Part Fifty-One
“The Princess needs to rest,” Rainbow insisted.
“Mhm,” the white-furred griffon answered. He stopped and landed on a cloud, signaling with a claw for the other knights to fan out.
Flurry Heart landed heavily on another cloud beside Rainbow Dash. Her wings splayed out beside her barrel. “Just gimme a moment,” the alicorn panted.
“The Princess needs a few minutes,” Rainbow yelled again, calling out to the armored griffon.
“Mhm.”
“Does he even understand Equestrian?” Rainbow asked Flurry in a low voice.
“Yes, Captain Geralt understands Equestrian,” Flurry answered. She levitated her canteen to her lips and gulped down a mouthful of water.
The armored griffon scanned the sky with yellow eyes. His beak was hooked like it was perpetually frowning. He flexed his greaves against the soft, pillowy surface of the cloud while he waited.
“He never answers any of us,” Rainbow countered. “Only that weird grunt.”
“That’s what our dad did,” Murky added. The bat pony hovered nearby with a submachine gun cradled in his forelegs. “You just don’t understand it.”
“There’s nothing to understand.”
Murky screeched a high-pitched bat pony shriek towards the griffon.
“Mhm.”
The bat pony repeated the shriek at a lower volume and register.
“Mhm.” This grunt was slightly inquisitive.
“He says the area’s clear,” Murky translated, “but he wants to know if the Princess needs anything.”
“I’m fine,” Flurry called to him in Herzlander. Her wings ached.
The griffon nodded. “Mhm.”
“This is a load of horseapples,” Rainbow muttered. “The knights outnumber us, Princess. They could take you prisoner.”
“I can teleport,” Flurry responded. She gathered her legs under herself and stood on the cloud, testing her primary feathers in the cold wind.
“Can you?” Rainbow whispered, leaning in closer.
“Short distance,” Flurry answered quietly. The alicorn was wearing her purple uniform, now coated with a light dusting of snow. She scrubbed at her mane stubble with a hoof. Her cap was stored with dried hay and a few other provisions in a light saddlebag across her back. Flurry's leg braces had been left behind in Stalliongrad. Her legs ached almost as bad as her wings.
“Let’s go,” Flurry huffed. “Just needed to catch my breath.”
Rainbow eyed her warily. “Princess, any pegasus would tell you that flying from Stalliongrad to Manehattan is an all-day trip, even in the best conditions.” The pegasus looked down, below the cloud. They were incredibly high up, near the upper limits of what a pegasus could comfortably fly at. A winter storm raged underneath them. Thick, swirling clouds pelted the ground with hail and frigid winds.
“Just three more hours, right?” Flurry asked. “I can do that.” Her group of two dozen scouts had set off well before dawn, flying under the cover of night to meet an escort of nearly fifty knights from the Rosewood Order. The bat pony siblings suffered far worse than the alicorn. Murky, Echo, and Nightshade had been born in warm and sunny New Mareland, and bat ponies as a tribe hailed from the southeast jungles. They were not meant to fly in winter.
Flurry cast her warming spell on Murky, noticing his shivering despite the wooly coat he wore. “Thank you, Princess,” Murky blushed.
“Weak, brother!” Nightshade whinnied as she flew past. “You should be ashamed! Making the Princess spend her magic on your frozen hide!” Flurry eyed the mare and fired the spell at her retreating form, catching her between the wings. She screeched in protest. “Unfair!”
Geralt languidly signaled for his hovering knights to stow their weapons; they had tensed at the bolts of magic. He glared at the Princess. "Mhm."
“Sorry!” Flurry apologized in Herzlander. “We’ll follow you in.”
“Mhm.” The Griffon flapped his wings and lifted off the cloud, heading southeast above the storm cell. Flurry suppressed a wince as she stretched her wings out and followed. Her ponies were bracketed by the Herzlander knights.
They could easily fly us into a trap, Flurry thought for the hundredth time. It would be very simple. Griffons could hide in the clouds and strike down, taking out her guards and scouts, then trapping the Princess. A plane or ship carried the same risks. Or they could kill me.
Some of them must want to kill her. Grover had said as much, and Flurry believed it. She did not keep count of her kills, and her sense did not work on magic or spells, only physical weapons. She was left to guess her total.
While she flew, she extended her magic to the surrounding ponies and griffons to take her mind off the strain in her flight muscles. All of them were armed, carrying slung rifles, submachine guns, grenades, and pistols. The griffon knights carried short swords with their machine guns as part of their heritage. Most of the current knightly orders started under Grover II’s Grand Crusade against the Riverlands, the campaign that killed him.
Flurry hummed in curiosity. Captain Geralt had killed more with his sword than his gun, though his gun was new and the sword was several decades old. Still, it had seen the most recent use several weeks ago against a Changeling ambush. Rainbow’s wing also glowed with wisps of magic. She had gotten better at using it in combat during her scouting missions along the shield. Rainbow had killed twelve Changelings with her wing. She felt proud about it.
“You sharpened your feathers?” Flurry huffed, flapping her wings.
“What?” Rainbow asked. “Oh, yeah. It’s a bit more involved than preening, but I like doing it.”
“Good,” Flurry nodded.
Flurry Heart conserved her energy for pumping her wings until Captain Geralt signaled with a claw to descend. It was a cloudy day, but the worst of the storm was to the north. Manehattan broke through the clouds below. Her group descended slowly towards the outskirts, aiming for the tall glass and steel buildings of downtown Manehattan.
Flurry’s eyes swept over the devastation. The city itself was largely intact, but the outer neighborhoods and nearby towns had been leveled. It was old damage, leftover from the Equestrian Liberation Front’s initial takeover and last stand. Beyond the outskirts of the city, wreckage of tanks and equipment had been gathered into dump sites. Snow piled upon hollowed-out wrecks of Changeling and Reich vehicles alike.
The Statue of Friendship in the bay was missing, only the broken foundation remained. Manehattan itself was an island, bolstered by bridges and dams, a combination of earth pony engineering and unicorn magic. The dockyards were full of Reich ships, smaller convoy vessels unloading cargo by crane and by claw. Downtown Manehattan was surrounded by several smaller neighborhoods called boroughs. Flurry could see smoke and steam rising from the shorter brick buildings.
Flurry flew ahead to the Captain. “What’s with the smoke?” she demanded in Herzlander.
Geralt pointed a talon at the buildings downtown. The skyscrapers, the tallest buildings in Equestria, were unlit. All except one, a dark blue skyscraper near the center of the city with a stylized, carved statue of a pony's head at the top. It bore shell marks and obvious old battle damage, but several banners of the black roaring Griffon hung from the upper windows. The power’s out. Of course it is, the power stations are probably in the lower neighborhoods. Ponies were setting fires for warmth. The industrial sector to the north was dark; the factories remained closed.
The knights had obviously been expected. Captain Geralt stopped before a flying Reich officer and seemingly just glowered at her until she backed down. The cordon of flying Reich soldiers quickly made a gap. Flurry spotted several squads on lower rooftops with anti-air guns and spotters.
“Unbelievable,” Rainbow scoffed.
“What?” Flurry drifted closer to the pegasus, ignoring her aching wings.
“That’s Lilac’s headquarters, 84 Crystal Avenue.” Rainbow pointed a hoof at the building draped in Reich flags. “They’re using the same building.”
“It’s in the center of downtown,” Flurry replied. “It’s a good spot.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow snorted. “We could shell it from all directions.”
The knights flew through a slight snowfall down to street level. Rainbow and Flurry, trailed by her team, followed. They landed on a street lined with Reich soldiers. Sandbags and trucks blocked the ends of the street, with machine guns facing outwards into the city.
Several of the soldiers turned around and stared blankly at the tall alicorn standing beside a short, rainbow-maned pegasus with a metal wing. The bat pony siblings landed behind them, followed by several more pegasi. Flurry’s scouts formed a cordon around her, eyeing the gray-uniformed Reich soldiers warily.
Flurry folded her wings against her sides, retrieving her hat with a flicker of golden magic and putting in on. She used her height to her advantage, staring down the gawking soldiers and studying their expressions. Her horn glowed softly.
Most haven’t used their weapons, she mused. Trained, fresh soldiers deployed off the boats. Grover’s veterans are further inland. She glanced towards the sandbag checkpoints. They had been setup expertly to block off street access. The alicorn didn’t spy any ponies in the crowd.
She turned to Geralt. “Am I to wait in the street?” she asked.
“Mhm.” Geralt waved a wing towards the guards at the double-doored entrance. He glared at them until the younger soldiers opened the doors and stepped aside. He waited beside the open doors with a claw on his sheathed sword.
Flurry trotted to the doors with quick, even strides, looking every bit like she wasn’t about to drop to the ground in exhaustion. “I thank you for your escort, good sir,” Flurry said in Herzlander, stopping beside the Knight-Captain. “Extend my thanks to your knights. May your ancestors guide your wings and Boreas light your path.”
“You’re welcome, Princess,” Geralt responded in accented Equestrian. His yellow eyes crinkled with mirth that Flurry knew the traditional blessing.
“Asshole!” Rainbow barked, following Flurry Heart. “I’ve been trying to talk to you all the way from Stalliongrad!” Her metal wing raised in a challenge.
“Mhm,” the Griffon chuckled, walking back out into the street.
“Rainbow, let it go,” Flurry sighed. “Take it out on Wind Rider.”
The reminder of her enemy refocused the pegasus’ angry magenta eyes. She glared up at Flurry, then transferred the expression to the guards in the lobby. Flurry’s remaining group trickled in, forming another cordon around the Princess. The lobby was tightly packed, and the Reich soldiers were nervous.
All of them stared at her. She stared back with a blank expression, trying to see which ones looked angry. Most of the soldiers looked a bit terrified or nonplussed. Very few met her eyes. The older griffons hid it better. One soldier, an older gray male, was clutching his rifle tight enough for his talons to turn white. He glared at her with a twitching beak.
“You do not like me,” Flurry observed in Herzlander, addressing him. Her horn glowed softly as she sensed his rifle. He hadn’t fired it beyond the training yard.
“My brother was aboard the Antonius,” the griffon spat.
“Should I know that name?” Flurry asked.
“It was a heavy cruiser you sank,” he accused.
“I don’t remember it,” Flurry shrugged. “I am sorry for your brother’s death.”
His eyes narrowed with rage. He clenched his beak in a feral gesture of aggression and put a talon on the trigger. Nightshade moved her hoof to her slung rifle while the other ponies tensed. A few other griffons moved claws towards their weapons.
The elevator at the end of the lobby dinged. Flurry looked towards it. The griffon moved his rifle, and Flurry’s horn erupted with light.
Field Marshal Elias Bronzetail and two attendants stepped out from the elevator into the lobby. The black and gray Griffon paused mid-step with a raised claw and his attendants froze. They were the only griffons not immobilized by golden magic. The remaining thirty-three Griffons were frozen, claws and talons gripping their guns. Only their eyes could still move, and they flicked about the room with dilated pupils, struggling to free their limbs.
Flurry stood among her ring of guards. Rainbow had raised her metal wing towards the nearest immobile griffon, and leveraged a submachine gun between her hooves. The others had all drawn their weapons or sidearms. Echo and Murky drew hoofblades, stopping just before a pair of griffons. Flurry’s nose dripped with blood.
Elias was wearing a wide-brimmed, brown officer’s cap emblazoned with a golden roaring griffon. He removed it and smoothed out his fur with a claw. “Princess Flurry Heart,” he greeted and dipped his head, recovering from the sight quickly. His two attendants remained frozen with fear, not magic.
“Colonel Elias. Is it Field Marshal now?” Flurry asked in Herzlander. “I heard you were promoted.”
“It is indeed,” Bronzetail replied. “You have learned Herzlander.”
“I had many opportunities from the Kaiser’s refugees,” Flurry responded. She nodded and a few droplets of blood splattered onto the floor. "I'm glad to see you."
Bronzetail’s eyes swept over his immobile griffons. “Is there a problem?”
“I would like to prevent your griffons from doing something stupid,” Flurry answered. “Particularly the one aiming a rifle at my head. I fear I killed his brother.”
Bronzetail held out a claw expectantly, then glared at the attendant to his left. The griffon felt the stare and quickly surrendered a sheet of paper. “I speak with the Kaiser’s voice in these matters,” Bronzetail remarked. “The Kaiser has declared that the Princess of Ponies is under his wing. A strike against her is a strike against himself.”
The griffon stalked across the room, still holding the piece of paper. He wore a gray, fur-lined winter coat, and reached into it with his free claw. Rainbow aimed her submachine gun at him. Bronzetail slowly retrieved a cloth and offered it towards Flurry. “For your muzzle, Princess,” he clarified.
“Stand down, everypony,” Flurry ordered in Equestrian. She snorted and licked her upper lip, tasting blood. Rainbow aimed the barrel away from Bronzetail, but still held the gun at the ready. Flurry shook her head at the cloth. “I’m going to have a nosebleed as long as I maintain the spell,” she admitted.
Bronzetail tucked the cloth back into his coat and walked around the cordon of ponies until he reached the gray griffon. He traced the rifle barrel to Flurry’s head, then looked back at the immobile soldier. “His talon is on the trigger,” he commented. “I believe he intended to kill you.”
Flurry looked around at the other griffons. They had grabbed their weapons, but none had readied them in time to aim at her group. All of them were straining against her spell, and it was making her horn throb from the effort. Her magic was still weak.
“What do you want done with him?” Bronzetail asked.
“That’s your decision,” Flurry replied.
Bronzetail clacked his beak. “Please, step into the elevator and out of the line of fire. You cannot take your entire escort up at once, I’m afraid. They could use the stairwell, or wait for the elevator. We have some rooms set aside.”
“Murky, Echo, Nightshade, Rainbow,” Flurry ordered. The bat ponies and Rainbow trotted towards the two attendants and flanked the alicorn. The other guards advanced and fanned out around the elevator. “I’ll drop the spell.”
“In a moment,” Bronzetail requested politely. He stared at the immobile guard with narrowed eyes, then drew a pistol and shot him through the chin in one smooth motion. Flurry’s magic prevented the body from crumpling to the ground.
The ponies flinched. The two attendants did not.
“You may drop your spell, Princess,” Bronzetail announced in Herzlander.
“I did not ask you to kill him,” Flurry stated.
“He threatened a guest of the Kaiser,” Bronzetail replied. “And I ordered that you be welcomed to Manehattan. He disobeyed me, which earned his imprisonment and dismissal, and he disobeyed the Kaiser, which earned his death. I should order them all imprisoned, but I am short-staffed.”
Flurry released her spell. The guards collapsed, clutching their weapons and heaving deep breaths. Her magical grip had barely allowed them to breathe. A few took their claws off their weapons, fluctuating between staring at Bronzetail and Flurry fearfully.
Bronzetail holstered his pistol and walked back to the elevator unflinchingly. “Welcome to Manehattan, Princess,” he said in clipped Equestrian. “Have you been here before?”
“It’s my first time,” Flurry said.
“You expect us to be impressed by that?” Rainbow nickered at Bronzetail as he gestured for her to move aside to reach the control panel.
“You were a Wonderbolt. Surely, you understand discipline.” Bronzetail reached over her prosthetic to press a button for one of the upper floors. The doors closed.
“That’s not discipline,” Rainbow retorted.
“The troops I have here are green, fresh conscripts from the Reich,” Bronzetail answered. “The Kaiser lowered the tour of service for conscripts at his coronation, but did not end the practice. Most of them guard the border to the Riverlands, but we needed more troops than expected to garrison the liberated territory.”
“That’s very honest of you,” Flurry commented.
“I was promoted for my honesty,” Bronzetail answered in Herzlander. “I should be at the front with the tanks, instead I play at governing your lands.”
“You are governing them from Lilac’s command center,” Flurry said lowly.
“It is the best building to do so,” Bronzetail answered. “The Changelings chose it for a reason.”
“What is efficient is not always what is smart,” Flurry said. “Where’s Wind Rider?”
Bronzetail paused, then pushed a button for another floor. “He’s in the building, aiding in our patrols of the boroughs.”
“How many ponies does he command?”
“Pegasi,” Bronzetail corrected with a frown. “Wind Rider’s militia are exclusively pegasi, nearly three thousand. He was eager to offer help to his fellow ‘superior’ feathered beings upon our landfall.”
“You believe griffons are better than ponies?” Flurry asked bluntly.
“We are predators and you are prey,” Bronzetail deflected. “That claim has been made over the years.”
“Griffons claim their Gods raise the sun and moon.”
“They do,” Bronzetail answered with a hint of anger.
Flurry let that go. “They also claim I am Maar’s Daughter, do they not?”
Bronzetail couldn’t extend his wings in the cramped elevator, so he simply squawked. “You should not say that!”
Flurry laughed, high-pitched and with a hint of a giggle. “Does that frighten you?”
“Invoking…” Bronzetail hesitated.
“Maar,” Flurry supplied.
“It brings disaster. He is a wicked, evil thing.”
“I am sure many griffons say I am wicked and evil as well,” Flurry muttered. “Do you have a list of Wind Rider’s militia?”
Bronzetail turned to an attendant, who nodded fearfully. “We do.”
“Do you have rope?”
“Yes?” Bronzetail answered hesitantly.
Flurry’s response was cut off by the elevator dinging. The doors opened to a floor staffed by a mix of pegasi and griffons. "Nightshade, bring everypony up to this floor," Flurry ordered, then stepped out, eying the black-uniformed ponies with a snarl. There were far fewer of them than griffons, mostly sitting at desks next to maps and piles of papers, and eating an early dinner.
They were eating salads in winter.
Flurry stomped up to a green pegasus with a buzz cut. “Wind Rider?” she asked.
The mare looked up from her salad, annoyed, then registered the tall, angry alicorn leering down at her. Her mouth fell open and no sound emerged. Flurry stepped over to another desk, knocking scattered papers aside. “Wind Rider,” she growled. The stallion at the desk squeaked.
“Princess!” an older stallion exclaimed with a deep, pleasant baritone. A blue pegasus wearing a black military jacket with a swept-back gray mane swaggered across the office floor. He stopped several hooves from Flurry and bowed. It was a cheap bow, partially preformed with bent forelegs. He stood up with a grin. “It is so good to see you!”
“Wind Rider,” Flurry stated.
“I am honored, Princess, that you know my name,” Wind Rider said back, dipping his head. Bronzetail walked up beside the Princess. “Marshal,” Wind Rider said in halting Herzlander, “you never told me the Princess was visiting.”
“We weren’t expecting her so quickly,” Bronzetail answered.
“I am signing a ceasefire with the Reich,” Flurry added.
“Good, Princess,” Wind Rider said happily. “I heard you fought them in the north, but it is so much better to fight with our feathered friends.”
“You had no problem serving the Changelings,” Flurry said neutrally.
“Equestria was gone, Princess,” Wind Rider said with a hint of regret. “Forgive me for skepticism, but who would have believed Cadance’s little filly could do so much. I remember showing off for her coronation in Canterlot, long before you were born.” Wind Rider smiled warmly at her, ignoring the patches of fuzz on her muzzle and bloody nose. “You have your mother’s looks.”
Rainbow trotted up beside Flurry. Impressively, Wind Rider didn’t even flinch, but still maintained an easy grin. “Hello, Rainbow Dash.”
“Still think I’m not a real Pegasus?” Rainbow asked.
Wind Rider’s eyes flicked to her wing. “Well, one does need two wings to fly.”
Rainbow stepped forward, but Flurry extended her wing and blocked the mare from approaching Wind Rider. Flurry looked over her shoulder as more of her guards exited another elevator. She shook her head down to Rainbow.
“You served Governor Lilac, helping her oppress your fellow ponies,” Flurry said.
“Everything I did, I did for my pegasi, Princess,” Wind Rider said softly. “Lilac ordered horrible things. If I did not do them, Lilac would’ve ordered my militia shot.”
“You were always scum,” Rainbow snarled.
“Starlight and Trixie understood what I did was for the greater good,” Wind Rider answered. “They arrested me, not killed me in the street. A trial would’ve proven my innocence.”
“What about bat ponies?” Flurry asked, looking towards Murky and Echo. They had unslung their rifles, waiting by the elevator with the others. Over half her guards had arrived. They must also be flying up the stairwell.
“What about them?” Wind Rider asked, confused.
“Do you like them? I don’t see any bat ponies in your officers here.”
“Integration failed for years because they tried to be pegasi,” Wind Rider said, as if lecturing a foal. “It’s best to think of them as a separate tribe. I’m sure most of them would say the same.”
“Is that why?” Flurry said flippantly.
Wind Rider blinked. “I’m sorry?” he asked.
“Is that why you’ve helped two invading armies oppress my subjects? For the pegasi?” Flurry clarified.
“Princess,” Wind Rider blinked, shocked. “I am here to offer my support. I don’t know what lies Rainbow Dash has told you, but I have always done my best to help pegasi.”
Flurry prevented Rainbow from lunging forward by wrapping her tired wing around the shorter mare. “Stop, Rainbow.” She glanced over her shoulder. Her guards were assembled around the elevators. Nightshade met her stare and readied her rifle.
Flurry turned and gave Bronzetail a side-eye. “You seriously wanted his help?” she asked in Herzlander with a crinkled muzzle.
“It was not a question of want,” Bronzetail sighed. “It was a question of need. We needed somepony who could control the city.”
“Doesn’t look like it worked,” Flurry replied.
“Princess, I know what I have done is…distasteful,” Wind Rider said in rough Herzlander, then switched to Equestrian. “I have done my best to preserve pegasus culture in the face of the Hegemony. That is a noble goal, is it not? I freely offer my support to help you.”
“You offer something I should have by right.” Flurry flared her wings out. Her wingspan was twice as large as Wind Rider’s. “Will you serve me, as you served Celestia?”
“I…” Wind Rider looked to Bronzetail. “I have sworn myself to the Kaiser.”
Bronzetail unclipped his pistol from his wing holster, eying Flurry’s slight snarl. “I speak for the Kaiser. You are released from your oath, and he retracts his wings.”
Wind Rider swallowed. “Of course, Princess.” He bowed again, this time in complete supplication. “We stand ready.”
“Good.” Flurry nodded to Rainbow. “You will serve me best in death.”
Rainbow stepped forward with a whinny of triumph and swept her metal wing across Wind Rider’s throat as he looked up in shock. Her metal feathers came back coated in blood.
Wind Rider stumbled upright, choking as blood poured down his chest, eyes wide with panic. His wings flared out. Rainbow shoved him back down, stomping a hoof on his wing joints. They broke with audible snaps and his feathers spasmed. He tried to cry out, but only spat blood onto the carpeted floor. Flurry whirled around and seized the green pegasus in her magic, snapping her neck and throwing her from the desk chair. Blood dribbled down the alicorn’s muzzle.
“Kill them all!” she roared. “Kill every pegasus in a black uniform!” She repeated the order in Herzlander.
Bronzetail drew his pistol. “As the Princess commands!” he squawked in Herzlander. He turned and shot a uniformed stallion in the heart. The pegasus slumped over his desk.
The killing was over quickly. Wind Rider’s militia were unarmed in their office, and they were outnumbered three-to-one by the combined griffons and Flurry’s scouts. Most of them died screaming and begging.
Flurry wiped her bloody hooves on the carpeting, walking up to Bronzetail. She snorted more blood from her nose. “I need to shower. My guards need to rest and recover.” The alicorn flumped down in a nearby desk chair, grabbing a bowl with a cold and slightly wilted salad. She shoved her muzzle into it, chewing noisily.
“You could’ve warned me better, Princess,” Bronzetail said sourly. His coat sleeves were speckled with blood. “Given time, this could’ve been done cleanly.”
“You lose anyone?” Flurry mumbled through salad leaves.
"Only my pride." Bronzetail raised a claw. One talon was bent oddly. “A bad grapple, Princess.”
Flurry rolled her eyes, grabbing his claw in a flare of gold magic. She bent the talon back and cast a mending spell. A thin trail of blood streamed from her nose and landed in the salad bowl.
Bronzetail squawked in mild pain, then flexed his talon.
“Try not to use that claw for a bit,” Flurry advised. “The bone takes a few days to mend.” She looked down at the bowl and saw the droplets of blood. She sighed and stuck her muzzle back into the salad regardless.
“Right,” Rainbow sauntered up with a metal wing coated in blood. “No injuries, Princess.”
“Good,” Flurry grunted. She set down the empty bowl. She nearly wiped her muzzle on her uniform, but reconsidered. She turned to Bronzetail. “I’ll take that cloth now.”
Bronzetail blinked, then pulled it out of his jacket and walked over. He held it out in his other, unhurt claw. Flurry accepted it, wiped her muzzle, and offered it back.
“Keep it,” Bronzetail grimaced.
“You had a list,” Flurry reminded him. “I want everypony on that list killed, unless they’re under sixteen. Did that idiot have some youth organization?”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Wonderful,” Flurry groaned. “Probably rabid pegasus supremacists. We have enough orphans. Arrest them, then. Make it quick. Kill them if they resist.” She waved a hoof about the office. “String the bodies up from lampposts in the boroughs. Leave the uniforms on.”
“The Kaiser has forbid such displays. Griffons murdering ponies encourages reprisal.”
“It’s a display from the Princess,” Flurry replied. “I am not here to forgive and forget. Wind Rider and his scum made good, honest ponies bleed and suffer to sit in a high tower. Grover said you’re facing attacks? You think allying with Wind Rider helped?”
Bronzetail sighed. “Our ships are bombed at the dockyard. Crates go missing at night. And there are resistance cells using the old tunnels. They’ve been there since the failed uprising, striking my unprepared garrisons and retreating.”
“You were here for that.”
“Briefly.” Bronzetail waved a claw. “One shipment of tanks. Manehattan was already buckling under the weight of the rebellion, long before Canterlot. More ponies were protecting collaborators and Changeling prisoners than at the front.”
They were always going to lose. “Thank you for trying.”
“Of course, Princess,” Bronzetail replied quietly. “More thanks to the Kaiser. There was a great feud with Archon Eros for nearly a week. Benito’s guards barred the Archon from entering the palace for several days.”
“What?”
Bronzetail shrugged. “It was all swept under swift currents, of course. We were in the middle of a war with Wingbardy.”
Flurry stood and stretched her aching wings. “You said we had rooms set aside.” She stepped over several dead pegasi to reach the elevator.
“I, uh, might know somepony,” Rainbow interrupted.
Flurry closed her eyes. “Where is the Element of Generosity being held?” she asked Bronzetail in Equestrian.
“Manehattan Penitentiary,” Bronzetail answered. “We have a collection of collaborators and captured partisans. I’m wasting valuable griffonpower guarding them.”
“Somepony else,” Rainbow continued. She fluttered her wings in agitation and looked away. “I was in Manehattan for a while, after my wing got sliced off. Lemme take a look around the boroughs.”
“I’m going to go with you,” Flurry said.
“If it’s who I think that’s in charge of the resistance here, I’d prefer if you didn’t,” Rainbow admitted. “Price was always, uh, intense. Lemme set up a meeting first.”
“Fine, stay safe. Murky, Echo, Nightshade, with me. Everypony else, help string up the dead, then get some rest.” Flurry stepped into the elevator with Bronzetail.
Rainbow saluted with her bloody metal wing and stomped her hoof on the carpet three times. The others echoed the stomp. The doors slid shut.
Bronzetail glanced at her reflection in the elevator doors. “You could have warned me you intended to kill him right there, Princess.”
“You didn’t see that coming?” Flurry chuckled. “I broke into your hotel room, remember?”
“It haunts my nights,” Bronzetail replied. “I had hoped age might temper you.”
“Maar’s Daughter,” Flurry laughed, then laughed again at his uncomfortable expression. “Grover said I killed you during the landings in Nouveau Aquila.”
“I was not present. I have been trapped in Manehattan for months.”
“Not enjoying your promotion?” Flurry asked. “You should speak with Josette. I named her governor and I think she hates me.”
“My first command as Field Marshal was sending tanks through Griffenheim Square,” Bronzetail answered sullenly. He looked down at a medal on his chest and flicked it with a claw.
Flurry stared at her reflection in the elevator doors. She still had flecks of blood on her muzzle, and her cap was slightly askew. “You did that?”
“I did what the Kaiser commanded,” Bronzetail whispered. He looked at her reflection in the metal.
Flurry’s icy eyes stared back. “Trimmel said the same thing, just before I killed him.”
The doors opened and Flurry stepped out of the elevator with the siblings. This floor was once offices, but had been converted to sleeping quarters and private rooms. The cubicle walls were set around folded-out beds and ice chests. Flurry glanced around, seeing no one.
“This floor was set aside for your use, Princess,” Bronzetail said. He stayed in the elevator. “We can make a radio address in a few hours. The station is in the building. I speak with the Kaiser’s voice, today.”
Flurry nodded absently.
The elevator doors began to shut, but Bronzetail held them open with a claw. He opened and closed his beak a few times. “I prefer fighting an enemy that can shoot back, Princess,” he finally said in Herzlander. He let the doors close.
Flurry Heart wondered if he was talking about her or Grover.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Nothing happened in Tiananmen Square.
11418943
Nothing must've happened, because I spelled Bronzetail wrong. Thanks.
Pegasi supremacism squashed in only a few minutes…just remember, unicorns are superior to all.
I wonder how Flurry will handle with everyone who doesn't like her alliance with Grover.
The Maar's Daughter has brought nothing but brutal deaths to her enemies once again. The Princess Of Rope will force those who oppose her, by making them fear the Alicorn Of Death. All hail the Princess of Hope, the Miracle of the North!
I see that Flurry liked the nickname of the princess of the ropes.
11419193
Princess Of Hope? More like, Princess Of Rope, am I right?
Thus to all Quislings the fate they deserve. Now I'm wondering if this Price that Rainbow is meeting is based off of a certain Captain we all know and love.
11419472
He's in the Equestrian Liberation Front events! Duty Price, "not Celestia's best little pony..."
11419093
She's got too many nicknames.
Flurry Heart's only 'official' titles are "The Princess of Ponies, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, and Princess of the Principality of Equestria." (Note "The" which implies only one Princess. She made the minor title that every alicorn has her major claim.)
Cadance's titles were "The Princess of Love, the Princess of the Crystal Empire, and Princess of Ponies."
Flurry hasn't claimed a domain, nor is she interested in doing so. Ponies have given her "Hope." She's...not convinced that's accurate.
11419515
If there's a ponified Captain Price in this universe, there's definitely a ponified Soap and Ghost in there too.
Call Of Friendship: Magic Warfare
Day of the rope is coming for pony racists
griffon equivelant of
?
I've never understood racial supremacists of any sort. The whole concept is as ridiculous as it is self-defeating.
But here we have a guy who unironically serves two sets of conquerors full of people who think HE'S inferior, and he never twigs to it.