up to the nearby stallion’s throat. “B-back up!” The younger stallion whinnied as the mare wrapped a hoof around his neck. “Get back!”
The mare’s head abruptly twisted around in a golden aura. Her body sagged against the stallion while the knife fell from his neck. He cried out again and shuffled away, kicking the corpse off him. After a heartbeat, the body erupted into green fire.
Ember flinched and gaped at the alicorn’s dimming horn. “For stuff like that,” Flurry said dryly. “Did they ever try to infiltrate the Dragon Isles?”
“I…” the Dragon Lord blinked. “No, it’s just rocks, crystals, and lava. Not like we have any industry.”
“You want some?” Flurry asked mirthlessly. “I’m sure Grover can work you into the economic program.”
“Are you that close to the Kaiser, Princess?” the Dragon Lord frowned. “Thought you were fighting him earlier.”
“We worked it out.”
The young stallion laid against a wooden wall just below a window, breathing heavily. He rubbed his throat with a hoof. Flurry narrowed her eyes at the dirty, but unscarred keratin when he lowered it. She raised a wing and signaled to a pair of Tzinacatl warriors that just finished with their section of the workers. The alicorn pointed a feather at the stallion.
The Dragon Lord and the Princess watched as the two tribals stalked over. The stallion stared up at the bat ponies, then began to cry and held out a shaking hoof. A stallion in a pilfered Queen’s Guard helmet poked him.
His hoof flared green and the other Thestral drove a hoofblade into his throat. The changeling’s corpse flopped to the ground. Apple Fritter had recovered enough to snort in derision, then share a smirk with a few of his workers. Flurry took a deep breath and folded her wings.
The Dragon Lord flinched again. A few of the dragons on the rooftops stared down at the alicorn and dragoness. Flurry caught Smolder’s eyes as she cradled her machine gun. The dragon looked away first with an awkward cough.
“I’m not wasting time with prisoners right now,” Flurry said up to the Dragon Lord. “They’ve been killing us for years. We need to get moving. Let’s get on radio so we can coordinate some of the assaults.”
“How’s Spike?” Ember asked, eyes on the corpse. She flexed a blue claw and inspected the blood on her talons that hadn’t burned away.
Flurry paused. One of the pamphlets was in a nearby window, either put there by a rebellious worker or driven there by the wind. Her mother and aunt smiled at her on the top half. They laid on the bottom. “How do you think?”
“I’d like to see him. I said some things.” Ember scuffed her claw on her dented armor. “Last time we talked.” Her teeth ground in her maw before she forced out, “I’m sorry about your family.”
“You couldn’t have saved my mother,” Flurry dismissed, “and I doubt Starlight would’ve allowed dragons to torch Canterlot.”
“And you will?”
“As you said, I am not Celestia.” Flurry looked west to the rising smoke clouds. “We’ll make a formal alliance later.” She stuck out her hoof. “Dragon Lord Ember. As Princess of the Crystal Empire and Equestria, welcome to the war.”
The Dragon Lord looked over the wrecked vehicles and smoldering corpses in the distance. Her tongue flicked out for a moment, tasting the smoke in the air. “You sure you want to do it this way, Princess?”
“I’ve done worse on my own,” Flurry retorted. One of the dragons on the rooftop huffed in a muffled laugh. Flurry wasn’t sure if it was mocking her or the dragoness.
Ember’s rose-red eyes darkened and she grabbed the hoof hard enough to pop the bones in the alicorn’s fetlock. Her other claw reached back and retrieved her staff. She slammed it into the ground and the gem darkened, swirling like blood. Flurry felt magic pulse across the air.
A great roar echoed from the west, farther ahead. Another smoke cloud began to rise a few minutes later as the push to Appleloosa resumed. Flurry listened along to a radio in the back of Chip’s jeep as the Griffonian RADAR picked up massive targets heading for the Equestrian south from the Dragon Isles. The air support pulled back.
By the time Flurry Heart arrived at the first orchard on former Buffalo territory, the Changeling Hegemony had completely abandoned Appleloosa against orders, falling back in a mad panic to rush through Grover’s corridor to Las Pegasus. The Tzinacatl and New Marelander contingent entered the former frontier town unopposed. Flurry waited in an orchard in former Buffalo land as her ponies checked for infiltrators or stragglers trying to hide.
Flurry Heart had never met a Buffalo. And the Dragon Lord’s scouting dragons reported nothing but orchards and oil wells along with the griffons and ponies below them. It seemed like she never would.
But the ponies of the south had been left behind by the retreating forces. Unlike the main front, they were not beaten or drained to slow the advance; the few that were had been attacked by desperate squads as the Changelings fell back without supplies. And without the Changelings around, ponies began to settle decades long grievances.
Two weeks after meeting Dragon Lord Ember, Flurry Heart stood under a gate on the outskirts of Appleloosa. A paved road stretched out to a grand plantation house before her, with apple trees as far as the eye could see. The sign above the wrought-iron gate was nearly like the posters.
Applejack posed with two of Bridleway’s changeling actors from Gone with the Wind, wrapping her hooves around them with a smile. The sign proclaimed, The Sweetest Fruit in the Hegemony! Each Apple Picked with Love! She still wore her hat with Chrysalis’ trident embossed on the front.
Bodies swung from the apple trees beyond the sign.
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oh shit, applejack time, also chips i s still the best character ever and if anything happens to him i'll cry
Good to see the Dragons bringing fire from above. And good to see good old frontier JUSTICE.
Is... that our interaction with Applejack? Hopefully we get Flurry talking to her next chapter. Though, if you left it there the implication that AJ was only worth that line would have it's own sort of power to it.
I like how genuinely surprised Ember and the other dragons were at Flurry's brutality. I wonder if Applejack is already dead or not, as that confrontation has been built up for awhile.
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I think the dragons are of the mind that these are the same ponies from before the great war. I don't think they expected the complete 180. And, if ember and spike meets up in a chapter I need that interaction.
For a second I got excited for my beloved petrochemistry. Polyethylene my beloved. And then...
...I guess we're not even gonna talk about desulfurization and distillation towers huh? Factorio and Gregtech got me really perked up and excited when you wrote about refineries. I do wonder what the Philips catalyst would be named in EaW.
Alas, Poor AJ. Honesty is lost in the fog of war.
Awful circumstances, but at least the war has made ponies metal enough that dragons can respect them now.
Some of them, at least.
Certainly, their current Princess is appropriately direct, strong, savage, and inspiring. Doesn't make too much fuss over collateral damage. Cares about Spike. Considers the future of the dragon lands. And was her horn on fire? (Wait until they see the crystal armor ignite!)
Should make fast friends with the Dragon Lord.
The chances of this being the only interaction we will have with Applejack are practically equal to the chances of this being just a scare and still having that long-awaited "conversation".
My bet with applejack is that we have another rarity situation, someone good driven to maintain evil while trying to operate within the system. Likely treating the workers as well as they can afford, doing the work themselves, that sort of collaborationist stuff.
However, it would be interesting if this is how it ends up. We just gotta know who is being hung from the gates.
You people do be probably askin' the question "Will Flurry kill AJ?"
Imma ask you the real question here:
"Will she ever get the chance to even consider it before Rainbow swoops in and smokes AJ?"
/s
Ahh flurry heart pragmaticly pardoning some workers to protect her oil. I can understand why cause it's going to be necessary to keep as much of the oil revenue as possible for a "swift" recovery.
And I'm not actually familiar with the show so I don't have much to comment about Ember but I am curious to see how Griffons react to an island full of dragons joining the war burning thousands of changeling will probably cement her reputation as daughter of maar even further.
Ah and Applejack I've played the ELF path before and while it was awesome one of my nitpicks was everyone just getting pardoned or jailed in character I admit but still I felt like some executions(or at least discussions of them) would've been more than justified. But it feels like this will not be a problem here and I am curious whether or not Flurry just hands Applejack to her family for them to decide behind closed doors or if she's gonna get pardoned/lighter sentence because she's too valuable due to her status as an element of harmony. Or she'll just get hung who knows that's between Flurry, Applejack, and Maar if the Griffons are right.
So…
Do the dragons find Flurry’s crystal armour delicious looking? Is she wearing the dragon equivalent of a gingerbread suit?
These are highly important questions dammit!
(Great chapter as always man, this story continues to be endlessly intriguing.)
Could be changeling bodies hanging there but won't know for sure until the next chapter. Honestly think AJ is still alive but is prepared to face her death as what is left of her pride wouldn't accept the easy way out. Also Dragons have joined the war and do make a great shock force but I doubt there is a lot of them. Still could mean that the Hippogrifs are on their way as well and their navy will do wonders for keeping convoys safe and supplies delivered.
I wonder what roasted apples taste like. Well, if Applejack f**** up, Flurry will at least know XD. I really need to play pax at some point.
Also, Dragons are the only equess nation to not have a unique focus tree still. Might be why they so angy.
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There's a bit of hypocrisy on Ember's end. It's not like the dragons were taking prisoners in their surprise flameout, and they hit retreating Changeling forces in addition to the ones trying to hold the line. Dragons are basically unstoppable to an unprepared unit, especially if they aren't holding back. Ember dropped out of the Great War before it got really bad. She's missed several years of ponies getting radicalized into the Princess' army. She's a bit surprised that the daughter of the Princess of Love is exactly as cold-blooded and ruthless as she came across in stories and on the radio.
On the political end, the dragons have never really had any government beyond a kratocracy in the loosest sense. Ember has to talk down to the alicorn and fight on the frontlines to show the other dragons she's still worth following. (And there's a few hints she's not as hardened as she's trying to come across.) She's very young and small to be Dragon Lord, and she was already leaning progressive before Equestria fell. She has a lot to manage.
I don't think Flurry will have mercy on Applejack, although she can excuse himself by saying that she did it to protect his family, she helped in the apparent extermination of an entire race of Equus. The rope would be mercy for her.
From what we have seen Applejack has been a grudging Supporter of Chrysalis. Because of family being threatened moat likely but support is support. About the only thing that might save her from the noose is if she was hiding Buffalo from Chrysalis or such.
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Powerful sonar could be devastating for them
Huh, the last couple of paragraphs has a very abrupt time-jump, with no breaks or preambles. It took me by surprise and was a little jarring. Other than that, it was fine.
Really? It's called Gone with the Wind in Equestria too? No pony word-play like with Hinnie in the Hills?
Hmm, wonder if Applejack is as guilty as has been implied before now, or if somethin' else is goin' on. It'd be ironic if the reason why she's been drinking so much is that unlike most ponies, who loosen their tongues when drunk, she's actually able to lie better drunk than when she's sober, so all the drinkin' was so she could lie to the Hegemony.
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I've done some abrupt time jumps before in Manehattan. I don't necessarily like doing them, but there's trade-off to keeping things moving. We've already seen liberated cities in Manehattan, Canterlot, and the Crystal City. There's only so many times I can do the same scene with variations, and Flurry's no longer in the position where she needs to tour liberated towns in detail.
The sign of Applejack with the two changeling actors is pulled straight from the mod. Gone with the Wind is a story invention, but it seems appropriate that a Lilac-run Manehattan would attempt to spin the occupation as a "happiness in slavery" type scenario about how everyone can get along now. (I'm sure the play was about ELF terrorists bombing happy ponies and changelings.)
I firmly believe this would be the highest rated story in the website if it was posted a few years ago during the websites prime.
Should have expected this but am glad to see ponies being proactive.
Babe wake up, new chapter for the Princess and the Kaiser just dropped
Yanno, am I the only one who wonders if AJ was replaced by a Changeling this whole time? Possibly mind-controlled? Maybe she had nothing to do with all the bad and has been in a cocoon for over a decade? I mean, this could be a heck of a twist. The 'Traitor' everyone has been wanting to see pay, only to find out she is nothing more than another victim in a long line of travesties that Chrysalis needs to answer for... Just a thought.