The Princess of the Moon
The newscaster’s voice was unbearably smug.
“Yet again, the former Princess Celestia abandons her ponies, turning tail on a cold cloudy day.” The Herzlander was rapid and fast, matching the edits from the three cameras. It was shoddy work, and quick. One cut seemingly showed her hooves jittering as it edited down how long she paused on the dock.
A camera had zoomed in on her eyes when she turned back to Flurry for the final time. “When the call came, all she can muster is one final look to the Kaiser of Griffonkind and the Princess of Ponies.” The angle changed and the edits blasted past, showing ponies milling about uncertainly. “Ponies are uncertain and lost, creatures of the herd. They look for reassurance.”
The angle changed to show Flurry Heart and Grover von Greifenstein facing them behind a line of knights. It was a bad angle and to the side, but the black-and-white masked the makeup on the Kaiser’s beak and wings. The alicorn beside him seemed to be even shinier; a wave ran through her wings even without color. She frowned.
In the makeshift auditorium, Flurry Heart tucked Whammy under her chin. The little tiara chafed her fur. She held it there in the crooks of her forelegs regardless.
There was a cut to cheering ponies. “And they are given it. Under the banner of the Reichsarmee, Equestria is liberated. The last Princess of Ponies assumes her rightful place and leads her herd to war.” There was a series of quick slices to footage of tanks rolling across plains, a burning Hegemony banner, a series of empty cocoons. “The armies of the Second Grand Crusade march forward relentlessly, carving to the heart of the Hegemony.” There was a shot of a griffon and pony sitting together beside some sandbags. Flurry immediately recognized the griffoness as one of her Aquileians beside a crystal pony, but the visual was gone in two heartbeats.
“Under the leadership of Blessed Grover VI, the Reichsarmee shall finish what Celestia failed to do.” The shot returned to the dock, this time of Grover standing before Celestia in his crown. Her muzzle moved silently and he replied. “In the light of Boreas, through the winds of Arcturius, under the rain of Eyr…the Griffonian Reich shall prevail!”
The jaunty music screeched out before the final notes of the anthem and the last splice of the film reel burned out. No one reacted to it but the projectionists. The two griffons clacked their beaks at each other on the balcony and slapped at the spools of celluloid, beginning to wind it back together. The footage was now crooked and played in reverse. Celestia appeared to turn back around and walk to them.
Someone restarted the music, and the newscaster’s voice returned.
“Sudden news from the Second Grand Crusade!”
“That is enough!” Grover called out. Flurry watched his wings extend from the table ahead of her. He leaned upright on the table and swung his head about. “Dismissed!” The Reichstone sat on the table beside him and held down several dozen stills and papers.
“Copies to Griffenheim,” Benito picked up. “Airfield is waiting to relay.” The dog marched up and down the rows, waving a graying paw. He no longer sparkled. Griffons rapidly ushered themselves out of chairs ahead of Flurry, claws tucking away notepads and pens. It felt as if the entire Press Corps of the Reich had been stuffed into the east wing of Canterlot Castle. They scurried like pigeons with whispers and clacking beaks.
The projector shut off and guards watched the film reels be packed into cans. The room cleared slowly. Griffons flew over the tables where they could, but all landed near the double doors and the hulking figure leaning against the back wall. A few overly ambitious reporters stalked up to the Lord Regent, then reconsidered and left the room.
None of them approached the Princess of Ponies. Flurry kept her eyes on the wall where the film had been projected. It was dark, past sunset, and the night was cloudy. The dining hall had been dimmed, and the windows boarded. It made a good auditorium, only lit by two faint chandeliers hanging from the entrance.
Thorax set his cap down beside the alicorn. He ran a hoof over his head fin before tucking a pen into a hole in his hoof. He rolled his sleeve back down afterwards and slid a black notepad into a jacket pocket. It was hard to tell where he was looking, but he leaned a little too forward to keep his muzzle in Flurry’s view.
I know you’re looking at me.
Thorax’s senses apparently did not extend to outright telepathy. He placed both forelegs under his chin and leaned on the table, buzzing his wings against the back of the chair. Benito marched ahead once the last of the press were gone. He gave the changeling a lingering look, trying to track the blue eyes to Grover ahead of him. The dog leaned against the table on the edge and shifted the chair away with a boot. He faced backwards.
Grover was writing something down. His claw and elbow moved under his coat. Flurry saw his head feathers flex and bob. There was no makeup needed now; the crystallization had worn off both of them days ago.
Flurry slowly set Whammy down on the table ahead of her and regarded her forelegs. The pink fur shifted in the light, but only faintly. The effect had dimmed over the past week, and she guessed it would be gone by tomorrow. Her mane and tail had been hacked down to their original, short swirls. She would need to shave them again completely soon, but not yet. For the moment, she held Whammy on the table in her forelegs. The tiara on the shell had become unstuck; she pushed it back into place.
Grover continued to scratch something out and his wings fluttered against the back of the chair. He extended his left wing and shoved something to the side with brown feathers. Flurry saw the bulge of his holster under the coat for a moment.
“The lighting is poor, my Kaiser,” Benito said. “Shall I request the other chandeliers-”
“No,” Grover clacked his beak. He lifted his beak and stared forward for a moment, then unhooked his glasses and wiped them on a sleeve. He balanced them on his beak.
Grover did not turn around for a few seconds. The chair’s legs screeched on the floor when he did. The griffon was slouched awkwardly with his paws folded under him. Flurry had let her hind legs dangle despite the protests of her spine.
The dog was correct; the lighting in the room was poor. The frames of his glasses masked Grover’s eyes, and his beak was unreadable. Flurry instead focused on the twitching of his wings and the slight ruffling of the feathers and fur around his beak.
Neither said anything.
“Princess Twilight was not mentioned,” Thorax observed. “Why?”
“Celestia can mention it,” Grover answered. “Her visit was planned to drive a rift between the Reich and Equestria. That is true enough. She can claim all she wants it was to save Twilight Sparkle. That will be her defense to the accusation.”
“And it is a weak defense,” Thorax agreed. “That gives us the position to respond with our choosing. She can deny she challenged the Princess or spoke ill of the Reich, but she will be forced to explain why she came. That she came to take the pony that declared we must fight the Hegemony away.”
“The River Federation’s border exercises slowed,” Benito growled. “They withdrew in Lake City. This is not the actions of a country gearing for war.”
“It could be a feint,” Spike called out from the back of the room.
“Or River Swirl could have been using the pretext to weaken the warmongers,” Thorax countered. “We don’t know. Have they responded?”
“No,” Benito shook his head and his ears bent. His jowls shook. “Well, yes.”
“Their embassy forwarded a note.” Grover’s voice was sardonic. “'We have no comment on the actions of a private citizen.'”
“You have an embassy?” Thorax hissed.
“Of course,” Grover shrugged a wing. “Where do you think they get all the pictures they censor? It sounds rehearsed, and released too quickly. The gambit is obvious.”
“Drive a wedge between the alliance by making the war about Twilight Sparkle.” Spike thudded up the row of tables. “Try to make it look like your puppet government is holding her hostage. You think Celestia didn’t see it?”
“Perhaps the Chancellor made a few suggestions about medical care and allowed her to leave?” the Kaiser guessed. He waved a claw. “Does not matter. We can respond, not initiate. Will the ELF allow their Princess to leave?”
Yes. To save her.
“No,” Spike said flatly. “The ELF is gone. The Imperial Army is sworn to the crown.”
“Some would want her to get the best medical care possible,” Thorax countered. “The very same that were abandoned during the uprising. If it comes to it, we can use the divided loyalties to sow enough confusion that it won’t be an issue.”
“Just so,” Grover shrugged his wings. “Have you received your copies?”
“We are working on it,” Thorax said. Spike walked up and leaned against another table behind all of them. His tail knocked a chair aside and the wood audibly creaked from the dragon’s weight.
“We are splicing Twilight’s speech into it,” Spike said above Flurry’s horn. "Ponies don't have time to sit and watch newsreels. They will hear about it on the radio long before ever seeing any evidence."
"It happened so quick some will think it another fake for months," Thorax chittered. "Small blessings."
Flurry nudged Whammy with a hoof. “They didn’t cheer.” It emerged as a whisper.
Grover cocked his head. Benito leaned over and cupped a paw to the flexing feathers. The dog withdrew and looked to the side. The Kaiser of Griffonkind tapped his claws together. “They did.”
“Not at the end,” Flurry said. Her voice was faint. “They just stared. You made it look like they cheered.”
“You used a different angle but the same footage twice,” Thorax observed. “I doubt most will notice, but cut a few frames before mass distribution.” He pulled out his notebook and ripped a page free with a fang before levitating it over.
Grover took a deep breath. “Okay.” Benito took the floating page.
“They didn’t cheer,” Flurry repeated.
“They cheered for you before,” Grover countered. “It’s a harmless lie.”
“Auntie Celestia will say they didn’t cheer.”
“She was gone by then,” Spike said behind her. A claw pressed itself against her wing and began to nudge her out of the chair. Flurry let Spike push her upright. “We have it under control, Princess. Not like most ponies have time to watch newsreels.”
Flurry Heart grabbed Whammy in her aura and flopped the snail on her back gracelessly. Her magic sparked a few times and her aim was off. She used a wing to nudge the snail to her wing joints. Her wings sagged to the floor and dragged beside her as Spike kept his claw at the base of her neck. She did not look up.
“My aunt started a civil war.” Grover’s voice cracked.
Flurry swung her head over a wing to look back at him. Considering her nakedness, it was bold of him to actually make eye contact and stare past her ragged tail. The griffon pressed a talon into his cufflink like he was adjusting it, but snipped the golden button off.
Grover looked away after a moment. “Just,” he started in Equestrian, “it could be worse. If she wanted to save..." he did not say the name, "she should have come long ago. She demands a war to dethrone you, and ponies will wonder why she didn’t do it then and there.”
She just has to wait. Flurry said nothing.
Grover rolled the golden button on his knuckles, looking away. “Did…did Whammy, Second of His Name, have any thoughts?”
“No,” Flurry whickered. “It’s a dumb toy.” She swung her head back and stuttered forward. Spike resumed pushing her to the double doors. Her guards, all crystal ponies, formed two rows. Thorax spoke quietly with Jadis and the rows split once the doors opened into the hallway. They formed a square around the Lord Regent, Royal Advisor, and the Princess.
All of her guards were armed with primed weapons. Flurry could feel them. But their eyes were worse. They stared at the other ponies in the hallway longer than any griffon, sizing them up with a mismatched hoof step or shift of weight to swing their submachine gun into easy grip.
Flurry judged from the floor paneling they were going back to Celestia’s bedroom. I wonder if that’s safe. She could probably just teleport back whenever she wanted. She slept in that room for centuries. She hummed as the thought of waking up in the dead of night to Celestia standing over her head struck her as a funny way to die.
Spike stopped. “Did you say something?” The claw gripped her neck gently and the scales were warm. Flurry did not respond, so he resumed guiding her after a moment.
The guards slowed a moment before an alcove. Two ponies shifted their submachine guns into their hooves. A figure stepped out from behind an empty plinth and knocked the guns to the side with a wave of her amber horn.
Sunset Shimmer shuffled fully out into the hallway. Flurry saw her chipped hooves first, then looked up to the threadbare gray coat hanging from her back. The amber unicorn had left it unbuttoned and one sleeve was torn. Her pants were missing from the uniform and the sun on her flank was dim.
The flame around the unicorn's horn wavered, but twisted with red and yellow streaks. The horn tip was nearly black. It was pointed low, at eye level, but the stance did not hide the shaking of her hooves.
Flurry let Spike push her behind his wings. "Archmage."
Sunset breathed out and breathed back in. Her eyes were unfocused. "What did you say to her?"
Flurry did not respond.
Sunset licked her lips and rasped, "What...w-what did she say about-"
Thorax brushed the draconic wing aside and clacked his fangs. He marched up to the burning horn. Sunset's eyes wavered up to the changeling.
"Celestia asked about her family, Archmage," Thorax said with a hiss.
The unicorn pinched her eyes shut and vanished with a crackle of sparks.
There was a moment of silence. Flurry felt Spike’s claw push her forward. They resumed walking to her room in quiet; her wings dragged on the floor and she listened to the ruffling of her feathers. Nopony commented on the dirt and grime her pinions accumulated.
The guards checked the room for a long time with Thorax before Spike guided her inside. The sun was still faintly visible on the wooden door, even after it had been scourged off years ago. Flurry knew it was there but kept her eyes on her hooves. Spike took his claw off her back to shut the door behind him, leaving the alicorn, dragon, and changeling alone.
Flurry did not move. She felt Whammy leave her back and mustered a weak flap of her wings. Thorax levitated the snail over to her nightstand and set it near the timepiece. The changeling stared at it critically, then pushed the tiara back to be over the shell.
Spike leaned against the door and his tail twisted around a leg. He rubbed his sleeve. “That was cruel, changeling.”
“It needed to be said,” Thorax responded.
“You think she’ll be a problem?”
“No.” The changeling buzzed his wings. “Some problems fix themselves.”
“I have more security around Twilight.” The dragon let out a growl. “Even…even that damn foal. Her security suggestions are valid and she's cloyingly sweet. What the fuck else are you having her do?”
Thorax hummed noncommittally. “Better you don’t know, Lord Regent. Plausible deniability.”
“I told Auntie Celestia you’d kill her,” Flurry whispered. The alicorn still tottered in the middle of the room between them. She scrunched her muzzle and sniffled.
Spike’s wings twitched against the wall. “I don’t know if that was a lie,” he snarled. His voice immediately collapsed and turned softer. “It’s late. It’s been a long day. You should rest.”
Flurry shuffled to the mattress and laid her head atop it. Her ears twitched.
“Has she eaten?” Spike whispered poorly.
“This morning,” Thorax hissed back quietly. “Let her be.”
Flurry lifted the crystal band off her head and let it plunk to the floor. It rolled for a moment and settled near her hind legs. “Tell me what’s happening,” she ordered in a weak voice.
“The Reichsarmee is in final preparations to resume the advance,” Thorax said easily. “High Commander Tempest is already in the field. Heartsong and the Imperial Army are at holding the mountains. The Yaks are scouting for artillery.”
“Dragon Lord Ember and Queen Velvet are in Las Pegasus,” Spike continued. “They’re about to launch.”
Flurry shifted her wings across the floor. “Tell me what’s happening.”
Spike let out a low, long snort and the room smelled of smoke. “I spoke on the radio. She returned. And she left. That’s it.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Flurry mumbled from the bed.
“That is it,” Thorax agreed. Flurry heard his hooves transition from the floor to the rug. Changelings always stepped lighter due to the holes in their hooves. She lifted her wing to ward him off.
Thorax instead walked to the balcony and opened the doors. The four guards outside eyed the changeling with surprise and wariness, but recognized him and stepped aside. He turned back around and cocked his head, buzzing his wings. The view faced the west, where the sun would have set behind the Duskwood Forest. It was too dark to see beyond the mountain. Canterlot glittered from the castle in the night, including flashing lights around the dockyards and industry of Lower Canterlot.
“What do you hear?” the changeling asked.
Flurry listened with errant, twitching ears. They rubbed against her swirls. Machinery. Wind. Feathers. Sliding rocks. “Nothing,” she sighed.
“Nothing,” Thorax said between his fangs. “No coup, no rioting herd, no civil war.”
“You do good work,” Flurry mumbled.
The changeling did not smile, but he lowered his head. “I didn’t need to. Any belief in her died with the ELF.”
“I killed the ELF.”
“We killed ourselves,” Spike said from behind her. “The first time we charged up this mountain.”
Thorax signaled the guards to close the doors. “It is always a queer feeling.” He waited until the guards resumed their post outside and moved closer to the bed. “Being a changeling in those meetings. Hope tastes like fire.”
“Fire has a taste?”
“Yes,” Spike stated as if it was obvious.
“There’s an emptiness afterwards,” Thorax continued. “When hope is answered with…nothing. Starlight believed she could save Twilight. She believed if she did they would come back. The ELF died in this city, that much is true. But it died long before you ever left our tenement.”
“Better to give them nothing than give them rope.”
“You don’t mean that,” Thorax shook his head.
“Auntie Celestia did.”
“Because she’s a thousand years old and can wait,” Spike said. His tail slapped harder into the wall. “Any dragon that makes it that long turns into an ornery old fuck. She wants to take Twilight without a fight? She’ll have to wait a long, long time.”
“She will,” Thorax smiled. There was a falseness in it, like a mask over a muzzle. “I love you, Flurry.”
Flurry closed her eyes and rolled her head on the thin bedsheets. “Uncle?”
Spike and Thorax shifted in unison. Flurry listened to leather and gossamer wings rustle. The dragon laid a claw on her back again and rubbed between her wings.
“Do you remember dad?”
“Of course,” Spike said softly.
“Always,” Thorax sighed. “Your father was a great pony.”
“Can…” Flurry swallowed, “can you be him?”
There was a long silence and Flurry listened to her heartbeat and her feathers dragging through the rug beside her bed. Spike’s claw shifted as the dragon made some movement beside her, but she kept her eyes closed.
Her ears twitched at the flare of magic across from her. She opened her eyes.
Shining Armor stood across the bed in a purple uniform that was slightly too tight for the stocky unicorn. His mane was bluer than she remembered, and he lacked the crow’s feet that wrinkled his fur around his eyes. In the lighting of her bedroom, his white fur seemed to truly shine. He had his hooves firmly planted on the rug, different from how her uncle stood.
Her father did not smile at her. He dipped his horn to her in a nod and waited. Flurry took a deep breath.
“When you left to the front, you asked me to take care of everypony. You said they’d look to me because I was a Princess, even Simone and she hated me.” She smiled to herself. “You were right. When the fighting moved into the city she panicked and clung to my foreleg. I led everypony into the basement and rationed the food out. The adults all went out to fight or run. Or loot. No one tried to steal food from an alicorn.
“We stayed down there until the gunshots stopped, then a few days longer like you said. I had to go get more food. That’s how they caught me. I should have waited until nightfall and snuck out.” Flurry blinked. “I’m sorry.”
Shining Armor stared at her with soft blue eyes. “Your father would be proud of you,” he said in Thorax’s voice.
“You think you were going to wait down there forever?” Spike asked.
“I knew you were dead,” Flurry said to her dad. “Some of the other foals didn’t understand. They kept waiting for their parents. I…I couldn’t tell them.”
“You were ten,” Thorax said with her father’s muzzle. “That is not a failure.”
Flurry stared at her father. She remembered him looking far wearier. He had still been one of their best commanders, even after everything. Aquileia sent him to a river that had to be held in a city called Flowena. He had shown her where he would be on a map. Flurry never knew his soldiers like she knew her crystal ponies, but he spoke about them the same way.
I wish you left them all to die and came back to me.
Flurry did not say it.
Did you abandon me?
Flurry could not say it.
Or did you just want to see mom again?
Instead, she said, “Don’t fight her if she comes back when I’m gone. I’m ordering you.”
The green fire fell away. Thorax took a deep breath and Spike’s claw stopped on a wing joint. The alicorn felt his talons tense and prick her flesh under her fur. The changeling stalked to the side of the bed and laid his head opposite Flurry’s.
“I promise,” Thorax lied.
“I promise,” Spike lied a moment later.
Flurry hauled herself onto her mattress and laid down atop the sheet. She rubbed her wings on the cheap linen. The alicorn laid on her back with her wings splayed out; with six limbs, she was limited in comfortable sleeping positions. She twisted her neck and bit the pillow to move it into place under her head.
Spike and Thorax backed away from the bed and shared looks in the dim lights. Flurry’s horn glowed and snagged her crown from the floor. She laid it beside Whammy and the timepiece on her crowded nightstand. The glow dimmed, and the crystal lights dimmed as well around the room.
“We love you,” Spike said at the door.
“I know,” Flurry whispered.
“Good night, Princess,” Thorax said from beside the dragon. He lingered for a moment in the darkness, and Flurry could only see his bright blue eyes staring at her. How many watch me sleep every night now? For a moment, she considered casting the detection spell, then dismissed the thought.
“Hope answered with rope,” Thorax said in the darkness. “You want the truth? There was no plan to save the Empire or Equestria after the ELF. There were no more meetings. There was nothing. There would not be an Equestria if not for you. Chrysalis won. She shattered them into squabbling idiots with her good little ‘lings, and no one wanted to try and put the pieces back together again except you.”
Flurry did not reply. The ceiling was made of carved wood, and embossed with clouds. She wondered if it was meant to look like a sunrise or sunset. Her family left quietly and the door shimmered with magic from an exterior warding spell. Flurry could overpower it easily if she wanted to.
She closed her eyes.
The dream started the same way, just like it always did.
Flurry Heart stumbled upright with a bitter wind nipping at her flanks, facing a dark mine shaft. Screams and whinnies echoed from within. The only lights were weak lamps hanging from rafters, and the walls were ragged rock with the occasional sparkling crystal catching the light. She never got a good look at the outside; there was snow and cold and sunlight.
She always charged in and ran down the tunnel. “I’m here!” she shouted. “Call out!”
The whinnies and screams responded, wavering in pitch and intensity. Flurry ran down the paths, hooves churning loose rocks and bounding over tables or overturned mine carts. She followed the tracks, but they split at intersections and the voices never seemed to grow any closer.
“Princess! Please!”
“I’m here!” Flurry belted down one tunnel. Her horn glowed, but no spell came out. She snarled and tossed her head with a nicker. The tunnel was wide enough for her entire wingspan to fit, but it was too low to fly. She had to run.
“Princess!” It was closer, down the left tunnel at a split. Flurry chased it. It was probably a trap, but she wasn’t thinking. She didn’t have time to think. Every time she stopped to think and wait the screaming grew louder and more desperate.
Flurry rounded the corner and reared. The voice stopped.
Sunburst dangled from a rope attached to a rafter. His body twisted around with a creak of tension in the cheap rope, and his bulging eyes met hers. A swollen tongue licked chapped lips.
“Monster,” Sunburst rasped.
Screams sounded behind her. Flurry twisted around and chased them. The tunnel was different and branched again, and she followed the more urgent shouts. She flapped her wings by her side and stomped down a mine cart blocking her path, scattering gemstones that she crushed under her hooves.
She skittered to a stop before an occupied cart being shoved by a pair. Sunglider pushed it with his head down. He lifted his beak and stared at her with an eyeless head. “My cub…Please...”
From the other side of the cart, Falx leaned against the rail. His hooves were bloody and he wore the same suit as his partner. The sleeves were loose around the changeling’s holed hooves. Blood dribbled between his fangs. “I trusted you…”
Flurry shoved her way past the cart and followed the screams. A pony lurched out of the darkness swinging a pickaxe at the wall, trying to extract a gem. Flurry had to flare her wings out to stop in time.
Red Dawn twisted a shattered muzzle and spat a glob of blood at the alicorn’s hooves. “Git! Some of us have to work for a living! Got foals to feed!” The earth pony slammed the pick back into the wall.
Flurry shoved her aside as well and chased a squawk. There were two sounds. She came to a taller tunnel and two figures below a small, swinging body. They sobbed into their claws, and turned around at the alicorn.
Triton Blackpeak clacked a bloody beak at her. “My daughter was innocent. Look at what you did.”
“Look at what you did.” His wife said beside him. Blood splattered her nightdress from the wound in her chest.
Flurry ran under the swinging little body and deeper into the mine. Her breath heaved in her throat. She came to another tunnel, and this one was occupied. Ponies lined either side of the rock walls, and set their pickaxes down at seeing her.
“Stop,” Flurry panted. “I’m here. It’s okay.”
The lanterns flickered. A mare approached with a cocked head. “The Princess is here,” Lavender Lace smiled. Her head lolled with a crunch of bone. “Long may she reign.”
The others in the lines echoed her, all in dresses and suits and ties and too many to count. “Long may she reign.”
Flurry ran down the lines at another scream further in. This time, the tunnel narrowed. The ponies continued to chant the oath, and she had to bat at their glassy eyes and broken necks with her wings. They continued to smile at her and chant.
“Long may she reign.”
“Long may she reign.”
“Long may she reign.”
Flurry came to another mine cart being shoved by a large, fat pony. She snarled at her and tried to shove the earth pony aside, but she blocked the tunnel. The pony wailed and wrung her hooves.
“Please!” Suri squealed. “I can work! I can work! I'm sorry!”
Flurry pushed her to the ground as the mare sobbed and stepped over her. Her coat had begun to froth with exertion, but she couldn’t stop. She almost tripped over a rock and slammed into the crystals glimmering in the walls, but extended her wing and let her feathers get torn away by the jagged edges.
Flurry reached a chamber of glowing cocoons. She panted. Her horn sparked feebly and the alicorn threw her head back with a wild snarl. She leapt at the first cocoon to her right and beat it with her hooves, tearing through the membrane wildly.
A skeleton fell out and broke apart on the ground.
She moved to the next.
A smaller skeleton fell out.
She moved to the next and bloodied her hooves on the outside. The muffled screaming stopped every time she managed to open one. She resorted to stabbing her horn into it and tearing when her hooves were too mangled to continue. On the last cocoon, she hauled out a feeble mare with a patchy coat.
Garnet coughed and struggled to breathe. The crystal mare was clearly dying. Her hooves shook as she reached up to Flurry's muzzle. The alicorn stumbled over her tongue. “Hang on…I can…I’ll get-”
“Why did you take so long?” Garnet exhaled. Her barrel stilled.
Flurry Heart held the body in her hooves, then dropped it to the floor of the mine at another shriek. She forced herself back up and staggered down the tunnel. She had to lean against the wall with her wing, and the jagged rocks tore her feathers away. She couldn’t stop.
“Princess!”
Flurry stumbled around the corner just as the screams reached a crescendo. This time, she wasn’t too late. The little colt had backed all the way up the rocky wall as a bottomless void opened up in the tunnel. The floor gave away piece by piece. His stubby hooves scrambled for purchase on the far side, trapped against the back of the mineshaft.
“Please, Princess!”
Flurry’s horn finally blazed. “I got you!” She grabbed the crystal colt in her magic just before the ground caved in under his hooves. He floated in her golden aura above an endless abyss. She sighed. “I got you. Don’t worry.”
“Princess,” the colt sobbed. His white coat was flecked with gray. “Please!”
“It’s okay,” Flurry gasped for breath. “I’m right here.”
Quartz sobbed louder.
As Flurry Heart drifted him across the ravine, his hooves flaked away into ash. His cries faded into whimpers. “P-princess…”
Flurry’s magic roiled around him as she physically stumbled up to the edge. “Wait. I got you. Don’t worry.” Her telekinesis slipped around the embers as more drifted downwards. “W-wait.”
Quartz shook in her magic and more of him peeled away. His bright eyes stared at her in horror. Flurry’s magic encased him, but fur chipped through her grip. “P-please…”
“I got you,” Flurry repeated. Her eyes wandered over the falling flakes. “I…it’s okay…just…” She drifted him over to her faster, and it only caused more to break away. Her aura lashed out, trying to catch the embers and stick them back together.
“Please stop,” Quartz wept.
Just before he reached her, his muzzle caved into ash. The tiny pieces slipped out of her magic and drifted down into the ravine. Flurry was left holding nothing. Her horn dimmed.
She stared down into the hole. Her hooves tottered at the precipice. Somepony else screamed from the tunnels behind her and Flurry twisted away like she always did. She extended ragged wings to the wall to balance herself on mulched hooves. Her breath was wild and raspy. She rounded a sharp edge.
And collided with a solid blue barrel. Flurry stumbled back, gasping for breath. Her hooves suddenly felt more solid and her wings folded against her sides, feathers intact. Flurry shuffled her clean, polished hooves in the loose gravel, then looked to the blue hooves in her peripheral vision.
She followed them up to a lean barrel and elegant wings with a starry tail. Then higher to a long neck and narrow, hawkish muzzle. Teal eyes gazed at her above pursed lips. A mane floated behind pricked ears; nightfall swallowing a lantern hanging from a rafter above the alicorn.
Flurry Heart blinked. The mare’s eyes flicked upwards to meet her own glacial blue.
The other, smaller alicorn said nothing.
Neither did Flurry.
She burst out laughing in a whinny with spasming wings.
The laughter continued for several minutes, devolving into snorts and sobs. Snot and tears mixed in the light pink alicorn’s muzzle, and she tried to do her breathing exercise to stop. Her hoof shook at her chest.
The other mare did not move.
Finally, Flurry snorted, “This is what it takes for you to do your fucking-”
Princess Luna reared and slapped her with a wild foreleg. Flurry spun through the wall of the mineshaft in a spray of rocks. It did not hurt like it should, more like a punch to the nose. The alicorn rolled to a stop in another empty tunnel, laying on her back. She looked up to the hole in the wall.
Blue hooves wandered into view from the other side, rounding her horn. The steps were slightly off-kilter on the rocks. The standing alicorn circled her, looking at the walls. Flurry began to laugh again on the floor.
“Comedy,” Luna began in a solid contralto, “is an improvement on tragedy. They should rarely mix. Plays that do so are…” she trailed off “…are reductive.”
“Is that what you’re doing over there?” Flurry spat from the floor. “Watching plays while painting?”
“Of course,” Luna shrugged a wing. She stumbled over a rock and braced it against the wall. “One must pass the time.” Her head lolled and her horn waved lazily. The ceiling began to weep with strands of liquid silver.
Moonlight. Flurry thought of the Dreamspell. She closed her eyes and laid her head on a sharp rock on the floor. It did not hurt like it should.
“You are dreaming.” Luna’s voice sounded strange.
“Obviously.”
“This is a recur…” Luna stopped, “recur-rant dream?” A hoof kicked a stone and it plinked off the wall. “You have it often?”
Flurry opened her eyes and squinted. Luna had stopped, but her wings were slightly extended at her sides. Like she has to balance. Flurry stared up into her eyes.
Luna blinked glassy cyan eyes a few times to focus.
Flurry’s laugh was breathless. “You’re drunk.”
“Indeed,” Luna said flatly.
“You had to booze it up to confront me?”
“The world does not revolve around you.” Luna’s head swayed to the side when she rolled her eyes. “I am usually drunk. Stand, or I shall pound you through the floor. It will still hurt.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fie!” Luna brayed with a coughing laugh. “The swears of today are nothing to what they were. As are most things.” She leaned her neck down, and exhaled. Flurry scrunched her nose at the blast of alcohol on the alicorn’s breath. “I shall hit you in the waking world should we ever meet. Did you know that was my sister’s last crown?” She pulled her head back.
“Good.”
Luna looked down at her and clicked her teeth. "Retirement suits us, don't you think?" She waltzed to the side and stumbled over her hooves, but recovered with a splash of moonlight. "I await my mane turning gray, but I do not think stars dim like that. They should."
Flurry opened her mouth and froze.
“That crown was expensive,” Luna continued. “You should have stolen it and used it as collateral for your tithes to the Reich.” She sniffed. “I should find mine. ‘Tis in a box. Somewhere.”
The pink alicorn rolled to her hooves. She inhaled and pushed the breath out from her chest. She struggled to inhale again and forced out, “What?”
Luna hummed. “Pardon?”
“You…” Flurry stuttered, “you think this is a fucking game? You’re retired now?”
“Ah,” Luna nodded in realization. “Nay, foal. You misunderstand. ‘Twas the plan before the war.” She slapped a few feathers against a support pillar. “Your mind conjures strong mines, young Heart.”
Flurry looked out into the darkness of the tunnel. It stretched out into an endless sea of black, but the pools of silver moonlight speckled the floor and leaked from the walls. They left cracks wherever they trailed. “W-what?”
Luna sighed and leaned against the support pillar. She slid downwards slightly and her eyes widened for a moment at the stumble, but the alicorn caught herself. Her hooves skittered on the ground. “My sister wished to retire,” she explained in a slow voice. “Before you were even born.”
Flurry felt her wings twitch at her sides and feathers rub against her cutie marks. “There’s…no…No. No.” She continued to repeat it.
“Yes,” Luna said with forced amusement. “There was an amulet. Shame it was shelved. Would have been nice to-”
Flurry thought of the timepiece with the sun and moon rotating around the star. She whirled around with flared wings. “NO.”
Luna clacked her jaw shut and watched the magical voice sunder the walls of the mine with casual disinterest. Her eyes widened slightly as her leaning post wiggled to the side and made her hooves stumble again. She shoved the support beam back into position with a grunt.
Flurry bared her teeth. “You…you fucking coward. You just wanted to run away?”
“Nay,” Luna denied. “We wished to move on.”
“Move on from what?” Flurry whinnied. “Your fucking wings? Your horn? You wanted-” she stopped. Stalliongrad, Nightmare, Sombra, Tirek, Choices, Tests, Destiny…
“It wasn’t supposed to go this way,” Luna sighed. “Have you ever imagined yourself without it?”
“Without what?” Flurry snarled. “My horn?” She stuck out her wings. “Th-these wings are most of m-my body!”
“That.” Luna braced herself to point a forehoof. She swayed and clomped it back down.
Flurry reached up with a wing to touch under her mane. Her feathers brushed against metal. She scrunched her muzzle and wrapped a few feathers around the band to pull it off, lowering her horn.
The alicorn held her golden, dented, cheap crown in her forelegs. Her eyes searched the metal before she sniffled and snorted. She moved to chuck it deeper into the leaking mine but the throw collapsed into a pout. “It’s gone.”
“Not here,” Luna answered. Her eyes lingered on Flurry’s forelegs. The younger alicorn traced her stare to the swirling scar above her left hoof. She looked to Luna’s legs.
They trembled with exertion from standing, but they were bare. The alicorn looked beautiful and could have carried herself with grace. Luna’s teeth were blazing white when she grimaced. “Have you ever imagined yourself without it?” she repeated. Her sparkling mane drifted around her horn.
The Princess of the Moon had nothing but her fur.
“Once,” Flurry admitted in a cold voice. “It was a lie.”
“It did not need to be.”
“But it was.” Flurry shoved the crown back on her head. “You didn’t deserve it. You never deserved it.”
Luna hummed. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” A wing brushed back against her cutie mark of a full moon in the night. “We raised the sun and moon.”
“You don’t need a crown to do that.”
The mare’s smile in return was only on half her muzzle like her muscles failed her. “We did not. But it sounds nice, does it not? Makes our jobs seem grand: The Princesses of the Sun and Moon.”
“It’s not a job,” Flurry’s muzzle spasmed. “It’s a duty.”
“To the moon?” Luna questioned. “To the sun? To the land? To the ponies? Time may change your answer. Eternity bears a long shadow.”
Flurry shook her head and leaned against the slate wall. “I’m not making it that long.”
“That may not be your choice,” Luna chuckled. She mirrored the other alicorn, using her wing to balance her hooves.
Pink primaries dragged themselves along the jagged edges of extruding rocks. “Sure it is,” Flurry snorted. The wing reached up to a hanging lantern and slapped it. The flame inside wavered. “It’s a choice.”
Luna gazed at the lamp. “You must elucidate me on this choice, filly.”
“I am not going to turn out like you.”
“Ah.” Luna dragged out the sigh with a long lick of her tongue on chapped lips. “I see.” She shoved herself off the pillar. “One more brick upon my back makes no difference; it was already broken years ago.” She stumbled through a silver puddle on the rocks.
“Mayhaps that would be a blessing,” Luna admitted after a moment. “You will not live to see your failures twist and take new forms.” Her shadow stretched in the light of the lamps, gaining leathery wings and splitting into several silhouettes that trailed the stumbling alicorn. The bat ponies moved over the rocks on the wall like a dance.
“I know about Chiropterra,” Flurry nickered.
Luna spun around surprisingly quickly on stiff legs. “You know nothing of them.” She hacked out a breath. “Whatever you’ve heard…the truth is worse.” The shadows whirled on the wall with screeching laughter before returning to the alicorn’s shade.
Flurry leaned her head against the wall. “We could have won.”
“Not we,” Luna shook her head. “There was one signature on all forms, on all decrees. Can you imagine it? A millennia of solitude and isolation and sacrifice?”
“Don’t lecture me about your decisions.”
“I was not speaking of myself,” Luna frowned.
“You don’t get to take the crown off once you put it on because it’s hard.” Flurry’s voice was lost. “Do you have any idea what I’ve done?”
“Yes,” Luna said firmly. Her voice wavered into something approaching kindness. “Why do you think she refused to walk it? The path you trot leads to your ruin, filly.” She pointed a wing behind the alicorn.
Flurry looked over her wings to the ragged wall. A shape stretched out, tall and terrible, flickering in the dim lamps hanging from the support beams. A burning helmet sat below a flaming spire. Wings stretched out with knives extending from the feathers. The shadow mare promised nothing but fire and blood, and the helmet tilted to the side when Flurry Heart cocked her head. It raised an armored hoof in mirror with the alicorn.
The shadow and its caster twisted to the midnight alicorn. “What’s the point of eternity if you spend it jumping at your shadow?” Flurry asked.
“They will never forget.”
“I don’t want them to.”
“They will always be afraid in their hearts.”
Flurry sighed. “I can bear it.”
Luna’s muzzle pulled into a rictus smile below glassy eyes. “I believed the same, once.”
The walls crumbled away with final crack. Flurry steadied herself, hooves dipping into a silver tide. She looked up as the world whirled around her, stars spinning in the sky and radiated outward into infinity. The sea she stood in extended in all directions, and though her hooves were barely submerged she felt no solid ground beneath her.
The other alicorn nearly fell over, but somehow used her falling momentum to keep trotting around the lake of moonlight. Her mane and tail floated above her and stars seemed to shoot from them into the sky above. Midnight blue wings flared out for balance.
Flurry stared at the cosmos around her and felt like it was staring back.
“It looks better drunk,” Luna advised. “I have plenty of inspiration for artwork.”
“We could have…” Flurry struggled to think. “After my parent’s wedding, we-”
“We?” Luna interrupted. She hiccupped. “There is no ‘we’ in this, filly. There is one mare’s mark upon the parchment, one will, one horn spearing through everything it built for a thousand years. Do you blame her for turning aside?”
“Yes,” the filly snapped.
“Fair,” Luna accepted, “but she is my sister. She could have dragged her little ponies kicking and screaming through the mud and blood. She could have built an Equestria where a guard shot the dreaded Nightmare Moon with his long rifle on the longest day of the thousandth year. But where does that leave her?”
Flurry’s eyes went from the stars to the pony across from her and she bared her teeth again. Luna waved a wing at her from several wingspans away. “The threat was dealt with and magic prevailed. You ask a mare who has sacrificed so much for a thousand years to give a little more. It was not supposed to be this way.”
“Because that’s her duty.”
“We have a sun and moon upon our flanks, not crowns.” Luna circled the alicorn on unsteady hooves. “Ah, filly. You have a mark meant to burn twice as bright and half as long. The Crystal Heart was always a fickle thing.”
Flurry turned back to her burning Crystal Heart surrounded by a flaming shield. She looked away. “It’s not the mark of a Princess.”
“What makes a Princess?” Luna warbled.
“Horn and wings,” Flurry answered bluntly.
“You seem to meet the standard,” Luna chortled.
“We don’t get to walk away.”
“Not after a millennium?” Luna stumbled. “What then? Who are you, young Heart?””
"I am the Princess of Ponies."
"So was I," Luna mused. Her steps were off-kilter on the silver lake. "So was she. So were we all. One title after another, and one was always last." She whirled back around.
"The first shall be last and the last shall be first," Luna quoted. She gave a dry chuckle. "Griffons believe such nonsense." She wrung her starry mane with a flourish that turned into a stumbling bow. "Not like we are any better, but I remember when they hung entrails from trees for the old gods."
“You don’t get to walk away from what we are.” Flurry raised her wings.
“Have you never wanted to be normal?” Luna coughed.
“I was never normal.”
Luna studied her with glassy eyes. “There is something sad in that. Fate is cruel. Your mother and your aunt would have been good rulers.”
“My mother never wanted to be a Princess.”
Luna threw her head back and laughed. The stars above them twinkled. “Fate is cruel!” she repeated. “It chose the one filly that did not want to be told she was special and whisked away to a pretty palace.” Her laughter choked out. “She dreamed of her village. She dreamed of taking you there.”
Luna looked askance and her wings dipped into the moonlight. “Gone now. Consumed by the rot of Vanhoover and gnashing fangs. War was different once. You used to have time. Formations marched and spells sang.”
“Blueblood was right,” Flurry swung her head to follow the alicorn’s stumbles.
Luna seemed to move without any clear purpose. “What else was I to do?” she huffed. "Give ponies in muddy trenches dreams of home so they awaken feeling worse?"
“You should have never been in command.”
“Were it so easy,” Luna spat. “Blueblood…that stallion…” Her eyes drifted somewhere far away and shimmered, reflecting the silver lake around them. “He did not see their dreams in the night of the battles to come, of their fallen friends, of their homes. Of his voice ringing in their ears heralding new nightmares and the whistle of falling shells.” The alicorn grew quiet.
“Were it so easy,” she repeated in a sadder voice, “to admit he was right.”
Flurry sniffled. “Well, you won’t have to wait that long. Have a nice vacation.”
Luna was quiet for a long time. “She won’t come back, filly.”
“She just has to wait for us to die.”
“She will not come back, not truly,” Luna repeated. “Dreams can tell us truths or lies, and they can be such beautiful lies,” she sighed. “And there can always be a greater, grander, brighter dream if you close your eyes again. There’s always more time.”
The midnight-blue alicorn hummed. “Until you wake up alone. Then, everything must have been done for something worth it, or else you face the hollowness in your heart.”
Flurry heard steps behind her and twisted her head. Quartz teetered on stubby hooves, pawing at the lake. His muzzle was scrunched.
“Princess.” The colt shimmered into sparks.
“You torment thyself nearly as well as I,” Luna said dryly. “Of all the vices to take from me, did it have to be self-loathing?”
“I deserve the dreams.”
"It takes a strong mare to face your choices," Luna nickered. "Tell me: Did my sister even leave the dock?"
Flurry paused. “She was waiting for me.”
“Oh filly,” Luna sighed. “The only thing that could stop my sister was my sister. She returned as if she was out at the market, declaring you ‘too far gone’ to aid. And that was all. I watched her begin to reread a book worn down to the binding this morning after throwing out all the papers…”
She hung her head. “You are not the only one who is lost. When I realized she was gone, I had hoped…” her voice echoed. Luna slowly shut her jaw and pinched her eyes. “Hope is a dangerous thing.”
Flurry sat down in the lake. The moonlight lapped at her flank. “Was that all this was?”
“A mare attempting to escape a destiny carved into crystal bark?” Luna hiccupped. “What future was at the end of this war, win or lose? A wandering through a land rent asunder by war? Or more devotion to a crown when the fire had already begun to gutter out?”
“Destiny is a choice.”
“What if you come to regret the choice you made?” Luna asked the sky.
“Do you?” Flurry returned.
Luna struggled to pull her lips into a smile. "I may have failed at everything else, but I am still her shadow." She hiccupped and her glassy eyes misted. Her head lolled to the side. "I used to dread that. There is no point in regret."
Flurry swallowed. “Did my mother know?”
“Of course,” Luna answered. “As did your aunt…and your father.” Luna’s smile became stretched and her eyes stared past Flurry. “He was right. On that dock. We burned everything to chase a daydream.”
Flurry wrung her hooves in the moonlight. It was thicker than water. Like blood. Her voice was very small. “He left me.”
“So did we,” Luna shrugged her wings and flicked drops of silver about her. Her pinions were stiff and she had the look of a puppet. “At the least he left you for something real. Something beyond him.”
Flurry forced the words past her mouth. “Did he just want to die?”
“Nay,” Luna denied. “Shining loved thee. As did dear Cadenza.”
“Love is the death of duty,” Flurry said to her.
“And sacrifice is the greatest love,” Luna answered. “Your mother understood that. Her family or her throne. My sister made the same choice a thousand years ago; it was the greatest failure of her life and left her alone.”
“My mother did not die a failure.” Her voice shook, twisted into something pleading.
“Crowns are ugly things, no matter how they sparkle.” Luna’s voice was soft. “She died dreaming of you. Never doubt that she loved you, young Heart.” The alicorn dragged a hoof through the silver.
“Is that what you think you’re doing?” Flurry whickered. She sniffed back tears. “Making some sacrifice?”
“Yes,” Luna shrugged her wings. “I must. If we look back, we are lost. Yet the tide will always overtake us. One day, she will awaken and the daydream will not return for a moment too long. She will not find an empty room, not again. I will be there for her.”
Flurry sat in the lake and let the silver lap at the Crystal Hearts on her flanks.
“I love her,” Luna said simply. "I'm sorry."
“I hate you,” Flurry sniffled.
Luna accepted it. “She no longer speaks of her daydream. She ceased the day those metal beasts rolled down from the north. But it was always there, flittering and sparking and fading with every decree and every battle. She did not want to be the mare that sent millions to their deaths.”
“She is,” Flurry said listlessly.
“Yes.” Luna did not say more about it and her eyes wandered. “Your birth surprised us.”
“What was I meant to be?” Flurry laughed. “Was I supposed to replace you? Or her?”
“Neither,” Luna said. Her voice was raspy. “Only your mother’s daughter. Whatever you wished to be. She insisted.”
“We don’t get to be what we want to be,” Flurry shook her head. Her wings sagged into the moonlight beside her and feathers trailed through the silver.
“You are so much like your mother,” Luna whickered. Her steps slowed, turning stiff like clockwork and gears winding down. “And the others. The north was always ice masking an inner fire.”
“Am I truly related to Amore?”
“Am I truly my sister’s sister?” Luna asked back. “Does it matter?”
Flurry had much she could say, but she simply sat in the moonlight and looked down at her hooves. The swirling scar on her left foreleg glowed, casting a reflection in the waves. She dipped it into the silver and watched it drip from the white fur like blood. “What did you offer them?”
“Not as much as you.” Luna’s voice was pained. “They are still proud of their suffering. I hope they realize it was not worth it one day.”
A wave rose up behind the midnight alicorn. It stretched into a square and halted at her flank. The liquid parted to reveal a shimmering, glowing portal. Luna’s tail drifted through it and she snapped it back with a stumbling flourish.
“Equestria is yours, Princess.” The alicorn’s eyes turned to the spinning stars. “I hope you do a better job than we did.” Her grin bared more clenched teeth than it should. “I suspect you will.”
Flurry stood. “Wait.”
“You sound like my sister,” Luna coughed. “Do not wait, young Heart. Burn bright.” She turned around and stepped through the portal. Her long horn and head plunged into a silver mirror and vanished.
“Twilight,” Flurry’s voice shifted and turned desperate. “Please.”
The other alicorn froze halfway through the portal, then teetered back on stiff legs. Her head withdrew slowly. Princess Luna refused to turn around. “Do not ask.”
“If…if you can help her over there-”
“Do not ask.”
The stars dimmed in the sky above. In the distance, Flurry saw the placid silver lake turn rough. Waves formed, rising high and encroaching like a tide. They spilled over each other.
Flurry stood her ground and asked, “A coma’s like a dream, isn’t it?”
The alicorn across from her breathed raggedly facing the silver portal. A foreleg twitched as if to walk through it. When she spoke, it was as if she was being strangled and begging. “Do not ask.”
Flurry begged. “I don’t even remember the last time we met.”
Blue wings pinched stiffly at a lean barrel. “It would have been before Olenia.” Her horn lolled to the side as if to look behind her, but her neck seized and twitched.
The younger alicorn sniffled. “You owe her.”
“I owe them both everything,” Luna belted out. The portal before her collapsed into the lake. “You…you do not know what you ask.”
Flurry stepped forward even as the waves rushed around them. The stars above no longer reflected in the silver, and the sky turned dark as they winked out one by one. She stopped just behind Luna.
Luna’s head swung and lolled. Flurry watched her horn bob from behind. It looked like she was talking to herself. Abruptly, she extended her wings and stiffly shrugged them. When she spoke, her voice was blank. “I cannot possibly sink any lower.”
The alicorn turned around rigidly with a plaster muzzle. There was nothing in her eyes. “She does not dream. Not anymore. My sister chased a daydream, and refuses to wake. Do not be her.”
Flurry Heart staggered back as the last stars dimmed in the sky. The waves began to roar as they closed in. The tide roiled at her hooves. She felt the pull in every direction.
No.
“She…” Luna licked her lips. “She dreamed of her family. She was happy. She knew you would make it.”
Flurry fell to her side in the lake and let the silver waves lap at her tears. She could not even wail; her breath was caught in her throat, choking under pinched eyes.
“At the very least they cannot hurt her anymore,” Luna offered.
“It should have been you!” Flurry screamed with her hooves tucked against her barrel.
The words sliced across the dream, across the barren, cold lake, across the spiraling stars in the black sky above. They cut through the taller alicorn, a force made manifest by sheer will. She did not flinch. Her expression did not change. Her muzzle was still.
The words meant nothing to a mare that was already dead.
“Yes,” Luna agreed. "I am sorry."
She stomped her hoof into the lake just before the waves overtook them both.
The false world flashed white.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
567 users online
906,511 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
11781919
Merry Christmas.
Try not to cry.
It is so heartwarming to see Spike and Thorax getting along with Benito. (But who wouldn't eventually fall for his charm?)
Its 12p.m.
I have a job.
Why are you doing this to me
Oh, that's just great framing. Delish.
That's simply beautifully operating Luna in action -- popping up like the dark horse that she is and delivering a full double whammy. A lot of love went into these two chapters, kudos!
Wow. You went there. You really went and confirmed our worst fears about Twi, if I'm interpreting this right.
I dunno how but you managed to make Luna maybe the most cynical character in this fic, but you did. The most crushing, despariful chapter so far.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Well that was an amazing chapter.
11782131
I regret to inform you that I have failed in that endeavor.
The power of state-run media!
Flurry using Thorax as a surrogate to talk with her dead father. Oh I'm sure that's going to be a healthy coping mechanism...
The idea that Celestia and Luna just sort of "fell" into the role of leadership out of pseudo-convenience is... while I'm sure it's not a unique take, it's one that I don't think I've encountered before, and it's an interesting one! It certainly does more thoroughly explain Celestia's earlier apathy.
I do like the addition of the show's plot point that Celestia was in the process of grooming a successor and so was basically "checking out" of the whole rulership thing by the time the war broke out. In that sense, Celestia kind of basically "exited to desktop" when her HoI run got harder than she felt like putting up with, heh.
Hard to say if Luna did more help than harm to Flurry's psyche here. Though it does cement Flurry as being a true Princess of Ponies. By virtue of going out of her way to recreate the position at all.
Now, unless Unknown intends to cop out the next chapter by making it just an elipses, I think it's fair to guess that Flurry is going to try and flex more alicorn power and try to "dreamwalk" Twi on her own...
Will be an interesting way to ring in the New Year regardless.
Merry Christmas, Unknown!
Luna wouldn't keep this knowledge from her sister, and Celestia has probably asked Luna to check Twilight out in the dream space. I don't think Celestia was asking to take Twilight for medical attention. Maybe she was trying to spare Flurry from the worst decision. There are bat ponies who can use the Dreamspell. Light Narrative is one of them, and it can be taught to others who are capable surely. But Flurry is young, and inexperienced; she doesn't ask, she just does. And really I hope she doesn't.
Merry Christmas to you, UnknownError, and my fellow readers.
Merry Christmas
What the hell is with the emotional roller coaster of this story, I just wanted a war story with lots of fun, action, spectacle and stuff.
Instead I got a story that has constantly grappled with the morality of how war should be fought and how much one sacrifices to win a war. So I give one final hurrah to this story as we move on tp Christmas day and say what a glorious tale this has so far been.
Oh and if this story reaches one-million words I will be mightily impressed.
Damn, sounds like Luna is saying that Twilight is brain dead, and that Celestia already knew, but she still wanted to hope. Of course that's also why Celestia didn't really try to force the issue about taking Twilight last chapter.
Luna's dream walking was a hindrance. It's one thing to order men to their deaths, it's another when you can literally see their dreams and nightmares as it happens.
Flurry really took issue with the idea of retirement. She had the whole idea of the duty of an alicorn essentially drill into her at a young age by her mother and aunts. She had examples and standards set by the most successful rulers on the planet. But Celestia and Luna didn't have that. They were the first. They had no examples or standards so they just made it up as they went. Which is why they view it as just a job.
God damn it. I can understand the underpinning of Luna's mindset. I can understand why she doesn't want to help. I can even see why she is drunk enough to seek out Flurry. Poor Luna. I think she is stuck in the middle of a lot of bad choices.
And Flurry? Her nightmares are of every failure. And the last bit? The Death of Hope is a terrible thing.
...
Happy Hearth's Warming, I guess!
11782131
There are no tears to shed for a fool and the dead. Best they be forgot and left to the dust.
Kudos, First story I've read that actually made me Hate Luna. I really wish Flurry didn't ask about Twilight, I did not need my hope crushed like that and neither did she lol, damn. Great chapter and Merry Christmas all!
Ohh God....
I was just reading through other comments, and I have no idea why everyone thought Luna might be different and come back. Luna and Celestia have destroyed themselves in different ways, but ended up with the same result. Celestia blames everyone else while Luna blames solely herself. Both are mentally broken beyond repair.
Luna was a general yes, but warfare in those days was more gentlemanly than now. Yes it was totally savage at times with horrendous weapons, but it was a gentleman’s massacre with fewer fighters just trying to kill each other. She was totally unprepared for a modern war, in past wars, it was about killing everyone. Now it’s not so much killing them, but breaking them. Luna broke because there are actual survivors of a battle who can dream about what happened. She wasn’t prepared for a modern war, and counting the casualties and seeing their dreams at the river line broke her.
Despite whatever they say, Luna is far more responsible for the disastrous losses than anyone else. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near the frontlines, where she could see all the death and destruction and put faces to the dreams she guarded. Luna should have been in the capital while leaders of this age led the combat. If she disconnected herself from the soldiers, then what she sees are just dreams.
Blueblood may be an arse, but he made a fine general who understood what his job was. He reminds me of General Castor from Warhammer Dawn of War, he said ‘My job has always been to send them where they can die. I'm not afraid to spend men, but I never waste them!’. He knows there will be deaths, but he understood what the princesses didn’t; however many men he sends to die on the frontline, each of their deaths will equate to thousands saved behind the frontline.
Firstly, Merry Christmas.
Secondly, this is a very nice gift, and Luna, everyone has their troubles. This is the start of a new Equestria, this is more or less them abdicating the Throne.
God damn what a Christmas gift.
Holy fuck that was gut wrenching
Seriously you make these characters so complex and deep.
I can reread this 3 times and still feel like I only grasp a bit of the character
Love this writing
11782324
Christmas ain't over yet. Try not to cry.
11782349
My images aren't working but my body is ready
...Damn.
Luna didn't give Flurry anything except for closure and answers for a whole lot of hitherto unresolved issues, but it's way more than Celestia gave her.
I wonder if I was more interested in hearing what Luna discussed than even Flurry was. She might've liked some actual help from her nominal aunts more than lore and understanding.
I certainly appreciate this better understanding of the diarchs' motives. This really was the bad future, unfairly sprung on them and robbing them of their long-awaited rest after actual centuries of labor and suffering.
(Ghost of Christmas Future Luna: "~I see a path not meant to be-e-e...~")
Very compelling.
Very not-useful to Flurry (unless someone brainier than her can leverage it, nerdbird).
...But hang on, why was Celestia so interested in
recoveringrepositioning Twilight?Denial in her daydream-mode (very interesting glimpse into that from Luna)? Sentiment? Were they trying to prevent Flurry from accidentally discovering the awful truth on her own?
Or is there something more to this? Like, is Luna's "admission" of Twilight's condition just a falsehood to manipulate Flurry's mental state?
11782184
I was just thinking that last chapter. Reminds me of some Civ games I abandoned. The innumerable imagined NPCs left to fend without me should the simulation still run in some alternate reality...
11782349
God fucking dammit....
(But in a good way. Many thanks for your work this Christmas season).
I had hopes that Luna would come back, but I’m not surprised this is the real result. I am glad that Luna at least realises that she and Celestia are genuinely at fault for how things turned out.
Flurry is going to have one of two reactions to this, either it’s going to worsen her current state, or maybe, I hope, this candid explanation and talk with Luna will help put flurry back on her feet.
11782349
I am a little sad, I do wish Princess Luna could have come around, it was likely a false hope she could have. Not even as a general. Put her in where she flourishes the best. Not as a general leading the armies but as the warrior whom wins the unwinnable battles.
Flurry has shown she can do it, why not Luna whom is even more experienced.
But this was a realistic depiction of the mare whom is simply broken and more or less understands that things are quite broken and that she and her sister are a major part as to why. Still would have been kinda badass to see Luna strap on her armor and go out to fight as the legendary "Night-Warrior princess" once more.
Well. A most welcome Christmas present, however much it hurts.
11782131
Joke’s on you, I just get depressed and disassociate!
11782349
You’re a monster. I think.
11782186
etc. is an abbreviation of Et cetera, Latin for “and so on”. As such, it’s “etc.” not “e.t.c.”, because it’s not an acronym, which is typically all caps. (I’m sorry, I took Latin and seeing “e.t.c.” bothers me far more than it has any right to, which is why I’m saying anything.)
11782168
As always, “this person needs SO MUCH therapy.”
11782184
I’m not sure if Flurry has any healthy coping mechanisms. The fact that this is a recurring dreams is deeply troubling.
Strangled emotion noises
11782976
fixed
11783314
I wish this were the case, but EAW will reeeee at you for suggesting it XD
Well this is frigging depressing… *sigh* I was hoping for some other Alicorn Flurry could lean on and now I feel that is going to not be happening… alas. Well, onwards. To whatever this story brings!
Rereading over the initial dream sequence a few times, and while the recurring nightmares are certainly concerning from a mental health standpoint (though not unexpected given what she's done/been through), it's at least worth noting that Flurry does have a support network. Spike and Thorax are always available to offer her affirmation, hugs, and love (and also some unhealthy enabling...*side-eyes Thorax*
). She even has a circle of
friendssubjects she lets her guard (somewhat) down around. She's teetering on the edge of despair, but there's at least creatures around her ready to try and catch her if she Falls.But who does Grover have?
Sure, he's not been confronted with the horrors of war like Flurry has, but to say he's been leading a stress-free life would be unfair. He's the heirless last scion of a dynasty that's ruled at the tip of a sword for hundreds of years. He surrounds himself with fanatically devoted diamond dogs for protection because, in his own words, he can't trust his own people not to murder him. He's lived his whole life under constant threat of assassination. A restful night's sleep, that does not make. To that end, Thorax's 'testing' of his defenses probably hasn't helped the poor griff's paranoia...
I wonder how 'peacefully' the Kaiser of Griffonkind really sleeps on that cloud bed of his. And who would be around to catch him if he starts to truly become exactly the sort of griffon Celestia believes him to be...?
Unrelated: I am going mad imagining who that Chekov's (Chickov's? Sorry not sorry) Gun of Grover's is going to ultimately shoot in this story! Is it going to be the thing that actually ends Chrysalis' life? Will some series of events necessitate the poor Kaiser turning it on his beloved Flurry? Benito?! Will the weapon intended to preserve the Kaiser's life ironically be turned on Grover himself somehow?!
Unknown's been smacking us across the face with that thing for nearly three-quarters of a million words, and every time it's mention again I am pushed further towards my wit's end imagining whose name written on the bullet in its chamber would make for the most dramatic scene
Will we cry tears of joy or despair when that trigger is pulled, you monstrous wordsmith you?!
11783583
Personally, I think the gun is more there to illustrate his paranoia in general, him having it on him at all times is pretty telling. The fact the Flurry notices it so often is telling of her character as well.
Flurry really needs this to be hammered home until it sinks in. Princess of Ponies is her duty, yes, but it's also her role. As is blatantly obvious that's not who she is, especially if you're using the last holders of the title as the standard. She is the daughter of the North, the heir and descendant of the ponies who defeated the Windigos by uniting to take them head-on with fucking spears, a proud and noble race who have endured despite (or because of) the Sister's lack of attention. Most ponies see the Princess of Rope, Maar's Daughter obliterating entire armies in one shot. Only her ponies and those closest to her can see the princess who willingly poured herself into the Crystal Heart even as it killed her. She may not be millennia old like Celestia, but with the memories and knowledge of her people she's the only other who comes anywhere close. The legacy passed on to Flurry may not be the thousand years of Pax Celestia, but neither is it the wartorn slog of the Reich or other nations around them.
Beyond the bitterness and cynicism I see hope. When Celestia and Luna speak of the inevitable path to ruin they seem to be speaking more of themselves. Flurry, however, is not an Equestrian Princess at heart. She need not follow the path they have foreseen. As has been well demonstrated the Sisters were never the end all be all; Flurry only holds herself back trying to achieve their rigid conception of Harmony. For where Equestria and its ideals have fallen, perhaps the North and it's fire can overcome.
Wait, I’m confused. Is Twilight dead?
11783732
She is comatose, and has very little brain activity according to EKG's, so hope's aren't high for her recovery. Flurry was hoping that Luna had scene Twilight's dreams, but given that she doesn't dream, hopes for Twilight's recovery are minuscule.
11783718
Flurry isn’t like the other alicorns. She felt indifferent around the tree of Harmony. I don’t think the others would feel the same. No, Flurry’s fate and temperament have matched up with the Crystal Heart. The Heart cares about those it has sworn to protect, and murderously vengeful against those try to harm them.
Well, what a hell of a ride, Crushing our hearts like cookies, I'm not crying, I'm just wiping my eyes