Chapter 15: Impressions
~~~Canterlot Castle Courtyard, Canterlot, 4 days and 17 hours after the Ambush at Equus~~~
The sounds of sparring once again filled the morning air of the Canterlot training grounds. It was the last day that Grievous would personally oversee the training of the Royal Guard’s best before letting them retell his lessons to the lesser soldiers. In the couple of days he had been involved, he had seen significant improvement in the soldiers’ capabilities. It was evident that they had been sorely inexperienced in combat before, but now they were displaying substantial prowess.
Currently, he had his small contingent of units engaged in a free-for-all mosh pit, with free reign to wail on each other as hard as they wanted. In fact, Grievous was encouraging that. It would only make them better in the end.
Princess Celestia had also come out shortly after they had begun; presumably to oversee the training, though she hadn’t given her reason for it. Grievous assumed that it was to make sure things were to her satisfaction before moving on to the next phase of overhauling the Royal Guard and left it at that.
He had earlier staked out a sizable ring which was to be the bounds of their battlefield. The pegasi had been told to fly no higher than Grievous’s height for the sake of fairness and to teach them to not be completely dependent on that ability. But other than those couple of stipulations, he had imposed no further rules.
As the soldiers sparred, Grievous and Celestia paced around the border of the field, observing and occasionally offering pieces of advice to a soldier that was struggling. He and Celestia -after some initial reluctance- also wielded training spears and would occasionally take light swings at ponies that were camping around the edge or were simply not paying attention, telling those swung at to watch their backs. The presence of their princess seemed to pressure the guards into performing at their highest potential.
The exercise had been proceeding for a half hour by now, and after another half hour, a good number of the soldiers were growing weary. The sun was a good degree above the horizon and filled the field with an uncomfortable heat. “Soldiers!” Grievous announced. The ones near him immediately retreated from the circle and snapped to attention, while the others who were still engaged took another second or two to register the command. Still, though, they demonstrated a high level of discipline. He had Shining Armor to thank for that. As they did that, Celestia dropped her spear and backed away from the ring a respectable distance.
“Take a break; get some water,” Grievous issued to the sweat-stained soldiers, and they eagerly complied. Or, most of them did. A few of them exchanged a few more friendly blows with each other, and an unfortunate couple simply collapsed, having received quite a hefty beating. Others quickly came to their aid with water, finding the injuries only temporary. And one particularly brave pony approached Grievous directly.
Despite the length of time he had been around the ponies, he had no doubt that he frightened them, though most did an outstanding job of not displaying it. He was designed to intimidate, after all, and was known to be aggressive. As such, very few ponies ever willfully approached him -the Princesses, Shining Armor, Twilight, and her friends excepting Fluttershy being the only ones he could think of.
“Captain Grievous,” the pony said, removing her helmet and dropping into a one legged bow when she neared him.
“At ease; there’s no need to bow,” Grievous replied. “What is it?”
The short earth pony stood as commanded and looked up to him, shaking her long, blood red mane out of her eyes. “I’m looking to see if maybe you had any advice for me. That is, if you were watching. You probably weren’t, but I can hope.”
Fortunately for the mare, Grievous had noticed her in the brawl. Though he didn’t know her name, her stature made her difficult to not notice, being a good head and a half shorter than the other soldiers around. She had stuck to the middle of the circle along with many of the other earth ponies, which had made her an easy target for the other larger, stronger earth ponies. The nicks in her armor and welts on her legs proved that.
As a whole, though, Grievous noted that the earth ponies were severely disadvantaged. The more maneuverable unicorns easily made their way to the edge of the circle, and magicked their weapons with a level of dexterity that rivaled Grievous’s. Meanwhile, the earth ponies simply couldn’t reach the pegasi, and were easily susceptible to dive-bombs.
The mare had one distinct advantage, though. “Since you’re short, going for your opponent’s legs may be easier than it would be for most. You’re also more difficult for pegasi to reach. Surround yourself with taller targets for them to hit and you should find things easier.”
“Alright, Captain, I’ll try that,” the mare replied. “Any other suggestions?”
“I would have to observe your fighting more closely,” he answered. “You should go drink some water now.” The mare complied and regrouped with the remainder of the now mingling soldiers.
Grievous stepped away and gave the guards their space as they took their break, and took to monitoring his forces’ communications. He had his droids primarily focused on locating Republic forces on the planet, particularly the ones that had wiped out the first division of unit dispatched to Las Pegasus, but their efforts had been fruitless thus far. The only enlightening information his forces had been able to glean was that there had been no evidence of lightsaber usage, meaning it was unlikely that any Jedi had made it on-world, though Count Dooku had already voiced suspicions that that would be the case.
With no new information about the Republic to be informed of, Grievous returned his focus to the ponies around him, in time to give his attention to Celestia who had made her way to his side. She greeted him with a warm smile, then averted her gaze to her troops.
“We are honored that you have joined us, your highness,” said Grievous, also looking around the soldiers.
“I am glad to have been able to see how formidable my forces have become firsthand,” Celestia replied. “The hope was never for them to fight, but seeing that they would be able to if need be is comforting.”
“So you are satisfied with their performance?” Grievous asked hopefully, peering down to her. She didn’t meet his gaze, but answered with a slight nod of approval. “They will be happy to know that their efforts haven’t been in vain.”
There was slight trepidation in Celestia’s voice as she quietly said, “I do hope that their new skills don’t cause them to behave aggressively.”
Grievous gave a short amused chuckle, defending, “These soldiers are some of the most disciplined I’ve ever encountered, rivaling even the Republic’s clones. I don’t see it likely that Shining Armor’s instruction will be ignored.”
“I trust that that’s the case,” Celestia replied, finally looking to Grievous and giving him another smile.
Something behind where she and Grievous stood caught her attention. Grievous traced her gaze to the thing in question, and he recognized the approaching figure as one of his tactical droids. Its body was bulkier and more square than that of the regular battle droid, and its lower arms and legs were much weightier and more cylindrical than the standard B1’s. Most distinguishing, however, was its squat, squarish head with a visor-like protrusion above its red semicircular eyes and bill-like mouth. It had something clutched in its hand.
“I haven’t seen any droids like that around,” Celestia noted.
Grievous’s eyes narrowed angrily at the droid. “Indeed you haven’t. Of all the scrap in my army, tactical droids are the most grating. I didn’t order this one down here.”
“Do you like any of your droids?” Celestia jokingly asked.
“That would be a solid ‘no’,” Grievous answered. The two of them continued to watch in silence as the droid neared with no seemingly no sense of hurry. “Tactical droids are built for computation, not for battle, so their servos move more slowly than some other droids’,” he decided to add once the tactical droid finally got within yelling distance of them. At that distance, Grievous was able to make out the item it was holding: a hologram projector like the one magnetized to his waist.
The tactical droid came to a stop when it was a few paces away from Grievous and Celestia. It extended out its arm revealing the hologram projector, announcing in a soulless, monotone voice, “General, Count Dooku will have a word with you.”
He could have just contacted me directly, Grievous thought, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion just as a small blue image of Dooku appeared above the projector, body completely covered in his cloak.
Dooku began speaking before Grievous could continue speculating. “Grievous,” he began with a menacing tone, “it has been more than three days now since you’ve made contact with the Equestrians, but you’ve yet to report any progress regarding your negotiations with Princess Celestia. In fact, I’ve heard of no such negotiations at all as of yet.” In a low voice, he added, “I expected better results from you.”
“If I may be so bold, Master, perhaps you should have sent a politician to deal with the politics? Regardless, there has been progress towards an alliance,” Grievous defended. “As you know, I’m currently the acting Captain of Equestria’s Royal Guard.”
“I’m well aware of that fact,” stated Dooku. “And it has become a great concern; spending all of your time with this Royal Guard, it seems you’ve forgotten the reason you’re there in the first place.”
Grievous bowed his head apologetically. “I have not forgotten. Forgive me for the delay; today was the last day that I was to oversee the Royal Guard, though, and I will negotiate with Celestia as soon as possible.”
“It seems that she is present, so hopefully that time will be soon,” Dooku mused, momentarily flicking his gaze to Celestia before focusing again on Grievous. “But I don’t need excuses, General; I need results,” he scolded, expression growing fierce. “That is why today will not only be your final day overseeing the Royal Guard, but your fleet as well.”
On hearing that, Grievous raised his head in alarm, and even Celestia cocked her brow in curiosity.
“You are being stripped of all military responsibilities until I hear you report some good news from your negotiations.”
Grievous stood stunned for several seconds. He seemed calm then, but Celestia could see the fury building in his eyes. “And who will take my place!?” Grievous eventually burst out angrily, catching the attention of several of the guards, who as a whole had only taken minor notice of the conversation.
Dooku, unfazed by Grievous’s outburst, calmly said, “I leave command of your fleet and of the Royal Guard to the capable hands of this tactical droid.” The hologram gestured behind itself with a wave of its hand to the tactical droid who had thus far been still and silent.
“You would have me replaced by some droid!?” Grievous yelled.
“I would expect you learn your place and obey my commands,” Dooku firmly rebuked, hiding his hand back under his cloak.
“Pardon the interruption,” Celestia gently cut in, earning the attention of Dooku and Grievous. With her tone suddenly becoming stern, she continued, “but I’m curious to know where you got the idea that it’s your place to determine who leads my Royal Guard. It seems to me like that would be my decision.”
There was a tense moment of silence as Celestia stared down Dooku’s hologram with an unwavering stern glare. Dooku’s eyes narrowed as he carefully contemplated his next few words, and Grievous looked back and forth between them, waiting for either of them to speak. “Apologies, your highness,” Dooku finally said. “It was not my intention to impose. I was under the assumption that by giving your forces over to Grievous, my subordinate, that I would also have some say in the matter. Clearly I’ve overstepped my bounds, and for that I am sorry.”
“I can forgive your misunderstanding this time, Count,” Celestia replied, relaxing slightly. “Note that this arrangement was between myself and Grievous, not your CIS, and it would do our relationship well for you to recognize that distinction in the future.”
“I don’t like to hear of Grievous making deals behind my back,” Dooku muttered.
Her tone becoming more gentle, Celestia said, “However, I’ll respect your wish to remove General Grievous of his military duties and will find a replacement for him. A replacement of my choice.”
“Then I have nothing more to discuss,” Dooku announced with finality. “Good day, your highness.” With that the hologram vanished and the tactical droid turned to leave.
By this point, many of the nearby soldiers had long since been done with their break and had been watching the scene unfold with curiosity, though they were too distant to hear anything except for the most loudly stated proclamations. When the tactical droid had finally left and Grievous had finally redirected his attention to the Guard, the antsy soldiers were surprised to see him wave them off and announce that they were dismissed.
An awkward silence hung about the training grounds as Grievous and Celestia watched the now off-duty soldiers gather their belongings and file out of the area. As they did that, Grievous attempted to communicate with one of the droids stationed in Canterlot. To his partial surprise, he found his communications being jammed, and was met only with static. It was only partially surprising in that, while it was the obvious move to keep Grievous out of the goings-on of his units and focused on Equestria, it nonetheless still seemed extreme.
When the last of the soldiers had departed, Celestia too made her way towards the castle proper, though at a very leisurely pace, with Grievous in tow. “Your Count Dooku made quite the assumption, didn’t he?” Celestia eventually asked, her expression belying an overall unhappy mood.
“Don’t hold it against him, Princess; things usually work like that in our galaxy, and it’s only natural for him to expect something similar here,” Grievous tried to defend.
“The decision-makers in your galaxy must be very weak-willed, then, to allow somepony outside of an arrangement that much influence.” She sighed, then, and faced Grievous, bearing a slightly less melancholy look. “There’s a certain irony this whole situation: I was nearly finished formulating some terms for this alliance he wishes to spark, but after the sour impression that he’s left, perhaps I was planning on being a bit too generous.”
Nothing came to mind for a reply, so Grievous simply gave Celestia an awkward nod and a shrug.
Celestia resumed her casual trot, the former Captain falling in a pace behind her. “I hope you can forgive me for revoking your position here,” Celestia said as they neared the large wooden doors of the castle.
“As you said, it’s your decision,” Grievous answered, a hint of disappointment saturating his tone.
It did not go left undetected by the perceptive Princess. “Understand, please, that I’m complying with Count Dooku on this because, with how agitated he seemed, I fear that there would be dire consequences for you if you were to disobey him so blatantly.”
“There would be, yes,” Grievous confirmed. “But, that shouldn’t be any of your concern.”
They had finally reached the doorway, where Celestia used her magic to pry the well-oiled, moderately sized door open. Grievous stepped forward to pull the door open the rest of the way and let Celestia pass. She issued him a smile as she crossed the threshold, which was littered with dirt tracked in from the soldiers. When she had entered, Grievous followed suit, keeping his hand on the door behind him to slow it so that it didn’t slam shut.
The doorway had led them to room where three hallways intersected, one to each the left and right of the door and one directly before it. The hall to the left Grievous knew from experience would eventually lead to the room he was staying in, and the pattern of dirt left behind indicated that most of the soldiers had gone straight ahead. Presumably, the barracks were reached through there; presumably, as Grievous hadn’t fully memorized the layout of the castle yet. As for what lay down the righthand hall, Grievous had no immediate ideas. Celestia took the hall to the left, however, and Grievous was glad to take the familiar path.
After a few more moments of silence, Celestia continued the conversation, asking, “Do you see me as a friend, Grievous?”
The question caught Grievous off guard, but once he had registered it, there was no hesitation when he answered, “Of course, your highness.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” she said, skipping a step so that she walked by Grievous’s side. “I see you as my friend, too. And my friends needn’t be formal with me, not at times like now where it’s just me and my friends.”
Grievous looked down to her, mildly curious to hear where she was going with her point.
“I care about your well-being, Grievous; we couldn’t be friends otherwise.”
You...care? A sudden sadness washed over Grievous, and he tore his gaze away from Celestia to the cold tiles on the floor in front of him. He knew that he shouldn’t have been affected so deeply by Celestia’s word -she probably hadn’t meant them to be that deep- but in that moment, he remembered something he had long forgotten: the feeling of being cared for, and having someone for which to care; things he’d lost long ago and that the cold, soulless droids that had been his company since couldn’t even begin to fulfill. He wanted those back.
This shift in demeanor lasted only for an instant before his usual stoic self returned with a new topic for discussion. “May I make one final request of you as Captain of the Royal Guard?” Celestia gave him a curious glance, but assented with a nod. “I would ask that you reinstate Shining Armor as Captain as soon as possible.”
“Really?” Celestia asked with genuine surprise. “As soon as possible, you say?”
The two of them rounded a corner in the hallway, nearly running down one of the castle’s many housekeepers coming from the other side of the bend. The housekeeper, wielding a broom and dustpan, shoved herself along one of the walls, giving Celestia ample room to pass, though the Princess did the same for the housekeeper, and with a friendly smile, urged her to move along first. When she had scurried by, Celestia and Grievous resumed their wander through the castle’s veins.
“Despite our different approaches to matter,” Grievous began to explain himself, “I can still recognize Shining Armor’s capacity for leadership. He’s the only soldier I know of qualified for the position.”
“I will consider your request, then, Grievous,” Celestia agreed. “Prince Armor does have a wife, though, and he’s at least earned the time off to go see her.”
After a moment of consideration, Celestia offered the idea, “I’ll write to him and inform him that if he wishes to return to the position early, he may.”
“And in the meantime?”
A spiral staircase came up on their left, a staircase Grievous was familiar with as the one that eventually came to the wing of the castle where his room and those of the Princesses were located. Celestia began to ascend, and of course, Grievous did the same.
“In the meantime, there’s a soldier that you don’t know of who I know is qualified: the Captain of Luna’s Night Guard.”
“You have another army!?” Grievous was perplexed; why had he not heard of this earlier?
Celestia chuckled. “I don’t; Luna does.” Turning serious, she added, “Though, the nature of the Night Guard is largely unknown to me. Luna hasn’t divulged their secrets to anypony. Nopony but her knows where they stay, nor how or why they came to serve her; they even disappeared completely during the time Luna was banished. But for all I care, they can keep their secrets so long as they keep my sister safe.”
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Yay, it's back!
And Dooku's response seems really disproportionate. Taking your best general out of command because he has done what he's not good at in a mere three days? Is there some deeper plan, or is he just extremely impatient? The latter seems out of character for the Count.
6098330 Grievous only has a short window of time that he can be in Equestria before he's needed at the front lines again, and he's spent about half of that time already with virtually no progress. So yeah, Dooku's being impatient, but it's not just for the sake of being impatient; that I would definitely see as out of character. As there are other factors behind Dooku's actions, though, I don't find his reaction to be out of character (or I wouldn't have written it), but hey, that's just me. Maybe you're still unconvinced.
Yay update! Hope this starts the ball rolling :)
6102186 All aboard! We're setting sail for parts unknown in this story! I admit we may sink before the journey's end but we can all sink knowing that we tried.
6102357 6102186 Navigator Lego here, promising to navigate us through these treacherous waters as best as possible.
6104277 think this ship'll make it Navigator?
6105688 I'm not entirely sure, Captain. There are many factors at play, and the Republic is unpredictable; who knows if they'd strike us down for our CIS affiliations.
On another note, might I propose modifying our vessel's name slightly to the H.M.S Celetivous? To me, at least, it sounds better and is a bit more indicative of its cargo.
6105805 uhm yes! I'm sorry I don't know much about ships I was the only one in the office when the voyage was announced. Anyway, ahem, REPUBLIC DOGS!... I kinda hope that there's gonna be fan art of this XD
6106066 Fan art would be great! I'd draw some myself, but...well, there's a reason I'm doing this and not that.
Calling forth all ye landlubbing artsy people, we need Celestivous images on the double!
I guess I'm a pirate now.
6106732 I can see the ship being completed with each chapter I read XD it's bloody adorable! Would be awkward if they tried anything intimate though. Grievous comes equipped for many things but not that XD.
6107926 He just needs a hardware update... no problem then!
6108426 True, but...I don't know how well Grievous would take things presented like that; sounds very much like he's a droid, and he's a little sensitive about that.
6108976 I guess there's always strap ons... If there's fan art of that I'll die laughing XD
6109565 The internet is a strange place...I'm sure it exists.
6110752 if that's the case I can guarantee at least one person who reads this story will have seen this legendary picture/pictures.
Nice. Happy to see this back in action.
Good to see it back! Are there any legends books that explore grievous's compassionate/organic side? Cause all The Clone Wars (the 3d one) does is show him as a weekly saturday scooby doo villain that is easy to beat and unfortunately Clone Wars (2d one) is no longer cannon.
6155161 The backstory Grievous explained to Celestia and Luna originated from some comic book (albeit in my story, he tells things from his perspective, meaning that while he blames the Jedi for bombing his ship and killing the Izvorsha (I think that's how it's spelled off the top of my head) where in reality it was set up by Count Dooku). I don't think it's canon any more, though, or even ever was, which is sad considering how far superior it is to his origins in the Clone Wars CGI cartoon.
I don't know if anything exists that explores sides of him other than being a robot rage monster. If it does, it certainly isn't canon.
6232808 I wholeheartedly agree, though it's not completely fair to use that as an excuse to completely void him of responsibility for all that he's done.
6232808 I have a feeling the surviving Ugnaughts on Gentes and the Miners of Banvhar Station would disagree with you. Like... a lot.
(If you don't know about either of these two, let me give you some backstory. Banvhar Station was a mining colony, unaligned with either group. The CIS Stole their minerals, and Grievous himself had his droids use the miners for Target practice. The survivors attempted to get revenge when Grievous invaded and occupied the Ugnaught world of Gentes, where he marched the population of the capital city under a dome, and had his ships annihilate them to prove a point to some captured Jedi younglings.)
Case in point: img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101213063018/starwars/images/5/5c/AllaraLesson.PNG
Point is, he may be misinformed, but he still committed some of the worst atrocities in Star Wars, only outstripped by Sith Lords like Vader, Malak, Vitiate and Palpatine.
6408530 That's awesome
.
Soo... is this dead?
6616170 The next chapter has had some progress, but unfortunately due to life, I have been unable to devote much time to any of my stories
.
6955017 Grievous leans more towards the 2003 representation, but I've been and will be borrowing bits and pieces of the Star Wars lore for this story from a few places...most of which aren't canon anymore thanks to the Disney wipe, but eh, whatever.
well...time for tea
I'm sorry I'm just not buying it. Grievous is not capable of being a diplomat he is a ruthless warrior with no heart, Count Dooku has stated many times how he is irritated with his savage nature and lack of any diplomatic tactics also his backstory in his is no longer cannon and hasn't been for a good long time as he is meant to be a unsympathetic monster. He is also horrible at lying and keeping his temper the first second Pinkie pie was on the scene should have shown his true colors to all as like in the clone wars show when meeting Jar Jar for a diplomatic meeting where just lost his temper and tries to kill him in only moments. I don't feel like this is a story of the clone wars in mlp it feels more like a Grievous power house story to make him more then he truly is. His skill level show here seems to mostly be on par with 2003 cartoon which is horrible over exaggeration of his true skill. Most Jedi have felt that is what he is like but his showing in the clone wars cgi series is his true skill and form.
Those are my thought on the matter of this story, take it as you will. Paces so far is good the jumps between groups are a bit much and focus seems to be on parts where it could have been used better in others.
Time for another chapter i think
10003907
Thats probably more Sidious' doing