Part One Hundred & Six
Flurry Heart had no expectations for a ‘rock farm,’ but those two words scarcely described the vast pits of sundered ground ahead of her. The alicorn stood at the very edge of one, feeling the rain slick down her jumpsuit and run through her feathers. Rockville was just north enough to catch the edge of the rainstorms consuming most of Equestria.
The water filled the rough-cut quarries, flooding abandoned machinery and washing away loose dirt. It flowed out of cuts in the stone to be washed towards the sea, but the drainage was too slow to keep up with the downpour. Flurry kicked a pebble in with her bare hoof, watching it sail down into the dark, swirling waters. The top of an excavator was still visible; the bucket had been raised up above the waterline.
An earth pony stallion was hanging underneath, but the water already dragged the body down. Only the rope was still visible. The other slaves had been unrepentant about killing him; the stallion was one of the company’s appointed overseers. He had been too low-level to be worth taking along the evacuation to Las Pegasus.
Flurry brought her eyes upwards to the north. Lightning flashed along the horizon and thunder followed, but some blasts were mistimed. The Reichsarmee was counterattacking several dozen miles ahead of an attempted breakout, shattering a mechanized push up the coast to relieve the stranded Changelings still in the south.
The alicorn turned around and trotted back to the jeep parked at the edge of the quarry. Chips and a radiogriff sat beside the hood, with Smolder and Nightshade leaning on the front seats. All of them were arguing over a paper map, but Flurry couldn’t hear the words. Her golden bubble shield muffled the pounding rain and discussion to anyone outside, and that included her for the moment.
Flurry retracted an edge of the shield slowly. Chips felt the stinging rain and flared his wings over the map. The alicorn ducked and stepped through the open side, then snapped the shield closed behind her. The droplets made a discordant chiming sound as they impacted the half-shield, rippling out like they hit the surface of a still pond. The golden bubble crackled with blue sparks as the sound of rain faded.
The Princess dimmed her horn. “What’s the situation?” She resisted the urge to fan her wings and shake her head, letting the cold water soak further into her fur and jumpsuit.
“It’s a feint,” the radiogriff answered. The brown griffoness took off her headset. “Princess, the force is too small. It’s a distraction. If we had our recon planes out-”
“We told you,” Smolder snorted. The dragoness folded her arms across the steering wheel. “Saw some ships moving towards Las Pegasus.”
“There’s an informational chain of command to these things,” Nightshade pointed out. “Yeah, ‘Late Lord’ Ember told us…as in some random idiots on the frontline, not command.”
“Don’t call her that,” Smolder abruptly snarled at the bat pony beside her.
“I can call her what I want,” Nightshade hissed back.
Chips shot a worried wince up to Flurry’s muzzle.
“Enough, Nightshade,” the alicorn sighed. She craned her neck over Chip’s wings to see the map of the south. Figures and arrows had been scrawled across it around the major highway to Las Pegasus, with additional markings on the bay towards the Olenian Peninsula.
Shit. We need to move. Flurry bit her lip. “What’s going on with General Mudbeak?”
“The advance is all strung out across the south,” Chips summarized. His eyes drifted to the orange dragoness drumming her claws on his steering wheel. “There’s been…complications. For deffo.”
“Please don’t start that again,” Flurry pleaded. She return to the map, eying the rough drawings. “Smolder, can you get Dragon Lord Ember? She’s around here. Lemme go talk to Gilda.”
“Yeah,” Smolder shrugged. “She’s out by that buried quarry with one of the elders.”
Flurry Heart looked back over a wing. In the far distance, a plain two-story wooden house stood discordantly next to a half-dozen abandoned excavators. Tents stretched out from raised scoops and booms, using the equipment as makeshift poles to keep the rain away. The alicorn could easily see the dozens of ponies sheltering from the storm surge.
“Tell the Dragon Lord to meet me at the house,” Flurry said as she twisted back to the dragoness. Smolder followed the alicorn’s stare and bit her lip. She nodded after a pause.
Flurry’s horn glowed; Chips and Nightshade pulled up their raincoats and folded the maps away as the shield slowly retracted. Flurry Heart scrunched her muzzle at the cold, stinging rain impacting her pinned ears. She folded them against the jeweled crystal band for protection before trotting towards the house.
The mining community around Rockville had been family-owned for centuries. Earth pony clans mined and worked the land as part of the gold rush, then the oil rush of the last few decades. Like all Equestrian industry, Celestia mandated a focus on sustainability. Ponies did not strip-mine their ancestor’s land, and large quarries were rare unless the mineral deposits were excessive. Nearly all of Equestria’s iron and copper came from the south, forging railways to connect isolated, happy towns and villages to the rivers and coasts.
The Princess of the Crystal Empire and Equestria passed by one of the black, mechanized excavators. Chrysalis’ crown was stamped on the back of the cab. Everything in Rockville had been absorbed into the Queen’s crown corporation, and the Changeling Hegemony did not care about the environmental cost.
The open pit mines stretched out for miles. Several collapsed during the intense rain storms, loose gravel sliding deeper into the cut-offs and turning the pits into quicksand. The Changelings knew how to dig; their Hives were partially underground. But whatever care they took in their homeland was abandoned in the name of profit.
There was a round rock halfway to the wooden house. A few armed Thestrals stood around it in a circle, wearing black raincoats. They bowed low as their Princess marched past them. Flurry Heart slowed to look at the tarp dragged across the front of the boulder. Two shapes bulged out, but the bodies had been left alone with the armed guards standing watch.
Flurry deviated to one of the larger tents. The tarp was held up by two excavators, and several dozen ponies gathered under the covering to shelter from the rain. The former quarry workers clutched jackets to their withers as they ate meager rations. Medical staff with purple armbands tested reflexes, but they lacked the supplies to do more.
The first ‘generation’ of workers had been prisoners of war captured by the Changeling Hegemony. They were told they had to work off their ‘debt’ for fighting against the victors. It was the same story in the factories in Manehattan or in the Canterlot Commissariat, but very few survived the five-year sentence in the quarries compared to the north.
A crystal pony glittered under his raincoat as he trotted through the nearly skeletal survivors. The raincoats hid how patchy and thin the fur had gotten from the day-long shifts, and how hooves shook holding cups of coffee and hot chocolate. The crystal stallion bowed low once he realized his Princess was staring at him, causing the mare beside him to start and nearly drop her mug.
Flurry turned away. It’s like the Empire. She took some small comfort in knowing that her crystal ponies weren’t singled out for brutal enslavement, but her heart burned.
The changelings and ponies overseeing most of the operations were gone. They fled, either north up the frontline before the Appleloosan Protectorate was cut off, or south to the gap and Las Pegasus. The Changeling garrison had abandoned Rockville wholesale, leaving thousands of workers with hapless pony overseers too ignorant to run.
Most of the earth pony families did not run. They stayed behind during the war. They stayed on their land through the Hegemony. They accepted deals with Chrysalis’ crown corporation to remain on their ancestor's land and work the same soil.
And now they died.
Flurry Heart had not ordered it, but the miners had slammed their pickaxes through skulls the moment the garrison retreated ahead of the Reichsarmee advance. General Mudbeak and the Tzinacatl warbands were stretching themselves thin containing the violence. A few homesteads had been found burned to the ground as the surviving workers took out years of anger on the only targets still available.
The rain had cooled tempers. Ponies were too cold, wet, and tired. At the very least, none complained about being liberated by griffons and bat ponies. Aquileians always said the Reich was held together by the Reichsarmee; I suppose the Hegemony was held together by the Heer.
The Princess passed through two cordons of bowing, wet soldiers before stepping up onto the porch. Limestone Pie leaned against the wall with a hoof on her submachine gun. Her gray uniform was relatively dry.
“Princess,” the earth pony coughed. Her voice remained a dry rasp, and the high collar of her uniform did not fully hide the line of scar tissue running across her neck. Her hard yellow eyes simmered. “I got a pass to be here,” she added.
“I’m aware, General Pie,” Flurry demurred. She glanced back at the pony soldiers. All of them were technically support for the Reichsarmee’s counterattack, but the battle had been decided for several hours. The Hegemony had launched a feint to distract from a sea evacuation.
Most ponies still wore gray ELF uniforms, but the purple armband of the Imperial Snowflake was prevalent in the rain. Where are those being made? A few looked homespun, and the snowflakes were a little lopsided.
The wooden floorboards creaked as they absorbed the moisture from the storm. The air was chilly from the wind. Flurry shook her wings and droplets pattered across the porch. “Sorry.”
Limestone waved a hoof. “As soon as we move on, I’m blowing the place. Kept the dynamite dry.”
Flurry chewed on the inside of her cheek. “I understand.”
“Yeah,” Limestone snorted. Her eyes were pinched tight. “Woulda…woulda killed them myself for all this. Didn’t ask to be a fuckin’ excuse.”
Flurry Heart looked back to the round boulder and the tarp covering the two shapes. She’s lying. It wasn’t worth calling her out on it. Everypony grieved differently, and General Limestone tended to turn to rage.
One of Limestone’s soldiers opened the door, and Flurry stepped into a modest coatroom. The kitchen and living area was a cacophony of activity. Griffons splayed radio equipment out atop every table and shelf. A map hung before a leaking windowpane. Unlike Applejack’s planation, this was still obviously a home, still cared for.
But the windowpanes leaked and there was a crack in the wooden ceiling that had not been plastered over. A few pictures on the walls were missing; the lighter spots on the wood marked where they had hanged for years. The wallpaper leading down the hallway had yellowed. Flurry wiped her hooves on a filthy welcome mat.
The mare that opened the door bowed, as did her partner at the staircase. A few of the griffons looked over their wings at the movement; they stilled. Reichsarmee officers squawked into receivers, but none of the griffons in the house responded.
“Rise,” Flurry sighed to the two soldiers. She flicked a wing upwards. A few water droplets flew to the ceiling. The alicorn was soaking wet from the walk.
One griffoness slowly turned back to her radio set and picked up a pencil, and that triggered the other griffons to resume their business with forced nonchalance. Flurry stared at their twitching wings and bobbing tails. All the furniture had been rearranged; it was obvious from the indents on the wooden floor. Some sat backwards on dining chairs designed for ponies.
The alicorn craned her neck higher and spotted the heavy leather flight jacket on a griffoness. Gilda’s back was turned and she stood before the sink, seemingly scrubbing a cloth. Another griffon sat beside her with a folder, pawing through it.
Flurry trotted through the hallway and around the staircase. The floorboards creaked. She found the side entrance to the kitchen and pushed the swinging door open with a flash of her horn.
The kitchen was no less cramped than the living room, but the half-dozen griffons backed into the living room with feigned casualness at the alicorn’s entrance. Gilda and the other male griffon remained at the sink. The griffoness wrung out a cloth between two claws and placed it against her neck.
The male griffon cleared his throat. “P-princess?” He was frozen in a half-nod and half-bow, brown eyes indecisive.
“This is Felix,” Gilda offered in a distracted voice. “He’s one of my pilots.”
“I’m meeting with Dragon Lord Ember,” Flurry announced. “Are you still grounded?”
“General order across the south,” Gilda explained. “Too many wings in the sky. Dragons don’t exactly have to care about mid-air collisions with a fighter.”
“Las Pegasus is attempting a naval retreat.”
One of Gilda’s wings shifted. She pointed back to the living room. “We’re coordinating something. Don’t know what.”
“The fleet is still too far to have naval range,” Felix added. “We have a few airfields.”
“Weather’s awful,” Gilda concurred. “Don’t have enough weathergriffs to do anything right now in the north.”
“That’s a job?” Flurry asked.
“Not like Equestria, but yeah.” Gilda removed the cloth and turned the faucet back on. Flurry scrunched her muzzle at the dark red stains.
“Are you hurt?”
Gilda turned her head fully to the alicorn. There was a thin gash under her beak and along the side of her neck. “Nah.”
Flurry’s wings sagged. “Rainbow?”
Gilda wrung the cloth out. “She’s upstairs. With, uh, Maud. And…” she trailed off.
“I know you didn’t like her.”
“We patched it up,” Gilda scoffed. “Yeah, she was annoying, but not…” The griffon exhaled through her nostrils. “RD’ll be fine.”
“I’ll go check on her.” Flurry shuffled her hooves. “Can you cut through the noise to Mudbeak or Grover? I have a plan.”
“Sure,” Gilda shrugged. “Give us a second. Those assholes in the living room know I’m the Kaiser’s favorite.”
“No, you aren’t,” Felix deadpanned.
“Called him a fuckwit and lived,” Gilda boasted. She placed the cloth back against her neck. “Gonna be a Griffonstone legend for that. That dog wanted to hack off my head.”
Flurry refolded her wings and turned back to the hallway.
“Hey,” Gilda called out. Flurry looked back with a side-eye. “Just, uh, let her talk. Don’t try anything.” She rubbed the cloth against her neck.
Flurry exited back to the hallway. The ponies bowed again, and this time the alicorn did not tell them to rise. She wandered to the wooden stairs and peered upwards. The second floor was unlit, except for light peering out from two doors. As cramped as the downstairs was, no one ventured to the second floor.
The alicorn took the stairs two at a time with her long legs. Her horn brushed against the low ceiling, so she hunched her neck at the top. A wing brushed against the railing, wet feathers gathering dust.
Rainbow laughed uproariously from the door on the left. Flurry trotted towards the raspy echo. “That was a great one, Pinks. You remember that?”
The floorboards creaked under Flurry’s hooves.
“Course you do,” Rainbow laughed again. “Anyway, G’s downstairs. Remember her pranks?”
Flurry Heart tapped her horn on the door.
Rainbow stopped laughing. Hooves crossed the room, then returned without opening the door. “Yeah?” her voice said warily.
“It’s Flurry.”
“Well, hay! Come in, Princess!” Rainbow's voice was boisterous.
Flurry Heart opened the door.
Rainbow Dash leaned against the bed with an easy grin. Her prosthetic wing was missing, resting on a dresser to her right. She flapped her one wing in, beckoning Flurry forward. “What’s up, Princess? You look, uh, wet.”
Rain pelted the windows in the bedroom. Two gas lamps sat on the dresser, casting the room in a dull glow. Flurry Heart cast a magelight that floated to the ceiling. It pulsed gold. “Rainstorm’s gotten worse.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow nodded. “I feel it. You get a twitchy knee or something, Pinks?” She nudged the pony on the bed.
Pinkie Pie said nothing. She laid on the bed with her legs tucked under her. She stared directly at Flurry with vacant blue eyes. The earth pony was motionless after the weak nudge.
Not at me. Through me. Flurry had seen stares like that in Aquileia, in the Crystal City, in Nova Griffonia, in Manehattan, in Canterlot. Ponies or griffons that just looked beyond what was actually in front of them to somewhere far away.
“You know,” Rainbow said conversationally, “she was the only one that could keep up with you when you were born.”
“Really?” Flurry asked. She kept her eyes on the pink mare atop the bed. Her fetlocks were unshorn, and clumsily trimmed. The mare’s mane was flat, and combed to one side of her head. The pink locks were cut unevenly at the end. Her tail matched it, pooled on the bed.
“Yeah,” Rainbow chuckled. She nudged Pinkie with a hoof again. “Big chase all around the Crystal Palace. Pinks was always good with foals.”
Flurry realized Pinkie had not blinked since she entered. The alicorn slowly stepped to the side, but the bright blue eyes did not track her. Pinkie stared ahead.
At nothing.
“Anyway,” Rainbow continued, “I was talking about Gilda.” She switched from looking to the side at Pinkie to looking at Flurry. “How is she? I didn’t get her too hard, right?”
“She’s fine,” Flurry offered.
“No hard feelings, right?”
“No.”
“Good,” Rainbow smiled. It was a tight smile with brittle lips. “She’s, uh, always been a little jealous of my friends. Thought we worked past that in Griffonstone, but, you know, some lessons are never really learned just once.”
Flurry Heart took a deep breath. “Right.” She shifted her focus to the other pony sitting in the corner of the room. “General Pie.”
Maud Pie smoothed out her blue frock. Her mane was hidden by a matching bonnet wrapped tightly around her head. “I have not been a general for some time.”
“Maud was great!” Rainbow interrupted. “Pinks had nothing but praise for her during the war.”
Maud nodded slowly, then stood up even slower. Flurry caught a glimpse at her chipped hooves, and a patch of bare skin just above the keratin. She shuffled to an adjoining door. “I was hoping to talk to you,” the earth pony forced out. Her breath wheezed.
“Of course.” Flurry bit her lip and opened the door with her magic. Maud leaned against the doorframe for a moment, then pushed herself inside the other bedroom. One of her rear legs dragged on the wood. There was a series of scuffmarks on the floorboards.
“Maud kept records about the mining operations,” Rainbow explained from beside Pinkie. “Real egghead secret stuff. You know she designed prosthetic wings? If you could make a plane wing outta metal, surely you could make a pegasi wing.”
“I did,” Maud called out from her room. Her voice almost broke into a cough, but she swallowed something down and exhaled in a wheeze.
Flurry moved to follow the eldest Pie sister, but stopped and instead walked over the edge of the bed. It was a springy mattress, but Pinkie laid in an indent, like a body had not moved in some time. The pink earth pony’s colors were faded, but that could have been a trick of the poor lighting.
The light pink alicorn stared down at the pink earth pony. Ice blue eyes met bright blue. Pinkie still had not blinked. Flurry Heart forced a smile. “Hello, Miss Pie. Rainbow’s told me a lot about you.”
Pinkie did not respond. Nor did she blink.
“Call her Pinkie,” Rainbow shrugged her wing. “We’re not that old.” She pawed at her deflated mohawk. “No gray in here yet.”
“Pinkie Pie,” Flurry said as lightly as she could. “I’m proud to meet you.”
There was no response.
“Great prank, Pinks,” Rainbow laughed after a moment. “I’ll make her break,” the pegasus said to Flurry. “She’s always been a prankster.”
Flurry inhaled. “Rainbow-”
“You should talk to Maud,” Rainbow cut her off sharply. Her snarl twisted into a toothy smile. “She’s been waiting to talk to you.”
The alicorn met desperate magenta eyes, then backed into the other bedroom. At the last moment, Flurry’s horn glowed and she grabbed Rainbow’s prosthetic off the dresser. “Do you mind if I ask Maud about this?”
“No problem,” Rainbow shrugged her good wing.
Flurry gently closed the door with a rear hoof, then placed the metal wing beside the doorframe. One of the feathers was slick with blood at the end. Her horn dimmed.
Maud had shuffled to her desk. She opened several drawers and gathered papers. Her frock had fallen away from her forelegs, and Flurry recoiled at the lesions running up her skin. Her gray fur had been reduced to patchwork.
The earth pony caught the look with a bloodshot turquoise eye. “Not as bad as it looks,” she rasped.
“I…” Flurry shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
“Limestone did.” Maud’s lips quirked into a subdued smile. “Good to see her.”
The ceiling was low enough that Flurry’s horn scraped the wood. Rain pounded on the roof. The alicorn noticed a leak in the corner; a bucket had been placed to catch the droplets. The bedroom was amazingly plain. An oak dresser and desk sat to one side of a mattress on a bedframe. There was no pillow or sheets.
Maud coughed as she shuffled through papers. The folder she was gathering had grown distressingly large.
“We’re pulling in more medical staff,” Flurry offered.
“Most workers got Rocklung,” Maud answered. “Dust got in from the heavy diggers. Changelings got gas masks for themselves, not for us. Not fatal on its own. Might be able to clear the lungs with spells.”
“I’ll look into it.”
"Summers kicked up dust storms. Lot of ponies have breathing problems," Maud nodded. She nudged a rock on the desk to the side, then bent her head into one of the drawers, grabbing paperwork with her mouth.
Flurry watched. “I know you passed information to the ELF.”
“Not me,” Maud responded after setting down the files. “Pinkie. Had her ways.”
Rainbow’s voice picked up through the wooden door. Flurry Heart stepped away and lowered her head further. “What happened?” she whispered. “Please.”
Maud was quiet for a moment, bloodshot eyes shifting over papers. “She should never have been a commander,” the earth pony sighed. “Wasn’t fit for it.”
“She kept up with the Blitzkreig,” Flurry countered.
“She remembered everypony’s birthday,” Maud whickered. “Can’t get attached. Not like that.” She twisted away from the table, and Flurry heard her neck pop from the sudden motion. “Do you do that?”
“No,” Flurry closed her eyes. “I’d like to try-”
“Idiot,” Maud whispered.
Flurry opened her eyes and glared at the earth pony.
Maud turned back to the table. “Came home broken, forcing smiles that came natural. Passed information to the ELF, did everything she could for the workers. Remembered all their birthdays, too.”
Flurry looked out the window. The quarries and pits stretched out, illuminated by flashes of lightning in the horizon. “How’d this happen?”
“Mother and Father cut a deal,” Maud responded numbly. “Already lost one daughter. Changelings wanted ponies that knew the land and deposits. Wanted ponies to be the face. Offset the hate. Price paid.”
From the window, Flurry could see the circular boulder and the tarp. “I’m sorry. Rainbow told me about Marble.”
“Earth ponies shouldn’t fly,” Maud answered. “We never found out for sure she was dead. Shot down over occupied territory. Changelings told us she might be alive. If we did the right things and said the right words, maybe her sentence would be commuted.”
“Which ones? From Chrysalis’ thing?”
“Names don’t matter,” Maud shrugged a hoof. “Running north, running south. Running from you.” Her eye flicked to the alicorn at the window. “Saw the pamphlets.”
Flurry looked back out the window. “I wasn’t going to execute them.”
Maud hummed. “Lime says she would. Slaves would have done it before either of you. Did it themselves first.”
Flurry laid her head against the window. The jeweled crystal band clinked against the glass. It was wet with condensation. “I’m sorry.”
“Tried to keep us safe,” Maud continued in a monotone. “Regretted it in the end.” A hoof tapped wood. “This is more important.” Flurry turned around. A thick folder sat on the table beside Maud Pie. She hobbled away from the desk and into a corner. The alicorn approached slowly.
“What is it?”
“Records,” Maud rasped. “Everything they wanted dug and shipped. Not just ore. Crystals. Dangerous things. Things that can kill.”
“Artillery?” Flurry guessed.
“Bomb,” Maud corrected. “Twilight had an idea during the war. Asked me about it. Told her it could work. Told her what it would do. She refused.”
Flurry picked up the folder and leafed through the papers with her horn. It was all growing quotas of shipments along the railways to Vesalipolis, or reports from the Crystal Empire on the viability and quality of crystals. Uranium? Plutonium? What?
“You think the Changelings built something,” Flurry connected. “Some megaspell? Or a bomb?”
“I know they did,” Maud replied. “Chrysalis tried it at the end of the war. With your mother.”
The folder and papers almost fell as Flurry’s horn flickered. She froze, jaw working soundlessly. It took her several heartbeats to reply. “What?”
“Scientists trotted around,” Maud shrugged. “Smart ‘lings. Figured we were dumb earth ponies and talked freely. The Queen canned the project after it failed.”
“The Crystal Heart held,” Flurry finally stated. Her voice raised up from a whisper. “They didn’t break it.”
“If they built one, they can build another,” Maud retorted. She raised a scabby hoof and pointed at the folder. “Did the math. They can. Make sure that reaches somepony.”
Flurry stared at the folder. Her eyes watered and she shook her head roughly. I don’t understand anything in this. Maybe Sunset? Or…Grover. Maybe the Reich knows. She unzipped her jumpsuit and shoved the folder into the dry padding against her side. It rested under a wing awkwardly.
“Why did Twilight refuse?” Flurry asked.
“Too much time, too much resources,” Maud said. Her bloodshot eyes closed. “Too terrible.”
Flurry’s response was cut off when the side door crashed open. Rainbow leapt at Maud with her one wing extended, snarling. Tears streamed from her eyes. The alicorn stepped back with a blazing horn. I didn’t hear her stop talking. Her head whipped back to the open door.
Pinkie had not moved from the bed.
Maud tried to move out of the corner, but she stumbled. Rainbow checked her into the wall, then slammed the earth pony against the wood again. She pinned her there by the neck.
“What did you let them do to her!?” Rainbow screamed. She shook the earth pony by her forelegs. “What did you let them do!?”
Maud coughed. “Don’t…don’t touch me…” Her voice weakened. The earth pony did not push the shorter pegasus off her, forelegs held at her sides. “Please.”
Rainbow grabbed at her head to slam it into the wall.
Flurry Heart yanked the pegasus away, holding her in her magic. Rainbow struggled and gnashed her teeth. Her hooves and one wing flailed mid-air. “You fucking coward! You let them drain her!? What!? What!?”
Maud sank to the floor, openly coughing. Her bonnet fell off her head.
Rainbow stopped snarling. Flurry Heart set her down, but still kept her contained in her aura. The alicorn approached the earth pony. “Let me-”
“Don’t!” Maud wheezed. Her mane was nearly gone. All that was left was a few strings of purple hair. Her scalp was covered in scabs. She raised a hoof up and pulled the bonnet back into place. The frock fell back and exposed more lesions running along her barrel. Most of her fur was gone.
She’s worse than Twilight. Flurry stepped back on reflex. She abruptly realized that many of the former workers outside had similar thinness and lesions. Flurry thought it was due to malnutrition. “If there’s an illness, or something, we can help.”
“Changelings wanted rocks,” Maud wheezed. She stood up shakily. “Bad rocks. We always left them. But they wanted them, and they didn’t care about the ponies.”
“You…you got what you deserved,” Rainbow muttered.
“Didn’t have to do it,” Maud said in a monotone. “Needed a good foremare. Keep the shifts rotating so nopony got too exposed.”
“Except you,” Flurry responded. “If there’s something-”
“I’m already dead,” Maud shook her head. “Lime won’t listen.”
Flurry released Rainbow and stood between the two ponies. The pegasus stepped forward, muzzle quivering. “What…what did they do to her?”
“They didn’t touch her,” Maud coughed. “She remembered everypony’s birthday, passed information to the ELF, went down into the pits everyday. Kept hope alive.”
Rainbow bared her teeth. “Don’t…don’t you d-dare say it’s on us.”
Maud did not. She looked away. “Just didn’t get out of bed one day. Found her like that.”
Rainbow stepped up again, and was checked by Flurry’s extended wing. Her nub twitched as she flared out her good wing, and she turned baleful, hateful eyes to Flurry Heart. Before the alicorn could say anything, the pegasus burst into tears and fled. She stopped long enough to grab her prosthetic, biting down on the metal feathers and slicing her mouth.
Flurry did not try to stop her from leaving. She lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing,” Maud rasped. “Gonna end up like Pinkamena.”
The alicorn swung her head over to Maud.
“Called me a good general,” Maud snorted. A small trickle of blood dripped from her nose. “My ponies said I had a rock for a heart. Let the changelings slam into them. I lost a lot of soldiers.”
They say my heart is as hard as crystal. “I don’t want to be that,” Flurry answered.
“Can’t save everypony, Princess,” Maud rasped in a monotone. “Don’t cling to everything. Find one thing. Try not to regret it in the end.”
Flurry returned to the window. Rainbow raced across the rock field, past the circular boulder towards the quarries. Her metal wing glinted from the lightning strikes in the horizon. The tarp covering the two bodies was waterlogged. Family.
“What was yours?” Flurry asked.
“My sister,” Maud answered. “I don’t regret it. During the war and afterwards. Take care of her. She’ll eat and go to the bathroom if you guide her.”
Flurry slowly trotted out of the room. Maud moved stiffly, back into Pinkie’s bedroom. The alicorn stopped in the doorway and looked back to the Element of Laughter. Maud sat beside her sister, retrieving a brush to run through her flat mane.
“I’m happy to see you again, Pinkie Pie.” Flurry smiled. “I…don’t remember the last time we met. Maybe you can tell me about it one day.”
Pinkie Pie continued to stare forward at the wall. She did not blink. Her head rocked from Maud’s stiff brushing.
Flurry took a deep breath. “Was it the ELF losing? Or…or was it me?”
“It was everything,” Maud responded. "Limestone is going back to Canterlot with Pinkie once the counterattack is over."
"Are you going with her?"
Maud did not respond for a moment. "I have some work here to do. Inspect the quarries. If you don't mind. I'll help get everything operational."
"I..." Flurry bit her lip. "I could name you a governor. You seem to have a good sense of-"
"I don't have that long," Maud responded. Her voice turned soft. "I'll work with somepony while I can."
Flurry backed away.
“Don’t tell Limestone.”
The alicorn nodded over a wing and retreated downstairs. Gilda stood in the hallway, pacing with twitching wings. Dragon Lord Ember leaned against the wall, snout downturned. The Bloodstone Scepter hummed in the sling across her back.
“Felix is on the radio,” Gilda squawked. “I’m going after Dash.” She left before Flurry could reply, racing out into the rainstorm.
Ember cast a red eye into the living room. Griffons avoided her stare nearly as much as Flurry Heart’s. Her spade tail swung in a low arc. “You wanted to talk?”
“I got a plan,” Flurry sighed. “Let’s get on the radio and confirm it.”
The dragoness and alicorn silenced all the discussion in the makeshift radio room. Felix hunched over one of the larger radio packs. Shaking talons poked at the receivers, and he unplugged the headset. The speakers crackled.
The griffon tugged on his flight jacket and leaned his beak into the microphone. “Rockville Command to AGS Headquarters,” he stuttered in Herzlander. “Receiving to Overlord, confirm?”
Ember hissed. “I don’t speak turkey.”
“Overlord copies,” a griffon announced in clipped Equestrian. It wasn’t Grover himself. Guess he’s listening in. Felix stepped to the side and dipped his head away from the microphone. Flurry Heart raised a brow and leaned her head down.
“Grover? I have a plan. We’re strung out here-”
Felix made a strangled sound in the back of his beak. “Callsign.”
“What?” Flurry’s muzzle scrunched.
The griffon on the other end interrupted Felix’s muttering. “Rockville Command: Demon-One and Wyvern-One present? Acknowledge.”
Aw, damn this. My callsign is Demon-One? Flurry waved Felix away, batting his beak with her wing. “Fine. Overlord, this is Demon-One. Wyvern-One’s forces can close the gap while air deploys to strike the bay. Air zones designated for encircling Las Pegasus. How copy?”
“Hang on,” Ember puffed a ring of smoke. “You want us to do what?”
The radio crackled. “Overlord copies all. Air will be redirected. AGS, prepare for rerouting to priority target.”
Flurry leaned her head back. Easy. She turned to Ember. “How’s that scepter work? Can you signal your dragons?”
Ember folded her arms. “To do what?”
Flurry groaned and snapped a wing to the map hanging in front of the window. Several griffons ducked under the wingspan. “You have dragons on both sides of the highway. Snap the jaws shut. They’re strung out as badly as we are. There’s no anti-air beyond Las Pegasus.”
Ember gazed at the map for a long time. Her tail curled around a leg. “Hang on, filly.” The dragoness bit her lip. “We flew over that highway. There’s a lot of civilians mixed in with the military.”
“No,” Flurry snorted. “You gonna call the changelings working here civilians? Or Appleloosa? They’re settlers, not civilians. Most of them are veterans.”
“There’s ponies too,” Ember tried.
Flurry ticked down her feathers. “Collaborators running like Tartarus, disguised changelings…” she hesitated. “Slaves getting dragged along as shields.” Her stare turned icy. “Hit them.”
“They’re retreating,” Ember said in a weaker voice.
“So were the ones you slaughtered,” Flurry countered. “We’re losing time. I’d go myself if my armor was here. You’re in the perfect position to trap Las Pegasus.”
Griffons shuffled around the living room, backing away from the two royals. Ember was nearly tall enough for her horns to scrape the roof. A claw reached back to unsling her staff, but she twisted her claw around and poked Flurry in the chest instead. “You don’t get to make plans involving my dragons without me.”
This wouldn’t happen if you were on the radio. Flurry resisted saying it. She backed up and exited the room. “I have to find my Air Marshal. Again.”
"She's out in the south field," Limestone interrupted. She stuck her head into the living room. "Watched her race...race past Holder's Boulder. There's a marble quarry."
"Thank you, General Pie," Flurry answered.
Limestone regarded the griffons with barely disguised contempt. "Hurry up," she wheezed in Herzlander. She shook her saddlebags. "I got dynamite in here and I'm blowing this house up whether or not you birds are in it."
“I didn’t agree to this!” Ember called out.
Flurry stopped at the front door. “Please, Dragon Lord,” she called back over a wing. “We’re losing time. Don’t be late.” The alicorn left before Ember could respond, trotting out into the pouring rain. She flapped her wings and lifted off the ground, moving slower due to her waterlogged feathers.
Rainbow Dash and Gilda were not hard to find, even in the dark. Sparks kicked up from a granite slab. The griffoness sat back, soaked to the fur, but resting under the torn-off box of a dump truck that had been flipped upside down. A red dragon sat next to her in steel armor.
Flurry landed next to them. This time, she summoned a shield around herself and cut the rain off. The droplets crackled as they hit her magic.
“Fancy,” the dragon rumbled. He offered a wave. “Princess Flurry. My sister’s said some stuff about you.”
“Good stuff?” Flurry asked.
“For a dragon, maybe,” he laughed. His baritone boomed over the rain. “I’m Smolder’s brother. Name’s-”
“Garble.” Flurry narrowed her eyes. “Smolder hasn’t talked about you. Spike has.”
Garble laughed with a touch of nervous smoke. “How is the little purple menace? He was Dragon Lord for five seconds.”
Flurry judged the height of the overturned bucket. “He’s taller than you.” She shifted her eyes to Gilda.
Gilda ran a claw through the wet rocks. “She won’t talk to me. She’s going to ruin that wing cutting up a rock.”
“Come along,” Flurry ordered. She flexed the bubble shield larger.
Garble whistled at the magic. His scales flashed, then began to glitter. The dragon raised a claw and wiggled the sharp talons. “Huh. What’s going on?”
“Your Dragon Lord is closing the gap,” Flurry provided.
Garble ran a tongue over sharp teeth. He looked down at the alicorn with bemusement. “Bout time. You know there’s ponies on that road, right?”
Flurry’s muzzle pressed into a thin line. “Yes.”
The red dragon stared a moment longer, then dipped his head. “Alright, then. Best of luck, Princess.” He stepped out into the rain and flapped ragged wings. A larger shape soared through the storm clouds above him, heading in the same direction.
Gilda held a claw out and poked the shield. When nothing happened, she stepped through it and shook her wings. “Soaked my jacket.”
“Dragons will hit the highway; planes hit the bay,” Flurry explained. “Cut them off from both ends.”
“The bugs will send their air force from Olenia to intercept.” Gilda’s tail swished. “We’ll probably be outnumbered.”
“I’ll fly if you have a spare plane.”
Gilda glanced at her hooves. “Can you, uh, fly a griffon plane?”
“You think Nova Griffonia made them special for ponies?” Flurry nickered.
“That’s the other problem.”
“You think a griffon will blow my tail off?”
“In the middle of an air battle?” Gilda thought about it. “Wingmates just don’t have to be there when you need them.”
Flurry hummed. She trotted over to Rainbow Dash, slowing as she got closer. The pegasus had surely noticed the golden shield illuminating the deary weather, but she still hacked at the broken slab of marble. Her strikes were slow now, kicking up sparks.
The alicorn stopped a few paces away. “You’re going to ruin that wing.”
“I’d have broken…my real one…three dozen times by now,” Rainbow panted. She swung a final time and carved another gouge in the rock. A few of the metal feathers were bent out of shape, and the harness was loose. She bent down and tugged on the straps with her muzzle. The pegasus abruptly sagged to the ground and began sobbing again. Tears mixed with rainwater.
Gilda left the shield and hugged her friend with a wing. “I’m sorry, RD. I, uh, I liked her, too.” Flurry Heart trotted forward and brought them both under the shield.
Rainbow buried her muzzle into the larger griffoness’ jacket. “Why am I the last one?” Her voice hiccupped. “I’m the dumb one. I should’ve gone first.”
“No,” Flurry retorted. “You’re not dumb.”
“Rares, AJ, Pinks, Twi…” her voice hitched again. “Flutters…I’m the last one.”
Flurry laid down on the wet gravel. She kept one wing pressed tight against the folder underneath. “I know how that feels.”
Rainbow pulled her muzzle free and gazed up at the sharp horn, then the oversized wings. She snorted. “Yeah. Guess so.”
“I…” Flurry stopped short of saying she was sorry. She wasn’t even sure what she would be apologizing for. How much of this is my fault? Is there an amount or percentage?
“Thank you for helping me over the years,” she said instead. “You made a difference, Rainbow. I wouldn’t be here if not for you.”
“Not many can outfly an alicorn,” Gilda offered. Her claw scrubbed at Rainbow’s mohawk. “Not bad for a Junior Speedster.”
“Yep,” Rainbow sighed. “Fifteen-year-old filly came to save my crippled flank on her birthday.”
“I liked the way you told the story at the bar,” Gilda retorted.
Flurry Heart bent a few of the metal feathers back into shape with her magic. “Everyone on that mountain had given up. Including me. I had no idea what I was supposed to do until I saw that plane screaming past.”
“My fault you’re a killer then?” Rainbow laughed mirthlessly. “Your mother will hound me in the afterlife for that.”
“My mother would thank you for being there for her daughter when no one else was.”
Rainbow sniffled. “I’ll take that.”
Gilda looked to the side. “Can the shield, uh, be closed?” It took Flurry a moment to parse the question, but she turned the shield opaque and the outside world cut off.
The griffoness wrapped her friend in a hug, lifting the pegasus off the ground. “I was real worried some griffon would end up clipping you, Dash. Waited for that report in Nova. Swore I’d slam my plane into that asshole’s fancy palace if he ended up killing you.”
“Heh,” Rainbow chuckled and flailed her forelegs against the griffoness’ talons. “That’d be a real tragedy to kill the Princess’ boyfriend.”
Gilda froze.
Rainbow froze.
Flurry sighed.
“What the fuck?” Gilda squawked.
“I take it Gallus didn’t tell you?” Flurry said tonelessly.
“What the fuck?” Gilda set Rainbow down. “Gallus knew!? Wait, what the fuck was that whole war!?”
“It was in exchange for Nova Griffonia and the ceasefire,” Flurry explained. "I offered a marriage like-"
Gilda grabbed her head feathers. “You want to marry that asshole!?”
No. “He’s not that bad,” Flurry nickered. “It’s a political thing.”
“Hey, be nice, G.” Rainbow rolled in the gravel and stood up. “So what if the Princess has shit taste? I wasn’t exactly sold on the Princess of Love marrying a nerd that overanalyzed Ogres & Oubliettes.”
Flurry gave Rainbow a dark look.
Rainbow raised her forelegs. “Hay, just saying there were way more awesome candidates around. You best believe there was some, uh, private discussions about Twilight not telling us about her hunky brother and hot foalsitter until after the marriage was announced.”
“Thought he was a nerd?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. “Major disappointment for me.”
“I did not need to know that my aunt’s friends lusted after my parents.”
“Why do you think Twilight tried not to bring them up? Wasn’t just us, by the way. Weather Patrol was way worse. Flying around pushing clouds all day leads to some, uh, discussions.”
Gilda wrapped a claw around Rainbow’s muzzle. “And that’s enough.” She turned her beak to Flurry, eyes wide. “Am I gonna get killed for knowing this?”
“Don’t tell anyone,” Flurry advised. “Grover thinks the River Federation will invade.”
“Of course it fucking will!” Gilda snapped. “You own most of a fucking continent, Princess. You’re marrying a griffon that owns another half. Maar’s Hell, how much of this war is two teenagers blowing feathers at each other?”
Flurry dropped the shield and the rain returned, pounding down fur and feathers. “Look around at Equestria. You’re going to try and say this is just a lover’s quarrel?”
“I…” Gilda groaned and released Rainbow’s muzzle. “No. Fuck.” She shook her head. “Average griffon ain’t getting a fancy marriage at the end of this. And the Gods watched Griffonstone turned into a shithole. Not going to buy a Crusade. The first one was against ponies, not for them.”
Flurry tipped her head back and let the rain flood across her muzzle and run down her neck. Thorax said it would start another war. The water trailed down the six jewels in her crystal crown. I'll spend the rest of my life at war. Find one thing and hold onto it...
She had no idea.
“What’s it going to take?” Flurry asked, shaking her head. The alicorn stood from the gravel.
Gilda licked the end of her beak, then waved a wing. “Dash, you wanna fly? Princess is gonna cut off the convoys.” She rolled an eye to Flurry. “Let’s start with flying for the right side, Princess.”
Rainbow looked to Flurry Heart. Her mohawk was plastered to the side of her muzzle from the rain. “Yeah, I can kill some bugs right about now.”
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Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha........XD
Christ, I needed that after this deppressing chapter. Burn em all, Flurry! Woooooo!
You really do feel bad for Rainbow Dash. She is the only one still fighting for Equestria when all of her other friends have either given up, got PTSD or are in a coma. You can only hope that once this war is over things will get better but Equestria has a long long time to heal and I doubt the River Federation is going to wait if they plan on attacking the Griffion Empire. Also we now have more confirmation that Chrysalis is preparing another nuke that, if I had to take a guess, she is going to drop right on the front lines once Flurry gets back to it.
Also "The kitchen was no less cramped than the kitchen" I don't think that is worded correctly.
Is it bad that this is what I fixate on and think "where's the smelting stack and conveyor belts?"
Well. Seems like the bugs have uranium isotope centrifuging around. I wonder if they'll use a plutonium or uranium bomb. Bears and Posada are the only ones nutty enough to do a hydrogen bomb. Bears lack the resources. Makes me curious if the bugs have kovarex enrichment, too. Probably do.
Pinkie has PTSD something serious. Complete Shutdown which isn't a good thing. Trapped in her own mind essentially. She might come out of it herself eventually or stay like that for years. It might not even be the reason she has it. Pinkie might have known that her parents, her sisters, were gonna die. She might sensed that one tragedy upcoming and she has been shocked into being catatonic.
And RD is on her way to PTSD herself. She is the last. Pinkie is catatonic, Applejack a collaborator, Rarity unwilling to fight anymore, Fluttershy in hiding, and Twilight might as well be dead.
Lord I love this story
I'm not really looking forward to a few chapters of Flurry and her army curbstomping fleeing civilians, no matter how "cool" and "awesome" it will be.
I just hope Chrysalis and Flurry kill eachother with the nuke, now that would be cool.
I feel like Pinkie
ah, all the liberated slaves have radiation poisoning, also the changelings might have nukes now, thats not good.
Didn’t AJ say she was killed back during the Great War?
11716541
It should be noted that Kovarex enrichment is a Factorio thing; it's not real. Something like that could be possible with magic, I suppose.
11716596
It does appear that Maud rotated them enough that she's the only one with advanced cancers, though presumably everyone's risk is up do to the complete lack of dust control (which is the real risk of uranium mining; the uranium itself is mostly harmless unless you eat it or something).
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Flurry's going after the proper army attempting to evacuate at Las Pegasus across the bay to Olenia. (You think the Changeling Hegemony is wasting resources evacuating civilians first? They don't want them to evacuate at all. Stand and fight for the glory of Chrysalis!)
Flurry did, however, tell the dragons to go full-dragon on the gap, the highway to Las Pegasus that Grover left open. It's a mix of soldiers, mechanized armor, fuel trucks, supply trucks, and workers for Chrysalis' extraction corporation/Rockfeller's monopoly. Dragons are absolutely overkill, but they're available. The standard army is strung-out from the collapsing frontline. You are correct that it is morally horrific to order. Flurry looked around at the quarries and wandered through former Buffalo land; her sense of mercy is pretty numb right now.
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Rainbow and Flurry both operate on the "Doomguy Method" of PTSD. Can't have trauma if you are the traumatic event!
They are both very traumatized.
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Rainbow being "Last Mare Standing" for the Elements seems fitting. She's the only one with "military" training from the Wonderbolts pre-war. And she's always been a little...callous...or dismissive of threats, even with her hidden insecurities. Out of all of them, Rainbow and Applejack had the best mindset to really fight in a war. Rarity's a distant third. Fluttershy and Pinkie absolutely do not. And Twilight will come up eventually.
Pinkie is a warning for Flurry to stop trying to carry it all on herself. She's hit points where she just shuts down for periods of time, or runs herself so ragged she's stumbling. (Going to Blackpeak early on to talk, outside Canterlot with the surrender. Flurry doesn't even clearly remember accepting Alcippe's surrender or firing the laser at Canterlot post-battle.) It's easy to see Pinkie mentally pushing herself again and again and again to that point over the years until she just ran out of spirit to recover. Maud told Flurry outright that she sees the same behavior in the alicorn.
11716612
She killed a changeling disguised as Maud, not Maud herself. Probably smiled too much.
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Morally horrific or not, it is arguably legitimate under the laws of war; it's essentially identical circumstances to the Highway of Death in the Iraq-Kuwait war, which remains legally controversial, but there remains debate over whether it was a war crime to this day, and IIRC more the consensus leans towards "probably not".
Well. Thorax is gonna be busy trying to fill in all the blanks Maud’s stuff is gonna have (e.g. what they have in the Changeling Lands).
11716623
Taps forehead
Can’t break Geneva Conventions Equivalent if they never existed in the first place
11716623
Glances at outline: "Flurry Heart orders the Highway of Death."
I'm not exactly subtle about historical allusions. The burning oil wells were already a hint.
Okay, so shit. Pinkie's broken, changelings got are rushing to build a bomb. The changeling RETREAT is turning into a massacre. And the race to los pegasus is on.
Maud, good on you. May have given up. But helped as many as you can. Ember and her Dragons are still catching getting to speed on about how much Equestria has changed. And gilda now knows one of the most dangerous pieces of information imaginable. And Rainbow just realized how alone she is in this new world.
overall. One trek ends. And we now head right into a shit storm of continental proportions.
So Pinkie is catatonic and Maud is dying from radiation poisoning. Not surprised to be honest. Pinkie and Fluttershy always struck me as being the least likely to be able to mentally cope with the war, especially with the added stress of command.
Flurry now has documentation pointing towards Chrysalis attempting to build a nuke. Question is, is there anyone on Flurry's side that's smart enough to understand exactly what Chrysalis is doing? Grover might, but he might not recognize the project just from a materials list.
Funny how between Flurry, Grover, and Ember, Ember might be the least ruthless, at least when it comes to noncombatants in a combat zone.
Poor RD, her only friend from the M6 left is Rarity, but their views differ enough that things are tense between them. She might forgive AJ eventually, but probably not till after the war. And Futtershy is still MIA, and she might just stay in hiding for the rest of her life.
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Kovarex being mentioned should tell you how much Factorio has taken over my Gregtech-addled brain
The Griffonian Empire is the world's largest country, with what I imagine to be an absolute monster of a military-industrial and R&D complex as a result of the Griffonian Unification Wars. Even though griffons suck at active magic (nukes in EaW are this not really properly defined mix of nuclear fusion and magic crystal bs) I really see no way they're blind to the concept. And since Grover is in charge as an absolute monarch, he surely knows something.
As per the Table of Contents, the teased title of this act's final chapter is The Wind that Fanned the Flames. Now that's a bit ominous if you ask me...
All I can do is bring up the timeless classic of a video:
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"It's take being invaded,I don't recommend it"
"Good advice for my aunt"
11716619
Yeah I feel numb too.
I wonder, are we getting the "R*pe of Berlin" as a historical allusion as well, or will ponies suddenly grow a consciousness? Or maybe something less dramatic such as a "Dresden"? After all, like flurry said, "go all dragon on them". As you can see, I'm very excited to see if anything will change after they reach Hegemony home territory.
Still on team let them kill eachother with the nuke.
A random suggestion regarding the nukes: Chrysalis' should nuke Griffonstone.
It would be both an impressive feat, showing that VOPS is still quite capable and a threat (we've heard a lot about them, and yet we haven't seen them do anything), and an incredibly stupid and insanely counterproductive move worthy of EaW's Chrysalis.
Now the question is can she trust Grover with that knowledge or even her own people? Or maybe she is right and the Griffonians already know. Also I'm assuming Rainbow has survivors guilt. If so, then maybe sending her back up to the sky won't be a good thing for her.
One more thing.
Now I know that is not a conversation flurry wanted to have but I'm glad it happened.
It's sad that Raimbow Dash realized that she's the only one who still has the will to fight, that the others either gave up long ago or fell under the pressure.
11716619
I wonder who Flurry's emotional pillar will be, she needs one
On an unrelated note, I really hope Raimbow survives this war, she deserves to at least know that all her fighting wasn't in vain, I also hope Pinkie recovers, It doesn't seem likely, but a person can hope
And also, what is Cozy doing, it's been a while since I heard from her, is she doing her job right?
I’m wondering if the news that Chrysalis is working on The Bomb may lead to them trying to find Fluttershy. In the mod, she gave a bonus to nuclear research and she actually proposed work on it because having a bomb so horrible would prevent anyone from attacking anyone else. She actually proposed peace through M.A.D.
11716875
Looks at the title of the story and the tags
I truly wonder who it will be...
We know from the show that equas magic won't work in lings land , I wonder....?
11716881
Which is blatant reference to Fallout: Equestria. Given what happened in that story, let's hope Fluttershy will not be found.
11716541
Most of the manufacturing isn’t done near where material is mined, typically it’s hauled to a proper industrial area, because the location you’re getting the resources from tends to move a lot
11716623
Yeah I never really got “The Highway of Death is a war crime” thing
A hospital is no longer protected if it has a flak gun on it.
A school is no longer protected if soldiers are stationed inside it.
But a highway crammed with Iraqi soldiers is no longer fine because civilians are on it?
Some it is probably “hur dur USA always bad” but for everyone else, why?
Well that's what happened when a girl who only baked cake in her life sended to kill others in field. War is tough for rough people, it's a griffon job.
Hold up. My third time through this chapter and something clicked into my brain as wrong.
That is not true.
At least it shouldn't be true according to this story.
I'm going to throw you back to chapter thirteen, where Rainbow and Flurry discuss having that wing made in Nova Griffonia. About a continent away from Maud.
Funny what you misremember over the years, eh Rainbow?
Btw you don't need to change this in my opinion. Considering no one else has pointed it out it is pretty much forgotten and the scene does serve a good purpose in this chapter. As in it gives Flurry an excuse to remove what is essentially a bunch of knives from someone who is very close to having a mental breakdown.
11722798
Well, damn it. Nice catch. Fixed. Maud helped develop the process for functional prosthetic wings during the war, then.
It's a hint at her intelligence and a reference. There's a few fics floating around where Maud helped make Rainbow's wing in the alternative timelines. EaW mod timeline, Rainbow loses her wing at some point during the Great War, depends on if Equestria wins or the ELF wins afterwards.
I had her lose it during the ELF's desperate assault on Canterlot. It just adds to the futility, really. Twilight was already evacuated via armored train and the ELF broke its jaw trying to take the mountain. Starlight gambled everything on a rigged game. Rainbow's got a 'BJ Blazkowicz' level hatred of Changelings by this point; her metal wing has gained enough of a kill count for Flurry to judge it as a weapon.
“So what if the Princess has shit taste? I wasn’t exactly sold on the Princess of Love marrying a nerd that overanalyzed Ogres & Oubliettes.”
Flurry gave Rainbow a dark look.
This is the precise spot where I lost my shit. Well done, sir.
The absolute BEST part of this chapter. You can just imagine Flurry thinking "oh fu-"
"What the fuck?"
"Yeah, pretty much that."