Part Eighty-Four
Flurry Heart stood in front of a wooden door. It was slightly ajar.
The door was a beautiful decorated mahogany, even when emblazoned with Chrysalis’ trident crown. The wood wasn’t very old; the Changelings had replaced the door during the near decade-long occupation of Canterlot. The frame along the bottom was splinted, as was the wood around a brass doorknob. It had been kicked in at one time.
Flurry twisted her helmet to stare along the wall to the right the door. It was peppered with shrapnel and covered in scorch marks. The alicorn had seen enough grenades explode to identity the damage, and a rough line of bullet holes sprawled all the way into the ceiling of the hallway.
Wind whistled from the west in the open windows behind her. The glass had been blown out and swept up, and the hallway was still slightly damp from rainfall that blew in when the fires were contained. There were several bloodstains on the tile floor; they went up and down the hallway in both directions. Some of them were fresher than others.
There were a dozen changelings that she could see, or at least the pieces of nearly a dozen changelings. It was hard to tell. From the smell, the bodies had been left for a few days.
There was a changeling mare, or at least Flurry assumed the body to be a mare, crouched in the neighboring doorframe. Her hooves had been raised in a surrender when she was burned. Or the muscles contracted from the heat to look like that. The scrap of a white coat had been caught in the door and spared the fire.
Flurry swallowed and looked to the door before her again. Her ears twitched.
There was a faint beep and a rhythmic whooshing sound. The alicorn’s mind went back to the long nights with the tube in her throat as the respirator did the breathing for her, after the Crystal Heart. The monitors beeped beside it as well, and Flurry always slept poorly; it was too uncomfortable and exhaustion always took her just before dawn.
The door was ajar.
It would take the simplest knock of one of her armored hooves to open it. Flurry had been standing in place for half an hour. She finally pushed the door open and stood in the doorway.
The room was well-lit, and there was a shape on the bed directly opposite the door. Flurry turned away, back into the hallway, and stared at the burned corpse. The mouth was open in a wail. In her peripherals, nearly blocked by her eye slits, the shape on the bed moved. It rose up and down with the whooshing of the large machine next to the bedframe.
Flurry Heart forced herself to look at her aunt.
There was a purple mare laying atop the covers. It took Flurry several moments to recognize the pony as a mare. Her mane and tail were falling out, her coat was thin and patchy, and her ribs were harshly outlined by her skinny chest. Her chest rose and fell with the whoosh of a tube rammed down her throat. Her head and horn tilted back atop a pillow; a metal probe had been drilled into the mare's horn, and her wings were disheveled and dirty. Most of her feathers had fallen off.
The mare laid on the bed with her legs facing up and tucked against her body. They were skin and bone. The furless patches of skin on her back had developed lesions and bed sores, including a few on her flank. But her cutie mark was still there, that iconic arrangement of stars with a bright purple star in the center. It still shined in defiance of everything.
Flurry traced the wires to the machines crowding the bed, the drips of intravenous lines and the whoosh of the respirator. She couldn’t tell how much of it was meant to hurt her or how much was meant to help. Or if any of it made any difference.
The mare’s chest rose and fell. Her eyes were closed.
Flurry Heart stepped into the room. Her horn glowed and she slid her helmet off, letting it fall to the floor with an impact that cracked the tile. The sharp sound overpowered the whoosh of the respirator and the beep of the heart monitor, but neither changed.
Flurry did not know her mother’s adoptive parents. She did not even know the name of the village Cadance grew up in. Her father was dead, and his parents died with the ELF, fighting to save their daughter. Night Light and Twilight Velvet were one of the innumerable casualties of the last stand; Flurry did not know where they fell, but she knew in her heart they were gone. Twilight Sparkle was the last member of her family.
And Twilight Sparkle, the last Princess of Equestria, laid unmoving except for the whir of machines.
“They said they could help her,” a deep voice said suddenly from behind her.
Flurry turned her head to the right. Spike sat against the wall, on the floor with his arms and tail looped around his legs. The dragon looked somehow smaller as his wings curled around everything. His eyes were closed as well.
Flurry noticed the dried blood and ash around his claws, then more under his mouth.
“They said a lot of things,” Spike said in a lost mutter. “They talked and talked and talked. They had papers and reports and everything. All the progress that they made.”
Flurry said nothing.
“The same paperwork and proof they showed to Chrysalis, so she wouldn’t execute them for failing. She wanted her awake. She wanted her to watch.” Spike’s voice cracked into a snarl crossed with a sob. “Just like they watched.”
The smell from the hallway had entered the room, charred flesh, blood, and ash.
“I know she would have forgiven them,” Spike’s voice lost the heat, “but I don’t care. The day she wakes up and yells at me for it will be the happiest day of my life.”
Flurry looked back to her aunt and simply stood in her pockmarked and scarred armor. She did not cry, and she didn’t know what that said about her. The machine whooshed again and forced Twilight to keep breathing.
“She wasn’t even here, you know,” Spike said suddenly. “We were so sure she was. They sent her out on a train weeks before Starlight ever made it. We never even came close.”
There was a long pause.
“How does it feel to be right?” Spike growled.
Flurry turned back to his slit eyes. “What?” she asked absently.
“How does it feel to be right?” Spike repeated. “About everything?” He bared his fangs in a snarl. “I remember. I remember all your whining about the ELF slowing down, all the complaints, all the foalish screams. You were so sure she was dead,” he spat with a small flame.
The heartbeat monitor beeped.
“She’s not dead,” Flurry denied.
Spike wrenched his eyes from the standing alicorn to the one in the bed. “This isn’t living.”
Flurry did not have a response, so she stayed silent and stared with him.
“You killed Blackpeak, didn’t you?” Spike asked after a moment.
Flurry nodded.
“Did it hurt?”
Flurry thought about the snap of his arm as she forced the pistol under his chin, and his wide, terrified eyes. They were the only thing he could move in her telekinetic aura. The alicorn felt nothing when she made him pull the trigger, and she still felt nothing when she remembered it.
“Yes,” Flurry answered.
“Good,” Spike growled behind her. “I came to him, asked him to help. I should’ve reached across the table and tore his head off when he refused. Smug little bird was so sure of himself.” Flurry heard claws scrape on the tile.
“I could’ve done it,” Spike said to himself. “He only had two guards with him. I could’ve killed him right on the floor of the Capitol and no one could’ve done a thing about it. That’s what a dragon would have done.”
Flurry flexed her wings and the crystals sang.
“I was always afraid of what others would see,” Spike admitted. “But I don’t think I care anymore.”
“I’m sorry, uncle,” Flurry said softly.
“Why?” Spike choked out. “You got what you wanted. You always said you were the last one, and now you are.”
Flurry turned around. One of her hooves knocked her helmet to the side. “W-what?”
Spike stared at Twilight. “You’re the last one that counts. You always wanted to be, didn’t you?”
“I…” Flurry licked her lips. “Spike, I loved her.”
“Loved,” Spike pointed out.
“Don’t,” Flurry shook her head. “Don’t go there. You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to find her like this?” Her wings flared and the crystals sliced through the air before the dragon.
The alicorn’s muzzle trembled. “I don’t even remember the last time we met. She used to read me Daring Do and looked up big words in the dictionary. Don’t…don’t you dare put this on me.”
“It’s not on you,” Spike snarled. He didn’t look away from the bed. “It’s on us, on Starlight and Trixie and all of the other idiots who wasted time on everything. We argued over the fucking flag while those parasites drained her of everything she had. We should’ve killed them all.”
“She…” Flurry took a breath. “She wouldn’t have wanted that. She wouldn’t have wanted any of this.”
“I don’t care,” Spike muttered. “You still did it. Good.” He snorted a jet of flame. “That bastard and his little ‘lings marched in here and took photos.”
Flurry frowned. “What?”
“Thorax,” Spike growled. “Walked in without a word, gathered the reports and photos, then just left. He didn’t even look surprised.” Spike’s eyes wandered. “We met up once, all of us, just before Canterlot. Thorax even came.”
Thorax had not always been in the ghetto, and Flurry had Dusty and Jadis to help around. Sometimes the changeling was gone for nearly two weeks or more. Flurry always gave him an extra long hug when he came back. Even after she knew about the crime syndicate, she never asked where he went.
“I remember,” Spike said slowly, “all of us sat around a table a day from Stalliongrad and talked about what would happen with Twilight back. Starlight, Trixie, Barrel Roller, Sweetie Drops, plus a dozen more ponies that are also dead. Thorax sat in a corner. He was quiet the entire time.” The dragon laughed bitterly. “I thought he was nervous, like when we first met in that cave.” Spike clacked his muzzle shut. “I bet he knew.”
Flurry looked away to the bed.
The heart monitor beeped. Flurry felt Spike’s draconic stare on her gorget and shaved mane as she looked at her aunt. The fur on the back of her neck bristled.
“Did you know?” Spike growled behind her. There was a shifting and a scrape of claws. Flurry turned her head as the dragon stood up to his full height; his green fin brushed the ceiling.
Flurry said nothing.
Spike inhaled with a ragged breath. “Did you know?” he repeated with a smoking sob. His wings buffeted the wall behind him. The spade of his tail flipped into the wall with a muted thwap.
Flurry gazed up at him. Her pale blue eyes met green slits. Both sets were wet.
Twilight Sparkle will die first.
“On my birthday,” Flurry began, “a Queen’s Guard came down the mountain. He…he said she would die if we tried to take the city…if we fought.” Flurry wrenched her head back to the bed, and looked at her aunt’s wings. There were very few feathers left. “He had her feathers.”
Spike did not react. He did not even breathe.
“I burned them,” Flurry admitted in a small voice. “Thorax told me to, but I did. We would have all charged up this mountain and we would have lost.” The alicorn turned back to Spike. “I’m so sor-”
The dragon lunged forward, seized the alicorn by the metal gorget around her neck with both claws, and slammed her into the doorframe hard enough to embed her halfway into the wall. Flurry inhaled as her armored forelegs flailed against the scales of the larger dragon. Despite the weight of her armor, Spike held her up in the shattered wall, hoisting her muzzle up to his fangs. His eyes were slits nearly too narrow to see. The dragon opened his mouth and Flurry saw fire in the back of his throat. Her horn sparked.
Rather than flames, a sob spewed forth from the dragon’s mouth. He abruptly released Flurry and let her fall from the hole in the wall. The alicorn fell to the ground with a clatter of crystal and metal, and felt the indentations in the metal around her neck. She coughed.
Spike slumped back against the other wall, next to the bed and the machines. He flumped to the floor with a coiling tail and folded his wings around himself again. The dragon’s eyes were wide and his claws shook.
Flurry coughed again. It was in time with the whoosh of the respirator and the beep of the heart monitor. Despite the violence, Twilight Sparkle did not move on the bed, outside of what the machines moved for her.
“I…” Spike trailed off. His voice broke. “I can’t do this. I can’t. I just want things to go back to the way they were.”
“I’m sorry,” Flurry gasped. “I’m sorry.” She gathered her hooves under herself and stood up with a wince. Dust and bits of brick slid off her crystal armor as her wings flapped. “Please, Spike.”
Spike did not look at her muzzle. His eyes stopped at the rent metal around her neck. His claws had sliced through the enchanted metal, and if Flurry had not been an alicorn, he would’ve broken her neck from the sheer force of the impact into the wall. Both of them knew it.
The last of Twilight Sparkle’s family sat in a room with her, and cried separately.
“If I go out there,” Spike finally said, “I’m going to kill them all. All of them. Twilight wouldn’t have wanted it, but I don’t care. I don’t care what she would’ve wanted. She was my family, and they took her.”
“She’s an alicorn,” Flurry tried. Her voice was raspy. “She’s the toughest pony in the world. She fought Discord and Tirek and Sombra.” Flurry looked at her aunt’s withered muzzle, and the tube jammed past her lips. “She…she’s tough.”
“That’s what the bugs said,” Spike stated.
“I woke up,” Flurry whispered. “She can do it. I know she can.”
Twilight’s rib cage showed whenever the machine had her exhale. Flurry looked at the divot drilled into her horn, where the metal probe had been installed to drain her magic. Alicorn or not, the damage would be permanent. The Element of Magic would probably never cast spells properly again for as long as she lived.
“I know she can wake up,” Flurry swore. She stared hard at the bed with wet eyes. The machines whooshed and beeped, and her aunt did not wake up. Spike scraped his claws against his knees as he drew himself up into a ball.
“I need to be alone,” Spike stated quietly. “With her. I’m sorry.”
Flurry stayed in the room for several more minutes, then slowly walked backwards through the shattered door. Her wings bumped against the doorframe and the crystals chimed as she adjusted the armored wing joints. Just before she left, Spike asked, “Thorax told you to burn the feathers?”
“Don’t blame him,” Flurry exhaled. “I could’ve said something.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Spike dismissed. “They broke her years ago. We had one chance to save her, and we wasted it.”
“She’s…” Flurry hesitated. “She’s not broken. She can get better.”
Spike’s forked tongue licked at a fang. “When you get to Chrysalis,” he stated, “kill her. Just kill her. Don’t give her a chance.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Flurry said.
“Twilight would,” Spike countered.
Flurry backed out of the room, then turned and trotted past the changeling forever frozen in a scream. There was a living changeling at the end of the hallway, standing over a mangled corpse. The purple uniform was rumpled with the sleeves rolled up to the knees.
Thorax stared at the body with blank blue eyes. One of his holed hooves nudged the eyelids closed as the Princess approached him. “Where’s your helmet?” Thorax asked once she was in earshot.
Flurry’s ears pinned back. “Still in the room.”
“I’ll get it later.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Flurry rasped. Thorax observed her neck. It was hard to tell without irises, but the changeling looked her over with obvious worry.
“The gorget’s ruined,” he said quietly. “We’ll have to get another made.”
“I told him,” Flurry said, “about the feathers.”
Thorax nodded as if he expected it. A wing buzzed. “He’ll hate me for a bit, then realize I was right. He’ll hate me more for a little longer after that.”
“Did you know?” Flurry asked tiredly.
“Know what?”
“Don’t,” Flurry shook her head. “Don’t play that game.”
Thorax looked down at the body. “I knew it would be bad,” he chittered. “Finding your mother confirmed it. I knew Chrysalis and the ‘lings she surrounded herself with. According to the doctors, less than two dozen actually knew where Twilight was.”
“What doctors?”
Thorax gestured to the corpse.
Flurry bit her lip. “Were they actually trying to help her?”
Thorax nodded. “Yes, because the Queen ordered it. Because she wanted Twilight awake to watch her home burn. They kept her plugged into an extractor for years, harvesting her love and making sure it hurt. Chrysalis demanded it, and the Queen’s Guard obeyed.”
Flurry looked up and down the hallway at the corpses.
“They would have done the same to you,” Thorax stated. “If you had gone with her in Aquileia, you would have ended up beside Twilight. Or your mother.”
“How many times did they try to take me?” Flurry asked. “You never told me.”
Thorax shrugged a wing. “I didn’t keep count,” he lied.
Flurry closed her eyes and blinked back tears. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I am a changeling,” Thorax replied. “Changelings lie. It’s what we do. But I will tell you the truth, because it matters coming from me.”
Flurry opened her eyes and looked at her uncle.
Thorax stared at her over the corpse. “They wanted you alive. The ones that came knew exactly what would happen to you. I knew as well. I do not regret a single thing I have ever done to any of them.”
“Why’d you have pictures taken?”
“Because ponies need to know,” Thorax responded easily. “We’ll have copies made, and sent out in leaflets. Or pamphlets and papers. I’m sure the Reich will want it as well. She had a speech recorded; I’ll show it to you.”
Flurry looked at the corpse. The strike that killed the changeling had been in the back, as they tried to flee down the hallway. “Thorax-”
“And changelings will die,” Thorax interrupted her. “They’ll die in the fields, in the houses, in the streets. They’ll die screaming that they didn’t know or that they had no idea. They’re dying right now, out in Canterlot.
“There are thousands of civilians that resettled here. When the garrison fell back, they were left behind in Middle Canterlot. The patrols aren’t doing a thing to stop it. They lived over ponies, or in their old houses. They shopped in stores and ignored the ponies in chains that bagged their groceries or pulled their carts.”
“I want the violence stopped,” Flurry whispered. “The garrison surrendered.”
“Doesn’t apply to civilians,” Thorax shrugged a hoof.
“They’re your people!” Flurry snapped. “Do you care at all?”
“No.”
Flurry reared back.
Thorax stared at her blankly.
“I want the violence stopped,” Flurry said again. “I don’t…” she hesitated. “The Crystal City was a massacre. I don’t want this here. Not in Twilight’s home.”
Thorax took a deep breath. “You can give that order, and some ponies will follow it. Others won’t. You’ll have to make examples of them.”
“Fine,” Flurry huffed. “I’ve done that before.”
“You’re going to get me killed,” Thorax said bluntly.
Flurry blinked. “What?”
“They won’t kill you,” Thorax said slowly, “but they’ll look at the changeling beside you, the one you call uncle, lived with, and love, and they’ll kill me to save you.”
“Sunset and Tempest-”
“It won’t be them,” Thorax answered. “It will just be somepony with a snowflake on their foreleg. A pony that lost their entire family to changelings, or watched their friend vanish into green fire, or was pulled out of a cocoon themselves. They will see their Princess that has lost everything order mercy when they received none, and they will look at me.”
Flurry narrowed her eyes at him. “Has it happened before?”
Thorax didn’t answer, which was all the answer she needed.
“I am not fighting a war like this,” Flurry denied. “I am not letting my army rampage across every changeling they come across. It’s happened enough.”
“Look out the window,” Thorax jerked his head to the shattered stained glass. “You can see the crater.”
“That was different!” Flurry snarled. “Those were soldiers! In a battle!”
“Yes!” Thorax hissed. “They were! And they deserved it!” He jabbed a hoof into the corpse. “Like they did! It’s the same!”
“It’s not the same!”
“Yes,” Thorax disagreed. “It is.”
Flurry took a breath. “You told me to fight, and now you’re saying it’s my fault?”
“No,” Thorax said immediately. “It’s our fault.”
“What do you mean-”
“We decided to fight like changelings,” Thorax continued. “We decided to use every advantage we could get, and this is the price.” He glanced at the body. “For what we’ve done. For what Chrysalis did.”
“I am not wiping them out,” Flurry rasped. “No matter what anypony else wants. Or what you want.”
“I don’t want you to,” Thorax said. He stared up at her with hard eyes. “But I want you to fight. I want you to kill every Changeling Heer soldier that gets put up against you, smash every tank and every plane. I want you to kill every single one of us that Chrysalis throws at you, until we realize she will kill us all.”
Flurry looked to the window. Wind whistled through the broken glass, and the horizon glittered from the sunlight reflecting down into the former Duskwood. “The war wasn’t like this.”
“Equestria lost,” Thorax said in a kind voice. “The Empire lost. When we get to my home, but not before. That’s when it will matter.”
“Millions of changelings settled in Equestria,” Flurry mumbled.
“Yes,” Thorax agreed. “And when those pictures come out and they realize what their Queen did while they were good little ‘lings, they are going to run. Some won’t run fast enough.”
Flurry stared at the crater. Thorax left the body and walked to the shattered window. He nuzzled the bottom of her jaw. “I love you,” Thorax said beside her.
“I love you,” Flurry said to her uncle.
Thorax observed the glittering horizon. “You were named after a storm. Be the storm.”
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After Pearl Harbor, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey (USN).
"Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in Hell."
Except for Desert Storm, that was the last time the USA ever won a war. (Going on 80 years.)
Yeah pretty hard to make a convincing surrender when your main strategy is faking surrenders and burning goodwill to heat your homes. I mean, yeah dont kill ALL the changelings, but they were perfectly happy to oppress and enslave when they were on the top. Thorax's life sucks man, no people, hate your own race, get hated by everybody, too lingy for ponies, too pony for lings, hope he can just relax after the war but lets be real cleaning up Chrysalis' mess is going to take the rest of his life no doubt.
Dramatic and delicious, as usual.
Ah yes, Spike is about to commit, a Great Trial.
by the end of the war, the number of lings killed will double the number of ponies that fell
VICTORY... a bitter word after all the death and destruction it took to achieve it. But a victory nonetheless. Moral, strategic, and decisive. No doubt any sidelineers will rally to the cause while the traitors will lock their doors. What will happen to the changelings will be a dark point in history that they brought upon themselves. And with the info we got in previous chapters more will join the fight.
now death will fall
Congrats Spike, you finally hit fuck it.
It seems like the old Harmony of Equestria is, like Twilight, on life support.
I have to ask, the blood under his mouth, did he bite a changeling in half or something?
11561866
I kept the descriptions a little vague, but Spike's always held back a little bit from dragon fighting. He can bite through crystal like it's nothing. I don't think anyone tried to stop him or get in his way.
For doctors, they didn't do much to stop their patient from nearly being slaughtered.
Reap the whirlwind.
I knew it would be bad. And it was worse than I thought. Maybe in the decades to come there will be healing but now, now there will be blood.
Quite the symbolism there of Old Equestria being on Life Support.
Also a neat way to keep her out of the story until needed. If ever.
11561684
Oh he's not going to be able to rest at all once this is done, he's slotted as the prime candidate for Changeling King once Chrysalis is in the ground. Though I do wonder, who would he choose as his successor?
It's going to be interesting to see the pov of a changeling civilian settler when they find out about the horror that was happening under their noses. At least, I hope to read something like that
I am interested in seeing what happens to the deer. Will Velvet perhaps become a part of Flurry’s inner circle?
While Thorax is being cold he is also being pragmatic. I could see the Changelings recovering population wise better then some as in game they get several population growth boosts which implies that at least their drones can recover… I don’t know if there are any royals left or what?
11561998
Equestria-That-Was. It wasn't perfect, but it was theirs. It's a shame that Flurry did not grow up in that world. She never had the chance to.
11562066
There were other Changeling Queens. Were. Chrysalis wasn't as dumb as some hoped.
11562046
RUN. Thorax isn't painting a kind picture of what's coming. Save what you can save.
11562150
I remember. From what I can remember from both Greneclyf and the Changeling lands stuff there is probably minor queens under the major named ones Chrysalis slaughtered. There is also the question of any daughters that the Queens had. We know Chrysalis doesn’t have any and in this state likely wouldn’t ever. We also know a sort of Royal type of Changeling between Queen and Drones exist from Greneclyf.
I figure this is probably not something that really matters for the story but I’m just curious if you have any ideas?
It took me reading the comments to realize the symbolism of harmony on life support. But I also realize that Flurry believes that one day, somehow, harmony will come back. It won’t be back until EVERY threat and grievance has been felt with in full, but it will be back. Admittedly it will never be the same as before, (As symbolized by the divot in Twilight’s horn.) but one day it will come back.
Flurry has hope for a better life one day. For all living things.
11561762
One might even call it a Trial of Annihilation.
Either way, he is now possessed of an affinity for Winter, if not a minor Influence of it. Yearning for an End, or many.
Insert the lyrics to SacredWar here.
11562178
Future harmony will be spelled
E=mc2
The element of harmony.
It's going to get very, very ugly. Ponies who lost everything but still held out some hope for Twilight Sparkle and a better tomorrow will be left with nothing but ashes. Ashes, grief and a deep seated fury with justified cause.
On that note, I'm curious to see what Equestrians and Crystal Ponies will think of the river ponies at the end of this. Yes, we know that the OHS is censoring everything coming out of Equestria. Equestria as a whole does not. They can only assume that the River Federation, like the princesses saw the cruelty and suffering and did nothing. It'll mean everything for Grover if the Riverlands try something.
11561684
—Spike, apparently, Flurry Heart, very probably, and Thorax, certainly.
Changelings seem to have a special knack for burning every bridge and destroying every ounce of goodwill or mercy. I just hope they’ll start turning on Chrissy before we get to their version of Downfall.
11562007
There will be no future changeling kings, or rulers. Unless all remaining survivors swear loyalty to Flurry, and only Flurry, they're likely to be slaughtered. Even if Flurry wanted her uncle to be the changeling ruler, other ponies would view it suspiciously, like he stated in this chapter. Even if they swear loyalty to Flurry, the only way they'll avoid direct discrimination is by having Flurry declare them her subjects and her ponies in all but name, as she did with her griffons and yaks and others, and that any action taken against them will be an affront to her rule and word of honor personally and she'd punish it as such.
Of course, that'd only stop direct discrimination. Indirect or unofficial is another story...
Sooo...I guess Rainbow Dash's sense of loyalty is conflicting with her fight-or-flight responses here. She hasn't visited Twilight yet.
I also notice that every time Flurry nuzzles her uncle Thorax, she tells him she loves him. It's very touching and I love it, but I also wonder if there's more to it than just sentiment; is she trying to feed him unknowingly?
11563050
Naw man, the Changeling Lands themselves are going to continue existing even when they lose. Sans any territorial gains they got from Olenia and Equestria. There's a population of like 30 Million of them in their home country, their nation isn't going to cease to exist, that's not how semi-modern wars work. They're going to have a government replace the old one, and it'll be a puppet one of The Crystal Empire/Equestria.
The Lings who migrated to the formerly Equestrian territories? Oh they're toast, no question. But the Changelings are going to have some type of government replace their old one, and Thorax fits the bill.
11563072
11563050
There are indeed a lot of changelings, and I don't think ponies will be very happy to have them swear loyalty to Flurry, even if most do so. It's a hairy situation that needs to be resolved, but not now and not for some time. They aren't even close to the Changeling Lands proper. But this isn't a World War 2 scenario where someone is going to want a "Strong Changeling State" to counterbalance any foreign aggression. They're in northwestern Equus, isolated geographically as it is.
As for Thorax, there's nothing secret about it, except perhaps to some ignorant ponies who don't realize she's sharing her love. Keep in mind in Thorax's first episode, baby Flurry apparently emitted so much love that it drove him feral for a second. Thorax has been feeding off her passively for years, and she still hits like a freight train with no brakes. It's pretty obvious that 'lings can exist without the Love Tax and industrial-scale draining, but that means
cooperatingbeing subjugated by the ponies instead of the other way around.Rainbow might've or might not have seen Twilight yet, but don't be too hard on her. She's still reeling from Scoots.
11563072
I want a Changeling-Olenian Commonwealth in the future or is implied in the story
I patiently await the day that Flurry receives a short joyful message from Canterlot.
"She's awake"
I shall reiterate a statement that I made in a previous comment of mine.
I hope Chrysalis burns. I hope Flurry and the others make it slow and agonizing, forcing her to watch her parasitic empire crumble away just as she made Twilight watch her home suffer under changeling hooves. I mean, they'll probably just kill her and be done with it, but still.
Above all else though, once it's all over, I hope Harmony eventually returns and Flurry gets to live the life she deserves with all her friends and family after what they've been through, and hopefully, her Aunt Twilight will be there right beside her.
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Me too