The Princess and the Kaiser

by UnknownError

Part Sixty-Five

Rainbow Dash glided over the Everfree at a surprisingly slow pace. For once, Flurry had no trouble keeping up with the pegasus. Rainbow’s mohawk swayed in the wind. The mare scanned over the trees with her goggles, but flew straight in one direction from the castle.

Spike and Gallus lingered behind them; the dragon had elected to grab a heavy machine gun just to be safe. The weight didn’t encumber him at all. Gallus was doubtlessly armed with a pistol under his black long coat, but Flurry had never seen him with a firearm.

Flurry Heart nibbled on her lip. The sun had set an hour ago, and the Everfree was dark. Her ears prickled at the sounds of distant tanks crunching through the foliage. A few beams and soft lights illuminated the prospective trails below them. Griffon challenges rang out from the ground at the four fliers, and Gallus occasionally shouted down a counter-sign at the Reich scouts. No one tried to take a pot-shot at the group.

The Castle of the Two Sisters soon appeared out of the gloomy forest, with a few lights on the ground level, but Rainbow banked away from it. Flurry looked over her shoulder at Spike. The dragon jerked his head forward, indicating to trust Rainbow's direction. Where are we going?

Rainbow finally stopped and pumped a hoof. “Down here,” she said, motioning to a thick canopy of branches. She carefully landed on a branch and began shimming through them, using her metal wing to hack a larger opening. Flurry and Gallus traded an uncertain look.

“Wait,” Spike called out to Flurry. “I’ll make a hole.” The dragon folded his wings and slammed through the treetops, breaking through several branches. He landed out of sight, and a rumbling groan echoed back up to the alicorn and the griffon peering through the hole.

Flurry slowly drifted down with erratic flaps. Spike was sitting at the base of a tree, clawing sap off his scales. Gallus landed beside her. “You alright?” he asked the dragon.

“Fine,” Spike grumbled. He snorted a jet of flame onto his arm, igniting the sap. He held his flaming arm up and looked around with the makeshift torch.

Flurry looked at the trees, then to Rainbow Dash. “We’re pretty close to the castle,” she began.

Rainbow nodded and began walking.

The alicorn chewed on her cheek for a moment. “I’m sure she would’ve been spotted.”

“I’m not here for her,” Rainbow said quietly. “Come on.”

“Why did you want me to come?” Gallus asked. “I distinctly remember passing Professor Dash’s Awesome Class.”

“You’ve been where we're going before,” Spike answered. “You want to go back to Fizzlepop and Limestone?”

“Good point,” Gallus conceded, then followed on paws and claws. “But I don’t remember wandering through the forest.”

“It’s not about the forest,” Rainbow called back from somewhere ahead. “Found it.”

Flurry summoned a shield in front of her to push through the low branches; she stopped beside Rainbow and stared down into a gorge. Stairs had been carved into the rockface, leading to the bottom.

The pegasus pulled her flight goggles down with a hoof and left them around her neck. “Surprised me the bugs never found this place,” she sighed.

Flurry blinked. “Where are we?”

“You’ve never been here,” Rainbow shrugged her wing. “It was in the Friendship Journal.”

Flurry thought about it and began to laugh. “The Mirror Pool, right?”

“Nah,” Rainbow denied. “We collapsed that cave with a hunk of explosives. Last thing anypony needed was two versions of Chrysalis.”

“They would have killed each other.”

Rainbow considered it, and chuckled softly. “True.”

Spike and Gallus followed Flurry’s path. “I figured you were heading here,” the dragon commented.

Gallus’ eyes narrowed at the gorge. His wings sagged. “Come on, really?”

“What?” Flurry asked over her left wing.

Gallus shook his head. “You could’ve gotten Sandbar for this,” he said to Rainbow.

“Flying makes better time,” Rainbow replied.

“What?” Flurry repeated. She looked between the other three. “What’s so important about this place?”

Rainbow smirked and carefully trotted down the stairs. Flurry looked to the open sky. “We couldn’t have flown directly here?” she scoffed.

“I don’t wanna be followed,” Rainbow answered. "Better to keep this place forgotten."

Rainbow, Flurry, Gallus, and Spike descended the roughly carved stairs into the gorge below. Vines had grown over most of the rocky outcroppings and covered the ground. They carefully hopped over them with flapping wings. Rainbow led them to a small crack in the side of a weathered outcrop.

“Huh,” Rainbow hummed. “Smaller entrance.”

“Not a bad thing,” Spike commented.

“No,” Rainbow shook her head, “but I don’t remember the ELF trying to collapse the cave, do you?”

“Could’ve been a bombing run,” Spike offered. He craned his neck to look at the top of the gorge. "Doesn't look disturbed, though."

“Please,” Flurry pleaded, “can someone tell me why we’re here?”

Spike flourished his smoldering claw at the cave entrance. “The Tree of Harmony awaits. The Changelings could never find it.”

“Do you blame them?” Gallus retorted, flicking a claw at the opening in imitation.

Flurry slowly turned her head back to the cave entrance. Gray rocks had split open vertically to form the mouth of the cave. She wrinkled her nose. It was damp and smelled a bit musty. A thin trickle of water leaked from somewhere inside the cave to the mouth, spilling down into the ravine.

“Really?” Flurry deadpanned.

“What?” Spike asked back. He hefted the machinegun and shook his claw.

“This isn’t a prank?” Flurry questioned.

“I’m not in the mood for pranks,” Rainbow muttered. She pulled a flashlight out and clicked it on. The crystal inside glowed bright blue; the pegasus affixed the light to a shoulder-strap on her flight jacket before heading inside the cave.

Flurry exhaled and followed her. “I’m sorry, Rainbow,” she called ahead. Rainbow’s tail bobbed in acknowledgement, but the mare kept the flashlight ahead.

“Hey,” Gallus interrupted from behind Flurry. “So, uh, things get really weird in here.”

“Weird how?” Flurry questioned. Her horn glowed as she provided a ball of light just above the tip of her horn.

“Just stay together,” Spike rumbled. He walked backwards, staring at the cave entrance. His head bumped a stalactite and broke the tip off. The dragon grumbled and turned back around. “We’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Gallus squawked. “Just don’t be surprised if you see stuff.” The blue griffon stopped dead at a patch of light from an opening in the ceiling. Flurry had stepped through it without issue, but Gallus reached out a shaking claw and waved his talons through the light. He looked around warily.

Flurry stared with him at the cave walls. “What?”

“Stupid tree,” Gallus scoffed. “If you see Grover the Great or something, call out.”

“What about Princess Amore?” Flurry whickered. Gallus didn’t hear her, too preoccupied with avoiding pools of light.

Despite their wariness, the path was straight. Rainbow’s wings twitched at the head of the group. Flurry’s horn began to tingle a moment later.

“Easier than I expected,” Gallus hummed. Rainbow dipped around an alcove, then stopped with flared wings.

Flurry Heart squeezed through and halted at the sight ahead. The cavern was massive; the walls glittered with large purple crystals that hummed with inner light. The Tree of Harmony stood proudly in the center of the cavern, made of bright blue crystal. Like the Crystal Heart, Flurry thought. The alicorn could feel the magic saturating the room. Her horn dimmed; the tree itself glowed bright enough to light the cave.

The tree stretched tall with five major crystal branches. Each branch had its own gem embedded inside. Flurry knew the shapes without truly looking at them: a gem, a lightning bolt, a butterfly, an apple, and a balloon. The gems thrummed with energy that flowed up and down the tree, pulsing like a heartbeat. The roots of the tree curled through the ground, carving into the cavern walls and disappearing down other paths.

Gallus stopped beside Flurry, blinking in awe. Spike set the machine gun down and shoved his way through the narrow passage. “I miss the old entrance,” he grumbled.

Rainbow walked ahead, hopping onto one of the large, exposed roots. Like the tree, the blue crystal pulsed with energy. “The Tree of Harmony,” Rainbow announced. “Planted by the Pillars of Harmony long before there was ever an Equestria, in the hopes of providing guidance to the generations to come.”

Flurry heard the spite in the mare’s voice.

“Celestia and Luna found it during Discord’s reign,” Rainbow continued. “It gave them the weapon to defeat him, and they built their castle right up there.” She jabbed her metal wing towards the ceiling.

Rainbow snorted. “Of course they did, look at it.” She jabbed her wing at the trunk. "Chosen by the Tree of Harmony, they reunified Equestria after Discord's madness."

A sun and moon were carved into the trunk along the sides, offset by a large star in the center of the tree. “Five and one,” Rainbow stated. “The star that the others revolve around.”

“Twilight’s mark,” Flurry provided in a near-whisper.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed. She blinked her eyes heavily. “Do you believe in destiny, Princess?”

“Destiny is a choice,” Flurry answered.

Rainbow returned to looking up at the tree. “Maybe. Your mark isn’t here. Or your mother’s. Somepony is going to say you don't deserve Equestria because of a tree, you know.”

“There isn’t a dragon on that tree either,” Spike pointed out, “but it still gave me a throne.”

“Twilight’s castle!” Rainbow laughed bitterly. “We gave up our Elements to save this thing from the Plunder Vines, and it gave us a stupid castle.”

“An indestructible castle,” Flurry retorted.

Rainbow shook her head. “We should’ve killed that idiot Discord, or better yet, the Tree should have.” She glared up at it.

“That’s not how the Elements work,” Spike answered.

“Would’ve been a lot easier if we could’ve just blasted the bugs,” Rainbow countered. She pitched her voice higher in an imitation of Twilight. “We can’t just ‘Friendship Laser’ them! The Elements are a balance with harmony, not destruction!”

Spike didn't rise to the provocation. “What did you hope to find here?” he asked softly.

Rainbow took a deep breath and walked to the trunk. “I hoped that it was broken, actually,” she said longingly and laid a hoof on the crystal. “At least the Crystal Heart broke from the strain.” Her eyes narrowed. “It looks pretty healthy, doesn’t it?”

“Rainbow…” Flurry started.

“It does, doesn’t it, Princess?” Rainbow shouted over her shoulder. “It looks just fine, all hidden away down here!”

Rainbow Dash reared up and sliced her sharp feathers against the trunk. There was a flash of sparks and a keening screech. When the pegasus stepped back, there were three gouges in the crystal, just below the sun and moon.

"Have a scar," she said defiantly. Her muzzle reflected in the crystal; the scar running across her eye and down her muzzle stretched as the mare bared her teeth.

“Rainbow!” Spike roared. He pushed his way past Flurry and Gallus. “Enough!”

“I agree!” Rainbow shouted back. “It is enough! Enough of us have died while this useless thing sits down here! The Hegemony is worse than Discord and Sombra and Tirek combined! What’s it doing?”

“What do you want to do?” Spike scoffed. “Blow the thing up and take the Elements back? By force? You think that will work?” He jerked Rainbow Dash away from the trunk. “Celestia banished Luna and it ruined them for a thousand years!”

“Worth a try!” Rainbow snarled. She looked to Gallus. “It talked to you, didn’t it!?”

Gallus hesitated.

“It never talked to any of us!” Rainbow continued ranting. “Not before the war, during the war, during the uprising, anything!”

“Why does it matter?” Spike snorted a plume of smoke. “So you could swear at it?”

“Because it’s wrong!” Rainbow spat into his muzzle. She twisted herself free from the dragon and hovered in front of the star in the center of the tree. “That’s wrong!” she screamed and pointed her foreleg at the star.

“What?” Flurry huffed, confused. “That Twilight got to be a Princess?”

“She deserved it,” Rainbow answered with wild magenta eyes.

“I don’t understand,” Flurry shook her head.

“It wasn’t her,” Rainbow snarled. “It was me. I was the one that brought us together. I did the Sonic Rainboom on the day we all got our marks. Destiny. I’m the fulcrum.”

Spike, Flurry, and Gallus stared up at her.

“I’m the one that brought us all together,” Rainbow panted, “and I can’t do it again.” She landed on four hooves and faced away from the others. “It was our job to save Equestria.”

Spike’s angry expression collapsed into grief. “Rainbow, it wasn’t just up to you.”

“It should’ve been us,” Rainbow scoffed. “Call it pride. Or duty. We should’ve been able to save Equestria from this. We did it before.”

“The six of you couldn’t stand down a horde of panzers,” Gallus tried.

"We faced worse," Rainbow scoffed. She turned to Spike. “Does Rarity talk to you?”

Spike plucked at his stained monogramed shirt with a claw. “A little,” he said vaguely.

“I’ve written her,” Rainbow mumbled. “She doesn’t write back. She’s up in the Crystal City, acting like she’s sworn herself to Nightmare Moon reborn.”

“Is that what you argued about in Manehattan?” Flurry asked. “That I’m like Luna?”

“She’d probably be happier if you were possessed by a Nightmare,” Rainbow nickered. “To her, it would give you an excuse. That prissy mare doesn’t understand war.”

“That’s unfair,” Spike protested.

“What she’d say to you?” Rainbow asked aggressively.

Spike looked to the side. “Rarity’s always believed the best in ponies,” he deflected. “What’s happened to Equestria is horrible. You can’t blame her for trying to hold onto the light.”

Rainbow shook her head. “I can’t even find my best friend. AJ’s apple is still up on that tree, despite everything that’s happened. What the hay was the point of doing any of it? We went on those dumb missions and spread friendship or whatever, and now it’s all gone. The world’s falling apart.”

“That isn’t your fault,” Flurry offered.

“Feels like it is,” Rainbow muttered. “How’s Griffonstone, Gallus? We spread friendship there. Did it help repel the Reich?”

Gallus rubbed a claw on his coat and didn’t respond.

“Should’ve just sworn myself to Nightmare Moon and joined her Shadowbolts that night,” Rainbow spat. “Maybe she’d have done better against Chrysalis.”

“Considering her performance that night…” Flurry trailed off.

Rainbow scowled at the pink alicorn, then burst out laughing. Flurry smiled softly and waited with Spike and Gallus. Once she recovered, Rainbow repeated her question: “Do you believe in destiny?”

“I don’t know,” Flurry answered honestly. “I don’t think about it.”

“You sound like me,” Rainbow snorted. “Except I believe in it. Only answer for how all of us got our marks that day, then met again in Ponyville.”

“Unless Celestia manipulated events to save her sister,” Gallus interrupted.

The other three stared at him.

“What?” Gallus sat on his haunches and crossed his arms. “Don’t tell me you never considered it. She had a thousand years to prepare. She certainly whitewashed Nightmare Moon's rebellion. Look at Chiropterra."

“Well, I am grateful for the Rainboom,” Spike stated, refocusing the conversation. “Helped hatch my egg.”

“I’ve seen enough weird garbage in Equestria to believe anything,” Gallus shrugged.

“You think Grover’s chosen by the Gods?” Flurry asked.

Gallus looked at the tree with Celestia, Luna, and Twilight’s cutie marks, then back to Flurry Heart with half-lidded eyes. His blue eyes flicked up to her horn, then her wings. “Sure. Being chosen by Boreas is no worse than being chosen by a tree.”

“You think Boreas brings the day and night?” Spike asked ruefully.

“As a representative of the Kaiser’s court,” Gallus said formally with flared wings, “we hold that the Trinity raise the sun and moon, not alicorns.” His mirthful eyes betrayed his actual opinion.

“You’ve seen her do it,” Rainbow coughed into a hoof with a smirk.

Gallus rolled his eyes. “She obviously used large mirrors installed on Mount Canterhorn to achieve the illusion of control. Every griffon has known that for centuries.”

“But not illusion magic,” Spike laughed.

“Her abilities are vastly overstated,” Gallus quipped. “Why else would her participation in the River Games be a fair show of sport?”

Spike and Rainbow stopped laughing. Flurry ground her teeth and looked away. Gallus rubbed his beak with a claw. “I am sorry,” he apologized. “That was in poor taste, considering present company. Griffons do believe that, however.”

“It’s poor taste for an alicorn to even pretend,” Flurry retorted. She scuffed a hoof against an exposed root, chafing her already worn boot.

“You don’t know about destiny, Princess?” Rainbow asked. She sat down on a curl in the crystal tree root and let her wings dangle. “You were born an alicorn.”

“I’ve heard a thousand reasons why,” Flurry dismissed. “Because of the Crystal Heart, because of my mother, because I’m a reincarnation of Amore…”

“What?” Gallus squawked.

“That one’s not as popular,” Spike explained. “Most of the crystal ponies think it’s because of your connection to the Crystal Heart,” he said to Flurry. “And your mother was an alicorn. That’s good enough an explanation for the rest of the world.”

“You really think that Celestia and Luna never got busy in over a thousand years?” Rainbow whinnied. “Come on, Spike. The Royal Guard detachment stationed at Canterlot Castle was all stallions for several centuries.”

Spike huffed a small flame. “I am not speculating on their love lives. They’ve never acknowledged a foal. Blueblood was descended from Platinum’s line.”

“What’s your theory?” Flurry asked the pegasus.

Rainbow bit her lower lip. “The day before you were born, Chrysalis announced the construction of her big tower in Vesalipolis. It was the start of her industrialization program. All the factories and industry began from that day.”

You were born on the eve of war. Flurry’s breath hitched.

“I don’t remember hearing about that,” Spike replied. “You sure? You probably got the date wrong.”

“The first natural-born alicorn in history happened the next day,” Rainbow answered. “You think anypony in Equestria cared what Chrysalis was doing? It didn’t seem important.”

“How do you remember that?” Gallus asked.

“I wasn’t paying attention at the time,” Rainbow pursed her lips. “Found a newspaper years later, in Manehattan Library. We were burning parts of the old archives for warmth, just before the uprising. Lilac cut the power.” She looked to the side. “Twilight woulda been furious.”

“Is that what you think?” Flurry found her voice. “I was born for this?”

“No,” Spike immediately said. “You were not born for war.”

“One weapon failed.” Rainbow pointed her wing at the tree. “We got another.”

“Your Princess is not a weapon,” Spike growled.

“That’s not what I meant,” Rainbow defended herself. “All of us found each other in Ponyville after the Rainboom, years later. We never put it together until then. Destiny, what else makes sense?”

“Anything else!”

Flurry Heart walked toward the tree with a glowing horn. Gallus followed her quietly while Spike and Rainbow argued. “Princess?” the griffon requested. Flurry regarded him. “It did speak to us,” he said softly. “We faced tests.”

“I’ve already done that,” the alicorn shrugged both wings. “I’m not afraid of ghosts of yore.”

Gallus paused and blinked owlishly.

Flurry extended her magic, reaching out across the cavern. Her horn seemed to rattle against her skull from the waves of energy exuding from the tree. Behind her, Spike and Rainbow ceased arguing and ran to intercept the alicorn.

She felt Gallus’ sidearm in the holster under his right wing, fired at a range and nowhere else. The newest model available in Herzland. It’s a gift from the Kaiser, and he never wants to use it.

She felt Rainbow’s wing, with sharp metal feathers. She’s gotten very good at combat with it, but she knows it will never truly replace her flesh and bone. It carries a weariness under the pride.

She felt Spike’s heavy machinegun. Plucked from the armory, stolen from the Changelings. It’s traded hooves half a dozen times over the war.

And she felt nothing else.

Flurry opened her eyes just as Spike and Rainbow rushed up to her. Her horn dimmed. “Worried?” she asked with a wry grin; her tail flicked under the flank skirt. It barely had enough of a tuft to stick out.

“Last time you stalked off towards some ancient artifact, you nearly died,” Spike answered. He scrubbed a claw against her short, ragged mane. Flurry batted his arm away with a wing.

“I feel like I’m missing some context here,” Gallus commented.

“Why do you think she looked so awful when you met outside Stalliongrad?” Rainbow snorted.

“I assumed the Princess always looks like that.”

“True enough,” Flurry confirmed. She raised a foreleg and sniffed the uniform. Her muzzle wrinkled. Need to wash this again. Hopefully it won’t fall apart.

“Rainbow,” Spike rumbled, “are we done here?”

The pegasus sighed heavily. “I just hoped…” She shook her head. “I dunno. Something. Some answer. We were good enough before.”

“The war isn’t up to just you,” Spike knelt and hugged the rainbow-maned mare. He gave Flurry a severe slit gaze. “Or you,” he added.

Flurry nodded. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow stepped back and sniffled. “Don’t worry about it, Princess.”

Flurry paused. “It’s not a weapon,” she stated.

Rainbow rubbed her nose on her flight jacket. “Huh?”

“It isn’t a weapon,” Flurry repeated. “The Tree, or the Elements.”

“They blasted Discord pretty good,” Rainbow rolled her eyes with an attempted laugh.

“Then they don’t think of themselves as weapons,” Flurry said definitively.

Spike, Gallus, and Rainbow shared confused grimaces. “What do you mean?” the dragon asked.

“Never mind,” the alicorn sighed. “It’s pretty late, and we have to keep the supply lines moving.”

“Yeah,” Gallus yawned. “Long flight back, and more arguing tomorrow. Looking forward to it.”

“You want a teleport?” Flurry asked. “I can make it back to Twilight’s place. Easy.”

“You good for it?” Rainbow asked back. “Twilight’s teleports always made me a bit queasy.”

Flurry lit her horn and felt the magic in the air of the cavern. “I got it,” she said confidently. “Get close. We’ll pop in above the map.”

Spike shuffled behind her and knelt down. Gallus and Rainbow crouched alongside the tall alicorn. The griffon flinched at the blazing horn. Flurry took a deep breath, then turned and stared at the Tree of Harmony. She focused on the star in the center.

I don’t think I’m what you ever wanted, but I’m the one here. Say something now.

The Tree of Harmony was silent; the only sound was Flurry’s crackling magic around her horn.

She smiled sadly. When I turned away from my mother, she didn’t say anything either.

Flurry Heart turned away and vanished in a sparkle of golden magic.

Comments

[SirCarrot]

Harmony magic is just the anathema to chaos magic, or tyrik, who wanted to get rid of magic all together. So it’s only going to act when activated, presumably as a favor, celestia banished discord so the elements helped her against her sister, etc. But for most things, the elements couldn’t give a shit, just my opinion.

[Red_Snuffy]

Saw this at a little before 1:00 AM and thought: SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!!!
…
…
…
So when is the next chapter?

[dragonknight]

11473079
I feel all interpretations are valid. As if the tree wants to be quiet then its up to the reader, and characters to form their own view. But i do favor the Celestia manipulation theory.

[Ruckythunder]

Bye bye harmony,
Hello gunpowder.

[DaLintyMan]

It is worth mentioning that the forces we see the Equestrians call on are interpersonal connections. Love can be consumed as fuel for great feats or by an external actor, for example. So it is a quite comfortable assumption that Harmony is an emergent phenomenon from the emotional/magical gestalt that also provides the power for the various feats of the Elements.

[Iron Comet]

Flurry is the weapon the world needs. Sadly she is still a teenager. A teenage Nuclear Weapon.

[Equestrian Count]

11473783
That is not good.

[Iron Comet]

11474081
For Chrysalis. I fear Flurry will not survive the detonation.