Part Eighty-Seven
The clock ticked away on the bookshelf. Flurry Heart's ears twitched in time with its ticking while she sat in a plush chair and waited, idly flipping through her stack of papers with her hooves. She had sprawled her wings out on the armrests.
Sunset and Tempest sat on cushions in front of the bookshelf. A window was behind Flurry's chair; the curtains were drawn across the glass, and the room was lit by a series of electric lamps along the bookshelves. They illuminated the spines of dozens of books, all of them fake and meant to give the illusion of a well-read, well-used study. The Queen’s Guard had held Canterlot Castle for years, and this was apparently Lord Commander Lacin’s personal meeting room, whenever he used it.
Rainbow picked at her metal feathers, having undone her straps and taken off the prosthetic. The one-winged mare scrubbed the sharp feathers with a rough cloth, sitting with her back to the wall and propped up by another cushion. She hummed something under her breath.
Flurry felt Rarity’s stare on her horn. The pearl unicorn was the only one standing in the room, glowering above a tasseled cushion beside Rainbow. She breathed deeply below piercing azure eyes.
“Have you talked to Spike?” Flurry asked aloud. She kept rereading a page, eyes scanning over the list under the name and title of one of the nobles she just condemned to die down the hallway. Might be already dead, Flurry admitted to herself.
“He hasn’t left Twilight’s side,” Rainbow answered for the other Element Bearer. “Went to talk to him a few days ago.” The pegasus grimaced. “Wasn’t much of a talk.”
Flurry swallowed and felt a mild pain from the bruises around her neck. The welts had mostly faded and were obscured by her light pink fur. “He’s still eating?” she said aloud.
“Yeah,” Sunset said softly. “I set a team to keep an eye on him.”
“Good,” Flurry answered.
“Good?” Rarity finally nickered. “Is it? Good?”
“He killed all the changelings that oversaw Twilight,” Flurry responded from her papers. “You think he cares what we just did?”
“Don’t you dare lump me in with the rest of you,” Rarity snarled.
“Easy, Rares,” Rainbow said in warning. "You saw Twilight, same as I did. Don't go there."
“No!” Rarity stomped a hoof into the carpet. “You…you…oh, I don’t even have words for this!” She tossed her head. “You used me!”
“I would have told you if I thought you wouldn’t go into theatrics,” Flurry answered.
Rarity sputtered. “Theatrics!? You just lured hundreds of ponies to their deaths! For nothing!”
Flurry snapped the folder shut with a burst of her horn. She levitated it over to Rarity. “Pick one,” she said shortly. “Pick one piece of paper and read it. Any of them.”
“I don’t want to read whatever justifications you say you have.”
Flurry pulled one out herself and flipped it back to her muzzle. “Oh, it’s Baroness Silver Seal,” she snorted. “Bribed the War Office in Canterlot with her generous silver mines to place her nephew favorably in the Royal Guard.” The alicorn skipped several lines. “Made use of ‘free labor’ by the Changelings' work squads in the expansion of her mines outside Hollow Shades. Tunnel collapse killed seventy-two.”
The Princess lowered the paper with half-lidded eyes. She turned them on Rarity. “You think she deserved to live?”
“There is a difference between deserving to live and deserving to die,” Rarity countered. She looked around the room, disgusted. “I can’t believe all of you just agreed to this.”
“Nobles always held their horns high above everypony,” Sunset stated. “I remember Celestia rolling her eyes at them whenever they weren’t looking. All of them that are left are scum, high horns pretending to be higher.”
“So that excuses killing them all?” Rarity shook her head. “You could’ve just revoked their titles and been done with it.”
“Oh yes,” Flurry laughed sardonically. “Leave a bunch of angry, embittered ponies that want their titles back. Great decision. I’m sure their foals will grow up to try and kill me. That’s bad enough.”
“The fact that you don’t see anything wrong with that statement is striking, Princess,” Rarity snorted.
“I didn’t revoke their titles,” Flurry corrected. “I destroyed them. Half their lines can barely trace themselves to Nightmare Moon, let alone Princess Platinum. There’s barely anything from before Discord.”
“Hay, I didn’t even know about Discord,” Rainbow offered.
“Princess,” Sunset interrupted, “do you really mean to just discharge every title in Equestria?”
“Ponies will call you a tyrant,” Rarity agreed.
“That’s not what I meant,” Sunset immediately huffed. “The ELF was funded by several ponies that used what they had of their offshore accounts after the fall of Equestria. They lost their titles in the war and-”
Flurry leaned back in the chair and groaned. “Are you seriously going to tell me that ponies fought in the Equestrian Liberation Front to be called duke or duchess again? Are there thousands of former ennobled ponies waiting with sharpened horns for their titles?” She crossed her forelegs. “I bet they got along great with the communists.”
“They did not,” Tempest said bluntly. “There are a few dozen. Most died in the last stand, if not in New Mareland. But there's a few.”
“The economy is ruined, Princess,” Sunset said. “Whatever farmlands you have in the Crystal Empire might keep ponies from starving for now, but-”
“We’re not on the brink of collapse,” Flurry cut her off. “We’ve already collapsed. Ponies barter for what they need. Currency is worthless. I’m tempted to adopt the Reichsmark as currency for convenience. We're already melting down gold bits, just like the Changelings did.”
“That makes us look like a puppet.”
“We are a puppet,” Flurry nickered. “Accept it. The reconstruction will bridle us with enough debt that your grandfoals will be paying it off.”
Sunset’s ears pinned back. “That’s not what-”
“That’s not what Starlight envisioned,” Flurry said for her. “Starlight is dead. What, was she going to tell ponies to eat hope? The self-sufficient communes will keep everypony from starving for now. We support the Reichsarmee’s advance and serve as garrisons. Maybe integrate the mages into anti-infiltration units just behind the frontline.”
“Ponies aren’t going to like taking orders from griffons,” Tempest warned.
“Nova Griffonia and Aquileia,” Flurry answered. “You mean the ELF, not all my subjects. We need to get Equestria up and running, practically raising a corpse back to life with dark magic. It's not going to be easy.”
“You aren’t going to have any ‘subjects’ as long as you keep killing them,” Rarity snorted.
Flurry exhaled. “Please, Miss Rarity, enlighten me on how letting two hundred ponies live would fix Equestria? I have 40,000 changelings in this city, probably less because my soldiers keep finding ‘escape attempts’ and shooting them.” She gave Sunset and Tempest a cold look.
Both looked away and scuffed hooves on their cushions. “We’re working on it,” Tempest said slowly, “but short of executions it’s not going to stop until we get them out of the city.”
“Why bother?” Rainbow huffed. She adjusted a metal feather and pricked her frog with it to test the sharpness.
"You want me to kill 40,000 changelings?" Flurry asked Rarity. "I could give that order tonight. Or would you prefer I order hangings from ponies that keep trying to take it out on their slavers? Please, tell me how killing two hundred ponies is worse than killing 200,000 changelings in battle?"
Rarity shook her head numbly at the gathered ponies. “I refuse to believe this is Equestria.”
“What did you see when you came down from the Empire, Rares?” Rainbow asked angrily. She puffed her lips. “You see happy ponies tilling the fields? Or just shattered villages along the railway, ponies long carted off to factories and slums to work for the bugs? Wake up.”
“You’re supposed to be the Princess of Hope,” Rarity sighed to the alicorn.
“Hope of justice,” Flurry shrugged a wing. “I could spare them, let them go behind my back like the industrialists in Weter. I didn't go after them and they tried to cut a deal with Grover. Or would you prefer I turned Canterlot into a bloodbath as we sacked the Estates District? That happened in the Crystal City.”
“I would prefer you did not do it at all,” Rarity argued. “Just take the titles. You just wanted to do all those ‘theatrics,’ as you said.”
“Yes,” Flurry nickered. “Because they would just roll over and give them up, then turn around with sharpened horns when the time was right. At least this was done quickly, and away from their foals. I'm not revoking titles just to give them out again like candy to sycophants.”
“That Rarity look-a-like didn’t fall for it,” Rainbow commented. “Duskcrest’s fast.”
“She walked in here,” Sunset replied.
Rarity stomped her forelegs and exploded. “Because she probably didn’t think that the Princess would slaughter them all like…like...”
“Like Suri?” Flurry asked. “Or did you mean Kemerskai?”
Rarity clacked her muzzle shut and flumped on the cushion.
“Celestia had a bureaucracy,” Flurry snorted, “and we’re broke. I’ll take what we can get from those that profited off the Hegemony as they raped my lands. I don’t see a point in humoring the lie any longer.”
“What lie?” Sunset asked in confusion.
“That any title other than Princess mattered,” Flurry responded. “You think the average pony in Vanhoover knew they even had a duchess? Hay, my mother was Princess of the Crystal Empire and she could still give orders in Equestria.” Flurry fluffed her wings. “Ponies just see the wings and horn. That's how Equestria worked. How it always worked.”
The room descended into a long silence.
“How many ponies do we have in the ELF that formerly had titles?” Flurry sighed. “Give me a list. I’ll meet them.”
Rarity snapped her horn up.
“I’ll give them positions in the government,” Flurry rolled her eyes at the unicorn’s glare, “provided they have some competence.” She bared her teeth at Rarity. “What? You think I’m going to string them up? I don’t think even Caramel Marks would’ve done that. He would’ve accepted their help to save Equestria.”
“Caramel Marks was a mare,” Rarity answered in a deadpan.
“Huh,” Flurry blinked. “Steel Stallion was a stallion, right?” she said sarcastically.
“Some might not be happy with just that,” Sunset admitted.
“They can argue why they should keep a title that their great ancestor deserved to have,” Flurry said lightly. “I’ll meet them one-on-one, in a study like this. I won't kill them. Unless they try to blow up my castle.” The alicorn's stare intensified. "Like the other ELF members that got angry about the alliance."
Tempest exhaled. "We've dealt with it. Internally. It won't be a problem."
"How many did you kill?" Flurry asked bluntly.
The Storm King's Right Hoof looked away with pinned back ears. "Enough to prove a point. The cells in the west hate the Changelings more than they could ever hate the Reich. They'll play, especially once the news about Princess Twilight spreads."
Rarity huffed. "Twilight would-"
"Don't!" Rainbow snapped suddenly at the unicorn, then returned to her wing. “What’re we even doing here?” the pegasus asked from her cushion. She leaned back against the side of the wall and avoided looking at Rarity.
“Meeting the pony that had all this,” Flurry held the folder up in her magic. “Only non-unicorn in the Estates District, and only one whose staff had nothing bad to say about her. Thorax checked.”
“One pony collected all of that?” Sunset whickered. “How?”
“Hired a bunch of familial staff,” Flurry summarized. “Let’s hear it from her.” Her ears pricked at the sound of hooves in the hallway and she straightened herself in the chair.
“Thorax is here,” Jadis called from the other side of the door. “With guest.” Sunset dispelled her ward and opened the door to the study. Amoxtli shifted her bat wing on the other side of the doorway and unclipped her holster.
Thorax entered first in his purple uniform. He nodded to Tempest and Sunset. “The others are on their way,” he said vaguely, “but we’ve been taking care of the situation in the dining hall.”
Rarity crossed her forehooves.
The changeling trotted over to Flurry’s chair and she embraced him with her wings, pulling him into a hug. “You alright, uncle?”
“We have the Cornucopia Society members,” Thorax answered. “They have some meetups in Middle Canterlot and elsewhere.” He licked his fangs. “Unicorn supremacists.”
“If there are earth pony supremacists in Appleoosa I’m just going in with a sword and swinging,” Flurry groaned. “This is absurd.”
“Well,” a voice said softly in the doorway, “Neighsay was the head of the E.E.A. It's hardly surprising.”
Flurry released her uncle and stared over his head fin at the other pony. A slightly built pegasus stood in the doorframe, salmon-pink fur covered in a light blue, simple dress with white frills. The pegasus’ long, pale blue mane framed heavy glasses balanced on her muzzle. It made her eyes look owlish and the mare look older, but Flurry judged she was only a few years older than herself.
The mare bowed in the doorway. Her dress tented at the side from covered wings while her lengthy tail pooled on the floor from the bow. “Hello, Princess Flurry Heart,” she said in a refined Upper Canterlot accent. She stood up before Flurry told her to rise and smiled softly.
“Your information was appreciated,” Flurry said neutrally.
“I hope it was,” the mare agreed. “My name is Chess Piece. I was born in Lower Canterlot, but I’m sure you know that.” She stepped forward into the room on light, polished hooves while Amoxtli pulled the door shut.
Thorax licked his right fang before facing the mare and sitting beside Flurry’s chair. The Princess nodded and set the folder down. She took off her crystal band and held it in her forehooves. “I know very little about you,” Flurry admitted, “except that you trotted up to the castle like several of the other nobles.” She paused. “And hoofed over a file that condemned them all.”
“Canterlot has stood on this mountain for a thousand years,” Chess Piece explained in an airy voice. “Everypony is interconnected. Generations of noble families breed generations of servants. When the Changelings came, many took the opportunity to increase their own power, especially once Twilight surrendered the city to stop it from being sacked."
The pegasus looked regretful. “My own family was lost in Lower Canterlot. I wandered for a time, making friends where I could on the streets, and soon found a web of gossip about the excesses of Canterlot. Ponies eager to collaborate and sell out their former friends and family for the graces of the Changelings.”
Flurry waved her hoof. “Continue.”
“It was trivial to find enough testimony to condemn one of them,” Chess Piece said. “A countess named March Match. She embezzled funds meant to reconstruct her lumber yards to fund her lifestyle. Servants hear things, Princess, and they’re inclined to share when they stop being paid and start being drained of love.
“I made sure VOPS looked into her, and I was awarded her estate for loyalty, I do confess.” Chess Piece scuffed a hoof. “I suppose she was sent to the lumber yards she so dearly loved. Everypony in Canterlot is family to somepony, and I soon bribed and blackmailed my way into the soirees and parties of Generalmajor Pagala.”
“Not Jachs?” Flurry asked.
“Oh no,” Chess Piece nickered. “I was still on the streets during his time.”
“Were you here when the ELF assaulted the city?” Sunset asked. She was frowning in puzzlement at the younger mare.
“Yes,” Chess Piece shrugged. “I watched from an alleyway as the attack on the east gate was beaten back. The airborne troops fought very hard.”
Rainbow scrubbed her wing and squinted at the mare. Rarity also frowned beside her and chewed on her lower lip. Both looked wary. Flurry waved her hoof for the pegasus to keep going.
“Hiring the families of servants and protecting them from the Love Tax helped dearly. My mansion is bursting with ponies that do little work, I’m afraid. But servants talk, and they talk freely when they know their families are protected by somepony who actually cares.”
“And that’s you?” Flurry asked without inflection.
“I lived on the streets,” Chess Piece protested with pinned ears. “My family was never wealthy. I understand hardship in a way that no noble in Canterlot ever did.”
“You decided to blackmail the nobility for what?” Sunset snorted. “More money?”
“Money, influence, favors,” Chess Piece waved a hoof. “Or reporting them to the Changelings for their rampant overspending and neglect. Pagala was a poor accountant and addled by her…vices. Lord Commander Lacin did little except kick ponies in the street.”
“So you helped the Hegemony,” Flurry assessed in a low voice.
“The nobility tried to destroy me many times,” Chess Piece laughed daintily. She removed a cloth from a dress pocket and wiped at her thick glasses. “I was ruining their grift.” She suddenly grimaced. “I’m never sure if that is offensive to griffons or not. They even did the same before and during the war. Some of their servants were holdovers from Celestia’s rule, and they knew all the family secrets. Ponies talk, Princess, especially if they’ve been hurt. And ponies also forget who they’ve stepped on.”
Flurry pointed a few feathers at the window just behind her. “Please, do you mind walking over to the window and looking through the curtains?”
Chess Piece did so and brushed a curtain back. “I’m afraid it’s nighttime, Princess. I can see the city?” she offered with a light nicker. She looked over her dress to the chair.
“Somewhere to the west is a large crater,” Flurry said dryly. Her horn pointed at the pegasus over the low back of the chair. "There used to be a forest there." The alicorn folded her wings and twisted around partially in her sweatpants.
“I felt the magic from my mansion,” Chess Piece stated in a wistful voice. “Blew out the window to my study and gave a few ponies a terrible fright. The Changelings deserved it, I’m sure. If the old Princesses fought like that, none of this would’ve befallen Equestria.”
Flurry opened her mouth to respond, then a knock on the door interrupted her. “Princess?” Jadis asked. “The others are here.”
“Enter!” Flurry called out with a partially turned muzzle. Thorax stared at Chess Piece from the other side of the chair. The pegasus did not look too perturbed by the changeling with long fangs leering at her.
Amoxtli pushed open the door from the hallway. Sandbar, Yona, and Gallus stood chatting with each other, sharing some joke. The earth pony and yak were in gray ELF uniforms, and Gallus was in his black coat. Two knights stood behind Gallus, helmets gazing at the crystal pony and Thestral.
Sandbar and Yona bowed, and Gallus clasped a claw to his chest. Their small talk ceased. “Princess,” Sandbar said slowly.
“I was told this was an Equestrian matter,” Gallus added.
“It is,” Flurry confirmed. “It concerns your time here. Please, the knights may remain outside.”
Gallus spared them a backwards glance, then entered the room after Yona and Sandbar. The study was now cramped with Tempest and Sunset below one wall, Rarity and Rainbow along the opposite, and Yona, Sandbar and Gallus standing before the door. The griffon pulled his gloves off and stuffed them into his jacket. He blinked at the mare by the window and paused.
Chess Piece looked back guilelessly, then met Flurry’s hard stare over the back of the chair. “From this moment forward,” the alicorn said in a growl, “there will be nothing but honesty in this room. Do you understand?”
Chess Piece looked to the changeling, then Rainbow Dash and Rarity, and finally back at the three former students of the School of Friendship in the doorway. The three stood in various stages of dawning realization. Chess Piece blinked scarlet eyes, then smirked.
“Golly,” Cozy Glow snorted in an oceanic accent. “Long time, huh? Friends?”
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Well damn
Well that's an interesting development.
COZY!!!!
Damn, that's one hell of a drop. What's EaW lore concerning Cozy Glow? I know the timeline splits at season 6 and that the Friendship school was still a thing, but did Cozy still do the whole "steal all the magic" plan?
Huh.
I was wondering where she was this whole time. Some part of me guessed that she was crushed with Tirek when Tartarus was destroyed.
11565843
According to the wiki, Cozy did do the magic stealing plan and was banished to Tartarus with Tirek though in this universe, only Season 9 never happened in any way, shape or form. My guess is that she escaped Tartarus in the chaos and eventually set herself up as an information broker.
Golly!
WAIT, COZY GLOW!? BASED PLOT TWIST.
guys i know your excited and all but not everyone immediately reads the new chapter so maybe use the spoiler option please
11565945
i always wondered why some people go to the comments first
Equestria died and the fact that she keeps arguing to give mercy to traitors and changelings is eventually gonna get her killed. Especially after Twilight. It is so on brand for someone to save Rarity only for her to turn around and complain about the way she was saved.
Interesting lines and a probable self report on what she really thinks. Looking forward to what she has to say.
Isn't this technically a self-own right here? I mean, she just admitted to taking a half-measure from her own machiavellian perspective. Ok, leave the youngest - they won't remember, but what about the older ones? She just gave herself the answer.
Future struggles and fighting might bring pain to her subjects she so dearly wants to defend and take care of but the pain is an excelent argument to keep on trolling.
Plus, Rarity does have a point regardles what Flurry throws against her. Philip II of Macedon conscripted the heirs of the noble houses during his early years as ruler and so subordinated the nobles. Rarity is just a scapegoat to frame everyone who thinks like her as a stubborn idealist without arguments that gets mad because rather then go for the fascists everyone around keeps complaining about the good guys.
She's a racist, its a joke guys...She's making a descriptive argument I know.
However Flurry transforming Equestria the way she is breaks ties with the tradition that made Equestria (be it naive or not, this building block is far different from what Flurry uses) and in all truthfulness she's a princess by name only. This title, the sound you make when you speak it has only sentimental value; aesthetic value that can be weaponized by the most present and understandable outlook considering the circumstances -> Nationalism that can instrumentalize any symbol regardless by whom it was used.
The ELF was a spiritual, mental you could say sequel to Equestria and it showed through their policies regarding the prisoners and collaborationists; by what Rarity tried to convey before being stopped by Rainbow; by the example of Flurry's retort towards Tempest about Flurry's movement not being what Starlight planned...
Flurry is a weird, Equestrian left-wing "nationalist" dictator with harmonic characteristics.
Not a princess binded by culture and vision.
11567309
When the leader of your country ends up an immortal horse-goddess, titles get confused. Griffons view "princess" as just another noble title, like with Lushi and Vedina, but on Equus, it carries a lot of almost spiritual and religious meaning. Flurry was a Princess of Ponies just for being born an alicorn, not because she was heir-apparent to the Crystal Empire. Imperials have the Crystal Heart to "worship" in a sense, but Equestrians have, uh, alicorns? Religion doesn't seem that important, which is fair because they have the immortal horse on the throne for a thousand years. It's a casual thing that's taken for granted, not Warhammer 40k.
Rarity represents "Old Equestrian" values, where Princesses don't do that even if they really could. That's not how it should work. Yeah, Flurry could revoke titles or conscript the kids or pull all kinds of other measures, but that's still "not how it should work in Equestria." Celestia exercised soft power, not ruling by the point of her horn, but she didn't have any checks on her authority. (That's the only way getting her sister back on a throne and releasing Discord works.)
The Diarchy ruled by majority consent. Ponies were fine with them having that authority because, well, they did a good job for the most part. And when Rarity looked around that room, she saw majority consent and it horrified her. It's been almost ten years of loss. Everypony alive has lost somepony to the war and the Hegemony, and Flurry's struggling to keep the situation from exploding into an outright "Kill All Changelings" scenario. Rarity does have a point, and so does Flurry.
11567309
The issue is, Equestria was already transformed, if it hadn't been most ponies wouldn't be okay with the way Flurry is doing things. Equestria has effectively been destroyed and pillaged and the ponies who have been oppressed by the changelings are reacting in a very realistic way.
Flurry has also been effected by the changelings, far more than say Celestia and Luna have, they fled the moment things got bad, so they can sit on their high horse and claim moral superiority when Ponies like Cadence, Flurry, and Twilight have suffered in this war. It doesn't make some of what Flurry plans to do okay, but when the population of your shattered country is calling for blood and you are just as angry as them it makes it incredibly hard not to give it to them.
11567343
The title still is associated with that period of Equestria ruled by "old values", the word may have a different meaning for Gryphons which is fine, nevertheless being a princess summons the memory of Luna and Celestia, (these two are the archetype) since the idea of what it means to be a princess was shaped by their ideology (what it should be). To be a princess is to be also a harmonist. Would the Caliph be a good illustration for this?
The princesses being the "religious" (The friendship lessons [parables]; being worthy of using the elements of harmony [incarnation of virtue]) and secular rulers (administrative function)
Flurry simply doesen't deserve to be called that. To be a princess (in the pony sense you presented) is to perform a social role which Flurry doesn't want to do - She is not like Celestia which she stated herself countless times now.
Which is why I believe Flurry unrightfully uses it. She just has power. There is no more Equestrian spirit because the changelings killed it and Flurry didn't find anything in its place (other then straw enthusiasm in the form of hope [hersef] (which is why hatred will take over because something must pour in - Didn't you make Spike an temporary example of this?) She is only a dictator. She doesn't have an idea, she only has a form.
TLDR:
I don't mean to say she's a dumb bitch for doing so, she is justified (by pragmatics) but not right.
Does that make some sense? This isn't also meant to be a critique I just had a thought in my head, from it I conceived my observation (it can be wrong and I could have forgotten something from the earlier chapters) If what I wrote seems to be shaped like a critique then I wholeheartly didn't mean to do that.
11567435
That is a good critique. Do keep in mind, Flurry's coup in Nova Griffonia to the present is roughly a six month time period. She went from "The Princess of Soup Kitchens" to an actual political force pretty quick. "Deserve" and "Right" to be called Princess is difficult to commodify. Flurry had the title for being born, and every alicorn had effectively three titles: Princess of Ponies, Princess of Equestria/the Crystal Empire, Princess of the Sun/the Moon, Friendship, Love. Do you get it for being born? Bloodline and lineage? Or a great deed? Or a crown? Even then, what happens when Friendship gets in the way of Equestria? (Tirek.) Or when Love conflicts with the Empire?
Flurry Heart knows she is not following what a Princess "should" be by the standards of her family and the past. She calls herself a terrible Princess pretty frequently. At the same time, Flurry is a Princess because ponies call her that. Even when they don't know her name, they know she's a Princess. In the aftermath of the battle, her army that was split and fragmented on what she was to them bowed to her, all of them. They accepted her as their Princess, and not as the Princess that Celestia was. The meaning is shifting.
Flurry introduces herself as "The Princess of Ponies" first, and sometimes that's the only title she gives. Even that's abstracted to her other subjects. Her griffons and yaks have seen her fight enough to know that she treats them equally. Same with Thorax and his changelings. Others might scoff at the "ponies in all but name" line, but it's true for her.
11567435
It's more complicated than that. By right and worth Flurry's title shouldn't be Princess, but Empress (of the Crystal Empire and The Ponies). I'm certain Flurry is aware of it, and that if she were to claim the Imperial Crown pretty much everyone who knows her or has seen her would accept it as legitimate. The interesting thing is that Flurry explicitly rejected the title, and if anything seems troubled by the notion that she resembles the Crystal Empresses of old whenever the thought crosses her mind. Flurry clearly has an idea of what a Princess is, or should be, and she prefers it to what an Empress is. The question then is what those images are and why she prefers one.
I believe its clear that, as far as Flurry is concerned, a Princess' primary task is to protect her subjects, not to be a harmonist. Therefore, irrespective of Celestia's and Luna's obvious part in defining what a Princess is meant to be and their many previous accomplishments in general, they simply abdicated the title when they stopped fighting and fled Equestria. Flurry fights for her ponies (like Twilight, like her mother) and so Flurry believes she has an infinitely stronger claim to the title than either Celestia or Luna, and those that disagree simply misunderstand what a Princess' role is.
And yet I also think it is undeniable that being a harmonist, at one level or another, is even to Flurry an important part of being a Princess. Here the ultimate paragon isn't Celestia, but Twilight, who fought until she could fight no more with uncompromising fervour. This is not so with an Empress, for while both the Princess and Empress protect her subjects, the later has no harmonious connotations. To the contrary, an Empress (or Kaiser...) might be a supremacist, a tyrant, an expansionistic warmonger, and yet so long as she defends and protects the Empire she would rightfully remain Empress.
We arrive then to the crux of my disagreement with your comment. For I believe that while Flurry is an Empress she aspires to be a Princess, and for that reason she rejects comparisons between herself and the Empresses of old while continuing to hold the title of Princess. She, in other words, does want to perform the social role of a Princess, as she understands it, and if she doesn't act as a harmonist it isn't out of disbelief in harmony but out of the primary convictions that desperate times call for desperate measures and that protecting her ponies comes before anything else (especially herself). She would like to be Twilight and she knows she can't be Twilight, and the conflict troubles her.
In the end, Flurry is an Empress, only a dictator, but I think that she would like to be a Princess.
A suprise Twist!
So if Chrysalis and Cozy got out...then perhaps Tirek will also make an appearance at some point?
11373490
I didn't see this coming،discord is one my favorite character in show and Jacques in this story, totally loved it .
But it would be better to not surprise in the comments.
11567531
She has the title because she was born with wings and horn.
She keeps the title because ponies believe in her. Majority consent.
We all read the parade chapter.
What word spilled from the city resident's mouths with near-religious fervor?
11568969
I was trying to approach the issue from Flurry's perspective, and I don't think she would consider either of those things (being an alicorn, adoration of the crowds) enough to deserve the title so I ignored them. Princess Amore would be the case to consider here: she had both, was she deserving of being a Princess?
But in general you're 100% correct:
In the end, that is undoubtedly why Flurry is worthy of the title of Princess.
11569220
Ohhh, I see your point.
11570105
You just started reading, be patient and enjoy the trip,cus so far I hadn't read anything like this.
"Oh we have the resources and population to recover - after all we built it in the first place - but I'd rather us be a puppet to Grover"
I dont think you understand how industry and an economy works.
This is no globalized trade Earth. Equestria isn't post-war France, or Germany. It has the size and resources to be entirely self sufficient - especially given the reduced population. And even then Europe would have recovered on it's on FINE. They did not NEED American help - it just sped it up which was in America interest as a rebuilt Europe was a counterbalance to a rising Soviet Union.
Debt will ONLY exist because you are forcing them to BUY THINGS FROM GRIFFONIA.
They do NOT NEED TO. You literally just wrote how currency had broke down and ponies were bartering. THERE IS NO CURRENCY, so how can they go into debt? They can rebuild their own stuff. EASILY, once the war ends.
You want Flurry and Equus to be subordinate to Grover SO BADLY you are literally ignoring basic logic.
Wood? They can't get down their own trees. Bricks? They can make their own clay. Concrete? Iron? Steel? Food? Rubber? Oil? THEY CAN MAKE IT ALL ON THEIR OWN. People will WORK to build their OWN homes. There is no currency! Everything can be done on barter and work-for-service and vice versa until it recovers enough to reintroduce currency.
They DO NOT NEED Griffonia! AT ALL!
They literally have abundant amounts of everything they need to rebuild.
But oh no. Would rather hand over everything to Grover for free while incurring debt for generations
11695040
There is no currency, true. However, in those cases, a society will quickly switch to a barter-based economy, which means debt still exists.
People don’t like working for nothing. That’s the unfortunate way of things.
11695040
The Marshall Plan, but you have to pay it back.
aw shit, i haven't gotten to the Cozy part of the show yet. Guess i'm gonna have to put a pause here and watch it.
11695040
You are ignoring the fact that part of the agreement includes the Griffonian army fighting which is absolutely crucial to beat the hegemony. Flurry is not wrong when she says Equestria is going to be a puppet if Flurry didn't agree to the terms Grover would've made another collaboration government which frankly would've probably had to give more concessions.
Plus there is the fact that a whole generation of ponies have only known war I mean it's gotten to the point where weapons are becoming cutie marks. This means a whole generation of uneducated people are going to be relying on Griffonian engineers to rebuild their nation. This also includes teachers cause it can be safely assumed that assuming the Hegemony followed pretty much any real world genocide the first people you target are the intelligentsia and any that survived that either died in the uprising or the following crackdowns.
And in terms of resource extraction that's about the only resource they have to sell and every penny of that is going to be paying Griffonia for their expertise and goods.
Tldr
So sure your correct in the fact that Equestria could recover on its own but Griffonia doesn't want that cause they want more customers and resources and secondly it would take longer thus prolonging the suffering of the ponies which Flurry doesn't want that and is willing to give away resources for guaranteed sovereignty.
Honestly rarity has a point
What a twist