The Princess of the Sun
Come back now.
Flurry Heart appeared in a crack of lightning. Blood dribbled down her lips.
Or never come back.
She looked east, wings flared. Her horn burned at the tip.
Just before the teleport, she felt Grover’s claw grab her hind leg just above the hoof. The griffon gave the start of a word before the spell unleashed again, dragging him along in the blue rift that ripped apart the sky. Flurry burst out of the next teleport with a fresh gush of blood from her nose.
The Manehattan skyline was in the eastern horizon. The Crystaller building’s distinctive outline was faintly visible through the clouds and mist. As was the chunk taken out of one of the crystal pony heads from an artillery shell. The ELF, the Changelings, or the Reich? Take your fucking pick.
Flurry snarled at the misshapen scar and her horn burst into golden flames. The static charge in the air built, ionized like the moment before a lightning strike. She flapped her wings above scattered banks of gray clouds. The remnants of the storms lingered aimlessly over central Equestria without its weather control. They were left to break apart naturally, wandering rains turning cracked and broken roads to mudslides or pouring onto abandoned towns.
“Wait!” Grover coughed. Flurry heard the flap of wings. She ignored him and focused to appear above downtown Manehattan. Bridleway. Right next to the sign. Governor Lilac’s attempts to make it ‘better.’
A tear rolled down from an eye and mixed with the blood from her nose.
“Stop!” a voice crowed in Herzlander. She turned to it and the spell on her horn crackled.
Grover hit her. Flurry completely missed the lunging wings, and a fist crashed into her muzzle. The griffon punched her directly in her bloody nose, and the alicorn seized in surprise and dropped several wingspans in the sky. She recovered enough to flap above a gray, dreary cloud.
She looked up at the griffon with a wild growl, finally focusing her eyes on something beyond the eastern horizon. After a moment of consideration, her horn dimmed. The alicorn landed on the cloud below and paced, feeling the moisture squelch under her hooves. It dampened the keratin and each stomp discharged a small amount of rain into the expanse of Equestria far below. Flurry breathed in cold air and placed her scarred hoof to her barrel.
Destiny is a choice.
She shoved the breath out and waited.
Grover landed several wingspans away at the edge of the cloud. He shook his head and puffed his feathers out, knocking soot and ash from the tan neck fur and feathers. He held the Reichstone in his left claw, leaving it dangling by the torn padding. His right claw was bloody.
The Kaiser of Griffonkind’s dress uniform had seen better days. His sash and dress shirt were rumpled under the long coat, and the black was marred with discolored streaks from blue lightning. When he landed on the cloud, blue sparks jumped from his right claw into the watery cumulus and he growled in mild annoyance. He shook his talons out and inspected his knuckles.
With the soot and ash on his gray beak, it was hard to tell he was still crystalized. The tan head feathers looked dim, and his claws and bare paws sank into the cloud. Grover breathed and Flurry watched the dress shirt flex and tighten under the heavy coat. He spat out ash into the cloud, trading a stare at her with a stare at his knuckles.
Flurry gazed back, exhaling warm breath into a frosty sky. She licked her lips and wiped away the blood with her tongue. There wasn’t any doubt it looked grisly. Her wings heaved against her sides.
“I was aiming for the side of your muzzle,” Grover apologized in Herzlander. His voice cracked. His left claw dropped to the cloud, but the Reichstone sank through the surface. He pulled it back; the gold was wet and blue bolts of static raced across the jewels. Grover ignored it and settled the crown atop his head. Flecks of water ran down his feathers.
“My nose was already bleeding,” Flurry returned in Equestrian. She snorted blood into the cloud to prove it. The red disappeared into the surface. Mid-pace, the alicorn lowered her muzzle into the cloud and bit down on the condensation. She shook her head violently and wiped her muzzle clean.
The alicorn lifted a wet, lean muzzle and wiped her shining fur on a dull leg. Colors flashed across her body like a rainbow. This high in the sky, the sunlight was partially unimpeded, but more clouds whirled above them. Flurry rolled her wing joints and watched a sparkle trail from wingtip to wingtip. She folded her wings against her side and resumed pacing. Small thunderclaps echoed with each step.
Grover swallowed. “We need to think this through.” His left wing jittered against the holster. “This could be a trap.”
“If it’s a Changeling, they die screaming on the docks,” Flurry said evenly. “I have a shield; I don’t care if it’s a trap.”
Grover screwed his deep blue eyes shut. “I am not talking about if it is a changeling.”
Flurry ground her teeth. “I begged her.”
Grover said nothing.
“I begged her,” she repeated. “I begged her to come back. I begged her to pass a message along. I begged her before Canterlot. She doesn’t get to come back now.” The alicorn tossed her head on a long neck. “Not now.”
“Okay,” the griffon said calmly. “You sent her a letter?”
“Yes!” Flurry snapped, and the force from her voice nearly knocked Grover off the cloud. He steadied himself and his claws sliced the cumulus when he gripped it. Her voice echoed across the open sky and rolled into the horizon.
Flurry swallowed and heaved, staring at the partially sunny expanse around them. Her pacing meandered into a circle. They were alone. It was a vast, empty sky above a broken land. When Flurry looked down off the edge, she could see the shadows of an abandoned village somewhere along a major road to Manehattan. Equestria was dotted with skeletons like that. The Changelings had relocated everypony into major industrial centers or work camps.
Ghettos. Like Weter. Flurry’s mind went to the picture of Celestia standing atop a podium at the River Games with a medal around her neck. Her horn sparked again.
“So she knows.” Flurry snapped her head back to Grover. He met her wild, unfocused glare evenly. “She knows, then?” he repeated.
“Knows what?” Flurry nickered. “Knows how bad it is here? Whatever the River Federation-”
“She knows how you are going to react,” Grover interrupted. He lifted his right claw and gestured to the pacing hooves. “She knows exactly what this will do.”
“I don’t care.”
“She is a thousand years old at the very least,” Grover retorted. “She ruled the empire that all others in the world compared themselves to.”
“Even you?” Flurry snapped.
“You think my ancestor did not know of her?” Grover asked back with a clipped squawk. “You think he did not sit in Griffonstone and think of her when the conquests began? One Kaiser. One Princess.”
“There was more than one.” Flurry shook her head. “There is more than one,” she corrected.
“Not for a thousand years,” Grover shrugged a wing. “The Princess of Love was barely a footnote until the Crystal Empire returned.”
“My mother never liked the spotlight.” She looked east again. “Am I supposed to ignore her? Let her come to Canterlot?”
“So she can declare your reign illegitimate?” Grover pressed. He tapped his claws on the raincloud. “No, we have to confront her now.”
Flurry tossed her head back. Her horn sparked. “Great fucking talk. What are we waiting for?”
“For you to calm down,” Grover answered. His eyes flicked to her flank.
Flurry tracked his gaze. Her left hind leg was bouncing and the Crystal Heart was tense across her muscles and pink fur. Her leg was partially tangled into her tail again, the edges of the hair were singed. She breathed out and forced herself to relax. Her crystal hoof stopped bouncing on the cloud, and the spongy surface stilled. The last, low reverberating rumbles whimpered out underneath the alicorn.
“You charge into Manehattan looking every part the screaming teenager, and she has already won,” Grover said patiently.
“Won what?” Flurry whickered. “If she wants the throne, she can have it. Just keep to the agree-”
“She will never keep to any of them,” Grover snapped. His head feathers flexed around his beak. “She lost the war and went into exile. She is the personal guest of Chancellor River Swirl. She is a pretender to your throne.”
Flurry looked across the horizon. “I’m a pretender to hers.”
“It does not matter,” Grover waved his wings with suppressed agitation. “There is a plan here. To spark unrest, to spark civil war, to turn Equestria against the Reich…” He pulled the Reichstone close to his chest and held it against the purple sash.
“You think the River Federation will invade?”
Grover purred into the sky with a clenched beak. Sparkles rippled across the dark gray keratin and into his feathers, lit by the sun above. He clacked his jaw and answered, “No.”
He shook his head. “No, no matter what Chancellor Swirl wants. She cannot declare a war to restore the Sisters. They would have to fight across Griffonia and Equus, fighting for a foreign monarch. She will lose her majority in the River Parliament.”
“But they can send her here to sabotage the war,” Flurry picked up. Her wings sagged into the cloud.
“Or something else,” Grover said dismissively. “Celestia has her own plan. She always has. The exchange with Griffonstone after the Idol’s loss was a calculated display of Equestrian influence.” The griffon gave the alicorn a side-eye. “She would have better spent her resources on Severyana.”
“We aren’t going to find anything out standing on a cloud.” Flurry extended her wings and her horn glowed. She felt the beginning of a migraine and sniffed to suppress a trickle of blood.
“We are well within flying distance,” Grover offered. He pointed his left claw to the city on the horizon. “It will be a quick flight.”
Flurry swallowed down all her immediate whinnying responses and forced her horn to dim. Grover stared up at her from all fours. She was taller than him, even though the height was mostly her spindly legs and neck. The alicorn raised a wing and smoothed down her ragged mane. She could feel brittle chunks of her blue and purple swirls around the base of her horn, charred from the chain teleport.
“How bad do I look?”
“You look as if you’ve blasted across half a continent in five minutes,” Grover deadpanned.
“You look pretty good,” Flurry assessed. “Have you teleported before?”
The griffon’s blue eyes were hidden behind his glasses. He mimed reaching up to touch a horn. “What do you think?”
“Most first-timers throw up.”
“I did vomit three teleports ago.” Grover reared onto his paws and flared his wings. Keeping the Reichstone clutched against his chest, his left wing flexed inwards to check if the holstered pistol was secure before the griffon slowly glided off the cloud.
The alicorn followed with her larger wingspan. Grover flew directly towards downtown Manehattan and the towering skyscrapers. Or at least the ones still standing. Several had visible battle damage that only grew clearer and starker as the mismatched pair advanced.
Flurry Heart listened to her heartbeat in her ears. Her muzzle continued to ripple in the sunlight, pink crystal fur flushing with darker streaks. For the time being, they were high up and utterly alone in the sky.
“Patrols from Hayston or Albion should have already spotted us,” Grover called out. He ducked briefly between his legs to look back at Flurry. His tail flitted out of the way. “We are still set up in Carneighie Hall.”
“You want to meet her there?” Flurry called back.
“Meet her at the docks and stall for time,” Grover returned. “We split up. Stand before her alone, without Griffonian influence.”
Without you. Flurry felt ice in her stomach. “You don’t want to meet her?”
“With film crews and cameras,” Grover answered. “With proof. The news will spread like wildfire across the continent. Across Griffonia.” He twisted his head back east. "We need cameras."
Flurry swallowed and followed him for several more minutes. The skyscrapers grew closer, though they were still high up in the clouds. Her ears prickled for the roar of plane engines, but there was nothing in the distance. It was as if they were the only two in the world, or that the world was holding its breath.
“I’d like you to be there,” Flurry said in a lower voice. She was not sure if it carried across the sky.
“I will,” Grover promised ahead of her. “I am a little too sparkly for pictures, no offense. And I doubt there are cameras at the dockyards, unless she brought a gaggle of Riverlanders with her.”
“What if she did?” Flurry pressed. “What if it’s a formal declaration of war? Can the Reich-”
“No,” Grover said bluntly. "If it comes to that, I may resume praying to the Trinity." He flapped his wings and gained speed. They reached the outskirts of Manehattan easily, and a patrol of griffons swirled up from the clouds below them. The shouted commands to halt echoed in the sky.
As before, they recognized her first and slowed. Flurry had never heard of an infiltrator attempting to disguise themselves as an alicorn, but it was doubtlessly possible. Thorax can. Or perhaps they are wary of me. The lead griffon’s eyes were shadowed from the sunlight washing over his helmet. He slung his assault rifle downwards and showed his claws, flapping midair several wingspans away.
“Princess?” he asked. The word was the same in Herzlander and Equestrian. The soldier’s eyes went to the sparkling griffon hovering ahead of her, drifting down to the Reichstone in shining claws. His wings beat unevenly for a moment before he clasped his right claw to his chest and bowed his head.
Kaiser Grover VI nodded and his beak sparkled in the sunlight. Not a single griffon commented on it. Flurry was unsure if their shock was at seeing their Kaiser, or his appearance, or both. “Unteroffizier. With me.” He stared over a flapping wing back to Flurry for a moment. The sunlight reflected in his glasses and she could not see his eyes. His cheeks twitched on each side of his beak.
“I’ll see you at the docks,” Flurry offered. Her tone lost confidence halfway through and it sounded more like a question by the end.
“Yes,” Grover promised. His head twisted partially back, then returned. “Princess?”
Flurry waited.
“If it comes to a fight, do not throw the first strike. Especially before the cameras.”
The alicorn laughed with a mix of snorts and brays. It pitched upwards into hysteria. “I doubt optics will matter with half of Manehattan reduced to a new bay.”
“That is when it will matter most,” Grover returned. “That she returned to fight you instead of the Queen. I do not expect her to make that mistake. Do not make it for her.”
“Okay.” Flurry watched Grover descend. He looked back at her one final time, and a shaft of sunlight reflected in his glasses. Flurry could not see his expression. The soldiers lingered in the sky for a moment, trading uncertain looks. The officer whistled high and they broke into a ragged arrowhead, trailing after their Kaiser. A cloud blocked them from sight after a few wingbeats. The sounds of flapping wings and wind whistling through feathers ended a moment later.
Flurry Heart was alone in the sky. The Crystaller was visible in the distance, flanked by other shattered skyscrapers. She glided towards it and banked around a broken statue of a crystal unicorn on the top. Half the muzzle was cleaved through by an artillery shell. The damage wasn’t worth repairing, not when guns and armor were needed in every available factory.
We’ll have to tear it down. It was Lilac’s tower. We can use the steel for other things…
The alicorn descended, gliding over downtown and skipping past the boroughs towards the coast. She flew over Bridleway. The old posters for Governor Lilac’s plays had been torn away, but nothing replaced them. Manehattan had never been vibrant, but with the overcast clouds above it was a city of sad, gray brick and steel.
The patrols did not stop her. Griffons saw her on rooftops. Some looked up in rifle scopes, only to lower them the moment they picked out the silhouette of wings and a horn. The city streets below had halted. Before the war, Manehattan was the city that never slept, but now it was still. The industrial district’s smokestacks in the horizon had faded.
As Flurry lowered her glide, she saw the trucks stopped in the roads along the way from the harbor. There had been a pile-up as work had halted. Ponies sat in the back while griffons drove in the cab. The models were from the Reich, built for a creature with paws and claws. Ponies were only good for loading and unloading the equipment.
Our future will be working in Griffonian factories making Griffonian products. A few of the ponies in the open flatbeds looked up. They did not wave. Flurry was too far away and flying too fast to read their expressions. She was close enough to see that they filled out their overalls and jumpsuits. They lived and breathed and ate. Is it enough to live?
She passed a buzzing radio tower atop a repurposed cab depot. Armored cars sat in the bays. She felt the hum from the radio waves in her horn and imagined what was being transmitted. It had not been that long, perhaps an hour in total. Rejoice, the true Princess has come. No need to follow a foreign filly.
The skyline of the city evened out before the docks, flattening to squat brick warehouses studded by cranes before concrete piers. She followed the trail of parked trucks all the way down the streets, winding through milling soldiers and wandering ponies. Manehattan was not sleeping, but it was holding its breath.
Ships sat in every pier, most half-filled with crates. One pallet still swung from a crane, but the operator was absent. The crew was standing on the port side of the ship, staring down the dockyards. They did not look up as the alicorn’s shadow passed over them. The dockyard was mostly abandoned, all except one pier near the end. A large crowd in the shape of a horseshoe bracketed the dock.
Flurry slowed. There was a ship docked there, nearly fully unloaded. It was a freighter with a frontward bridge. The crew was gathered at the forecastle ahead of it. The griffons were still and watching the dock below. Water lapped at the rusted red hull. It was a very simple, old Fezeran hauler. The name had faded away.
The herd of ponies in the horseshoe were split up by pallets stacked high with boxes. Two trucks were parked in a warehouse bay beside the dock. Flurry drifted lower. A few helmeted griffons near the edges of the crowd tensed and twisted their beaks upwards. The ponies as a whole shifted, the herd following the movement of others in the crowd.
Flurry landed atop one of the higher pallets, surrounded by a sea of earth ponies. Most were wearing scarves and boots, if not full coveralls. A few still wore raincoats, though the rain had stopped days ago. The herd stared up at the alicorn perched on the box like an oversized seagull.
She looked down at the label stamped below a rearing, roaring griffon in black shadow on the top of the crate.
Featho-Lay: Cheese Puffs
The laughter died in her throat. She looked around, meeting a sea of blank, uncertain stares. Tails lashed behind short-cut manes. The herd was agitated, uncertain. Ponies shuffled and jostled against each other, drawn by the commotion but without a clear course of action. It seemed like every soldier guarding the docks had flocked to one pier, but they did little except wander the edges of the crowd. Not a single griffon held their weapon in their claws, most slung under a shifting wing.
There was one figure at the end of the dock.
It was unmistakably a pony with white fur. Her mane and tail swirled around her, masking her lean muzzle from view. When the clouds broke and the sun flitted through, her hair flashed with every color of the rainbow. She stood near the crane, but away from a series of pallets laid before it. The figure did not move her lean legs.
Flurry looked behind her to the warehouse. There was a poster on the wall. The colors had faded but Princess Celestia was still clearly visible, engorged and stuffing her muzzle with cake. She was far fatter than anypony Flurry had ever seen, and Lilac’s propaganda had asked a question below her:
Is this your Princess?
THIS IS was splattered across the words in white paint. There was an arrow pointing to the crane. Whatever else was written was blocked by the herd. Flurry followed the arrow.
Two shapes of ponies swung below the crane. The wind and salt from the ocean had weathered them. She swung her gaze down into the crowd, meeting the orange eyes of an earth pony near her age. The filly was stocky and weathered with a scar running across her muzzle. It had been broken once and healed crooked. She stared unblinkingly at the Princess.
Then, she switched her stare to the figure at the end of the dock.
Flurry Heart flapped her oversized wings once and stepped down from the box. The herd bulged and cleared space on reflex for the taller pony. She forced her legs forward one at a time, and the herd parted before her. They still traded stares. Her ponies smelled of sea salt and grease. And Cheese Puffs. Their fur was weathered by the wind and long hours.
They looked strong. And healthy. Alive. She reached the edge of the herd too quickly and was muzzle-to-beak with a Reichsarmee officer. She stared cross-eyed at his cap for a moment. He was shorter than her, though he was probably average height for a griffon.
The officer stepped back and removed his brown cap, clutching it like a cub would clutch a toy in his claws. He wrung the bill with brown talons. Flurry felt the herd fill-in behind her. More hooves clattered on concrete and ponies milled about with excess energy.
Flurry stared over the griffon’s blonde feathers. The figure at the end of the dock still had not moved. Her long neck had stretched out, gazing upwards at the two swaying figures dangling from the tower of the crane. A wind blew from the east and whipped a vibrant tail around white flanks. This time, Flurry noticed a sparkle inside the mass of colors in her mane.
“Princess?”
Flurry did not respond.
“P-Princess?” the griffon asked again.
The alicorn shifted her sparkling muzzle down to him. He stepped back from her. Darker pink colors whirled around her crystallized hooves. Her wings rippled when a dapple of sunlight splashed across her back.
Flurry felt herself say, “Yes?” It felt like she was drifting above her body.
“What should we do?” The griffon looked utterly lost and clenched his beak together. When the alicorn did not respond quickly, he continued in more desperate Equestrian. “She…she just flew here. We didn’t-”
“Keep the crowd where they are.” It took her a moment to recognize the voice and realize she had ordered it. Her legs moving past him felt equally distant, more a puppet moving on strings towards a destination set by another. He scrambled to the side and snapped a wing at a few of the soldiers. Squawks echoed in her ears, though if they were words she did not hear them.
Flurry marched towards the figure on the dock on numb legs. Her hooves flashed with every step, and her mane and tail blew in the wind. The purple and blue locks separated and combined, losing their cohesion and curving into unkempt swirls. Whispers twitched in her ears, from the griffons watching atop the deck of the ship to the herd behind her. She could not hear the words, but she imagined them well enough.
“The real Princess…”
“The true Princess…”
“She’s back…”
Flurry stopped beside the crane. She was just over halfway across the dock in an open space. The figure lifted one white hoof and approached slowly, legs moving gracefully in easy coordination. A long, spiraled white horn poked through her mane, and the wind shifted so her mane blew across her back.
A golden tiara with a purple gem sat at the base of her horn. It was a small thing, and simple. Flurry reached up on reflex, touching the purple crystal band that almost vanished in her unkempt mane, obscured by brittle, blackened chunks of hair from her spellcasting. She still forced a spell into her horn, ignoring the headache.
The other figure stopped and waited. Not uncertainly, but casually with easy grace. Her halt looked practiced and expected, with wings calmly at her sides. Flurry felt blood trickle from her nose and released the spell.
The golden wave washed over the dock and blew through white feathers. It passed backward through the crowd before the warehouse, and the whispers faded with the wind. The white wings twitched and settled against bare fur, folded before a bright yellow sun. Flurry’s own wings pressed over her cutie mark, obscuring the burning Heart.
The figure’s horn glowed the same shade of gold and the spell repeated. There was no wave to wash over dockyard. The magic was like stepping out into a calm spring day under a gentle sun. It danced up Flurry’s crystal fur and left trails of pulsing pink embers before tapering off into her wings.
She did not move, and the figure closed the distance to a wingspan. Flurry had to look up to her muzzle. She did not have to look upwards very much; the base of her horn was at the other alicorn’s muzzle.
Princess Celestia’s muzzle curved into a half-smile with shining teeth. “Yes. It’s me.”
Flurry Heart had a thousand things to say, but none of them left her mouth.
Soft, kind magenta eyes regarded the smaller alicorn. They wandered down her muzzle. “Magical Exhaustion is serious, you know.” Her voice was sonorous, radiating warmth. “Did you teleport all the way from the Crystal Empire?” She laughed to herself with the sound of bells. “You were always so talented at teleportation.”
Flurry said nothing.
"We felt the magic all the way in the Riverlands," Celestia continued. "The Crystal Heart is an old artifact." Her head shifted to the side to and an eye peered downwards. "You gained a mark like your mother's. Spike was concerned for nothing."
“I told you not to come back.” Flurry’s high-pitched voice cracked into a hiss. She breathed in through her teeth.
Celestia’s half-smile stayed on her muzzle. Her wings flapped once. “You did,” she acknowledged. The taller alicorn did not move or light her horn again.
Neither said anything more for a long time.
“I begged you,” Flurry managed. She breathed out and struggled to breathe back in. She lifted a hoof to her chest and pushed the air out of her lungs.
Celestia watched the movement, still with the half-smile on her lips. “Your mother always found that calming. I am glad-”
“I begged you,” Flurry hissed again.
The half-smile finally faded. Celestia pursed her lips and lifted her head. Her long neck stretched out and upwards. “Yes,” she acknowledged again. “You did.”
The word would not come for another minute. It emerged as a whisper. “Why?”
Celestia sighed. “What was left to say? You made your position clear. You never responded to a single one of my letters, except once and…” She shook her head, and her mane bounced and weaved together. The rainbow separated after a pause. “Was there anything I could have said to dissuade you from this path?”
“You could have come,” Flurry forced out breathlessly.
The calm, collected eyes wandered up to the crane. Flurry followed the stare. She recognized Suri’s body, no amount of salt could strip away the bulk the earth pony had but on, but the stallion beside her was a mystery beyond the gender. White wings flapped once again.
“The Reichsarmee did similar things during their first Crusade,” Celestia said. Her voice was quiet and detached. “The Riverlands bled for decades, forced back hoof-by-hoof. Only the death of their Kaiser stopped the madness. They call this war another Crusade to justify atrocities.”
Flurry was lost for a moment. Despite herself, she laughed a reedy, windy chuckle. “You did not come this way to lecture me about my choice of allies.”
“No,” the elder alicorn admitted. Her eyes did not leave the bodies. “But they asked a price of you. I know they did. Whatever it is, it is too steep to pay.”
“That is my decision.”
Celestia did not respond to that challenge. She flicked a wing like it was a rain droplet rolling down a feather. Flurry watched her breathe in while her eyes remained on the figures.
“Was this your decision?” Celestia’s voice wavered into a higher pitch, still in harmony.
“They didn’t order this,” Flurry said in her patchy Equestrian. Her counterpart spoke it flawlessly, every accent and syllable perfectly enunciated.
Celestia closed her eyes and looked like the words physically hurt her. “I hoped they did.” Her muzzle turned down to Flurry before the eyes opened again, swimming with grief. “I had hoped that what the Riverlanders said about you was not true.”
“I admitted it was.” Her hind leg began to shake, and she forced it to keep still.
“Oh Flurry,” Celestia sighed. “Can’t you see where this leads? Ponies will march forward in your name and commit evils you never imagined for your glory.”
“Speaking from experience?”
For the first time, Celestia’s pause looked unplanned. “Some things are best left buried.” Her calm stare returned and she waved a hoof to the herd beyond. “It’s already happened, hasn’t it?” Their discussion had not carried to them, but the ponies shifted at the gesture. The griffons braced, but no surge of hooves occurred.
Flurry thought of Red Dawn and Scarlet Letter.
Her silence was all the answer Celestia needed. She smiled down at her, sadly. “What will you do when they go too far?”
It was a rhetorical question, but Flurry answered it. “Correct them.”
“With more violence?” Celestia guessed. “Until generations live in fear of the point of your horn?” Her hoof lowered to the ground, and a brief burst of sunlight made the tiara at the base of her horn sparkle.
“I’m not thinking that far ahead,” Flurry retorted.
“Clearly not.” Celestia continued before Flurry could say anything in response to the jab. “Evil is not defeated with greater evils. Defeating one evil with another still leaves evil in the world.”
“Evil?” Flurry’s voice petered out. “The Reichsarmee isn’t shoving us into cocoons.”
Celestia looked back to the bodies. “What do you call this?”
“Justice.”
“A brutal, monstrous justice,” Celestia concurred. “One that ponies will take as an example and continue it. In your name. You will have to do more ‘justice’ to correct it.”
Flurry’s wings dropped to the concrete pier, but she bared her teeth. “I’ve met Cozy Glow, you know.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Is that your choice of ally?”
“All the better ponies are dead,” the smaller alicorn spat. “They died when you left the ELF.”
“I did not leave them,” Celestia said calmly. “Despite what the griffons say, I do raise the sun.” Her neck turned to the east as if she was checking where it was. The clouds covered the horizon. "The time was not right for an uprising. I told them as much. Desperation drives ponies to do horrible things."
“You did your sister’s job for a thousand years.”
When Celestia turned back, something darker swirled in her eyes. The warmth in her voice grew heated. “Do not imply my sister is lesser.”
“She could do your job,” Flurry retorted. “You could have come.”
“Why?” Celestia sniffed. She blinked, and her voice regained its calm. “One alicorn will not win a war.”
“We can win a battle,” Flurry answered, “and battles can win wars.”
Celestia’s wings flapped at her sides. “You are not listening.” Her voice was pained. “Can you not see the cost?” Flurry opened her mouth, but Celestia interrupted her. “How many have you killed?”
“I don’t keep count,” Flurry snorted.
Celestia pinched her eyes shut. “How many?”
The smaller alicorn shuffled her hooves. “I told you. Many.”
“Changelings?” Celestia’s voice wandered. “Griffons?” It turned impossibly sad. “Ponies?”
Flurry looked back to the corpses. She knew there was a bullet hole in Suri’s head, but she could not make it out from the pier. “That mare worked ponies to death in factories and-”
“Are you justifying it to me or yourself?” Celestia asked. She stared down at the pink crystal hooves. “Blood is poor ink to build a nation, and leaves trails wherever you walk.”
“It’s the only ink we have,” Flurry replied evenly. “The Reichsarmee is the only ally we have. What else are we supposed to do?”
Celestia pressed her lips together. “You know the answer.”
“I don’t, actually,” Flurry shook her head.
White wings fluttered. “Wait.” It was said so obviously and casually that Flurry had to think of a response and failed.
“What?”
“Wait,” Celestia emphasized. Her eyes were wry. “Chrysalis is not immortal, though she claims to be. She is old. She will die, and her empire will fall. The Hegemony will never last. It will crumble, and then-”
“What?” Flurry repeated in a breathy wheeze. “Have…have you seen Equestria?”
Celestia folded her wings and did not verbally respond.
“They’re killing us.”
“And you are killing them,” Celestia returned. Her wing lifted and pointed over Flurry’s withers. “And you are killing them.”
Flurry snarled. “They are fighting to save their home. Like you should have-”
Celestia cut her off. “You will sacrifice your soul and Equestria’s. It is not a victory. What is left will not be Equestria.”
For the first time since the conversation started, Flurry’s muzzle curled into a smile. “Then stop me.”
The taller alicorn cocked her head. Her mane and tail stilled. “Is that what you want?”
I don’t know what I want. It doesn’t matter what I want. “I’m not stopping.” Flurry’s voice picked up into a wheezing rant. “You want to save Equestria? You want the crown back?” Her wing jabbed upwards with raggedy pink feathers to the tiara. Celestia jerked her head backwards from the feathers. “I’m still standing. You ran away and I am still standing.” She panted at the end and her forelegs shook.
Celestia scanned the smaller alicorn. Her eyes were sad. “Your nose is bleeding.” Flurry snorted and wiped it on a foreleg. She stamped her crystal hoof into the pier with a flash.
“I’m not here to fight you,” Celestia’s voice was resigned. Her horn glowed and Flurry braced for a spell, but the golden telekinesis only adjusted the tiara atop her head. “It’s just a crown, Flurry.”
A golden bubble shield burst into existence around them. The wind and noise cut off, and the world faded away. Celestia observed the magic with interest and reached out a white wing. She prodded the magic and felt the bubble flex. “I remember your spell when you were a foal.” Her voice still carried a hint of pride and warmth, but the ember cooled. “I’m sorry you used it for war.”
“Why the fuck are you here?” Flurry challenged.
“I wanted to be polite about this,” Celestia ventured with a slight laugh.
“Is the Riverlands invading, you fucking nag?” Flurry swore with added emphasis.
“I forget that you are a teenager,” Celestia’s voice was laced with teasing. “You’re taller than Luna. She will be jealous.”
Flurry heaved a deep breath and braced her shaking legs. “If you want to kill me and-”
“Flurry!” Celestia shouted in horror. Her white wings waved at her sides, feathers flexing in the air. “I do not want to kill you!” She blinked and tears sparkled in her magenta irises. “All I ever wanted was for you to come to the Riverlands with us! That is all I ever asked!”
Flurry’s wings pressed against her sides. “I can’t leave. I won’t leave.”
“I know,” Celestia sighed. She physically deflated. “I’m not here for you.”
The pink alicorn froze. “No.”
“Please-”
“No.” The voice rattled the inside of the bubble. Blue flames flicked off the sides of the shield and sparked on the ground. Celestia took a deep breath and exhaled, standing up straight. The tip of her horn touched the top of the bubble, and it expanded effortlessly as her spellwork overpowered Flurry’s in an instant.
Flurry felt the bubble wrench away from her control and laughed despairingly.
“That was not a threat,” Celestia stated. “I just wish to stand.”
“That’s not why I am laughing.” Flurry blinked and swallowed. “You aren’t taking her.”
Celestia visibly thought about her words. “Twilight Sparkle deserves the best medical care. That is not here. The Riverlands has the finest hospitals, and the mages of Wittenland are well-versed in healing spells.”
“You don’t get to come here and drag her away from her home,” Flurry said in a weaker voice.
“Your aunt,” Celestia said calmly, “needs help.” She reached out a wing as if it touch the younger alicorn, but it wavered. “Can she get it here?”
Flurry thought about the Changeling machines and overworked staff. The sandbags lining the hallway and posters on the wall. She thought about the scans she burned to ash after they had been brought to her room one cold night.
Twilight Sparkle will die first.
“You don’t get to take her,” Flurry whispered. “She chose to stay.”
Celestia said nothing for a long moment, but folded her wing to her side. Flurry stared at her own shaking hooves. The crystal flashed and wavered, swirling with the golden flares along the shield. She heard Celestia breathe in.
“If you love her-”
Flurry lunged forward and forced her muzzle up to Celestia’s with flared wings.
“IF YOU LOVED HER YOU WOULD HAVE FOUGHT!”
Flurry Heart did not know what to expect from shouting in the Princess of the Sun’s muzzle. Celestia took a single step back from the force before freezing. Her expression of calm shattered like ice. Flurry did not know what to expect, but was unprepared for white wings to clamp around her forelegs and Celestia to shout back at her with wild anger in her eyes.
“I DID NOT ABANDON HER. SHE ABANDONED ME.”
The Princess of the Sun roared.
Celestia brought her forelegs up to Flurry’s muzzle and forced the younger alicorn to look up at her. She balanced on her hind legs, looming over Flurry and nearly pressing her muzzle into hers.
“She abandoned us,” Celestia despaired. The shield calmed around them, raining golden embers from the backlash of the Royal Canterlot Voices. Her voice now had nothing but smoldering sorrow.
“I will tell you this,” Celestia continued with heat in every word, “because I am the only one that will: I begged your mother to leave. I begged Twilight to leave. They stayed. And for what?”
Flurry was pinned by the wings and the hooves and the words stabbing into her heart.
Tears trailed down Celestia’s muzzle. “The Empire fell anyway. Equestria fell anyway. Our family fell apart because of decisions they made. Your father took you to a nation bound to be invaded by an ally of Chrysalis and abandoned you.”
Flurry found her voice. “They died as heroes.”
“They died for nothing,” Celestia sobbed. “Your mother gave into despair and your father gave into grief. I warned her that it would destroy her family. I warned Twilight. They had centuries to spread love and friendship, and gave it all up for nothing.”
Celestia released Flurry, only to pull her into a hug and wrapped her wings around her head. “They should have been here for you. They should have left with us. Don’t you understand?”
Flurry’s horn was tucked near Celestia’s muzzle. She remembered her mother’s hug in cold crystal barding, and the hug from the ‘mother’ that had come for her in Aquileia. This was warm and soft and loving and better than either of them.
Then Celestia spoke. “You could have been happy.”
Flurry Heart ripped herself away with her wings, batting at Celestia’s muzzle. The older alicorn did not expect the ‘attack’ and stumbled back. The golden tiara fell from her head when a few pink feathers slapped it away, and it plinked to the ground. The purple gem fell out of the socket and rolled along the edge of the shield.
“I don’t want to be happy!” Flurry whinnied back. The crystal band and six gems swirled in the light. Her coat flashed darker pink, ripples running like fire over her fur. Flurry watched the gem roll to a stop near her hoof.
She smashed it with a cry of rage, feeling the hard edge slice her frog. She lifted her bloody hoof and limped forward to the tiara. Celestia watched her, steadying herself with a wing braced against the shield. Golden sparks raced up her feathers, but she did not notice.
“You don’t deserve it,” Flurry snarled. She stomped her hoof down on the metal and flattened the tiara. "You never deserved it!" She repeated the stomp thrice more, whinnying at the pain. She left a bloody hoofprint on the ground.
Celestia watched her like a disappointed parent watching a foal throw a tantrum. She breathed out and folded her wings. “It’s just a crown, Flurry.”
“It’s everything,” Flurry spat back up at her. She heaved for breath, and Celestia watched. Her white muzzle was clean and collected, as if she had never cried in the first place. Flurry felt a fresh trail of blood hit her lips.
“You know it’s the right decision,” Celestia implored. “Please.”
The shield rippled. Flurry's voice stuttered out and she turned to the imprint fading in the magic. Celestia jerked her head to the side in curiosity, and her horn glowed. The golden magic turned transparent.
Grover lowered his claw, shaking a smoking glove. His outfit had been cleaned up, sash wiped down and shirt tucked-in. The griffon wore a new black coat with a higher collar, masking his side profile. Flurry immediately realized he had tan foundation smeared across most of his feathers and polish on his beak. It did not fully hide the crystallization, but at a distance he appeared normal. The Reichstone atop his head had been dried and the gems appeared fresh and pristine.
Flurry looked past him. Several cameras had been set up and the crowd pushed back to the warehouse wall. A camera and film crew were stationed atop the box she landed on, facing the pier. Knights in full armor formed a cordon around the dock now. When Flurry switched to the deck of the ship, a contingent of Reichsarmee regulars lined the deck, dotted with more cameras.
Grover mouthed something with a clacking beak. Flurry realized the sound was still cut off. Her horn glowed and she probed the bubble shield. To her surprise, the magic yielded to her and fizzled away. The bubble shield popped with the sound of a soap bubble.
The Kaiser of Griffonkind adjusted a cufflink with casual indifference. “I had to borrow some of Bridleway’s old film pieces,” he explained in Herzlander. “Governor Lilac had recordings for their cultural significance.”
“And the makeup?” Flurry asked in a wobbling voice. She tried to smile. She failed.
“What makeup?” Grover deadpanned. He flicked a wing out to the crowd behind him. His tail slapped against the concrete. His eyes moved down to the bleeding hoof, then back to the pink alicorn. “Hello, Princess.”
“Kaiser Grover,” Flurry answered. She breathed in and struggled to breathe out.
Grover waited. His deep blue eyes flicked to the other alicorn, then back to Flurry. He raised a cufflink and fiddled with it. Flurry understood the message. It has to be you.
“Kaiser Grover,” Flurry said with forced formality. “This is…” she turned to stare at the other alicorn, bracing for an interruption.
Celestia did not interrupt her. The white alicorn stood calmly a wingspan away. Her gaze was unreadable, but it lingered over their heads at the crowd and cameras.
“This is Celestia,” Flurry said. “My mother’s aunt.”
Grover dipped his head. “I am pleased to finally make your acquaintance. I am always open to the friends of Chancellor River Swirl. Would that I could meet more of them.”
Celestia did not respond to him, but her magenta eyes wandered over his beak. She hummed in the back of her throat, but did not say a word.
“I believe this is the first time you have ever met a Grover,” the Kaiser said. He spoke his professional, accented Equestrian. "On behalf of my ancestors, I greet you."
“Yes,” Celestia accepted. “Your family had little interest in meeting me.”
Grover turned to Flurry. “This is a momentous occasion. Do you mind if it is recorded, Princess?”
“I…” Flurry licked her lips. “I do not.”
Grover’s cheeks pulled into an exaggerated smile, and he turned back to Celestia. “What can we do for such an esteemed guest of Chancellor River Swirl?”
“I am not here on behalf of the River Federation,” Celestia said stiffly. The same half-smile returned and she stood relaxed on the dock. "I am a citizen of the River Federation like any other."
Grover noticed the smashed, bloody gold on the pier. “I see. Well, a citizen of the River Federation is welcome in the Griffonian Reich, regardless.”
“Is that where we’re standing right now?” Celestia asked with an easy edge.
“No,” Grover said smoothly, “but you did fly through my lands to get here.”
“I teleported.”
Flurry shifted closer to Grover. He gave her quick side-eye and flicked a brown feather. Not too close. She stepped back and shot a backwards glance at the flashing cameras. The herd was still silent and milling around, even with the griffons cordoning them away from their Princesses.
Celestia looked between them. “I am not here to interfere in your war. This is a private matter between…” she trailed off and glanced one eye at Flurry, lingering on the crystal band. “I wish to speak to my grandniece. That is all.”
“I wish you gave us an advance notice,” Grover responded. He flapped and refolded his wings. The griffon had to look up at the tall alicorn, and Flurry noticed the Reichstone sat uneasily over his feathers. The exposed gray padding was flecked with tan smears.
The Princess of the Sun stared on some point between them, muzzle slightly lowered. Flurry stilled her feathers and pressed them flush against her lean barrel. Grover had his own wings laying over the black overcoat. The feathers left smudges on the leather and a few sparkled in a stray beam of sunlight.
“I do not know what is going on in the River Federation,” Celestia said in a low, calm voice to match the waves lapping against the pier.
"You were absent in the past River Games," Grover retorted.
Celestia huffed at that and smiled down at him like he was an amusing parrot. “I only wish to make an appeal for the health of Twilight Sparkle.”
“To the mages of Wittenland?” Grover guessed. He tapped a glove on the dock.
Celestia blinked. “Yes. Their spellwork is impeccable.”
Flurry’s chest felt tight. She kept her eyes on the alicorn and did not look to Grover. She ran her tongue around her mouth before responding. “My fellow Diarch remains in Equestria.”
“I suppose that settles it,” Grover shrugged a wing. “Princess Flurry is a direct relative of Twilight Sparkle, and her last living family. Her say is final.”
Celestia hummed again. Her horn raised to the cameras lining the ship above them, and the soldiers in between the flashing bulbs. “I remember the letter you sent me, Flurry.”
“And you had nothing left to say,” Flurry heaved out.
“Not that one,” Celestia shook her head. She turned down to Grover and blinked languidly at his polished beak. A small patch flashed in a beam of sunlight. “I wonder when this is done what your griffons will say of this war. That you came all this way for one of us?”
Grover’s makeup-smeared beak ground together. For a moment, there was only a rumble in his chest. He snarled with a cracking voice, “I did not come here for her.”
“That,” Celestia declared, “is the truth.” She smiled again, but with pressed lips and rolled her head to Flurry. “Please. You know this is the right choice. For Twilight.”
Flurry hesitated. “And then what?”
“I will not stop you.” White wings sagged again and feathers splayed out beside two beaming suns. Her muzzle curved downwards. “What you are building…you know it will not last. No more than Chrysalis’ reign.”
“Neither did Equestria,” Flurry snapped out. Her inhale stuttered. “You…we could have won.”
“What is the point if we win the war and forfeit our souls?” Celestia swung her head back up to the corpses. “What price do we declare is enough? Is worth it?”
“My family knew the cost.”
Celestia snapped her head downwards again. “Your family…” she stopped and breathed deeply. “Please, help your family. We will make an announcement, and I will leave. Let her have a future.”
Flurry Heart stood on the dock and stared over a white wing to the east. She did not think about the offer, or the throbbing pain in her hoof as it bled on the concrete. She thought of Whammy wearing her old tiara on her nightstand.
A brown feather drifted against her wing and left a smear of foundation. Flurry blinked and shifted one pale blue eye to Grover. The griffon was staring at his ship, apparently disinterested in the conversation.
“I was wondering if you were here to volunteer,” he said idly.
Flurry looked back to the cameras atop the crates, and the milling, churning herd below the crews. A few more griffons lined the warehouse roof as well, and the bulbs flashed across her fur under a cloudy sky. Her tail twisted and curled, and she looked back to Celestia with ice in her eyes.
The taller alicorn did not flinch. “Please. Don’t.”
Flurry stepped back and clenched her teeth at the throbbing in her hoof. The pink alicorn turned away from the pale white and Grover stepped nimbly to the side as if it was rehearsed. She stamped down hard on the wound and forced the pain into her voice.
“Ponies of Equestria!”
The herd stilled.
“Ponies of Manehattan!”
They stared at her, and not the mare behind her. That figure did not move aside from folding her wings at her side.
“Long have we worked, and long have we suffered,” Flurry’s voice cracked, and her patchwork Equestrian drew out the final word. “But we have faced it together! And we will fight as one! As long as we live, we have not lost!” She took a deep, ragged breath.
“With Princess Celestia at my side, we will tear Chrysalis from her tower and fight the Hegemony!”
Flurry Heart did not look behind her at either the Princess or the Kaiser.
The cameras crews spun film reels, beaks turned to the side as they stared down lenses. A few moved viewfinders between the disparate trio, or adjusted the height of the stands to have them all in focus. The bulbs lining the rooftop and the deck of the freighter flashed with renewed intensity.
The herd of Manhattanites were quiet and hooves stopped shuffling. They stood as one great uncertain mass, and even the griffon soldiers turned and stared at the dock for some indication of what was to be done. Flurry tried to raise her wings, but they were shaking too badly and remained pinned at her side.
Her ponies stared at her.
Somepony in the crowd whinnied wildly and threw a cap into the air.
The rest broke into cheers, and the guards whirled back around to stop them from charging the dock. The griffons linked wings and formed a line, wedging the crowd back against the warehouse. Flurry looked to her left, and more began to spill onto the unoccupied pier. Additional soldiers landed and waved them back.
Flurry turned back around with the cheering crowd at her tail and a wobblily, forced smile on her muzzle. She tried to keep her ears from pinning into her mane. She walked slowly, both to keep her tail from tripping her up and to measure her steps from shaking. Her right forehoof left splatters of blood.
Celestia had closed her eyes and lowered her horn. She exhaled with a low sigh. The alicorn looked up at Flurry with pity in her soft magenta eyes. This time, she said nothing. Grover stayed to the side, closer to the crane. The Kaiser looked regal and detached from the proceedings. His presence is enough.
“You can have her,” Flurry offered under the distant whinnies. Her voice shook. “If you fight. You have to fight. Spike will kill you if you try to take her. Me, or Chrysalis, or all of us. You have to fight.”
“All you can appeal to is violence?” Celestia asked softly. “Is that all that’s left?” Her eyes wandered upwards and stopped near the base of Flurry’s horn. The smaller alicorn lifted her head and felt the weight of the crystal and six gems.
I don’t know what else to do. “My family chose to fight,” Flurry said instead.
“Not like you,” Celestia pointed out with a resigned whicker. “Oh, Flurry. Your mother would be so disappointed to see you now. But it isn't your fault. She should have been here for you.”
Love is the death of duty, Flurry. “You did not understand her at all.”
Her voice felt different. She backed up, legs moving stiffly, towards the cheering crowd. Grover snapped a wing. A few knights appeared from the bow of the ship, landing in dull gray armor and quickly surrounding their Kaiser. The square advanced towards the herd.
Celestia smiled and laughed with a laced sob. “Your father told me the same. Told us the same, Luna and I both. Right here on this dock.”
The younger alicorn froze.
Celestia noticed and continued in a slow, soft voice. It beat out a cadence under the wild cheering. “My sister and I faced him with the same poisonous fury in his eyes. He set you on this path, just as your mother set him on his.”
Flurry looked up to the crane, then back to the faded mural on the warehouse. Her head lolled and her muzzle wandered over the crowd with a fixed, fake smile. “On this dock?” she echoed.
“Please,” Celestia pleaded, “do not repeat their mistakes.”
Flurry turned her fake smile back to Celestia as the cameras flashed. She felt her hoof throb, and looked down at her mismatched forelegs. The white scar on her left foreleg blinked white under the cascading lights, and the edges of her right hoof were bloody.
She twisted her plastic muzzle upwards and extended her right wing. She pointed it casually to the side, and shrugged it like she was discussing the weather. Celestia flapped her own wings in response.
“Two over,” Flurry said in Aquileian.
Celestia frowned. Her wings stuttered. She exhaled for a moment and her eyes searched the other alicorn.
“It was two over,” Flurry repeated. “I remember.”
The other alicorn heaved a breath and began in Aquileian, “If you wish to claim some victory from this-”
“What was the name of the ship?” Flurry interrupted her with the smile fixed on her muzzle.
Celestia stopped and regarded her with sad, large eyes.
“It was a destroyer,” Flurry answered. “The Endeavour. The Wingbardians sank it when they invaded New Mareland. I remember. You chose the wrong dock.”
The other Princess swung her head to the right, then rolled her neck back. She looked at Flurry piteously. “Do not let it come to this. For Twilight’s sake. For your family.”
Flurry could not make her tongue cooperate and turned back around. Her legs moved on their own and followed Grover under the rolling cameras. The griffon had stopped and opened the protective square. He waited on all fours with another show of fixing his gloves. The knights fanned their wings, partially blocking him from view, but the gold of the Reichstone glittered under the assault of flashes.
The whinnies were deafening. Flurry fanned her wings out above her head, and the spasms in her feathers looked like she was waving. A few earth ponies reared at the front of the herd and were shoved back with rifle butts. It took all her effort to keep her wide smile on her muzzle. The pain in her hoof somehow helped.
She stopped beside Grover and clacked her hooves. She turned back around and faced the end of the dock. The griffon glanced up at her and asked in a low whisper, “Are you alright?”
Flurry’s ears twitched and she forced them to stay up. Her tail wrung into a knot, blue and purple curls winding together from the spasming muscle. She swallowed a glob of spit and bile down.
A lone white figure stood on the dock. The clouds broke, and sunlight spilled across the dockyards. Flurry saw her muzzle ripple with every variant of pink in her watery vision. She breathed in through her clogged nose.
Celestia stared upwards at the crane, and the corpses hanging below it. Her head swung downwards to the shattered flecks of gold stamped into the pier. She looked upwards again to the faded mural on the warehouse, eyes skipping over Cadance’s daughter.
Flurry gazed at her, icy eyes shaking.
Don’t you dare leave.
The other Celestia only had eyes for the slice of cake levitating into her maw.
Don’t leave.
Celestia closed her eyes.
Please don’t leave.
She opened her eyes, looked at Flurry with absolute pity, and turned around.
Her horn glowed and she snapped away with a windchime. There was a burst of golden light on the eastern horizon, and a small, pale dot grew smaller as it moved east. It flicked away again with another flash, and there was nothing to see in the time it took to blink.
Flurry inhaled with a shudder.
A claw grabbed her bloody hoof and squeezed just above the keratin. She felt the leather glove split as talons stabbed through and dug into her fur. Her breath cut into a hiss of pain and she shifted her right eye down to Grover.
Grover removed his claw and placed it on the ground. “Do not cry,” he said quietly in Aquileian. “They cannot see you cry.”
The whinnying behind them did not die immediately. The pitch lowered, suddenly uncertain, and a few voices faded. More followed their example, degenerating into whickers of confusion and discombobulated mutterings. Those died out in less than a minute.
The dockyard was silent again except for the shuffling of hooves and rustling of wings against armor. A few of the camera crews stopped; Flurry’s ears twitched as spools ran down in the grave absence of anything else making noise. A bulb flashed on the deck of the ship.
“Turn with me,” Grover commented lowly, speaking with a whisper out the side of his beak. “Can you say something?”
Flurry could not trust herself to say anything even to him. Her jaw twitched. It took everything she had to keep her lips pressed together. Feathers twitched at her sides, but her wings stopped everypony from seeing her shaking barrel.
“Say nothing,” Grover stated. Flurry did not look to him, nor he to her, but his voice cracked. “Silence speaks louder than words. Turn now.”
She obeyed like a puppet on marionette strings, turning with Grover as if it was choregraphed. She stared over the sea of confused eyes. Flurry almost looked to the filly with a crooked muzzle, but wrenched her gaze to the poster. The herd had spread out, dispersed by the reinforcements, and she could see the bottom of the wall.
Underneath the arrow, somepony had scrawled LONG LIVE THE PRINCESS OF HOPE ROPE
Flurry felt her crown weigh down her head. The purple gem was just under her horn, partially blackened from the heat from her spells. Her ragged mane hid it. The cameras began to roll again with renewed vigor, and bulbs flashed along the rooftop. She felt Grover shift beside her, brushing his wing against her as he adjusted the Reichstone. It looked unintentional.
Two brown feathers squeezed one of her pink primaries before he adjusted his wings.
“The Reichsarmee of the Griffonian Reich is dedicated to prosecuting this war with absolute confidence in Equestria and her allies,” he announced in Equestrian. Nopony responded to him. The herd looked upwards to the last Princess of Ponies.
Flurry Heart set her muzzle into a grim frown of determination.
She wanted Whammy.
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I am the monster you created...
Fuckin' Sunbutt... she really is hopeless at this point.
Flurry's gonna have to work double time after this one. Let's just hope Celestia didn't teleport to grab Twiggles then bail back to the River Federation. Cuz if that's the case, hell will be paid.
And I really thought Celestia wouldn’t be as bad as we thought, it turned out she was even worse than I expected. I couldn’t even pay attention to the subtle details and themes and callbacks there, she is seriously just… I wish i had better words but, seriously, she’s an asshole
"If you haven’t picked meat off a blade, not a bite,
If you’ve been watching haughtily, twiddling your thumbs,
If, you haven’t engaged a vile boor in a fight,
Then you’ve been neither here nor there in this life.
But if, cutting your way with an ancestor’s sword,
You have taken good note of your tears’ bitter taste,
If you’ve learnt, in a vehement fight, what is what,
Then essential books, in your childhood, you read..." (с) Ballad of Fight, Vladimir Vysotsky.
And to be more boring, Celestia is just a monarch who lives by the principle of "The State is Me", and of course she believes that Equestria exists as long as she herself is alive. That is, if Equestria is in danger, the first thing you need to do is save the princess.
But Flurry Heart does not think like a sovereign monarch - she is the leader of the national liberation struggle. She and Celestia not only have a different view of the world, but in principle a different understanding of what Equestria is in general. I don't think they'll become friends.
Goddamn, that was a great chapter. Celestia knew exactly where to strike flurry to make it hurt, good thing Grover managed to calm her down a little, otherwise it’d of probably come to blows straight away.
"The Good Ponies are dead, fled, or enslaved. What's left is the choice between bad & worse. She at least tried which is more than you ever did."
Flurry, your choices are:
1) Keep Twilight here & watch her die.
2) Let Celestia take her & maybe she can be saved
Celestia's memory sure is terrible, huh? How could she forget important moments like the time when Benito told Flurry, "Love is the death of duty," before holding off the entire Changeling Heer long enough for her to escape? It's so disrespectful to not remember something like that.
Yeah, that went about how I expected. Makes sense that Flurry would never beat Celestia in a battle of words. Celestia has way too much experience to lose in that game. Beyond trying to publicly pressure Celestia, there really wasn't anything Flurry could do.
For her part, Celestia did make some good points about the kind of nation Flurry is building. We've already seen the kind of fanatical loyalty that the Crystal Ponies have towards Flurry. And the reprisals from civilians towards anyone who is perceived as having helped/worked for the changelings.
And it's nice to see Grover trying to comfort Flurry as best he can.
Holy fucking shit...
Celestia wasn't here for some fucking plot, she just JUMPED international borders and nearly caused a civil war by her mere PRESENCE ALONE. only to fuck off again when she didn't get what she wanted.
Did she think that she could take Twilight and there wouldn't be consequences or trade offs!? The River federation wouldn't help without something to gain. Sure they'd "help" Twilight but by the Time she recovers the River federation would have elected a new Government and when that Happens any deal Celestia has, any influence, would be weakened if not GONE. Suddenly Twilight isn't a guest, she's a prisoner in a golden cage. Celestia would have given the Federation Equestria's greatest martyr on a SILVER PLATTER.
BEGONE You naive coward. Leave once more and NEVER RETURN!!! Equestria is no longer yours, and you have FORSAKEN any claim to it. So begone and remember that this is not on anyone else's fault but your own.
I'm glad the lovebirds are supporting each other, also, I really didn't expect anything from Celestia, but somehow she still manages to disappoint me, great chapter tho
Wow, this was just as intense as expected. Absolutely loved it. I've generally hated Celestia this entire story and this chapter just puts in nail in the coffin about how disconnected she is from the mere mortals around her. Her concerns about the 'soul' of the nation aren't unreasonable, but her prioritization of that over the lives of the individuals who actually make it up says everything that needs to be said. Celestia as a chess master has long been a trope, but rarely one so calloused.
All this makes me wonder how much she even really cares about Twilight. Getting the dock wrong is a pretty obvious and telling slap in the face to Flurry and family. Like Shiny said, did she even really know or care about Cadence? Was she just some alicorn anomaly that showed up and had to be managed? Twilight is a bit different in that her ascension was presumably orchestrated but Celestia so perhaps she cares more about her but still, where does that put her? It could be anywhere from surrogate daughter to pet project/tool to indifferently used for more of her lofty ideals.
At least she seems to care about Luna. Personal prediction of mine is Luna eventually ditching Celestia to join Flurry near the end of the story. Have the one pony she actually cares about choose someone else over her.
Meta wise I know Celestia has a be a bitch to give Flurry room to shine, but I still love to hate her. Looking forward to more!
Wow, brutal checkmate. Flurry really put Celestia on the spot, forcing her to choose between paying Flurry's price or running away with her pride and the remnants of the faith Equestria had in her left behind on the docks. I wonder if this will further solidify Flurry's claim to the throne in the eyes of the citizens.
Adding salt to the wound of Celestia's shredded pride, she has revealed her hypocrisy when she begged Flurry to think about her family when she was unwilling to do the same.
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO. THANK YOUU!!!! <3<3
Crikey Flurry really is a genius at this whole politics thing. No matter what Celestia wanted, she put her on the spot for all of equestria to see as she made her choice. She made it that it wasn’t Flurry who denied equestria their princess, it was their princess who denied equestria and Flurry.
For the armies though, unless Flurry and Grover can pull something incredible out of the Reichstone, moral might tank.
It’s finally here!!!!!!!
I have waited. And it has arrived. The wait was worth every second and more.
This was such an intense read, and it wasn't even a fight! So many moments were it truly felt like it could go any way. Absolutely loving the characterizations here. For all of Flurry's self doubts and failings, she actually has a lot of personal strength. I know I would have 100% tried to kill Celestia within a minute of talking to her, if I was Flurry.
Keep up the good work.
God, it was wonderful. It's like I was standing on that pier with them. And the same dull pain of betrayal. A great chapter. I'm really looking forward to continuing.
Honestly, it's interesting to see the point of view of a nigh ageless being who's lived multiple thousands of years on display. It puts a lot of her and Luna's motives in perspective, and I like it.
Celestia takes the long view. Of everything. Everything is transitory, even nations. Sure, one or two generations of ponies might suffer horribly under the Hegemony, but Celestia isn't thinking about that. She's thinking about the hundred generations that come later. She can afford to wait out the Hegemony, and is mostly just betting that not every pony in the world will be killed off before it falls.
Not condoning her (in)actions, mind you; just an observation.
I am wondering if it wasn't a bit telling in some respects that Celestia seemed to genuinely care that Flurry didn't get to have a happy fillyhood; and was extremely bitter that Cadance was dead and Twlight maybe so. I mean, tens of millions of other fillies and colts in Equestria suffered too. Millions of ponies died, and Celestia wasn't shedding any tears over that; and it's not like Flurry and her family is any kind of true blood relation to Celestia. I took this to suggest that Flurry Heart, and indeed any alicorn, is indeed an ageless being like herself, and Celestia is lamenting that she won't get to have more ponies than her sister by her side through the eons. Ponies she can bond to without reservation or fear of loss, like the other mortals she's known.
It makes her more than a little selfish; but it also makes her seem more real. I like that. Flawed characters.
There's two ways to interpret Celestia's faux pas with the dock choice: either she was trying to manipulate Flurry's emotions and screwed up, or she just genuinely forgot. I'm personally going to go with the latter, because the Celestia in PatK hasn't been shown to be this Machiavellian web-weaver that she is in other stories. This links back to the 'thousands of years old' thing. To borrow a meme: For Flurry, her last day in Manehattan was a defining moment of her formative years, and would change the course of her life forever. For Celestia...it was Tuesday. She probably genuinely forgot. She probably forgets how many docks are in Manehattan on occasion, if only because she was there when the largest city on Equestria's eastern seaboard was a fishing village with one scraggly wooden pier.
Her years have detached her from the world; for better or worse. Flurry doesn't have that distance.
I also liked the little reversal that Flurry handed Celestia early on: when she remarked that Celestia once moved both the sun and the moon. Celestia was immediately ready to interpret that as Flurry suggesting she was more powerful than Luna, only for Flurry to actually take a stance that Celestia has probably never heard from anypony: that Luna is at least as powerful as Celestia. This makes sense. Flurry didn't grow up in a world that only knew one alicorn. She's never viewed Luna as a 'newcomer younger sibling'. They were always equal in her eyes.
Can't wait to see what effect Celestia returning, only to immediately leave again, is going to have on the public in Equestria. And also how Grover's propagandists are going to spin things in the news...
Up Next: Celestia and Luna discussing how much value the soul of a dead nation has in a world where nopony's alive any more to appreciate it? Or does Equestria's former marshal decide that she owes it to her ponies to return and finish the job she started?
Grover and Flurry need to hold pinions more often :P
Now what does the Alicorn of Night think?
This chapter was simply phenomenal, I wonder if Celestia noticed Grover being crystal under the makeup or maybe even guessed about their future marriage.
I guess Celestia, a being that ruled the same strip of land for over thousands of years, just doesn't care. That's disappointing, my last hope is that she os going to get Luna, but with the clear hatebon*r the majority of the audience and the author have, I doubt that. I hope the rest of the story makes it up for me.
War doesn't determine who is right. It determines who is left.
Celestia interprets this as "Any atrocities committed in war are unacceptable; better to lose the war than our souls."
Flurry, however, seems to have the opinion "If we lose the war we cease to exist. No acts are off limits if it means we can continue forward."
Who is right? I can't say. But Flurry is still here, and Celestia is not. And that speaks volumes.
I had a feeling weeks ago that the five pre announced chapters would coincide with five days to Christmas. I think I was just proven right.
Seriously, just a little after I decide to go to sleep this drops.
Fuck man, Flurry needs a break! She is hurting so bad, and while Grover's emotional distance was the right political play, right now Flurry needs a big hug.
I got a feeling Grover's about to get his own emotional bombshell to deal with though, if I'm remembering the future chapter titles right...
I think I truly understand the Celestia in this story now. I was really unsure of how much she was playing politics and or puppet mastering behind the scenes.
Now I see she really hasn't been.
Her logic reminds me of the type of people who when presented with a trolley car problem refuse to pull the switch as then they are responsible for the outcome.
Never liked that line of thinking personally. Choosing not to pull the switch makes one responsible for the outcome in my eyes. Doing nothing is a conscious choice in my mind.
Of course, Celestia, of fucking course.
Flurry's expectations have been at ground level from the start, yet you dug a fucking hole.
Never change, Celly.
New chapter?!?! LETS GOOOOOOOO
What's this? No civil war? No game of thrones? Previous chapter comments promised all of that as a result ***** 'Sunbutt' return. Oh well.
Putting that aside, there goes another great chapter. While not reaching top like Applejack's one did, it does come close. To be honest, I am surprised how many aspects which I and others brought up, Celestia herself did here. ELF is again showcased to be what it was, poorly thought emotional Fool's Gambit which made things only worse. Directly led to countless deaths, vast increase of subjugation and terror, all while completely derailing attempts of open minded Changelings such as Jachs or Lilac to improve things.
Cadance, Twilight and Shining final stands? Argument can indeed easily be made that they died (Twilight at this moment might as well be) exactly for nothing. Cadance at least has some excuse given circumstances of Crystal Empire. But Sparkle siblings? What they did was basically selfish suicides. Twilight remained in Canterlot, only to surrender city anyway and become asset for Chrysalis to exploit, with her final speech being revealed so late and in such circumstances that it was as well basically meaningless unless we believe it was the factor behind Jachs takeover of garrison and it's surrender, which is debatable.
But Shining Armor?... Honestly here I might have grew irrational disdain of a kind like many here harbours towards Celestia. But from where I stand, he is completely unredeemable. Left his wife and post, but that's more than reasonable given he had to save his daughter. Father role came before husband and prince. Only for him to ditch task of the former just as much, by going to foreign country and suffering a pointless death and making his daughter an orphan. I only see here suicide with extra steps, regardless of sugarcoating. And frankly I wouldn't mind it that much, if not for his audacity to accuse Celestia and Luna for leaving Cadance and Twilight, when not only he did exactly same thing, he then also abandoned his own daughter in country where she had nobody. Duh, given Griffonian Reich was basically Chrysalis ally back then, he basically nearly gave his daughter on a plate to Changelings. Kinda wonder if it was written intentionally like that, or is it one of few examples of poorly planned elements during infant days of this fic.
Was expecting more regarding Luna or Daybreaker, but I believe both topics were brought up anyway in convincing manner that they were not ignored/overlooked, like Celestia instantly going on defensive when her sister was brought up or 'Some things are best left buried.' line which for me screams either of past Daybreaker experience or something of similar kind.
People already with torches and pitchforks lament how Celestia visit damaged Flurry position, when the only real damage done here was done by Flurry herself with her own speech. If not for it, Celestia would had simply go away, context being completely unknown to everyone. But it's only with this false speech, that questions will start popping everywhere of why Celestia left if according to Flurry she came back. This will only further polarize Ponies between Flurry's fanatics, those disillusioned with old Equestria and those who still remember and are fond of 1000 years of peace and harmony prior to Great War in contrast to near merciless, authoritarian state it now had become.
Is Celestia a Saint? As I said chapter before, obviously not. But given what was brought up before and now, her stand is perfectly reasonable. Only thing I can legitimately blame her on is failing to prepare Equestria to Great War, but story alone showcased few times how Equestria itself just as much didn't want to cast aside it's status quo. While there were obviously issues like Severnaya, Thestrals status, Las Pegasus being literally Las Vegas etc. there was far more good on another hand. Harmony was widespread, ponies were content, why should they cast aside theirs' live styles for war against Bugs they already had bitten via magic? When Changelings invaded with modern armored and air forces and theirs' biggest obstacle were logistics? That was already game over without going extreme like Daybreaker, and from which there would be no return. All decisions made afterwards were mere best of only bad available, from evacuation to New Mareland, followed by to Riverlands (literally best pick since EaW's Hippogriffia didn't exist yet given Zebrica update released few months after fic started).
One can argue Celestia failing to remember exact dock is showcase of her manipulation or her superficial caring. I see it far more like Flurry picking up anything to score victory in conversation with Celestia which was so one-sided. Which comes off really flat for me with given how she completely overlooks her father's shortsighted actions 'two docks' away and afterwards in Aquilla.
Overall as I said on the begging, great chapter overall. While I am obviously far more on Celestia side here, Flurry's stand and arguments for most just as much are valid and it's completely up to one's values of which are 'correct'. And given history of my nation or other stories I witnessed, whether original movies, games, books or fanfics like Fallout: Equestria, Celestia's mindset is plain and simply far more legitimate in my eyes. It still was proper clash of ideas, both of which had foundations to stand on, making it a captivating read.
Speaking of F:E, congratulations on officially overtaking the former in length! Can't stop myself from comparing the two given similarities. Both showcase show's world damaged and twisted by Great War, fall from grace of Mane 6 and other canon characters in natural manner, all while based on video game IP. It's also interesting to see contrast between one such fanfiction being based purely on season 1 lore (F:E didn't have Changelings, Crystal Empire, even Discord if was brought up last second was utterly irrelevant) and another one with entire 9 seasons + spin offs worth of lore in mind. Makes even more unique experience to already superbly written fic which is 'The Princess and the Kaiser'.
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Grover seems to understand that, and his actions seems to be ones to deal with the politics as quickly as possible, so he can see how Flurry is doing - and give her that hug.
Things may have went poorly if Grover werent there. He turned not just the tables, but the whole damn room on Celestia.
“I will tell you this,” Celestia continued with heat in every word, “because I am the only one that will: I begged your mother to leave. I begged Twilight to leave. They stayed. And for what?”
for their ponies. the same little ponies Celestia abandoned....
waiting...as they suffer, starve, and die. that is the view of a monarch who views her people as lesser, save your own life.
reminds me of what Reagan's "we must fight" speech addressed.
“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin -- just in the face of this enemy?”
Well, let us set one thing straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace -- and you can have it in the next second -- surrender.”
“If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand -- the ultimatum. [...]And someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically.”
“Winston Churchill said, ‘There's something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.’”
"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”
"Love is the death of duty, Flurry."
The chapter drought is over yay! Another phenomenal chapter as per usual. The fact that Grover punches Flurry after they almost had their first real kiss is a bit sad, but it’s good to see Grover being so supportive of best pony (yes I said it, fight me). I’m honestly surprised that the confrontation between Flurry and Celestia didn’t escalate. I can’t wait to see what the fallout of Celestia abandoning Equestria again will have on the story.
Grover did good in flipping the situation in Flurry's favor and keeping good optics but it was Flurry who twisted the knife with the proclamation at the harbor. By making the ponies think that Celestia would return to fight alongside them she put her in a difficult situation. Returning to the Riverlands would mean she has abandoned Equestria for a second time and unfortunately that is the path she has chosen.
Personally, I would have liked for Celestia to visit Twilight and have a moment of reflection on her views and past actions before making her own proclamation and renounce her claim of the Equestrian throne in favor of Flurry.
This story is so good though, keep at it man. I'm really enjoying the ride.
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However, it was Grover who gave the hint to Flurry on what do to, when he asked Celestia that question:
"So, you came to volunteer?"
Flurry is good, but Grover has more experience on the politics game tha her.
It's not pretty, but they can save more lives of good souls this way.
I really enjoyed this chapter. Thank God Grover was with Flurry. If he wasnt, things would end up worse, with possibly losing Twilight.
Flurry is, usually, very good with politics. However, this with Celestia is the exact, extreme opposite of an ordinary political situation.
Celestia showed she is completely detached from everything, as an immortal creature with thousands of years. She behaves as someone who thinks things and events will eventually go her way just because she will outlive then all anyways. However, she does not think about anything else besides herself (not even Luna) because, I believe, she thinks of herself as her own legacy. There is no Harmony. There is no Equestria. There is no peace amoung ponies. Simply because she believes herself to be the embodiment of all of it. Even if Equestria, ponies and Harmony became ash long ago.
Grover has more experience with politics given he had a direct contact with everything since he was small. On this chapter, when he was giving orientations to Flurry on how to do things at the start. When he left to get the media team and his new clothes ready, I legit believe he was threatening everything and everyone there to hurry up OR ELSE. And guy simply appeared there like nothing was going on, took control of the situation giving hints to an emotionally distraugh time bomb that was Flurry at the time, and turned table, room and house on a Celestia that was not expecting things to not go on her way - given she wasnt interested in anyone else besides manipulating Flurry. Grover turned an horrible situation into an advantage for Flurry. Which gave Flurry the clear head to make her own comebacks on Celestia. And Grover may be extremely anxious to help Flurry, but having to keep his cool.
Im waiting for the next chapter.
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Considering your recent choices in musical accompaniment, might I guess that you drew some inspiration for Celestia's character from that of Heimerdinger from Arcane? He also has that issue of not being able to relate to the mortals he is obligated to govern.
Now let's see if Luna used this distraction to sneak in and steal Twilight, or if she is going to follow an agenda that isn't her sisters.
I have so much to say. I really don't know where to start aside from the thing that got my blood up the most. I just can't believe how callous and how completely, unrepentantly selfish Celestia is. She can't see far enough past her own muzzle to realize that there will not be an Equestria no matter what happens.
Equestria lost.
Equestria lost and all the ponies who could have fought the hegemony while holding onto Equestria's values barring Tiwlight Sparkle herself is missing, dead or fled. The ones that were left after that could have picked up the pieces if it weren't for the fact that the hegemony is killing ponies faster than living memory can keep up with.
Worse, I really wonder what percentage of the population actually lives. I wonder whether or not the birthrate is above replacement levels. After all, it has been stated there are abandoned towns and we know those ponies didn't simply vanish.
She's willing and actually is sacrificing everypony so she can try again later. Not only that, but she's pretending that what Flurry is doing is more harmful than simply abandoning her entire nation to suffer. Fuck her. Then she either didn't care enough about Flurry's family to remember which peir she was on when she told them to pound sand and die. Or she tried lying to her as some kind of guilt trip. Monstrous.
And then she leaves, abandoning those who would follow her and her ideals if she simply asked. Why? She could have outmenuvered both Flurry and Grover in the fullness of time but she simply ran rather than fight legitimate evil. She abandoned her grand niece to fight that evil alone.
I do hope Grover knows she needs not be alone right now.
As usual, I'm gonna to reread this chapter and I'm sure I'll have more to say. More aside from the fact that I'm really happy to see Celestia ruin herself for yet another generation of Equestrians. Good riddance, and stay gone you selfish coward.
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Are you kidding? Thorax is right in that Flurry only listens to violence. That was more like Grover speaking her love language more than anything.
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I completely agree with everything in your post. I can only pray the author has something else planned for the original diarchy. As things stand however, Princess Celestia character seems like it is being used to prove Flurry Heart right in every single conviction and belief that she has, which worries me to no end.
Regarding Shinning, it was always strange to me why he was in Aquileia in the first place. Maybe he was suicidal as you said.
Please for the love of God, it cant be this right? Flurry cant be always right, right?. She got a 18 year old hung because he got a mare pregnant. She regularly does show trials, and hangs the bodies like they are street signs. Why the hell is Stevengallop body still hung up on the docks, its been months already who is she trying to scare other than her own ponies? The changellings are already gonna lose Flurry you dont need to hang everyone, you made your point.
Celestia waiting might have solved the nightmaremoon problem, it might also have arguably solved the discord problem, as well as tirek and others, but this problem won't be solved just by waiting since in the previous problems you were not dealing with a total loss scenario, if flurry never reignited this fight would there even be an "equestria" left to save once chrysalis dies of old age(who knows how long that could take) after all we've seen how beaten down they are after what 10-15 years since the war and now, in the decades or centuries it could take chrysalis to die(assuming she doesn't have either a line of succession or ways to avoid old age) will there even be a "national soul" of equestria left to save? What about the ponies of the land as well, they genocided the buffalo because they were too much trouble whose to say they wont do the same to ponies if they get functional and plentiful synthetic love production right? This is not something to be waited past
Celestia's mistake here was assuming that all alicorns would see things the same way she does. She's had thousands of years to develop this worldview of "just wait it out", so long that she may not even remember that she herself likely felt the same way Flurry did at some point. Indeed, we see glimpses of that same temper in this very chapter.
If this exact same scenario has happened in the past, then it makes perfect sense in her eyes to just do it all over again. But now, she has another immortal princess who, like it or not, does not share her worldview, her motives, or her "princess-ness". There's now someone in the world who can make sure that she isn't able to just move on and brush everything under the rug, let the slate wipe itself clean to start over again. There is now someone who can make sure Celestia never outlives the things she has done.
Whether she knows it or not, Flurry may have just become the greatest enemy Celestia has ever faced. Why? Because she's actually able to hold Celestia accountable for her actions. A hundred years from now, Grover may be dead, the Hegemony may have collapsed, but Celestia will not be able to waltz back in. Not as long as Flurry still draws breath.
While she may have a point with how Flurry's actions may create even more atrocities down the line, the fact of the matter is that she is the one who actually stepped up in the here and now.
Princess Of War Crimes she may be, but she's getting shit done.
To borrow and adjust a quote from Game Of Thrones:
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I will give you props for giving your opinion despite knowing that it isn't a popular one but I will respectfully desagree. Not with your take on Twi, Shining and Cadence. BUT Equestria not having any chances in winning the war?! Celestia and Luna did extremly poorly on that front. They didn't introduce conscription for a long time, tryed to save few lives in a short term by avoiding confrontations by repeadetly giving up defensible pocisions, didn't prepare the army or nation for war, didn't do anything when deer get invaided. Hell the chainglings weren't even that good since Shining Armor didn't even lost a single battle to them AND they suffered from their emotion sense since their conscripts could fight only when high on love(aka drugs). Aaaaa and let's not forget about logistical problems. You called rebelion of ELF an "emotional fools gambit" but they did so while parroting their glorious leaders. The only difrence is that Celestia and Luna could escape the consequences of their actions while majority of ELF could not. Celestias new plan is to wait for Chrysalis and her idiocy to kill every sentient creature on the continent and then come back to rebuild becouse in her mind fighting back with violence is "evel". It's a pretty logical if utterly selfish line of thought.
Well, can't said Celestia didn't try to do...something i guess.
She is right in a way tho, by fighting to the last ( twilight seem in an eternal limbo ) flurry got denied whotever enjoyment she could have as a filly
And while we know grover seem genuine in helping ( pinkie piè promise, afterall ), he still have to get something out of Equestria to make this crusade worth of griffonia lives ( marriage and a long ass exploitation of Equestria resource )
I can also see why she want to get twilight out of Equestria. Because I don't think there is going to be an Equestria she would call that ( and the obvious medical expertise )
But most of her reason fall flat for one reason only: she run away and by running away, she lose all the respect in flurry eyes, hell she begged them to return before canterlot and got a no
Add the fact she an alicorn teanger with massive anger issue ( i wonder why ) and it's a wonder Celestia still have her head.
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Why did Shining Armour go to Aquileia?
Well, the simplest explanation would be that Aquileia was a friendly nearby country with a strong pony population that was willing to receive him and his daughter, and that when the Empire invaded he simply helped his adoptive country.
It's also conceivable that he traveled to Aquileia precisely because they were being threatened by the Empire (he's first and foremost a Knight in Shining Armour). After all, he had very recently fled from Equestria, leaving his loved wife and subjects to die, so embracing another cause he perceived as just might have been something he simply needed to do to not break down completely.
Or maybe abandoning Equestria did break him down and he was suicidal, in the same way that Flurry is somewhat suicidal, and Aquileia was a conveniently placed sword upon which he could honourably throw himself.
[Edit] There's also a fourth possibility: Shining could have believed Aquileia's cause wasn't doomed. For while it's true that History usually follows the fickle whims of that beast known as Economics, who seemingly favoured the Empire, the great actions of individuals have sometimes compelled them to defy the designs of the Dismal One, especially when Fortuna deigns to weigh in. Which is all to say that while the deck was stacked against Aqueleia, they maybe could have won. And imagine the consequences of that. Of a Griffonia controlled by a Harmonic Aquileia, one which regarded Shining Armour as the national hero he always deserved to be. Of him being able to help the ELF not only as an experienced commander with a following of veterans, but also as a person with influence in one of the most powerful countries in the world. Maybe helping the Aquileians was simply a last desperate gambit, his last attempt at helping liberate his home.
That's all speculation of course. All that we know, essentially, is that he traveled to Aquileia and that he eventually made his last stand in Flowena. That, like Cadence, in the end he held his post and shielded others until he could do so no more, that, like Cadence, in the end he abandoned Flurry. Does that make him a noble hero or a suicidal coward?
Celestia thinks time is on there side. The lives of the ponys of Equestria are just sands in the hourglass to her. Celestia can piss up a rope. She has abandonded her duty. She has abandoned her right to rule. She has abandonded her subjects. And she abandonded her family.
I think her return and asking for Twilight was more of a excuse than anything. If she had truly cared. She would have brought aid to Twilight. Not to take Twilight away.
IT’S HERE! PRAISE BE TO EVERYTHING BUT THE SUN!
Time to actually read it now.
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That's all assuming that sitting by and watching Equestria and her allies burn wouldn't have driven him off a cliff eventually.
A previous poster brought up the Reich being allied with Chrysalis in the beginning. Assuming that the alliance held what were the odds that the River country could hold off both a full-strength Reich and the Changelings at the same time? What are the odds that the River country could have held off just the Reich? Even if Celestia had managed to sequester all 5 alicorns and their families where she wanted them, for how long would the happy state of affairs have continued? How much of Celestia's plans hinged on other nations fighting and dying to keep her little chunk of exile from being swallowed up in the chaos?
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I bet she doesn't know Celestia is in Equestria. She always has played her own game.
Ok. Read it once now. Pretty phenomenal. Grover absolutely killed it in supporting and backing up Flurry. I’m slightly disappointed she didn’t articulate her point more to Celestia, but I suppose that would’ve been a waste a breath anyway; when one (at least damn well seems to) believes that “I am the state,” then saving your own hide and that of those you care about takes priority. You can always come back later. If you ARE the state, then saving its soul, preserving its culture and morels and ideal and character, instead of trying to win, makes sense.
Who cares about the suffering and death of ponies right now? I mean, it’s not like they’re what make up Equestria or anything.
Except of course, that’s precisely what they do, what they are. What is a map to a plant or a wild animal? What are the countries on that map to them? Nothing. Meaningless. Pointless. A country of one is little better. It is the people who make and decide the values and morels, the culture—food, music, fashion, art, movies, etc.—the language, the slang, everything. None of that shit matters if everyone is dead, and those things will wither and atrophy away, and even die, under the boot of oppression. People can improve themselves, move past their trauma and start to reach for violence only as a last resort. Unless of course, they’re dead or catatonic.
I also want to unpack how fucking selfish her motivations are, but they seem consistent with her views at least, and it’s getting past my bedtime.