Part One Hundred & Sixteen
Grover held up his claw on the balcony, squinting upwards into the sunlight.
He could no longer see through it. It was still a dark grayish-brown crystal, but it actually blocked the noonday sun filtering through the pink shield. Grover lowered his claw to the railing and swept his head east to west. The edges of the circular dome were visible long before the horizon, and dark clouds gathered to the southwest. A crystal talon tapped on the shattered crystal railing. It sounded like two spoons dinging together.
The last of the Imperial delegation left behind him, and he screwed his tail in a counter-clockwise motion. The bob clinked on the balcony floor. “Dismissed.”
There was a shuffling of boots and paws as the dogs followed the ponies. None of the Bronzehill engineers dealt with truly becoming ‘diamond dogs’ that well, but they pushed through at Grover’s lack of reaction. The surveying and mapping continued along the rail lines.
And the Crystal City continued as it had done the days before. On the balcony, Grover could see the smoke from the outer factories and trucks moving in convoys from the mines. Ponies walked along the sides of cobblestone streets in rigid squares. The Imperial Army had left the city to the guards, and the citizens marched to work.
If they wanted to overthrow her, they could. The Reichsarmee had always maintained a presence in the palace and capital, complemented with knightly orders sworn to the Temple of Boreas. Therefore, they were also sworn to defend the bloodline of Grover the Great. The guards in the Crystal City were watching for infiltrators, not the citizens themselves.
A train left the westward station with a few overloaded flat cars trailing behind it. Grover had to squint, but the tubes of rocket artillery were clearly visible on dozens of trucks. The engine chugged along with a whistle before it hit the shield wall, gaining speed beyond the pink bubble.
The shield no longer prevented weapons from passing through. It was double the size now than under the reign of Princess Cadance, and high up enough that clouds gathered in the interior. A few pairs of griffons or pegasi pushed clouds over the flat farmland beyond the train station. Dots tilled the land underneath them.
Beyond the wall, the tundra remained ice and snow. The tracks would need habitual clearing, and the engineers had already drafted a snowplow to smash through obstacles. Several more lines were going to connect to Nova Griffonia and Stalliongrad.
Severyana and the Imperial Coast. The Princess switched between the names depending on who she was currently speaking with. She also switches between ‘everyone’ and ‘everypony.’ Most did not bother. All the proper paperwork used the new names, and so would the Griffonian Reich. It did not truly matter where the Empire ended and Equestria began for now, but after the war…
Grover watched a city churn in absolute obedience to one monarch. To her Imperial subjects, Princess Twilight Sparkle was the Miracle of the North’s beloved aunt. The Lord Regent Spike Sparkle was Sir Spike, the Brave and Glorious. The Crystal Empire was just one city supported by mines and oil fields, but the city was growing as he watched.
“It’s a good view, isn’t it?” a high-pitched voice offered sweetly in Herzlander.
“Yes,” Grover looked back as he spoke. “Nearly as good as my palace-”
The griffon snapped his head back to the expanse and felt his feathers flex under the Reichstone. He was acutely aware a ripple probably ran through the crystal. The ringing giggle indicated he was correct in that assumption.
“Blessed Boreas,” he exhaled into the air. “Stop that.”
“It’s an intimidation tactic and it works,” the Princess returned teasingly. “What? Did the Trinity spit you out from the sky fully clothed?”
“We were given the sense to wear clothes,” Grover scoffed. He pushed himself back from the railing and turned around with closed wings. He tugged his gloves on dismissively. Despite the warm springtime air inside the shield, he continued to wear gloves and a black overcoat over a dress shirt and sash. His undershirt was soaked at the end of every day, but he looked the part of the Kaiser.
Princess Flurry Heart was naked except a crown, as she had been for the past three days. The jeweled, purple crystal band threatened to disappear into the swirls of her mane that ran to her wing muscles. The alicorn sprawled across one of the desks, seemingly tracing her hoof over a map of Equus. Her long, lean legs stretched out below a taut barrel hidden by oversized wings. One wing listlessly swung off the side of the table, tapping a pencil along the floor pinched between two primary feathers.
A ripple ran red through her pink muzzle, flashing into sparkles below her eyes when she waggled her eyebrows at the Kaiser. She currently broke every decency law in Griffenheim Palace. Grover snapped his eyes away before reaching her cutie marks. She may be able to contest her wings are a natural form of dress.
“I am only doing it because it works,” Flurry commented. “It’s adorable watching all your grizzled dogs turn into puppies.” She flicked her purple and blue tail but kept it mercifully at her flanks. “You know, Celestia attended most of her diplomatic meetings naked.”
Grover let a growl escape and shook his head. He stalked over to the table and waved her back with a claw, standing opposite the crystalized alicorn. Flurry shuffled away and put all four hooves on the floor with a chime.
“The war plan,” the griffon prompted. “We caught them by surprise.” He stared down at the map and took her place, tracing a talon along the rail lines to the northwestern mountain range within the Hegemony’s territory.
“Heartsong and Yona are confident our mountaineers can push up and hold,” Flurry said. “The southern front along the old shield wall will need to be relieved.” A wing extended and the feathers moved under his talon, tracing along the map with a sheen. Her primaries were more purple than pink.
“Ignatius is already moving.” He moved his talon past the feathers and jabbed at the revised frontline. “The Hegemony and the Reich have to reorganize, but we have the advantage. One push through western Equestria to the border under a bolstered Army Group Center.”
The feathers bent and moved upwards, poking at the various black teardrops on the map. “With my oil fields.” The wing lifted and a shadow passed over Grover’s beak. The glowing crystal lights on the ceiling cast a burst of rainbows as they filtered through the feathers.
“And here,” Flurry added with a poke on the Equestrian south. “Governor Rockfeller and Governor Lily are briefed. We ship to the refineries in the Crystal City, Stalliongrad, and Hollow Shades, then to the army.”
Grover moved his talon under hers to Las Pegasus and the scattering of metal figures gathered on the port. “The dragons hit Olenia first with Queen Velvet’s forces. She claims there will be an uprising. The trailblazers follow.”
“She’s part of the first wave?” Flurry poked at a crystal deer on the table. More were scattered across Olenia in rough estimations of garrisons and resistance fighters. The quartz-white deer outnumbered the black, but barely.
“Dragon Lord Ember and Queen Velvet are landing in Hjortland with the support of the New Mareland divisions,” Grover reminded her.
“You don’t feel bad all the mares are doing the work while you sit at a desk and look at maps?” Flurry asked with a lilt, and Grover did not need to look up to know her grin was glittering.
“No,” he said placidly. “That is why griffons are patriarchal. It is the natural order of things.”
“Dick.” The feathers slapped his glove. “I’m not making you a sandwich.”
“I have seen your eating habits. Whatever you would make would be inedible.”
“Maybe I would actually be trying to kill you. Henrik’s still the real Grover anyway.” There was a mutual clearing of throats at the door. The alicorn and the griffon looked over in unison.
Benito’s muzzle was dark, and Frosty Jadis looked equally unimpressed. They stood on opposite sides of the hallway door, and a paw and hoof tapped on the floor. Grover tapped his glasses back up his beak with a casual claw.
“There’s no one outside,” Flurry said in Equestrian. She tossed her head back. “Lighten up, Jadis. No one’s going to overhear me thrashing nerdbird.”
The crystal pony frowned harder, and her blue muzzle brightened. Sparkles ran through her white mane. “I have now ‘lightened up,’ Princess.” She stared flatly across the room.
Benito regarded her with a scrunched muzzle. “That is an interesting trick.”
“It takes practice.”
The alicorn rolled icy eyes. “I finally brought a colt to my room. Can’t you just be proud of me?”
Grover blinked and looked around the office. Desks piled with reports and papers ran the length of the walls, and the chairs occupied by the command staff had been abandoned and scattered. He tried to imagine the dimensions of the room, then placed it mentally in his map of the palace. “This was your bedroom?”
“Changelings turned it into an office,” Flurry deadpanned. “I sleep in my parent’s bedroom.” Her muzzle quirked. “Shit, that sounds weird.”
“I sleep in the same room my father died in,” Grover offered.
The alicorn’s eyes literally flashed and it brightened the purple and blue swirls of her mane. “Fuck. What’s that like?”
“Different mattress and sheets. Same bedframe.”
“Cloud mattress?”
Grover gave her a hooded look. Obviously, yes. He made a show of extending his wings and listening to the crystalized feathers pop into place.
Flurry loosed a low chuckle. “Crystal bedframes. Is the Kaiser too uncomfortable?”
“I can bear it another night,” Grover said flippantly. He waved a claw back to the map. “Any longer and I am stealing a cloud to sleep on.”
Benito growled and his tail thudded into the wall with a clink. “No, my Kaiser.”
Grover allowed himself a slight laugh. His voice cracked, and this time he did notice a dark ripple across his beak. He clacked it shut.
Flurry bit her lower lip. “My accent sounds like shit.”
Grover sniffed and looked own at the map. He leaned on the table with both arms and swept an intense stare over the lines of little metal tanks facing small changelings. “Dragon Lord Ember has orders to burn the oil fields in Olenia. We starve them out.”
Flurry nodded after a moment.
“Do you believe she will follow that order?”
“Velvet will probably try to talk her out of it,” Flurry assessed with a hum. “Until dragons die. They’ll burn it to the ground.”
That was my assessment. The griffon finally looked to the largest figurine on the table. A purple crystal alicorn in heavy armor stood above all the knights and changelings, almost large enough to be an actual toy. It had stood off to the side and kept one of the corners flat.
“My armorer made that,” Flurry shrugged a wing. “Said the one you brought was too small.”
“I doubt he ever saw the one we made,” Grover scoffed.
“Nope. Still thought it was too small.”
Grover ground his beak together. “We need to make as much progress as possible for the coming months. We push them to their original borders, then close on the peninsula.” He drummed his claws along the map edge.
The Changeling Lands in northwest Equus had precious little geographical information. It was a scattering of massive Hives and frozen marsh or forbidden forests. Maar’s Hell for tanks. Taking western Equestria, the Empire, and Olenia backed them against a wide front. If we can link all the frontlines before winter we can drive them to the western coast.
It would be grueling. Grover swung his head to the airfields. His bombers had so far been restricted to close air support along the frontlines while fighters bled the Hegemony’s Luftwaffe. Invading a race of shapeshifters that can turn into rocks. No wonder none tried before.
Olenia had skirmished with them for centuries, long enough for myths and fables of changelings replacing fawns in the crib with their own disguised young to feed on the love of unsuspecting parents. The truth was doubtlessly more practical and crueler; they raided a town, kidnapped the deer, then sucked all they could out of them. His left wing tightened against the pistol.
“Western airfields and we bomb them every step of the way,” Grover planned aloud.
“Thorax will be King of the Changelings,” Flurry returned.
“Do you expect them to surrender?” Grover peered up at her over the rims of his glasses. “This war is the Second Grand Crusade. There can be no negotiations. Chrysalis dies.”
“She will never surrender to us,” Flurry whickered. “She dies with her lies. You will support Thorax officially. Velvet will try to fight it.”
“Just so,” Grover agreed. “Do you plan on making another radio announcement?”
Flurry looked to Jadis. The crystal pony shrugged. “Sure,” the alicorn said. “I’ll just repeat what I said yesterday. Do you want a mention this time?”
“Keep it to fire and blood.” Grover reached over and grabbed the little armored alicorn with a full claw. He set it in the mountains to the west. “Good luck, Princess of Ponies.”
Flurry stared down at it and her muzzle glittered a darker pink before she frowned. Her wings flapped restlessly against her sides. “Is that where you think I should be?”
Grover kept his claw on the alicorn. He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
“I can fire lasers through mountains,” the alicorn shrugged a wing, “but we have rockets now. I don’t know how useful I’ll be up there.”
“We shall be happy to have you wherever you stand,” Jadis nickered. “Including this palace.” The dog nodded beside her after a moment of hesitation.
Flurry Heart stepped away from the table. Her horn glowed gold and the dozens of chairs moved around the room, sliding across the smooth floor to their desks. She made the spell look effortless, and it probably was for her. The pink horn sparkled at the tip, then dimmed. Grover watched the spark flicker down the length of her horn to the base.
When he squinted, he still saw the blue flash in her barrel every heartbeat. He had not said anything about it openly over the past few days, and the griffon had a suspicion she already knew. He picked up the figure and held it upright in his palm.
“I need to fight.” The alicorn paced along the exterior tables. “I’ll hit the hardest where the fighting is thickest; that’s going to be in western Equestria.”
“Tall Tale to Vanhoover,” Grover said. “Our armored cores will face each other on the plains, and the urban combat will be intense.”
Jadis shook her head. “Princess-”
“Which one?” Flurry interrupted. “I am the Princess of the Crystal Empire and Equestria. The Empire is mine. I own the whole territory. Equestria is still under the Changelings. I have to fight for it.”
Grover looked over a wing to the city beyond the broken balcony. “You could remain in Canterlot with the Lord Regent.”
“Are you?” Flurry asked. “Are you going back to Griffenheim?”
“No,” Grover squawked. He caught his tone and sighed. “I will remain in Canterlot until the frontline advances further. I will follow it.”
“My Kaiser!” Benito snarled.
“I cannot leave the continent!” Grover snapped back with a gnashing beak. “Not while a stripling dragon and a crippled doe fight with my army!” His claw shook the alicorn figurine at the dog. “Certainly not with her in the field!”
There was a clink of hooves to his left. Grover shut his eyes and placed the alicorn back down on the map. “I misspoke.”
“Is that still a problem?” Flurry asked in Aquileian. Her voice was soft.
“I am far more worried about the River Federation than my reputation,” Grover stated shortly in the same language. “They have increased their border exercises. I need this war won quickly.”
Grover heard the hum of a spell and he opened his eyes. A golden bubble shield surrounded the table, and he had a split-second to see Benito open his muzzle to shout before the shield flashed and turned opaque. Flurry Heart stood across from the table with drooping wings.
“If this is going to cause tension post-war,” the alicorn sighed, “I’ll stop fighting.”
“You are an alicorn,” Grover scoffed with a hard clack. “It does not matter what you do, only what you can do.”
“Well, I can’t cast love spells,” Flurry replied. “That was my mother’s thing. Even then, it didn’t work the way Benito thinks it did.”
Grover tapped the alicorn figure with a glove. “It does not matter. I am not here because you seduced me.”
“Of course you aren’t. I’m fucking ugly,” Flurry laughed.
Grover would have let it go as her crass humor, except her muzzle did not glitter or ripple despite the gaiety in her tone. It remained flushed with a dark pink. That was not a joke.
“You’re…” Grover’s cheeks pulled into a frown. Beautiful. “You are not ugly.”
Flurry lifted her wings and touched the edges of the fairly large bubble shield with her wingtips. She rolled her eyes and smirked. “There is such a thing as too much wing.” She waved her scarred leg and gestured to her barrel. “I’m wings attached to legs, remember?”
“That is not what I meant.”
“It’s true,” Flurry dismissed. “I shovel food into my mouth, and I’m still a stick. My mother was the Princess of Love. Stallions were compelled to turn their heads in her direction.” She leered at the ceiling. “Both of them, I’m sure.”
Grover stared at the lean muscle rippling through her foreleg. “You have the body of a sprinter,” he offered.
“Nopony calls Rainbow Dash attractive,” Flurry snorted. She smacked her lips. “My muzzle’s too narrow. Mom and Aunt Twilight had good, rounded-”
Say it. “You are beautiful.” Grover felt his feathers flush along his head and both his wings. “For a pony,” he amended. Coward.
“Hooves are a deal breaker,” Flurry wiggled her hoof on the table and set it down on the floor. “Compliments from you don’t count.”
Grover removed the Reichstone and set it down atop the table. He ran a glove through his head feathers. “You…” his eyes drifted to the map. “Ride with the tanks through the plains. Fight with the knights. The Reichsarmee owes you after the Celestial Plain. And you will inspire your army regardless.”
“If it’s too much on an issue-”
“I do not give a damn about it,” Grover purred. He felt the vibration deep in his chest. “Let them call me a coward at the war table.” The griffon nudged the figurine into the center of the map. “Fight for your people like you wrote once before.”
Flurry nodded slowly, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “Okay,” she said softly.
“What do you think of the plan?”
“Seriously?” Flurry whickered. “I’m an idiot. It seems fine, but you’re better off asking Rainbow Dash.”
“You asked her about the storm dispersals,” Grover pointed out.
“And I trust her word that they’ll stop in a week,” Flurry puffed her cheeks out with a glitter. “She’s a great weatherpony and a decent Air Marshal.”
Grover suppressed a laugh and his tail bobbed against the sleeve of his pants. He braced an elbow on the table and stared flatly at the alicorn. “You know why Celestia attended meetings naked, right? It is well-known in Griffonia.”
“Crown and carcanet are recognized as a state of dress in Equestria,” Flurry countered.
“Her tail flowed around her flank. And she was very tall.” Grover made a line of sight with two talons and traced it across the room. “All she had to do was walk in front of a pony.”
“Gross,” Flurry stuck her tongue out. “Is that what Griffonians think about? You can’t see anything through her tail. You’d know that if she ever bothered to show up and visit, but I guess your entire religion would collapse.”
“Celestia wishes she was the bride of Boreas,” Grover waved a claw. “Words are wind.”
“I know dirty jokes,” Flurry insisted. Her eyes narrowed. “I heard griffons can get stuck.”
Grover openly laughed at her squint. “Are you actually a virgin?”
She blinked several times. “A what?”
Grover stopped laughing. He searched for a way to explain. “Have you ever…” he trailed off and did not restart. The alicorn folded her wings on the other side of the table. Flurry bared her teeth.
“Yeah, my ‘spring flower’ has bloomed. That’s what crystal ponies call it. I’m seventeen.”
Grover braced both his elbows on the table and made a gesture under his beak. Flurry squinted further in confusion. He looked between his claws and her hooves. Shit.
“Wait,” Flurry tossed her head, “are you asking if I’ve had sex or not?" She looked mortified. "Herzlanders have a word for that? That’s repressive. I thought the ‘wait until marriage’ thing was about noble assurances or whatever?”
“Is that how it’s treated in Equestria?” Grover asked with mild horror. He spread his claws out. “It’s a sacred bond between the husband, wife, and the Gods-”
“It’s an expression of love!” Flurry sputtered. “We walk around naked normally. You think we’re prudes about it?”
Grover failed to say anything.
The alicorn giggled. “No, I haven’t.”
“You are expected to wear a wedding dress,” Grover sighed.
“Of course,” Flurry rolled her eyes. “We aren’t barbarians. It’s a formal occasion.”
Grover places his beak in his claws.
“Have you?” the alicorn asked teasingly. “Are you a, uh, vegan?”
“Virgin,” Grover corrected. “I am not answering.”
“That’s an answer all on its own,” Flurry said sagely. Her horn flashed and the shield burst into sparkles. Grover swung his head to Benito and Jadis. They had not moved from their positions at the door. The dog had not even drawn his sword. Both looked immensely disappointed.
“I was worried you might have killed each other,” the Princess said to her crystal pony.
“We have much in common,” Jadis whickered.
“Just so,” Benito agreed.
Flurry clomped a hoof onto the floor with the sound of a gong. Her muzzle brightened and she smiled. Grover watched a trail of sparkles flash across her coat from her mane to her tail.
“Hey,” she turned her neck to peer down at him. “You wanna do something fun before you leave?” She swung her head back to Jadis. “The ballroom’s just storage, right?”
The crystal pony’s expression softened. “Yes, Princess.”
Flurry trotted in place. “Awesome. Jadis, lead the way. Kaiser Grover? Come see how crystal ponies dance. My mother loved it.”
The griffon pushed himself up from the desk. The swirls of the alicorn’s mane bounced around her muzzle, but it remained shaded a darker pink. Her grin seemed more fragile than he had previously assessed. A lifetime of watching eyes instead of beaks.
“Sure,” Grover agreed.
The alicorn beamed and trotted out with a flashing tail. The purple and blue curls bounced happily with her trot. Grover watched a burning Crystal Heart on her flank vanish as she scampered into the hallway.
Benito coughed into his paw.
“I was not staring at that,” Grover said in Herzlander. He placed the Reichstone back atop his head and snapped a claw for Benito to follow behind him. The dog muttered something under his breath that the griffon pretended not to hear at all.
The scattered guards along the hallway bowed as their Princess swept past them. All of the crystal ponies were wearing the snow-white uniforms with black boots and wore weapons at their side. The alicorn pumped her wings with flexing crystal feathers for them to rise, but she did not break her stride. Jadis led the way down a staircase.
The crystal ponies stared at Grover as he walked by. Before the war, how many had seen a griffon? The look of intense disinterest in their eyes made the fur on his neck prickle into his feathers. Benito mirrored him with a paw on his holster and the other drifting around his sheathed sword on the other hip.
“These ponies are not Equestrians,” Grover said to him in Aquileian. The crystal ponies offered no reaction to the foreign language.
“No,” the dog agreed. “They lack the subdued hostility.”
“Yet you seem more tense.”
Benito’s upper lip twitched. “An enemy seething in hate may make mistakes. These ponies...” the dog’s ears flicked. He had cut down the fur atop his head back to its usual short length.
“These ponies do not hate us,” Benito continued in a lower voice. “There is only duty in their eyes. They welcome us because the Princess ordered it. They will kill us the moment the Princess orders it.”
“You sound impressed,” Grover observed. “You are describing Bronzehill.”
“And like Bronzehill,” Benito huffed, “I fear what will happen should the Princess fall. When your ancestor fell beyond Lake City, the dogs fought to the death around his body. Not a single one left the field.”
Grover followed the Princess and her pony down a staircase without a further comment. Benito took the steps slightly slower with a puff. He is getting old. In all technicality, he should have already stepped down, but they needed age and experience in this war, not fresh-furred pups.
“How is Maya?” the Kaiser asked in Herzlander.
“Well, my Kaiser,” Benito replied. He did not say more about his wife.
Grover took the hint and let it go. Ahead of him, the Princess and Jadis slowed. Flurry matched her steps with the limping crystal pony. She looked back over a wing with a glittering muzzle for a moment.
He had not seen this part of the palace for obvious reasons. Boxes and crates were strewn about the hallways, and the guards thinned. One large room had been converted into a barracks and filled with cots; another was a mess hall with long tables and low benches. Beyond the throne room, the ground floor of the Crystal Palace was nothing but war materiel.
The pair stopped before a set of double doors with no guards and the alicorn’s horn pushed them open. The crystal doors rang like bells, then one caught on the floor and squealed. Flurry snorted and kicked it the rest of the way with a casual buck.
“That’s a good sign,” she said to Jadis.
“The enchantment is still functional, Princess,” the mare offered.
“Cool.” Flurry stepped through the doors.
The griffon and dog followed into a wide, spacious room of sparkling blue crystal that was partially filled with crates. The floor was depressed in the center and the high, vaulted ceiling twisted with sharp angles at the corners. Grover paused before the short steps leading down to the central floor. The crystal glittered under unlit chandeliers, fracturing into thousands of snowflakes that blew across the surface and swirled.
Benito hummed. “A curious enchantment.”
“That’s not all this does.” Flurry Heart walked around the raised floor. She levitated dozens of boxes at once across the lower floor with the sound of low gongs, shoving them to one side of the room. She cleared a small space just before the doors and stared critically at the floor before tensing her legs. The alicorn leapt into a glide and slammed into the floor on shiny pink hooves.
Grover recognized the resulting chime as E major. He cocked his head. Flurry smirked at the motion, then jaunted her left legs to the side, using her wings for balance. Her hooves skipped several flats and moved into C major. Grover watched the crystal flash under her hooves and chime.
Jadis tugged on the doors by a crystal loop and dragged them shut. Benito noticed and shut the other. The sound of the ‘notes’ immediately improved, reverberating through the ballroom instead of spilling out into the hallway.
Flurry stamped a hind leg slightly off-balance and a warbling b-flat echoed. She stopped. “Ah, shit,” she squeaked. “Hang on.” Her movements became slower and stiffer as she rocked on her hooves. The triangles of her ears pivoted while she listened to the pitch change.
“Is this a giant piano?” Grover asked.
“Rude,” Flurry snorted. “This is over a thousand years old. It predates pianos.” Her wings flared out and swept around the room. “Welcome to the Crystal Ballroom!”
Grover looked at the boxes of foodstuffs that partially ruined the acoustics.
“Don’t look at those!” Flurry caught his stare. Her wings clanked to the floor and her primary feathers tapped out a rhythm on both sides, playing the floor like piano keys. She moved up C-major on her right wing, and down C-major on her left.
“This used to be the Crystal Hall,” Jadis said from the doors. She took up a position opposite Benito and watched her Princess dance an awkward jig with bent legs and tapping wings. “Princess Cadenza wished to modernize.”
"It only works for crystal ponies or if you're crystalized." Flurry stood and began to stomp harder. The notes changed and turned more bombastic. She moved closer to the boxes and dragged the notes lower. Grover recognized the time signature, though the notes were off-key.
“In the Hall of the Mountain King is usually not in-”
“I am doing this by memory with four hooves,” Flurry snorted. She skipped several notes and visibly tried to remember. A hoof tapped on the floor and a different note sounded each time. “You made me lose concentration.”
Grover rolled his eyes and walked down. His claws touched the crystal swirling with snowflakes on the interior. After a pause, he tapped his talons along the floor with his eyes on the alicorn in the distance.
Nothing happened. The griffon felt a pulse of color wash across his beak. He frowned at his claws and repeated the movement. His gloves failed to make the floor light up. His paws did the same when he stepped fully onto the floor. As a last resort, he lowered a wing and tapped the crystal with a bent feather.
It chimed. He stared at the alicorn suppressing a giggle, then slapped the bob of his tail down behind him. The floor rang with F-sharp. Flurry laughed with the sound of windchimes and kicked her hooves out. The four notes failed to sound like anything but noise.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “No gloves or shoes.”
Grover looked down at his leather gloves, then suddenly kicked his paws. He knocked his shoes off one at a time. He tossed his gloves over a wing. The sudden motion made the Reichstone tilt. Grover removed it more gingerly and set it down on the edge of the tallest step. He turned back to Flurry on all fours. His paws and claws pricked the crystal with four discordant notes.
“Think about it,” Flurry advised. The mare stepped a quick jig forward, and most of the notes flowed together. She halted two wingspans from the Kaiser. “Watch the energy you put into it.”
“What does that even mean?” Grover complained. He modulated how hard his talons plucked at the crystal and listened to the notes. Lighter with less force. He thought of the opening of a song and tried it with his right claw. The sound barely echoed up from the floor.
“Designed for hooves,” Flurry commented. “This isn’t a piano. This is hoedown shit.”
Grover stared flatly up at her. “You want me to bruise my paws and claws trying to match hooves?”
“Come on,” Flurry threw her head back. The crystal band glittered in time with a ripple through her chest. The blue spark flashed deep in her barrel. Grover glanced back to Jadis and Benito, but they offered no reaction. I would not spot it if I was not looking for it.
“If I have to learn fancy dancing for the wedding, you have to learn fun dancing for the honeymoon,” Flurry continued. “No time like the present.”
“You may not even live till the wedding with your habits,” Grover retorted.
Flurry’s grin stalled for a moment and her eyes flickered. “Archon Proteus is around. Can’t he do a battlefield marriage?” She raised a hoof to her muzzle and tapped against her chin. “Might be hard to hear the vows over the gunfire and screaming.”
“Fine,” Grover accepted. He stepped along the edges of the floor, trying to see if the notes sounded different depending on where he stood. The crystal flashed under each step and the snowflakes scattered. “How does this work?”
“Duel,” Flurry shrugged her wings. “Or a duet. Depends on the attitude. You start with four notes. I copy your four, then add my own four. We keep going until one of us fucks up.”
“That is not a hoedown,” Grover remarked.
“It is a joust,” Jadis announced from the door. “The musical joust is well-loved in the Crystal Empire.” The crystal pony leaned against the wall and unslung her rifle. She laid it casually at her hooves. “If the Kaiser is truly talented, both can dance at once and try to match their notes.”
“I’ll go easy on you since you don’t have hooves,” Flurry grinned. “Freestyle. You start.”
Grover stood on all fours with a neutral expression. He shifted an eye to Benito. The dog leaned against the wall, scanning the room and the boxes. Always alert. He looked back to the grinning alicorn and sat on his haunches with a warbling note. The griffon unhooked his glasses and rubbed them on his overcoat’s sleeve. “What happens if I win?”
“That confident?” Flurry asked back. “I’ll sing.”
“Is that truly a reward?”
“Probably not,” Flurry laughed with the sound of windchimes. “But if I win, you sing. Are you an eagle, or a songbird?”
Grover squinted at her, then hooked his glasses back onto his beak. He shrugged off his coat and flung it to the upper floor. His sash landed in a pile atop it. Grover paused with the clips to his holster, but tugged away the straps and set the pistol down carefully after checking the safety. He stood in his pressed slacks and his long-sleeved dress shirt.
Flurry eyed the slight stains at his wingpits. “Woof.”
Benito barked properly from the door.
The alicorn grimaced and her muzzle flashed a lighter pink. “Sorry!”
Grover spread his talons out and braced his palms on the floor, then began with the first four notes of the Reich’s anthem. They sounded slightly off with the magical reverberations from the floor, and the echo bounced off the boxes. Flurry Heart clearly recognized it from his birthday and rolled her eyes.
“I thought you hated that song.” Her hooves skipped along the floor and replicated it flawlessly, then four unrelated notes moved up the scale. “It’s called freestyle.”
Grover copied his first four notes, then hers, then added the start of In the Hall of the Mountain King with a paw and claw each. The alicorn rolled her eyes again and skipped along the floor with long strides of lean legs. Grover repeated her random notes at the end. He hesitated with a clacking beak and stared down the alicorn’s scowl.
Grover beat out four quick notes with his wings. Flurry raised an eyebrow and repeated the song; she used her wings when he did and kicked her two right legs in unison twice for the four notes in addition.
The griffon matched it with a paw and claw.
They traded two more times before Flurry narrowed her eyes and started while he was in the middle of the set. She stuck her tongue out in concentration as the notes overlapped. The rapid stomps and wing slaps caused the pair to gradually circle each other on the floor as they tried to keep up. Grover’s claws started to sting from the force of striking the floor.
The alicorn and the griffon no longer copied each other; the song twisted into a duet above the swirling snowflakes on the floor, trying to pick notes in time and add to the developing rhythm. Grover had pulled from Clawpin and a half-dozen others, but he could not longer hear their songs echoing in the ballroom.
Flurry kicked her legs out somewhat spastically with a rippling blush. She used her wings to compensate for the movements. Feathers tapped on the floor whenever she bent her legs, and Grover copied the minor notes with his bruised talons.
She has dull hooves. She will win by attrition. Flurry clearly knew it from her knowing smile. Her tail bobbed behind her as she swished it in preemptive victory. The swirls brushed into her hind legs.
Grover affected wide eyes of panic and added more of his rear paws. Flurry copied him to match the notes and they started circling each other again. Her long tail swung more perilously before she finally kicked a leg out too far.
A purple swirl tangled in her pastern and the Princess whinnied in dismay. She hopped on three legs desperately to keep the notes going. An awkward, sad B-flat rang out thrice before she tugged her leg free.
The griffon slapped the bob of his tail down three times and matched the pathetic B-flat. He sighed in relief and shook out his claws. “Blessed Boreas.” He held up his crystal talons and inspected the ends. No need to clip them for a time.
“You cheater,” the Princess spat, but her gleaming smile and high voice made her real opinion clear. She ran her magic through her tail with a wicked side-eye. “Should have cut you off,” she said down to her flank.
“I like to win,” Grover preened. “I am competing with an alicorn.”
Flurry stuck her tongue out. “Fine.” She breathed heavily for a moment before shaking her wings out. “Give me a second.”
“I do not care if you actually sing,” Grover waved a claw. He walked back to his coat and gloves, peering to the double doors over the frames of his glasses. Jadis did look disappointed, and she stomped a petulant hoof at some low remark from Benito. I wonder if they had a bet.
“No,” Flurry whickered. She trotted to the center of the clearing. “You get a song, nerdbird. You bet your ass I was gonna make you sing. Fair’s fair.”
Grover sat down on the steps beside the Reichstone. He watched the alicorn pull in long breaths on a narrow barrel. Her wings hid most of her body when they folded against her sides, but there was no hiding the musculature along her long legs. He tried to remember the filly with baby fat in the broom closet.
Flurry raised a foreleg to her chest and exhaled with a slow breath. She pushed it out and clomped her hoof onto the floor. Her narrow muzzle quirked and the pink horn turned to the ceiling while she pinched her eyes in thought. Wings quivered and Grover watched a streak flash from crystal wingtip to crystal wingtip.
“Sorry for what you’re about to hear,” Flurry apologized with her muzzle pointed at the ceiling. She breathed in a few times and hummed. It pitched high with a slight scratchiness. The noise trailed off into nothing. Grover tapped a claw on the Reichstone.
Flurry opened her mouth.
My young love said to me,
Grover stopped tapping his claw.
"My mother won't mind
And my father won't fault you
For your lack of kind."
Jadis sniffled behind him. Flurry let the last note hang in her scratchy, patchwork Equestrian.
It echoed through the room.
And he stepped away from me
And this he did say:
"It will not be long, love,
'til our wedding day."
She dragged a rear hoof on the floor, drawing out a long, low note.
It swayed under the song.
As he stepped away from me
And he moved through the faire.
And fondly I watched him
Move here and move there.
She pulled in a breath and the blue spark flashed in her chest. Her eyes were closed.
And then he turned homeward
With one star awake.
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.
The alicorn smiled to herself and a ripple passed through her coat in time with the spark.
And I smiled as he passed
with his goods and his gear,
Her voice dropped and the scratchiness made it sound impossibly sad.
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.
Grover turned his head at a muffled sob.
Jadis had stuffed a boot into her mouth with glittering tears.
Last night he came to me,
The griffon turned his head back to the alicorn.
She continued to drag a hoof across the floor to leave a winding note.
My lost love came in.
So softly he came that
His hooves made no din.
The note haunted the song and drifted to the inert chandeliers.
As he laid his head on me
And this he did say:
Flurry Heart paused until the echo faded, then spoke softly into the ceiling with a lilt.
"It will not be long, love,
'til our wedding day."
She folded her wings back to her side, letting the last word fade with her breath. She set her hoof back down.
Flurry opened sad, icy eyes and stared into the ceiling for a moment. Her muzzle was flat, but the colors that raced across the pink, crystalized fur rippled a dark, melancholic blue. She breathed out again with a long sigh and her body untensed.
Jadis burst into whinnying sobs. The crystal pony stomped her boots into the floor. Whatever she tried to say was lost in her blubbering, but her entire muzzle flashed bright blue.
Flurry grimaced. “I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s beautiful,” the pony sobbed and waved a boot. “It’s…I…”
“Sorry,” Flurry repeated.
The crystal pony shook her head viciously and heaved a deep breath to stop crying. Her legs shook for a moment. “There is nothing to forgive.”
Grover stared across the ballroom. He licked the edge of his beak. “I…uh…”
“My mother hated that song,” Flurry explained to him. “Not every crystal pony was in the city when it was cursed. Some families never saw each other again. It was just a moment to them.”
Benito shuffled from the wall. He twisted his muzzle to Jadis, then looked around the room. “Many dogs that escape the mines of Diamond Mountain leave family. The founders of Bronzehill were no different.” His voice softened. “It is a terrible fate.”
“Sometimes,” Jadis sniffled, “not being able to remember is a blessing instead of a curse.” The crystal pony rubbed a boot across the floor. “We carry what we can. Songs help.”
Flurry nodded. “Sorry I mangled it.”
“You did not,” Grover said before Jadis.
The alicorn sighed. “You’ve never heard it before. It always made my mother sad. She loved to help ponies reconnect, but sometimes you have to help them move on.”
Grover’s wings jittered across his coat. Say it, coward. “You have a beautiful singing voice.”
“Really?” the alicorn trilled. She thickened her accent again. “Well, gosh darn, Grover! Ya sure shoulda heard my mother-”
“Stop!” Grover snarled. He blinked in surprise, but rallied when Flurry opened her mouth to say something. “No more fucking jokes! Is that how you truly see yourself? An inferior version of your mother?”
“I’m nothing like her,” Flurry chuckled weakly. “Not much of a comparison.”
Grover stared at the spark in her barrel, beating in time with a heartbeat. “I wish you could see yourself like I see you,” he said in Herzlander. He blinked and felt his feathers puff out. Benito and Jadis shuffled behind him. Grover toyed with the Reichstone between two gloved claws, but kept staring at the alicorn.
The filly that was once in a soggy blue dress waved her wings. “Do you see an alicorn or a Princess or both?” Flurry bit her lip. “Compliments from you don’t count. I bet you say that to every debutante.”
Grove settled the Reichstone atop his head and stood up. “I say that to none of them,” he said flatly in Herzlander, “and I dance with none of them.” His deep blue eyes swept across the ballroom. “We shared a dance, correct? What else is customary in the Empire?”
“We bow.” Flurry bent her forelegs and swept her wings out. “A fair duel, Kaiser Grover.”
Grover mirrored it. “Agreed, Princess Flurry.” He stood just after her. “Is that all?”
“What do you mean?” Flurry fluttered her wings.
“Couples are expected to share a peck on the cheek in the Reich,” Grover returned. “Do ponies not nuzzle in a courtship?”
“We don’t have to do that in the Crystal Empire,” Flurry answered. Her wings flapped at her sides. “Don’t worry about it.” She considered it. “Well, I guess cameras would be around.” Her horn pulsed and Grover felt the magic blow past his feathers. “Might look bad if we just kept up appearances in the Reich.”
What if I wanted to? Grover did not say that. He walked across the ballroom floor on boots and gloves while the Princess shuffled her hooves. He watched the spark pulse slightly faster, mixed with the sparkles trailing through her pink fur.
“You…” Grover paused and lowered his voice. “You are more beautiful than the day I met you. You are not soaking wet in a broom closet.”
Flurry smiled softly down at him and shook her pink horn. Her purple and blue swirls bounced and framed her narrow muzzle and icy eyes. “You’re not that bad yourself. Crystal’s a good look on you.”
Grover rubbed his beak and lashed his tail. The bob on the end slapped the floor and made a high note ring out. “I hope this is temporary. How long until it wears off?”
“You’ll be fine in a few days,” Flurry assessed. She flexed her wings and inspected the shooting sparkles running through her crystal feathers. “I’ll look like this for a while, I think. Might have to ask my Archmage.”
Grover dipped his head and felt the Reichstone slide against his feathers. “Princess Flurry Heart?” he requested in Equestrian. The alicorn stood still for a moment, then understood what he was asking.
She bent her neck down and turned her head to the side. Her eyes closed and the eyelids sparkled, but it was impossible to miss the scarlet ripple across her muzzle. “I hope you practiced with some lucky griffoness,” she said teasingly. "I'll tell Henrik you beat him if you're better." Her lips pressed into a line and she waited.
Grover swallowed, then leaned up to her cheek.
The doors to the ballroom crashed open.
Flurry’s head snapped up and Grover twisted his beak away at the same time.
A red crystal stallion in an unbuttoned white jacket charged into the room, having slammed the doors open with his forelegs. Jadis swung her rifle like a bat before he could take three steps into the ballroom, cracking it into his knee. The stallion whinnied and rolled down the short stairs. Jadis flipped the rifle around deftly enough and aimed down at him.
Grover stepped back as Flurry stepped forward. Her horn burst into a golden glow.
A light brown dog skid past in the hallway, crystalized fur rippling with streaks of blonde. He made eye contact with Grover and pivoted into the room. Benito had drawn his saber and slammed the flat of the blade across the dog’s muzzle as he passed the threshold. He wrapped an arm around the younger dog and flung him into the crystal wall, pinning him there with the blade to his neck.
Magic pulsed through the room. Grover felt it first. The detection spell washed through the feathers and made his ears buzz under the Reichstone. Flurry stomped forward. “They’re clear! Wait!”
Benito and Jadis shared a look, then marginally relaxed their weapons. The stallion rolled on the floor, clutching his forelegs to a rear leg stuck in a spasm. Flurry’s horn dimmed, but she kept her distance. He made eye contact and muttered nonsense.
The crystal pony’s legs shook and he panted on the floor. He took a deep breath and stuttered. Flurry waved her wings. “Breathe. Did the Changelings launch an atta-”
“princesscelestiaisinmanehattan,” the stallion forced out in one breathless rush.
Jadis and Benito stilled. The dog’s ears ruffled. His paw raised the sword, then lowered it to his side. He flicked the blade errantly. The crystal mare’s bad leg twitched, sending a ripple through her white pants leg. The stallion heaved another breath from the floor, and his hooves made four discordant notes when he stood up on frothing legs.
“Princess, Celestia is in Manehattan.”
Flurry Heart stepped back. Her wings flared out and a few feathers knocked against Grover’s crown. He felt it shift and nearly fall off his head.
Benito looked to the younger dog. A red slice ran across his muzzle and blood leaked into his whiskers, but he nodded rapidly. “The pony speaks the truth,” he panted in Herzlander. “She landed on the dockyards. The Port Authority wants orders. Work has halted.”
We still own most of Manehattan. Grover shook his head. The Reichstone slid off and clanged to the floor. The crystal flashed and a low, warbling note rang out. He pawed at it clumsily.
Flurry said nothing.
“Landed?” Grover eventually forced past his beak.
“She is alone,” the stallion coughed. “Princess, what are your orders?”
Jadis laughed at the doors. “It’s a changeling! You Reich idiots didn’t think to check?”
Benito shook his head. “We have unicorns at the port. They sweep the convoys. Can those parasites even become alicorns?” He caught himself. “Chrysalis would not be so…”
“One love-drunk changeling,” Jadis whinnied. “The Hegemony just shut down the entire port! We lowered the shield!” The pony’s bad leg shook. “Unless the Griffonian Reich is so incompetent it failed to notice the mare that raises the sun cross their entire country!”
“Ponies unload the cargo!” Benito snarled back. “Ponies will be the ones screaming!” The dog barked some swear at the crystal pony and she snarled back. They descended into a screaming match themselves.
“My Kaiser,” the bloody dog knelt on the floor. “Manehattan Command is asking for orders. Urgently.”
Grover clutched the Reichstone with two claws. He exhaled, “I…”
His breath visibly puffed out into the air.
Grover became aware of the static building in his feathers. There was a charge in the air, and a low hum in the back of his ears. He noticed a golden flicker in the top of his peripheral vision and turned his head. His glasses kept him from squinting.
A burning pink horn was enveloped in a roiling golden flame. Grover followed it to a blackening mane as the swirls around the base turned crisp. The sounds of Benito and Jadis arguing faded as the hum became audible. A bolt of blue electricity escaped the horn point and scorched the ceiling. Grover looked below the shining purple gem attached to a cheap crystal crown.
Muzzles were always more expressive than beaks. Even crystal muzzles that flashed every color of the rainbow. Lips pulled back from teeth at an angle below a twitching eyelid. A tear passed through eyelashes and left a trail of glitter in crystal fur. The black pupils were pinpricks at the center of an iceberg.
Grover watched the expression twist from anger to hope to fear to anguish to rage. The alicorn breathed out through clenched teeth and a bolt of blue static leapt from her wing to his. He felt it jolt through his feathers.
The griffon raised a paw to step away, then looked down to the flashing blue spark in her barrel. It beat like a strobe underneath her fur. Another bolt of static leapt from a spasming foreleg and danced along his claws clutching the Reichstone.
Grover registered Benito and Jadis lowering their weapons and stepping forward. The hum in the air became a long, low whine as the spell finished charging. Grover stared at the blue spark. He set his paw down and stepped up to her, brushing his wing against hers.
He started, “Flurry-”
Her eyes snapped to his, wet with tears that turned to steam.
The teleport spell released like a bolt of lightning.
Grover saw a kaleidoscope of colors tumble past his glasses for an infinity and eons and epochs. He spun without gravity and without wind, falling and ascending and twisting. His claws clutched the Reichstone to his chest on reflex while his wings pinned to his jacket. A sob and a snarl chased him down the rabbit hole, then he was spat out into a cloudy sky.
His feathers still brushed against hers, and he followed her through the next lightning strike.
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You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?
The Princess of the Sun
The Princess of the Moon
The Princess of Friendship
The Duchess of Strawberry
The Wind that Fanned the Flames
Yep. Here comes the confrontation.
DARN YOU CLIFFHANGER-KUN!!!!!
… By Heaven this has been an amazing chapter!
Great chapter. Can't wait until the next, you cliffhanging bastard.
Wow, I didn't expect that to happen. It was also a beautiful chapter that really built the romance aspect of the story. Can't wait for the next chapter.
I'm really happy the romance is more front and center now. Awesome chapter like always.
I was going to say "Imperial troops fighting Riverlanders after this campaign?" but we have bigger news than that.
This is going to be ugly. Violent, no (probably). Painful, very.
ooohhhh, fuck, celly's going to get the dressing-down of a lifetime
Feels like you can't relax for more than a few minutes. The romance building was fantastic too. I am curious as to what exactly Celestia is hoping to accomplish. The only thing I can think of is getting Flurry to cut her alliance with Grover. Possibly because of an imminent Riverland invasion.
Welcome one and all to another chapter of the extrovert and the nerd. Ft, a cliffhanger.
Made an account just to comment on this. Starting out I've read alot of books and a handful of fanfictions, this is one of the best things I've read by far. Moving on, I cannot wait for the next chapter thanks for the cliff hanger. I can't help but wonder what Celestia is hoping to achieve, furthermore Luna isn't seemingly there so whilst I'm wondering if chiropterra may become involved I'm leaning towards Celestia ain't expecting this meeting to go well. Of course what her goal may be is unkown, she can't expect to rule again so maybe trying to stop Flurry from fighting personally or and is a big stretch she might try to wake up Twilight then fuck off.
This is wonderful, we get to see the public dress-down of the millennium, boys and girls.
I also have a question: how is weapons technology going in the world of this fic right now? Are magical guns still a thing?
Oh wow, now that flurry has done the hard work freeing equestria celestia just shows up? Even thinking about how long it takes to travel, the timing is very odd.
Nice chapter... Very engaging, surprises me (with at least some minor thing) every time.
Now to the big sun-horse in the room.... I like miss big-ball-of-plasma-ass as much as any other.... But she did make a major fuck-wucky not coming to help or at least sending "hopes and prayers, i belive in you, won't attend tho" when she was requested (read as close to begged as possible) to show up last time......Now i cant wait what the author will make of it.
Will it be a begruging reunion in the public = deep seated disapointment in private?
What about a nice dose of "good job, now let me do it" holier than thou speech? Probably followed with an emotional outburst?
Will it be a straight up battle of misunderstood titans and can Manehattan (not to mention a comparatively fragile gryphon with a big heavy shiny hat) survie a possible outpouring of emotion?
Can't wait for either resolution, or something new alltogether.
Side note, what's up with those spoilers in the coment? Is it a list of titles the MC is going to collect "gotta catch them all" style??? I mean she could, possibly, if the story turns into a megalomaniacal powereleveling MC one...
Was going to leave a snarky comment about how this is a better love story than Twilight but then you hit us with Celly. I hope cooler heads do not prevail in the coming confrontation. Whatever holier than thou "this is not what an alicorn should do" nonsense needs to corrected swiftly. I hope the ponies of Manehattan do remember which Princess actually cared enough to come for them rather than waiting until it was safe to do so.
Jadis got jokes! I choose to believe that she just demonstrated that "lighten up" originated as a crystal pony saying on Equus.
I know we all thought of the iconic scene from Big, but this moment felt like it had a lot more of the aesthetic of Saturday Night Fever.
Did Grover just agree to elope?
I wonder who Jadis "left behind" :( Chances are, she probably does too...
Pretty damn romantic; well done, Grover!
There's a non-zero chance most of Manehattan is about to be leveled by an alicorn duel...Birth of Nightmare Flurry/Maelstrom confirmed!?
It's hard to imagine anything that Celestia could say that would get Flurry to hold off on blasting her long enough to listen; to say nothing of getting Flurry to believe it. Flurry seems to place just as much blame for Cadance's death and Twilight's condition on Celestia and Luna as she does on Chrysalis. Maybe even rightly so. Assuming a correct interpretation of the pronouns at work in The Spark that Ignited the World, Flurry Heart is also not at all going to appreciate Celestia blaming Cadance and Shining Armor for their own deaths and Flurry Heart's suffering.
Honestly, Celestia's arrival could do a lot more harm than good right now. It hasn't even been a month(?) since Flurry Heart essentially usurped Equestria from Celestia and Luna; and if Sunset's reaction was any indication, there are potentially still Celestia Loyalists around. If Celestia does anything other than proclaim her abdication and throw her full support behind Flurry, this has the potential to lead to a civil war; which is the last thing that's needed on the eve of a military operation that could decide the fate of not just Equus, but the whole world...
Nerdbird's about to score a lot of points with Flurry when he joins her in dressing down Celestia, I would think.
I'd expect the incoming confrontation to define stakes and themes for the rest of the fic. Thrilling stuff.
Hope that Celestia will bring some substantial arguments beyond her usual characterization tropes, especially considering that she's essentially dealing with children from her point of view.
A beautiful chapter ending with the best worst cliffhanger.
Sun-ass needs to fuck off back to the Riverlands. The sheer audacity to come back now. She knows exactly what her presence in Manehattan, let alone Equestria, will do to the very flimsy balance Flurry has maintained. She'll fake surprise when this inevitably causes problems down the line.
And, oh, by the Crystal Heart, if she came here to give some ultimatum or try to take the moral high ground over Flurry, I'm going to flip. No explanation or reasoning on her part will save her now.
You left Equestria to the mercy of the Changelings. Princess Twilight Sparkle is brain-dead (or close to it), Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is dead, Prince Shining Armor is dead.
Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Prince Blueblood, Nightlight, Twilight Velvet, Raven Inkwell, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, Scootaloo, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, Barrel Roller, Echo, Marble Pie, Sweetie "Bon-Bon" Drops, Lyra Heartstrings, Sunburst, and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of others are all dead because you couldn't face the music and dance when you needed to.
Ponyville, Cloudsdale, and innumerable other villages and towns have been completely destroyed.
The Everfree Forest runs rampant.
The Element Bearers are hiding, comatose, completely broken, or forever changed.
The Buffalo are extinct or might as well be.
All because you ran away, Celestia.
You're a fucking coward.
11754821
Her age and detachment will work against her in this case, I'd wager. Flurry's crusade has ended up being an unexpected inconvenience in the long term.
So I reloaded the comments and I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who thought of the piano floor from Big.
And now I fear for Manehatten's continued existence.
New quest unlocked for Grover: Keep the living WMD from destroying Celestia with magic.
Optional: Give a hug to the living WMD after telling Celestia the new reality.
SUNBUTT RUINED THIER FIRST REAL SMOOCH!!! >:( >:( >:(
All the other stuff people are commenting about, yeah screw Celestia for showing up late, maybe big fight, yadayadayada, but we were F I N A L L Y going to see the two of them kiss for realsies after Grover did a big romantic gesture, after he finally realized that, no, Flurry isn't joking, she does actually hate herself, and that's bad actually.
He was gonna kiss her for real, finally turn this friendship into a romance, but NO! Frigging Celestia has to come in and go, "Teehee, here I go about to do a massive diplomatic incident! ;p," and completely RUIN the best romantic moment we've had yet. I hope Flurry gives Sunbutt what for!
11754898
OptionalMandatory: Give a hug to the living WMD.God DAMNIT, I guess we have a two front war to prepare for now. Because the river federation and Celestia couldn't have have fucking waited. Now she wants to split Equestria in two because of her Morality. The same morality that cost her Equestria.
Pls for the love of all that flurry has suffered tell me the reception by Manehattan was not a happy one. The Last thing she needs is to see the ponies who she liberated cheer for the monarch that abandoned them.
Grover it's time to prove miss cake ass wrong about you and to earn a spot in history as the only member of your bloodline who stood before Celestia and TALKED down to her. You have the high ground my boy USE IT.
Celestia about to do a little trolling /j
Wonder where Luna is? She'd probably be understanding of Flurry's emotional state.
11754591
Great song for the mood! Also, is that the name of the next couple chapters?! Are we getting points of view from Celestia, Luna, Twilight!? (Maybe), and Gabriela?
11754876
Nah, she's just immortal. It doesn't matter what happens in Equestria, she always has the option of going into hiding and waiting for her enemies to die of old age. It certainly doesn't matter if her ponies come to hate her now, since she can always come back after their great grandchildren are dead and play the liberator.
Her real enemy isn't Chrysalis. It's the one other pony who will live long enough to call her out on her bullshit.
11754934
Grover: It's Over Celestia. I Have The High Ground
Celestia: You underestimate my powers.
Grover: Just try it cake butt. I have a fully armed and operational Alicorn as my future wife and we were this close to finally reaching the first base.
I couldn't resist.
11754981
It's fine. Someone had to do it.
11754761
Well, in game, yes. Starting with the 1011 small arms (equivalent to unmodded 1940) there’s a magical small arms tech/equipment for every normal small arms tech/equipment. They’re not really explained at all, to my knowledge, but I tend to imagine magic-infused-crystal powered small arms that shoot either magic lasers or magic bullets. Obviously, unlike most laser or laser-like weapons, these are gonna look older—wooden stocks, no rails to put extra stuff on, etc. Because they’re being made with the same manufacturing tech, after all.
They have better stats, at the cost of less reliability (for the first 2, SIGNIFICANTLY worse reliability. Like, 30% or some shit), having a higher IC, and needing crystals as well as steel in resource inputs. Oh, and there’s a slightly better 20mm you can put on tanks disguised as a sized-up version of this that sucks in every iteration.
They also, if I’m not mistaken, haven’t been mentioned even once. This isn’t super surprising: either in game or in some kind of reality, changing your standard infantry rifle in the middle of not just a war, but a war you’re losing, badly, is…ill-advised. Also, HoI4 doesn’t do ammo, where in actuality it’d be a nightmare for logistics: you thought multiple rifle calibers was bad, try having ammo that are based on different branches of science
But ya, as for the actual story, holy fuck that’s some serious whiplash.
Cake but better be here to formally abdicate, and nothing else. Bitch refused to PASS ON A LETTER to a figgin’ 12 year old cus daddy and grandpappy were kinda jerks.
I mean, it’s not like that letter was super time sensitive and its speedy delivery possibly being the difference between the success and failure of the ELF.
I want Flurry to throw hands (hooves?) so badly, even if Celestia might have good intentions, motivations, she still left her ponies to die and get podded, enslaved and tortured, if AJ had such a harsh treatment, Celestia should be treated and be seen by others in far worse light than AJ and Rarity, they decided to at least stay behind instead of running away.
Goodness.. the romance, grover is absolutely and positively in love with her now, and keeps being the chaddest of chads.
Flurry arriving on the manehatten dockyard
Oh damn... I thought Luna was gonna get there first.
I can't wait to see their interation with Celestia haha
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...Luna's gonna try to abduct twilight for "better medical treatment" in the Riverlands, isn't she?
Celestia is not a coward. She is just a sociopath that values her "ideals" more than the lives of everyone else cause everyone else is mortal and will inevitably die but her "ideals" are eternal you see.
Trollestia returns with a vengeance, a moment-killing, kiss-confounding vengeance so perfectly ill-timed that one can't help but imagine it was deliberate despite the practical impossibility that she could have known.
But hey, at least Grover has been upgraded to proper partner in the Princess-Kaiser power couple combo, if Flurry bringing him along for the confrontation is any signal.
And kudos for honest communication and expression!
Flurry's sudden and seemingly unprompted apologizing for her accent left me confused for quite some time. It wasn't until later that I realized the only significant difference in her present circumstances is the presence of Grover and their improved comfort level with one another. That recontextualized it as a deliberate expression of vulnerability and a confession of insecurity to match the transparency her crystal form.
Her mood - her very heart, even - are now extra evident, so why not open up?
And Grover really stepped up to meet her in ways that matter, even if it took him a bit. His self-recriminations echoed my own thoughts almost exactly the moment they happened, and he didn't let his hesitance and fears stop him for very long at all.
"She doesn't know I think she's beautiful. I'll tell her."
"She believes herself inferior. She doesn't know she's wrong. I'll tell her."
Good on him!
Seeing them both in action just reinforces the notion of this chapter having a theme, perhaps. Certainly seemed like it to me.
And the payoff?
Relationship upgrade!
Holy shit, insanely great chapter. A comment earlier said thousands of thousands were dead now, and that's kinda an understatement. Millions are dead. Not just combatants, but revolutionaries who tried to fight the The Changeling Queendom, millions of civilians were enslaved, children were born and lived in this hellhole, not even knowing what old Equestria was like, only knowing what it's like to live under the Changeling boot.
Celestia fled, while Flurry gave up her childhood, her innocence, hell she tried to give up her life for it multiple times. If she's here to try to take over in any way, than she's not just evil but a dumbass. I don't think she's a dumbass.
My personal theory is that she's gonna warn Flurry that the Riverlands are preparing to attack the Empire, and soon. Likely try to convince her to get Equestria on the Riverlands side, and betray the Empire. Makes the most cold, geopolitical sense to me, and I think that has to be how Celestia views it for her to have the gaul to come here now of all times.
But her worst sin of all? Ruining that kiss, it was SO ROMANTIC!
Also, was that the first time Grover just called her Flurry? I can't remember, but if it was that's also cute.
Grover and flurry sit on a tree ,K.I.S.S.I.N......
sunbutt :the fuk you are
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Grover calls her "Flurry" very rarely, but it has happened before.
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Flurry brought up her accent after Grover's voice cracked again. He's seventeen and a nerdbird. (He's actually quite tall and capable of surprising two soldiers in The Kaiser of Griffonkind, plus Benito and Jadis last chapter.) Flurry has more emotional awareness than he does. It took him awhile to realize she wasn't really joking about her appearance.
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Jadis has spoken about her family before. She Moved Through the Fair is an Irish folk song that's been covered probably a hundred times. Seems appropriate for Crystal Ponies to have a very melancholy ballad about lost love after coming back. Cadance did her best with her people.
Beat her ass, Flurry.
Bitch just had to come and ruin it didn't she
Calling it now: Celestia will do some stupid shit against Flurry, and Grover will react with extreme prejudice. And will possibly be hit by Celestia, triggering Flurry's WMD Mode.
I beg of you author, don't make Celestia just a idiot. Give her some actual reasoning, one who rules over their subjects for thousands of years don't just leave of cowardice or apathy. Don't ruin her character just to make flurry look better please please please, we already know flurry is a good girl who can't do no evil.
And something else, please for the love of God, or anything you might believe. Don't make flurry the ultimate Marie sue by making her kill Celestia. I believe this would be such a insane thing that even you wouldn't risk it. Please
Curious as to why Luna is seemingly staying behind in the River lands. Also can't wait for the pimp smack with a hoof coming for Celestia
Damn, amount of blinded hatred towards Celestia in this comment section reminds me of early days, decade ago when every second fic was turning her into tyrant, pervert, troll or other OOC thing.
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Both other princesses stayed out of theirs own volition and died (or basically) as heroically as pointlessly. Shining Armor was hypocrite who escaped from one doomed war, only to die in another. Most named characters died in hopeless uprising which made things universally worse. Everfree and destruction of Ponyville is direct result of Zecora actions.
Had Celestia stayed, only difference would be another alicorn corpse or vegetable. Alicorn responsible for moving it's world Sun.
Is she a coward? Possibly. In contrast though to most characters you mentioned, she clearly wasn't foolish enough to threw her life over a delusion. Cause that is what those characters died for and theirs' deaths were meaningless in grand scheme of things.
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Here you go
People really forget that part. She still love them. Thorax literally said this.
-chapter 35
There is so much anger and trauma, but she still do, even if that part of her is overwhelmed.
World will see Crystall Grover it seems
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Here's the thing, leaving out the emotional reaction that the audience has to Celestia as a result of her and her sister's actions, her coming back NOW is just a bad move for Equestria, and by extension all of the ponies living in Equestria, period. They're finally pushing back the Changelings, it took years of work to get here, multiple revolutions, Flurry nearly killing herself multiple times, and countless pony lives to get here. It took so much work for Flurry to prove herself as the legitimate ruler(It took years of humanitarian efforts to get the Griffons to support her, and the costal ones are probably 50/50 on love or hate. The ELF, The Batponies, the Communists in the north AND South would immediately start killing each other if they weren't following Flurry. The only ponies she didn't need to try to get to follow her are her Crystal Ponies, and rescuing them wasn't a walk in the park). It's not an exaggeration to say her claim to the throne is mostly supported by her stubbornness, and liberal use of force. It's working right now but it's far from indestructible.
Celestia coming now isn't just an emotional bombshell for Flurry to deal with, it is a political WMD. If Celestia tries to attack Flurry's legitimacy right now, while the Griffons are getting ready to push into the Western Equestria, then that might spark a Civil War at the worst possible time. Even if she doesn't vocally challenge Flurry, the ELF is a significant percentage of Flurry's forces and they would clearly much rather have and might even currently view Celestia as the legitimate ruler, her even stepping hoof on this continent is a challenge to Flurry's claim on the Diarchy of Equestria. Equestria cannot afford a succession crisis now of all times. If it happened, we're looking at a lot of deaths... and a lost war.
Getting to emotional reasons... Flurry begged with her, PLEADED for her to come back when they needed her most. And she didn't. Her coming back now? Woof.
Personally, I do think Celestia has a reason to take this massive risk, but automatically by just stepping off that boat she is showing a callous disregard for the lives of millions. The hatred isn't blind, it's pretty earned I would say.
I cant wait to see how Flurry Heart tears into Celestia, the former ruler of Equestria needs to be given the biggest dressing down of her entire life. She has come back here and decided to do... something.
I was hoping it was gonna be Luna, that she had felt the guilt steadily building and finally saw sense. That finally the Warrior Princess had returned and was going to fight beneath the banner of the new ruler. But alas that appears not to be.