The Kingdom of Hippogriffia, united under the royal line of Novo, was long the shining beacon of prosperity and progress. It was a land that lived in harmony with itself, where troubles were something that happened far away and abroad, but not there. A land where its monarchs ruled absolute - firm but fair, with many wise Kings and Queens coming to pass.
But those were days that now seemed long passed. The Storm King's invasion had forced upon Queen Novo a cowardly retreat, one that would forever embarass her as the sovereign of her subjects. It was a time where she, meant to be the bravest, wisest, most capable among both races, seemed the most undecided and incapable. It was the start of something greater. A time where the cracks began to show.
Now, years later, that story has only continued, running its predictable course. Hippogriffs and seaponies alike are fed up with a Queen who was a coward. A Queen that was incapable in times of true distress, but always active and resolute on matters that seemed artificial. They were tired and angry at a Queen that did nothing to adopt to a changing world.
And now, they were banging at the gates. Now, they would force the issue. Whether it be them or the Queen - something or someone had to give way.
Long live the Queen.
And now they're even more up shit creek without a paddle. Because democracy is a sham. I don't give it even a year before it collapses in anarchy and blood.
11369534
That's alright. They're aquatic-on-demand, after all, no issue here.
EMOTIONAL CRIT!
Democracy yeah
Very good fic will their be a sequel to this to see how equstria reacts to this
11369572
Most likely not. I wrote this as a stand-alone story so it's unlikely I'll delve much deeper past this point.
11369538
Won't save Novo when they come for her head. Literally. Seeing some similarities here between the Russian Revolution. Painfully obvious when you have some griffs using a certain symbol.
Or maybe I'm over thinking this 🤪.
11369578
I'll waive and leave it to your imagination.
11369534
Anarcho autonomous collective anyone?
11369588
Well I didn't vote for her.
11369578
In all fairness, Sky and Silver's plan was specifically intended to stop them from going full-on Russian Revolution.
It takes some real audacity to call a queen a coward when it’s confirmed canon that she personally chased down Tempest Shadow after stealing away the Pearl and throttled her against a wall.
Even in canon, Novo is a badass.
11369573
Darn.
But maybe in the future or at least at epilogue at how the equestrians reacted
11369631
Though that's true, the lasting memories are often the most recent, and the most recent thing from the whole Storm King debacle that people remember is how it wasn't Novo who led the charge back to the surface but a couple ponies and her daughter who unknowingly went behind the Queen's back.
And given that that *worked*, it's not a good look for Novo who was so adamant about languishing underwater while doing nothing.
But yes, Novo is awesome.
11369666
You can’t win them all. The choice was flee or be enslaved and Novo was always looking out for her people. Without being contacted by a foreign nation to form an alliance and create an army against the military power who occupied her home, Novo would be wise to choose subterfuge.
Not like Twilight gave her much reason to have faith in outsiders, but I guess that’s something people like you prefer to pretend never happened as long as it furthers your narrative vision. Selective memory, right?
I get this is an AU, but be more careful when you do a character like Novo dirty like this. Some adaptations strain suspension of disbelief too hard.
11369670
I'm not saying Novo made a bad (or outright the wrong) call when she had everyone evacuate to Seaquestria. As you said, that was probably the right move. However, in this story, the theory goes that the reason she didn't have an army in the field to face the Storm King with to begin with is due to self-imposed relative isolationism. They really didn't have many ties abroad and so only caught wind of the impending invasion way too late. Which, again, is something Novo ultimately received the blame for in this.
And while yes, Twilight did attempt to steal the pearl, she was also the one who brought down the Storm King in the end. In the context of this story - which takes place years after the movie, the fact Twilight was an attempted thief is more or less glossed over in comparison to her being a slayer of the Storm King, something that Skystar is equally praised for.
11369679
I’m not going to pursue this with you further, but don’t defend contentious aspects of an already polarizing film in an attempt to justify the plot of a story. Bad canon is supposed to be scrutinized, not doubled down on.
11369681
Uh, sorry? I guess?
🤷
Democracy. The biggest joke
11369682
This is a beautiful story. You should be proud of it. Fantastic job, I'm adding it to the Favorites Tab immediately!
11369942
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed
th.bing.com/th/id/R.a4ce4a46be04c2c7277720e098f35079?rik=p7%2bxx4%2b5OVrPcw&pid=ImgRaw&r=0
Where'd they get that idea anyway? The nation ruled by an ageless immortal monarch with what appears to be an honest-to-God court of nobles around her?
Remember, light attack heavy cruisers and naval refitting is key to winning the NZW
Wait a minute this is fimfiction not #playing-hoi4
11369631
Who ultimately contributed nothing to stopping the Storm King. I agree, it doesn't matter in the end, but just saying.
11370447
Too many don’t want to understand that there are often times where there’s no right answer for a ruler. Where even the best and most competent and beloved monarchs have to make impossible choices. The ones who don't get this concept being the kind of people who don’t read between the lines and take the climax of Undertale’s Pacifist route at face value. Morton’s Fork at work, where the public should try to be understanding of the situation instead of grabbing torches and pitchforks. I don’t think the author understands this and is exaggerating the issue for the sake of the plot. Which is not at all a commendable storytelling practice. Considering the relations between Novo and her people by season 8, I have no idea if this story is completely serious or is an act of satire.
If you’re going to like this story in spite of that, more power to you. But it doesn’t get a pass from me.
11370472
I've literally been telling you - multiple times in fact - that the story is not portraying some objective right or wrong. Novo herself literally thinks to herself that what she did was the right thing, or that, at worst, it was the fault of her privy councillors who advised her to evacuate to Seaquestria.
What I've been telling you is that public opinion is seldom shaped by facts and logic alone, and in cases like how they are presented in my story above, the Storm King thing is literally just the foundation atop which a whole construct of issues is built upon. All of these issues that people have are things that they blame Novo for; because she is an autocratic, absolutist monarch. If something happens, or does not happen, then that is ultimately due to her action or inaction. That is literally how the Russian royal family got into hot water and, eventually, was toppled - because they had none to blame but themselves when everything went awry.
Is Novo a self-loving despot? Is she actually corrupt or incompetent? Frankly, no. But she isn't perfect either, and neither is the public shouting for her to be overthrown. When you're being overworked or mistreated by your landlord or boss, when you're poor or homeless - it's easy to point to the sole individual who has political power in the nation to actually amend your rights, but somehow, for one reason or another, has not done so thus far.
In short? The whole scenario presented here is the result of emotions boiling over on both ends of the spectrum. The public feels unsupported by the one person who can actually help them improve life by passing decrees, while Novo reacts to open dissent as if the people are forsaking the traditional way of life of her people - harmony, peace, and so forth. She doesn't trust in what they say, which only worsens when they go a step further and demand her to be toppled outright.
For someone who is shaming me - under my own story might I add - for supposedly failing to represent that 'sometimes there are no right answers for a Ruler', you sure seem to love the idea that Novo is some gigachad who suplexed Tempest and single-handedly defended the Kingdom and the Ponies were all just bumbling idiots that no hippogriff would pay attention to. You paint your own one-dimensional portrait of her while shaming me for doing so? And I'm not even doing so.
This piece of writing is more than eight-thousand words in length, and not only is the conflict between right and wrong - or the absence of a simple right or wrong - brought up, but it is done repeatedly so, up until the very end before Novo's pen meets paper.
If you hate the MLP Movie - do it. If you think Novo is awesome - more power to you, man. But for the love of all that is holy, please stop pretending I, or my story here, are some bogeyman you need to defeat with facts and logic. You've already stated you wanted to call it quits, yet you've failed to uphold that for even a day.
I shouldn't have even bothered to reply, honestly, but frankly I don't take kind to outright trashtalking/insults towards myself and my work right underneath said work. Stop talking. I beg of you for your own sake. Judging by the downvotes on all your comments prior alone, I can safely say you look like a clown to everyone involved.
11370494
I don't necessarily agree with some of Humanity's points, but I feel like that "clown" bit at the end was a bit too far.
11370578
It probably was. Apologies for the outburst and rant, in any case. I'm still sick, as I have been all week so far, and reading his stuff has not been a great moodsetter, to say the least.
11369631
It's also takes some real audacity to come into a story clearly tagged "AU" - a story format that can literally be defined by the term "Anything goes" - and start screeching that they're doing the character wrong.
And yet here you are.
11370601
While I don't disagree with you, for the sake of restoring the peace in this comment section I'd say to just leave them be. I don't want to wake up to another comment of his tomorrow if it can be helped. He said he was done, so I suppose I would rather want to respect that.
11370601
This story did it for me, so excuse me for having the capacity for that.
11370447
Oh yeah, she totally didn't--I was actually thinking about this at work today. Twilight may have tried to steal the pearl from her, but that only happened after first pleading her case to Novo and having Novo, in effect, reply: "Whelp, sucks to be you. Anyway, I got a spa date to be at, so see-ya!"...thus basically signalling that she, at a time Twilight thought her to be her last hope, had no intention of ever helping at any level (except to suggest she run and hide as she and the hippogriffs had)...so in turn Twilight acted out of desperation.
Not that I'm trying to justify Twilight's response here as right because it wasn't (as the movie proves, her friends had the far better plan, obviously). But nonetheless I always thought Novo's attitude in all of this still made her seem arrogant, a little selfish, and kinda a coward even, since, yes, she'd led her people into hiding so to protect them against a threat they weren't prepared to fight off...but then seemingly did absolutely nothing to try and change those circumstances so they could come back out of hiding for--if the implications of Silverstream's comments on the matter are anything to go by--some years, time that should've been more than enough to rally together the forces and resources needed to at least try and take back some of what they'd lost. Instead, she just sat on her throne and decided that this was their life now, preferring to surrender territory than try and take the risk to fight back in anyway. So of the two, I personally would sooner praise Skystar, because it was she who saw the benefits of allying with Equestria (or literally anyone who actively opposed the Storm King), determined the benefits outweighed the risks, and was actually proactive enough to actually do something to not just change their circumstances, but to win back what they had lost.
And then was swiftly grounded for it, because she'd gone behind Novo's back, defying her authority on the matter.
Now I admit I haven't actually read this fic yet, and on top of that I concede there may be more valid details and explanations for why Novo did what she did that even canon doesn't get into...but even without that, I can see how the hippogriff public might have a bone to pick with her because of all this, because there honestly is an argument to be made for it. Does that necessarily make her a bad leader altogether? No. But it doesn't exactly make her the best leader either, nor does it rule out the possibility that there are better creatures than her for the job too.
11370728
Movie suggests they had been previously allied with Equestria, and that's where my issue lies. Novo was the go to for the Princesses should the Storm King appear, and she did nothing to honor whatever agreement had been made between them. Granted, it doesn't really matter in the end since Novo comes to the party and Celestia greets her without issue. Nonetheless, her being a personal gigachad/badass who did the right thing for her people doesn't change the fact that she hid her people away for years as other kingdoms fell with no prior warning. I have to suspend quite a bit of disbelief to accept that nobody gave a crap about it, but this is the movie and the later seasons we're talking about.
Speaking of gigachad moments, it does beg the question of why, if Novo was able to chase down and defeat Tempest (making her more capable than all the princesses put together), didn't she use the Pearl to capture or incapacitate Tempest? It would have crippled the Storm King's fleet, and possibly spared Equestria's invasion. Considering that sparing Tempest didn't compromise their secrecy, Novo would have had nothing to lose.
11370889
I think you’re giving the writers way too much credit. If she had done that, there wouldn’t have been a movie and Hasbro would’ve missed out on profits.
11370897
Indeed, but including it just ends up making her character look worse.
11370908
She’s not the only one whose character was tarnished by Hasbro’s greed. Virtually every character in the series is a victim of fundamentally flawed writing.
I shall read this some day! Fluff movie canon!
11370889
Now I'll preamble this with the fact that I personally don't bother with the comics much.
But I always understood the relationship between Novo and Celestia as more of a distant relationship, rather than an alliance. Given what we see in the movie - a trek across the countryside, the desert, then a lengthy journey by air - it would be very hard to maintain a proper alliance with the Hippogriffs given their location/distance from Canterlot since we are frequently made to assume instant messaging is not a thing (except when it is and Alicorns just teleport scrolls for people to instantly receive).
As for the Tempest Shadow thing? I haven't read the exact scene(s) but the way I understand it, the theft was attempted prior to the Storm King's proper invasion. Novo found out about the attempted theft and stopped it (contrary to popular belief this shouldn't be very hard against a singular pony, though I know we are all paralyzed by whatever Celestia and Luna let happen sometimes). Just from her throne room in Seaquestria alone, we can evidently see that Novo has a sizeable retinue of royal guards ready to defend her and swarm out to tackle intruders - which is exactly what they do when the Mane 6 arrive. We see this continued into the show canon too, where we see the Hippogriffs frequently celebrate events while wearing metal armour during contests of martial strength, which means they are supposedly not strangers to combat - again lending strength to the argument that Novo had capable troops to help her tackle such a thief.
And yet, when the pearl was recovered, the shock of even so much as the attempt was probably so big, everyone around Queen Novo probably agreed that they could not possibly risk it falling into enemy hands, or being destroyed simply. It was not just their emergency lifeline but also a integral part of their cultural way of life, allowing seaponies and hippogriffs to be one or the other. Without it, they would be two separate people.
I'd like to think that a good comparison would be someone trying to steal the crown jewels of the UK, except that without the crown jewels, the whole Commonwealth and Union would immediately break apart. To say that such an item would be tremendously important is an understatement, and if Queen Novo didn't fear the Storm King's invasion due to a fear of being too weak militarily, then she certainly did fear it because she was afraid of the pearl being destroyed or snatched away.
What has this thread become? Like, wth?
Come on guys, keep it wholesome. Communism, yeah!
Great story! I love an Equestria with a little political intrigue. The show has such a well realized world with different races and kingdoms; fics like this involving the monarchs fit like a glove
This was quite a nice story and this version of Novo has at least shown to so much disconnected from her subjects that she really should abdicate.
11369538
Aquatic on demand... So what? DO you think GOVERNMENT won't FOLLOW them. Sunrise said that their LEADERSHIP will collapse in a mess of different creatures saying this and that, and generally disagreeing with each other. Your really think that when hyppogriphs turn democratic they will be able to escape the STRUCTURE? It's like running from the country, while TAKING the country WITH you.
11370728
While you raise good points, your bashing of Twilight is not correct. Twilight had to basically work AGAINST her friends. You read it right. Flee onto ship, Pinkie will jump on roap, and will plummet to her death. Twilight saves her, and what happens? Pinkie treats it as a JOYRIDE, not a real LIFE THREATEING situation. Make way quetly in clouds, Rainbow will fix it, and tell the enemy were they are exactly with Sonic Rainboom.
Twilight has to work OVERTIME to SAVE them, REPEATEDLY. While her friends dance and sing. SHould I remind you that Celestia, Luna and Cadance has been turned to stone right in front of her eyes?
So yeah, you try to do better, when her LAST HOPE, a Hyppogryph allience basically says: "yeah, we can do a SMALL FAVOR". Twilight literally had no choice, she had to have something, ANYTHING to give her an edge.
11774359
And here I thought I was more bashing Novo than anything, if bashing anyone at all.
...I was bashing Twilight?
11774365
1) First of all, I swear I was anwsering a comment where a person said Twilight did bad, Novo did good.
2) If I am to anwser to THIS comment, I would disagre with only ONE thing.
Her friends did not HAVE a plan. They were singing and dancing, and Twilight had to work extra hard to save them multiple times. Twilight had a SINGLE plan, which was shattered because Novo was not willing to help them. So Twilight decided: "what the tartarus, my mentor(Celestia), friend(Luna) and "sister-in-law"(Cadance) are all in stone, my country is burning, I have nothing left to lose, and everything to win, let me try to steal that artifact. Hopefully I'll live to see the day where I'm arrested"...
Because at that point in time Twilight have TWO choices:
1) Go home. No help is coming. ANd she won't be able to fight Storm King's armies without SOME kind of boost.
2) Go ALL IN. Try to steal the pearl. Because they already lost enough time, and trying to argue, which might fail, is just wasting more time.
11774375
The problem with that assumption is that Twilight risked it all foolishly without much of a plan either, clearly not even much on how she was going to take the pearl, and ended up nearly loosing it all AND the only potential ally she still had access to left, and ultimately walked away with nothing because of it. She not only definitively lost Novo's support, it rattled the support she had in her friends as well, something she couldn't really afford to loose at that point, helpful or not. Whether or not we decide her motives for doing so were right, she ended up loosing more than it gained her, so I don't know if I'd really call it the "better" plan as a result.
And I'd argue that the rest of the Mane 6's actions were helpful, because they may have been "singing and dancing" as you say, but that singing and dancing was winning over the majority favor of the other seaponies, enough that it was looking to easily have been enough to pressure Novo into assisting anyway had Twilight waited just a little longer to let it play out, and it DID win over Skystar regardless, who, because of the rest of the Mane 6's show of friendship, decided to openly defy Novo's command and throw her lot in with the Mane 6, gaining them a valuable ally who did indeed notably help them in taking back Equestria. So that "singing and dancing" definitely wasn't a mere "waste of time," there was an actually method to their supposed madness there.
Heck, it can be argued that "singing and dancing" was part of what helped gain the Mane 6 the other allies that helped them in the final fight in the form of the sky pirates and Capper.
So yeah, I totally get why Twilight did what she did. But I also can see how, of the options available to her, the one she took may not have actually been the best one, or at least definitely not the ONLY one, because it seems to me that her friends were onto something doing what they did (which scans, since this was obviously the big theme of the film overall). But she didn't, so we'll never know for sure now, will we?
11774388
You are ignoring some things.
1) Her FREINDS lost support of Twilight, as they never ONCE took the whole travel seriously.
2) Twilight didn't have TIME to ASK or BEG for Queen Novo to support her.
How long did it take for them to travel from Canterlot to Seaquestria? I heard people saying it was about 3 days, despite either Storm King KEEPING day, or there being cuts in the movie.
I repeat, again. You try saving your "friend's" asses, when they do not take a threat seriosuly. Your president and vice president are gone, and your whole country is in flames. Then arrive to a hope of a solution or help. Then have the negotieations END without BEGINNING. Queen Novo said "small favor". Are you willing to take this SMALL FAVOR when your country BURNS?
At most I guess a small favor is escorting the mane 6 back to surface. That's IT.
Yeah, it helped. But mane 5 didn't PLAN it. They were having FUN.
There are too many things that did Novo NO good. And while Twilight could have done something better, she was at her wits END. Should I repeat that? She saved her friends, when they were having FUN. She then was DENIED HELP.
What choice for HER was LEFT? Tell me THAT!
11774397
Well, I guess all I'll say to that at this point is to point out that, were it not for Twilight's friends, Twilight's way would've only GUARANTEED them losing in the end, because as I already pointed out, right or wrong, she gambled it ALL on stealing the pearl, failed, and walked away with less than she had starting out, which hadn't been much at all to begin with. And then was swiftly captured by Tempest, so if her friends hadn't come along to bail her and the rest of Equestria out again, well...G4 would've ended a few seasons sooner than it did, I think.
Whether Twilight was ethically right or wrong to have done what she did when she did clearly depends on the person. But I certainly wouldn't call it the praiseworthy option, and it definitely wouldn't have gotten her allies, even if the ploy HAD worked. If anything, she would've only given Equestria another enemy to worry about in the form of the seaponies, because her actions would've drawn their wrath.
And I don't know about the time issue, because I both think Twilight and company had both MORE time to act than you credit, and would've needed LESS time than you credit to eventually sway over Seaquestria. Because as I already pointed out, they didn't need to focus on swaying over Novo specifically so much if they've already swayed over most to all of her subjects to the point she'd probably face open rebellion if she didn't concede, and the gang were definitely doing that much.
11774407
They LUCKED OUT. Because writers "said so". Or because "Harmony wills it". Or whatever. Twilight's friends had NOTHING going for them. It was TWILIGHT who had a DIRECTION, and saved THEM again, and AGAIN. So no. I consider this one of the trash episodes.
"Wouldn't hag gotten allies". Guess what? She didn't HAVE them. They were either not good enough to fight the whole Stomr army, or they turned her down. So no, Twilight did NOT have allies to lose.
Again, you assume that Twilight's friends had a PLAN to sway Novo's subjects or whatever. No, they sang and danced, and whatever "swaying" was done, it was unintentional. The one time they wanted to sway the pirate parrots - Rainbow did a Rainboom. Which made Twilight work OVERTIME to save them from MIDAIR.
So no, I'm not impressed by Novo, or Twilight's friends in that movie.
Basically, what did even change? They got a single pirate crew, a con artist, and a runaway loyalty. They still had to do basically ALL the heavy lifting THEMSELVES. And when Novo comes in what happens? "You're grounded". This pisses me off the MOST.
Her daughter runs away, and helps topple the one enemy that had her covering under water. What does she do? Punishes her.
WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT?!?!?!