Diplomacy for the Strong

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Interlude 2/2
Chapter 10
Interlude 1/2

Prologue

Griffons lined the streets by the thousands, packing every inch of the main thoroughfare and even back up into the alleyways. So dense was the crowd that Twilight was suspicious that they may not have all been residents of the Imperial city proper.

She supposed that their number may have been augmented by the outlying areas, or possibly even by other cities, but whatever their origin, now they only presented another concern for Twilight as she surveyed the parade route she was to take for her meeting with the Griffon Emperor.

It was quite suspicious that so many griffons would be gathered for such an occasion, at least it appeared so to her, but maybe she was wrong, maybe it was a 'normal' crowd, or maybe there was some cultural significance that drew them all to the streets, or maybe there was something unseen at work, and that idea scared her.

Anxiety built as she considered her chances of holding off so many of the avian-felines. If they were to all mob the procession at once, even the battalion of the royal elite guard may not be able to hold them off for long. She wasn't too worried about herself, she could just teleport if needed, rather she was worried about the just over the thousand other ponies, elite guard or not, that were about to parade with her through the overcrowded Griffin capitol's main thoroughfare.

Seventy one lines, seven abreast would march ahead of her, and seventy two lines, seven abreast, would follow. As her advisors had been quick to state, her position in the middle, rather than the front, would send a clear message to the gathered population: this was not a peaceful visit. She had no reason to believe that there was any doubt on that matter amongst the gathered, but this parade was crafted to carry the subtle clues to make clear that this was not a procession that followed behind the princess, but rather a show of force, clearly surrounding their princess as a sign of hostility.

The procession was to begin at their camp on the ridge outside the capital city, and would progress down the main street and up to the massive Griffonian royal estate, where the troops would diverge into a perimeter that would surround the complex while Twilight secured the Emperor's formal surrender.

"Princess," an armored Lieutenant called, breaking up her analysis as he landed next to her, "We're in formation to begin the march, we await your orders to begin."

She gave a moment's hesitation as her previous worries stopped her, but ultimately she decided and gave the soldier the order to commence the march.

As she made her way to her designated position halfway through the procession, she considered the fact that, as her fellow princesses had predicted, decisions like this were coming easier and easier to her now.

When she had first been asked to write a hypothetical response to what Celestia had called "The Griffon Emperor's Declaration of War", she had been mildly surprised, but no more so than to any of the other "princess tests" she'd been given as of late. With all the tact deserving of such an absurd notion, she scrawled out a response and promptly sent it off with her various other more important reports before getting some well deserved sleep.

The next day she was understandably surprised to find out that the hypothetical missive was not so hypothetical.

When she had written the response, she had for the most part written it straight from her sleep addled and generously caffeinated stream of consciousness, producing it as a thought exercise on how absurd a griffon attack on Equestria would be. Little did she know that Celestia would then take the unedited draft and ship it back to the Emperor as Equestria's official response.

As if that were not enough, she was then informed, that her "test" was not merely the letter, but rather dealing with the Griffon threat in its entirety, which as a minor footnote meant dealing with them if it came to war. Which it then promptly did.

The subsequent war more-or-less turned out exactly as she had predicted though. The orchestration of the transport of arctic winds southward had proven more difficult than anticipated, but with the flight path of the Breezies coinciding with the the push of tropical winds northward, the pegasi already helping with the Breezie Migration had been more than willing to help, freeing up enough soldiers to aid those in the north and keep schedule. A schedule that had the convergence of the fronts occurring at the time and location of the initial Griffon push into Equestria.

For Twilight, it had been just like a scaled-up winter wrap up in Ponyville, so she had managed it rather well if she did say so herself, and the subsequent hurricane grounded, and then ruined the supplies of the attacking army.

It was admittedly impressive that the invading troops carried on their march on by talon-and-paw but the result was as expected. As the starving, soaked feather-to-bone and freezing army finally came out of the mountains and into Equestria proper, they had surrendered and all but begged for food.

Three days later, ten days since the postmark of her unintended letter, here she was, in a military formation, about to officially accept the griffon full-surrender.

Her mental analysis of the past week and a half felt like a dream, or to be precise, it was one, for as she re-analyzed her current position, she realized she had been lost to the world as the march made its initial entrance into the city.

The first of her troops were beginning to make their way into the city proper, and with an imperceptible sigh of relief, she noted no objects being thrown or even hostile words being shouted. She even allowed a small flinch of a smile until it curved into a frown as she realized something else...

...No-griffon was speaking at all. She had not expected a welcome banner or cheering in the streets to be sure, in fact she had all but put the medical staff back at camp on standby to heal any bumps and bruises form anonymously thrown rocks and trash from the crowd, but this was something else entirely.

As the first lines of the armored ponies made their way into the streets, the crowd made no reaction at all. Not a sound could be heard over the armored hooves as they clacked in rhythm down the cobblestone street, and no motion came from the crowd a they stood, almost as if at attention.

Twilight's previous fears of an ambush from the suspiciously swelled numbers returned as she imagined the griffon generals orchestrating a plan to pack the streets with non-uniformed soldiers as a trap. This theory was dismissed as she drew closer and closer to the crowds, and another thought filled her mind.

"They're trembling..." she whispered to herself as she began to make out the faces of the decidedly female-and-child-predominant crowd.

She could see little cubs and their sister chicks huddling closer to their mothers as the stone-faced armored ponies walked past, their little eyes darting around as the thunder of the war-ponies hooves filled the air.

When it came closer to the time that Twilight herself would enter the streets, she could see the griffons tensing further.

When she finally crossed the threshold into the capitol the tension peaked as the crowds parallel to her fell into bows.

In the zone slightly before her she could see the fearful eyes of the assemblage on her, some meeting her gaze and dropping into bows early, prompting their young ones to do the same. As she drew forward, not one griffon remained standing, all cowering with closed eyes as she passed. She did not look back, but she could guess that they were remaining prostrate even after she had made her way significantly past.

Scanning the crowds, she continued only to find the gazes of females, quickly for those gazes to be broken as the recipients fell to the ground prostrate.

Seeing little before the gazes would be broken, she then began looking towards the young ones visible only at the forward edges of the crowd. A few of the wide-eyed youths seemed fascinated with her, keeping her gaze before their mothers pushed them down, but the slightly older ones seemed to tremble when they met her glance, falling into bows of their own accord.

This continued without deviation for the length of the journey to the palace. Upon arrival, the troops separated like a zipper, even groups of four-three/three-four separating left and right before filling into single lines that would span the perimeter of the estate.

The last of the crowd dropped as Twilight herself arrived at the immense front gate of the palace. It stood open to receive her, and she marched forward without breaking stride...

Author's Note

Thes chapter was in part inspired by this story.

Chapter 1

Twilight took a deep breath.

Good she thought to herself as she noted that her increased pulse and breathing and therefore anxiety was beginning to fade. She knew she could do this, she had studied Griffon culture extensively in the bowels of Canterlot library before coming, or rather, she had studied as much as she could while on the flight over from records recovered from so deep in the archives that they outdated the unification of the Griffon Empire entirely.

She would have preferred more primary sources, maybe some more recent texts, or possibly an interview or two from actual citizens of the griffon empire, but she would work with what she had.

Here we go. She mentally committed as she forced her way forward with increasing pace and determination.

She now appreciated the fact that there had been no staff present in the halls. At first it had disquieted her, not finding a welcoming committee, or whatever kind of reception one would give to those coming to secure their nation's surrender, but the ever-present fear of ambush had passed just as it had during the march through the streets, and the empty hall had allowed her to drop her facade enough to collect herself a little before the real test began.

She was ready.

She ignored the massive portraits that lined the walls, each showing either a massive griffon decked in finery or upon the corpses of some other being.

She was ready-

She spied to the massive oak doors that stood testament to the griffon ideal of power.

She was ready-

She looked to each of the massive timbers that reinforced the boat-hull of a doorway.

She was ready-

She made sure that her calculations were right.

She was ready.

And she released her charge.

"BOOM!"

The doors burst inwards, the immense barriers that had no doubt resisted all manner of siege and coup being all but annihilated as she continued through unimpeded.

They almost certainly weren't locked or secured, and she was momentarily saddened by the thought that she wouldn't be able to study what had likely been significant parts of griffon history, but she did what she must in order to do what needed done.

Shock and awe in everything she did. Power, plain and simple. That was what griffons respected, and respect was what she needed if this all was doing was going to go off without incident.

Confirming that her blast has knocked the doors clear from their hinges and had properly buckled without shattering into shrapnel, she was pleased to note that they had also been flung appropriately to the edges of the room. It was hard to negotiate with those who were too busy picking splinters from their eyes or being crushed by a modest house's worth of debris.

Her stride did not falter, even as she kicked stray timbers out of her path.

Big entrance: check.

Get the first word in: What better way then while they are still trying to find their doors?

"I am Twilight Sparkle!" She shouted forward, refusing to look up to anyone, "and you know why I have come!" She didn't explain herself to anyone either.

She finally drew to a halt, much closer to the throne than any petitioner would be allowed to be, yet still far enough that she wasn't talking to the steps.

"Yes, we know why you have come," a solemn voice said from off to the side of the throne.

Twilight shot her harshest glare at whatever being would dare address her in the stead of the Emperor, only to find the griffon in question wearing the iconic crown that all the paintings in the previous hall had depicted.

Twilight showed no outward signs of her surprise, keeping her glare as steady as possible.

"Then you know what I desire!" She shouted again. Volume also equated to power apparently, a point she was doing her best to follow despite the king before her apparently not doing the same.

"Yes, arrangements are in order..." the Emperor said solemnly.

"Good. We will begin at once!"

As she had hoped, the next moments more or less followed the vague description of protocol she had found.

The Emperor produced the sword of state, another artefact she would be all but giddy to encounter in any other situation, and the Emperor held it up to her as he bowed before her.

Things were going much better than expected.

She took the sword from the Emperor's talons with her magic, bringing it to herself. Peeking the blade from its sheath, she noted the masterful engraving that would be receiving a pencil etching and a lot of study later.

Everything was going as well as she had only dared hope in her most forgiving contingencies. Now all that was needed was for the Emperor to stand back up and bring them to where they could more easily discuss the terms of his surrender.

As soon as he stood back up...

...

Twilight began to feel uneasy as the pair stood unmoving, one standing proud, and the other bowing tensely.

Was she supposed to do something? Had she missed something! What was she supposed to-

"Allow me my pride, and swiftly claim your prize." He said, still prostrate, taut with tension.

What was she supposed to do!

She allowed another eternal moment to pass.

"Do not make me wait! There is no pride in delaying your conquest! Do it already!"

Were they going to do the negotiations here? Was she supposed to make her demands while he bowed before her? This was so far out of the records!

She decided to go for it.

"You will cease hostilities immediately and make ready to..." the words died in her throat as the griffon broke posture and looked up at her with flat confusion in his eyes.

"...make ready to..." Twilight tried to continue on, but the Emperor's look only grew in intensity.

"...what?" She finally asked, unable to figure out what was causing him to act so.

Apparently he was just as shocked because he made no moves either, just staring at her with that unsettling expression.

For another awkward eternity the two simply stood staring at each other, Twilight's previous stoic fortitude waning.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"What! What's going on!"

He said nothing, but his eyes flitted briefly to the sword of state gripped in her magic.

No... he couldn't be...

Then it hit her.

He wasn't bowing to her...

...he was presenting his neck!

Twilight reeled in a mix of shock and revulsion.

"I'm not going to-! I-! Did you think I was going to kill you!"

The old griffon's expression defied the odds and became even more unsettling.

"You have to. Your rule is not legitimate without my head."

Twilight's mind went into shut-down at his words, operating under emergency power that granted her an odd clarity.

"What do you mean?" She asked

"Your rule cannot be secured while I yet live. I present myself to you so that my family and line may be spared by swearing themselves to you."

A deep silence allowed the words to sink in.

"No! I'm not here to- I'm here to secure your surrender!"

"And here I am before you, surrendering myself. The proper arrangements were made before your arrival. My line will serve you faithfully under the greatest of bindings. You need not fear revolt. The populace is aware of the standing of the Empire, and the families of the soldiers have been gathered. I have made certain that there is nothing that shall turn against you, for I have seen your power. For the good of the Empire, we are subject to you."

Author's Note

Not everything is as it first appears.

Chapter 2

His words sunk with an intensity that Twilight could hardly stand to think about.

"I- I don't-" she began, "No! You are still in charge! I only came to-" her words died, "You don't really- you didn't really- I need you in charge! I can't just-"

"I am dead in the eyes of the law and my people, and my line is yours. There is nothing for me. Allow me my pride, and do what is necessary."

"I am not going to kill you! I spent a lot of effort making sure no one had to die during the invasion, and I am most assuredly not going to get blood on my hooves now!"

The Emperor jerked his head upward, glaring at her with such intensity that despite herself she took a step back.

"This is not for you or your morality, you must secure your position for the good of the Empire!" He shouted, "You may not know what you have done, but you shall take full responsibility!"

"Perhaps then it would be best to inform her."

A she-griffon announced as she made her way into the chamber from a hidden door ironically lost amongst the remains of the blasted main doors.

The Griffon Emperor growled at the newcomer.

Undaunted, she made her way further into the hall, "Perhaps she should be made aware of the situation, for the good of the Empire."

Twilight could tell the female was middle aged, but quite fit, and by any sight a fairly attractive griffoness for her age. Twilight was about to ask about her before spying the manacles around her talons. They were not linked together, but they had loops ready to accept chains as needed.

"You are not to be here!" The Emperor shouted suddenly, absolutely enraged.

"Woah! Whoa! Whoa!" Twilight interjected, throwing barriers around both griffons, before it could come to blows "I have no Idea what is going on! Please, just tell me what's happening! I only came to make peace! I don't want to kill anyone, so why are you insisting I kill you!" Twilight pleaded.

"I do so precisely because it is what is needed to ensure peace!" He growled at her.

"Killing you won't solve anything! I need you alive to make the treaty!"

"You-!" The emperor shouted, before the she-griffon cut him off.

"By your will," she announced, "I will explain."

Twilight wasn't about to let the Emperor interrupt her first decent source of information, so she snapped his beak shut with magic before he could interrupt and egged her to continue.

"The Emperor here, is trying to get you to kill him in order to avoid becoming a ghost."

"Ghost?" Twilight asked.

The she-griffon nodded.

"He is dead through his defeat, but he aims to take advantage of your ignorance for his own pride."

"What? Why is he dead?" Twilight asked, looking him over just in case she was speaking less metaphorically than logic would presume.

"By the absolute oldest of traditions, the strongest of a tribe is made leader. The "strongest" being the one most fit to rule. Over time, it became practice that if two clans went to war, the victorious clan had the more fit ruler and all griffons of the losing tribe would join the victorious. Many times though, the losing leader or his family would seek revenge, killing the victor later in an attempt to re-seize power. This was not just a personal crime though, the killing left the whole unified tribe without the most fit leader, a terrible situation that many times lead to costly power struggles or the destruction of the whole clan. Seeing this so often, it eventually became common that the losing leader and his family would be slain by the most fit leader, or if he refused to do it, oftentimes the members of his own clan would do it as a show of loyalty to the new combined tribe.

"That's horrible!” Twilight blurted, momentarily forgetting her audience.

"It is," the griffoness continued, "which is why true killing has not been practiced for hundreds of years. Well, there have been some cases, but other than where it was made clear that being kept alive really was a clear and present threat to the clan, it has been all but abolished. Instead, the losing family would die metaphorically, becoming ghosts, or those dead to society and kept in the service of the most fit leader where he could keep track of them."

Twilight paled, looking to the griffoness's manacles again. "Is that what you are? A ghost?" She asked.

"Yes, sworn to my master." She responded matter-of-factly.

"What does ghost-hood entail?" Twilight asked fearfully.

"That is entirely dependent upon the will of the master."

Twilight fell silent for a while, processing everything she had just been told.

"So what you're saying is that because I 'won' against the emperor, the population wants me as their leader." She asked, receiving a nod.

"...and tradition wants me to kill him, metaphorically, for losing? Can't I just not kill him, he stay emperor, and just sign the treaty?

"No, the population would reject him, they have already shifted their loyalties to the more fit ruler: you. If he were to be discovered by the populous, alive and unbound, he would be seen as a threat to the peace of the nation, and likely killed."

"...but he can become one of these "ghosts" but if he does that, not only will he not be in charge, he won't be considered a person anymore?"

"It's not as bad as you make it sound. The conditions of the bond are dependent upon the master, and from what I can tell, you are not going to be too harsh." she said, smiling almost to the point of chuckling, "and as alternative to beheading now or a lynch mob later, there is a reason that this is the modern practice."

"Then why would he lie?" Twilight asked, looking over to the still beak-bound Emperor.

"The coward wants to avoid the shame of ghost-hood by dying." She said, shooting him her own angry glare.

"So how do I avoid it? Having to kill him I mean? I won't do it, but I don't want him getting killed in the streets either. Is ghost-hood the only option? Is there something else?” Twilight asked.

The griffoness returned her focus to the princess, "No, while to become a ghost is to lose all honor, it's an even greater shame to be labeled a coward or traitor. He is already yours in the common eye, but without an outward sign of his ghost-hood he may still face such things. He'll submit to ghost hood before any alternative."

Twilight heard out the griffoness' explanation, "Is this all true?" She asked, turning to the emperor and releasing his beak.

She noticed a second too late the anger in his eyes.

Chapter 3

He lunged.

Twilight instinctively flinched as her magic flared.

When impact did not come, Twilight opened her eyes to find the emperor suspended before her, but rather than his claws at her throat, she found her horn inches from his.

He made an utterance, too quiet for her to hear. She looked up, but rather than the anger of a moment ago she found that his eyes looked almost empty.

"Why..." he asked in little more than a whisper.

"I don't-" Twilight began before seeing that the Emperor was not focused on her, but rather the griffoness.

"Your quest to see me dishonored and bound in shame has succeeded, but why would you see me made a ghost rather than die with honor? Why do you wish me such shame?" The Emperor roared at the Griffoness, sounding almost betrayed.

"Now look here, she just saved-" Twilight started, stepping between the two, before being sidestepped from behind as the griffoness marched past her towards the suspended Emperor.

"For the very same reason you made me one!" The griffoness all but shouted back, prompting Twilight to be ready to suspend her too if necessary, "Because I love you! I could not bear to see you die!"

Unable to process the situation Twilight's concentration broke, unceremoniously depositing the emperor on the stone. Twilight turned, ready to seize him once again, but stopped when she found him seeming no less dumbstruck. Then it processed.

"Wait, you-?" Twilight blurted, gaze rapidly shifting between the two.

After a moment of pause, the emperor lowered his head, beak pointed to the ground, "I am sorry. I did not mean to-"

"There is no need for that," The griffoness said, rearing up to place her forelimbs around his neck in a hug, rubbing her beak to his, "You must consider yourself in this too, our family is not complete without a father, honor or no honor."

Twilight watched the scene in shock, a minute passing before she regained control of herself, "What?!?" she sputtered, eyes darting between the intertwined griffons.

Quickly they broke the hug, lowering their beaks to the floor in deep bows, "Into your sworn service Empress, I follow my wife and my line to where I belong. From now till death renewed release me, I am yours. Never shall I raise talon nor beak other than in service to you, never shall I speak other than in supplication to you, never shall I take breath other than to please you. Upon all that I am I swear, the moment I cease to serve you shall I be struck down. My life is yours."

Twilight's confusion did not lessen as the former emperor and the female griffon spread their wings out so that they partially rested upon the floor before her.

"I beg forgiveness for my conduct, and shall receive any punishment you desire with welcome."

"And I as well," the griffoness added, "I have spoken far out of turn, and shall bear any punishment you see fit."

Twilight recognized their posture from old pegasi artifacts; they were offering their wings to her. For a culture of flying beings, where flight was an important part of life, the meaning of the gesture was not lost on her.

"There is no need for that." Twilight said quickly, but the pair remained in place.

"Actually..." she said thinking it over, "I do have something for you..." she said gathering her magic.

"POP!" The manacle previously on the griffoness's right ankle jumped over to his.

"There, now your punishment is to not die before it's your time. As for you," she said turning to the griffoness, "I want you to continue to make sure he's keeping good on this, alright?" She backed off with a smile, "Now rise, we have a lot of work to do." Her smile dying a premature death as she said it.

The two rose, "I thank you for your generous forgiveness Empress. I did not wish to deceive, but I knew not how to convince my husband that his pride was keeping him from seeing reason."

"I'm glad you did. I would certainly not have carried out his desire, but without your input I may not have known the consequence of my refusal. For that I am thankful." She said in response.

"...in fact," she added with a smile to match her sudden inspiration, "You said I was in control of the capacity of your... uh... service right? Then I would like you both to be my advisors. Who better than those who know the job best?"

"We would be honored." She said alongside her husband consenting with a bow.

"Rise, there is much to be done," they did as she said, while she herself began listing off what needed done.

"...and now I have to arrange both sides of the accord. The troops need to be re-supplied if our stay is extended for too long. The populace is going to need... Yes?" Twilight asked, becoming aware that the griffoness was once again bowing, "There is no need to bow. As my advisor, I ask that you speak freely."

"Thank you your eminence," She said, still bowing, "May I suggest, that addressing the populace be made a priority? I fear that some incorrect signals may have been sent during your arrival."

"Oh?" Twilight asked, betraying a little nervousness, "Like what?"

"You made a point of how you ended the conflict bloodlessly?" The griffoness asked leadingly.

"...yes?"

"Well, I fear that the lack of prisoners in your parade of conquest may have given the wrong impression..."

Chapter 4

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked calmly, though not calmly enough to convince anyone that she didn't already know exactly what had been meant.

"Your majesty, though such a case has not happened since the unification of the Empire, traditionally a conquered clan would have its captured soldiers paraded through the streets of their home in chains, to demoralize the defeated and show the superiority of the conquerors. They would often also be used as bargaining tools against the whole, or most often, as individual implements of barter."

"Implements of... Slavery!" Twilight shouted, "But you just said-!"

"Not slavery insomuch," the former empress quickly interjected, "as it was the families of the captured who would barter for their release. Though the original practice included the barter of whatever could be produced, or failing payment, even commitment to periods of servitude. Eventually it became common practice for spouses to hold their loved one's bounty in reserve, as a sign of devotion and faith. To do less would signify that they would not seek to buy back their loved ones. Though those that couldn't preserve such sums would still offer their services or anything else they could, it became a symbolic tradition for those that could to build and keep a sum equivalent to their loved ones ransom. Though the need has faded, many still hold to these traditions and have come in the hopes to perform such transactions."

"There's no need for that! I just have to send a letter off and they'll be released immediately! I didn't- don't expect them to pay a ransom!"

"A fine sentiment, but I have no doubt that they will still seek you out. Though there may be no need, the act in itself carries weight. Even those calmed by your words will be honor bound to pay the due ransom, and to deny them would be to imply their lives have not even the worth of the gold paid."

"So, what you're saying is, if I don't accept these ransoms, their pride will be hurt?" Twilight asked leadingly as she began pacing a short track before the imperials.

"Yes, your majesty."

"And from how you reacted to a threat to your pride, I'm assuming that would be a bad thing to do."

"Yes, your majesty."

Twilight stopped to drag a hoof across her face, groaning faintly, "So, the best option, or at least the one that runs the least risk of driving anyone to- well, runs the least risk of insulting anyone's pride, is to just accept a bunch of gold from a city's worth of mares and foals who may currently think I might have killed their loved ones in cold blood?"

"Yes, your majesty." Twilight's pacing resumed.

"Great. ...and I suppose I'm just supposed to do this at court tomorrow?"

"Court?" The griffoness asked blankly.

Twilight froze mid-step, "Yes, court, you know, when you let the public in to have their issues addressed by the crown?" The unconvincingly hopeful smile Twilight leveled at the royals was returned with confused stares.

This time it was the former emperor who responded, "Why would the crown address the problems of individual citizens personally? Isn't that the whole reason for having a government?"

"Well, uh... yeah..." Twilight blustered "but- what about when ponies- or griffons fall between the cracks? No system is totally perfect!"

"That is what the local governments are for, to address concerns and advance the ones they can't deal with. Citizens bring their concerns to local lieutenants, who report to their captains, captains report to regional colonels, colonels report to the league of generals, and they bring concerns of note to the Emperor or Empress."

"You make it sound as if the entire nation is an army..."

"Well, all griffon citizens attend flight camp as part of becoming adults."

"Well it's not like flight camp is-" Twilight started before vigorously shaking her head and resuming her pacing "Wait, we're off track again! Back to the matter at hoof! If there is no court, when are these offerings or whatever going to take place?" She asked, no longer bothering to glance at the griffon pair.

"They would be performed whenever individuals can gain your audience, unless you specify a particular venue."

"Could we just do them all at once? Like, could they just submit their offerings in writing?"

"No, there is a little bit of ceremony involved that I doubt any-griffon would willingly ignore. Either way you would have audiences in person, even if you made a blanket acceptance of all offerings. It is for the best though, as I believe you'll want the ability to interrupt and deny certain offerings."

The frustrated alicorn's pacing quickened as her mane began to splay, "I thought you said, well implied, that I couldn't deny them!"

"You can deny whatever you want, it is the consequence of those refusals that you must manage."

"Well that's just fantastically cryptic!" The flustered alicorn shouted more to herself than to them.

The former Empress rolled her eyes "What he's attempting and failing to say, your majesty, is that some take their honor so seriously that to deny their ransom is to deny the value of their life. Which means, in general you should accept their ransoms, but he's also warning you to be cautious; sometimes the value of the offering is... well, just be careful what you accept. You can negotiate the ransoms to a point, but keep all of this in mind as you do so. I'm sure you'll manage it just fine."

"Great so now I have to... Well, uh..." Twilight slowed to a stop, turning to the griffoness, "Wait, so I actually can just open up the doors and have the citizenry come in tomorrow to get this all over with?"

The emperor responded first, "Yes, while time may be an issue, there is no specific reason it wouldn't work, and it would be possible to get through a significant number of them tomorrow, as we have another day before the city's population is set return..."

"Whoa! Wait! What? The city's population? Then who were all those griffons outside?"

"As mentioned previously, they are the families of the captured. Forward military service is restricted to those who have heirs to carry on their line. Their families gathered to know the fate of their loved ones. The city was otherwise evacuated until two days after you were to arrive."

"There are ALL-! There are that many? There had to be thousands... oh... right... Well, why keep the citizens out then? And why for two days?"

"It was assumed by then that either you would have taken the throne, or the capital would have been wiped from the map."

The former emperor's straight face dispelled any illusions of humor Twilight may have had "WHAT? What would have possibly made you think-! I mean-!"

"Though little information has crossed our borders for centuries, the blackout did not predate the fall of the Crystal Empire. We know the stories of alicorns and their wrath, a point you yourself were quick to point out. From all but history the Crystal Empire was wiped in a single night. I would not condemn thousands of innocent souls to that fate."

"It wasn't Celestia and Luna who banished the crystal Empire! It was Sombra! Celestia and Luna banished him, and he sealed the city away with him as his last act! They didn't banish the whole city themselves, it was Sombra's curse! And how did you have records of the Crystal Empire when even we didn't?" Twilight's mane, which had just started to unfrazzle, finally gave up its last vestiges of order as she threw her head back with a grunt, "No! No! No! Again we're so off topic!"

Closing her eyes, Twilight brought her hoof to her chest in her old foal sitter's calming technique. After a second her mane re-flattened, and she opened her eyes again, directing her gaze towards the former imperials, "Ok, I understand that there are many issues that will need addressed, but for now, what is most important?"

The emperor was first to speak, "The transition of power has already been mostly completed and only needs to be announced, so resolving the prisoner dilemma takes top priority. To address both, I would recommend a royal proclamation."

"Ok, good. Easy enough. You can just introduce me, tell them about us resolving things, reassure every-griffon that their loved ones are ok, and inform them of tomorrow's court. I'll smile and wave and when we're done we can get to working out the logistics of bringing the prisoners back to their families. Easy."

Twilight's smile faltered as she saw her griffon counterpart's lack of enthusiasm.

"What?"

"While what you described is effectively what needs done," the Emperor began, "as a ghost, I cannot be the one to do it. Additionally, as you have proven yourself aware," he said as he gestured to one of the remnants of the doors, "as a leader, you must be firm, you cannot 'reassure' only command. Just as you did before with me, you must impose yourself and your will upon others. Not that it is in question, but you must introduce yourself through your domination of the Empire to show your value as the most fit leader. You must introduce this 'court' of yours, not as an opportunity, but as a demand. The very fact that you are accepting the ransoms from all will reassure them to the state of their loved ones."

Twilight stared at the Emperor as if he had grown a second beak, "I want to calm everypon- everygriffon down, not make them think I'm a tyrant!"

"They will not see you as a tyrant, your actions speak louder than words. Even if they did though, the reign of a tyrant is preferred to anarchy and chaos. Order is key. To lead is to command respect, a firm, iron-taloned ruler will bring peace to the populace through order. For a leader to show weakness will only invite fear and put the empire at risk, if not from without, then from within. Peace is a matter of order and stability, and both are maintained through the firmness of faith in the ruler."

"But all ponies love Celestia, and she's nice, caring, and most certainly not iron-hoofed."

The emperor shook his head, "That is possible only because the public peace is not at risk: her reign is unchallenged. While that works for ponies, who can have faith simply by their ruler's power, size, and immortality, for griffons, who have not the benefit of immortal deities to lead, that faith is gained through the system of the most fit ruler."

The former Empress was quick to add, "Even though now we do have an immortal for a ruler, it will still undoubtedly take time for the population to become firm in their faith, and transition from a trust in our current system of sequential rulers into a faith in your singular and eternal rule."

"Et-Eternal!" Twilight sputtered, "I don't think- I mean, I can- How about we wait on calling it that? I didn't intend to have it end up like this at all, let alone be like this forever!"

Ignoring the alicorn's unease, the fallen emperor continued on, "Even still, you are immortal, and that will certainly solidify the faith of many, even beyond your status as most fit. I have seen your promise, and have faith that you will live up to your titles."

After recovering the crown from where it had fallen in the prior scuffle, the former emperor approached the new one.

"Lead us well," he said as he placed the large ornate imperial crown over-top her tiara before bowing.

As the griffons rose and looked to her, Twilight felt something strange. Rather than the confusion and fear of only moments ago, she again felt the clarity and confidence that had lead her friends against so many enemies, directed winter-wrap-up in Ponyville, and lead Equestria in the short absence of the other princesses.

She was ready. Turning, she began strutting out the same now-blasted doors she had come in, her confident exiting stride matching her entrance.

She stopped for a moment, looking back "Come on then, we have a speech to give."

Rather than follow though, the griffons remained in place.

"Uh, with all due respect your majesty?" the griffoness asked, pointing to where she had entered "The way to the balcony is through here."

"Oh, right..."

With a sheepish grin Twilight adjusted course, but the confidence of her strides remained undeterred.

Author's Note

Sorry for the dialogue-heavy chapter.
...and the wait.
Probably an apology-laden blog post to come.

"Anyone" vs "Any-Griffon" Discuss.

Chapter 5

Twilight was not panicking. She found this comforting, if at some level disturbing considering what she was about to do. Her renewed confidence had managed to take her all the way out to the balcony overlooking the now slightly buzzing and shifting crowds that remained mostly unmoved from when she had walked past their bowing masses. Her confidence, though, did not mean she was at ease.

It was not the roar-screeches of her new advisers, nor the thousands of eyes that they drew to the grand balcony, that occupied her mind. Not even what she was about to say really made her concerned, but rather just who she was about to address.

"Subjects!"

Her subjects.

"I am Twilight Sparkle! I am your Empress!"

The former royals beside her lowered their heads to her flare-winged form, simultaneously confirming her claim to the audience, and prompting them to do the same.

After silently making sure that all had time to comply, the imperial alicorn slammed her hoof against the balcony with a force that could have have cracked the balcony had it been her desire to do so.

"Rise!"

The audience complied, once again revealing the beaked faces of several thousand supremely attentive griffons.

"Upon this day I have claimed this empire as my own, having defeated the last of those who stood against me. Though war was not of my starting, it was mine to end. The conflict was swift and decisive. Not a Griffon escaped me, all are now within my custody."

Noticing the crowd's subtle but clear reaction, she continued, "To those who seek to negotiate the fate of those I captured in my conquest, I will be opening the doors to the palace tomorrow. Come then."

The faintest murmurs had begun as she announced fate of the captured, but as she concluded, another slam of her hoof brought the crowd back to silence. The roar-screeches of the former imperials were joined by the crowd, as the enormous plaza again dipped into a bow.

As Twilight turned back towards the balcony portal, she smiled slightly.

I can do this.

"Very good your majesty," the griffoness said as she followed back into the castle, "I believe they will be very eager for tomorrow."

"I can only hope so, if we're going to get through them all!" Twilight said with trepidation as she stopped in the interior hall to glance between the Griffons, "You mentioned some sort of 'ceremony' or something for when they make their offerings? How long will that take, or rather, what is it? Is it just a recitation or some gestures or something?"

"The full range of intricacies are too numerous and minute to fully describe," the former Emperor mused, "but generally an offering begins with a submission, typically a full bow, followed by an introduction, where the one to make the offering introduces his- or her-self, the name one whom they are petitioning the release of, and their relationship. Then, the supplicant will make their offer, but here is where the complications arise."

"Complications? With the offerings? How so?" Twilight asked as she turned and motioned with a hoof for them to continue talking as they walked.

The pair followed down the hall they had come up just before. "Early on there will likely be no issue, but as time goes on and the ransoms increase, the complexity of offers will as well."

Twilight looked over her shoulder at the large griffon, "But I thought there wasn't a set time frame. Does the ransom increase with time?"

"No," the griffoness responded, drawing Twilight to look over her other shoulder, "It's a natural result of another tradition. You see, one of higher station is expected to have a higher ransom, something their pride enforces, therefore, an order naturally results for who will come when. As those seeking the release of the higher-ranking will purposefully delay, as to have the "value" of the previous ranks set, so that they will not face the 'indignity' of being seen as less valuable than one of lower rank."

"That seems...?" Twilight's jaw worked with a puzzled expression, but despite the start, no further words came forth.

"I suppose you have noticed the flaw in the system?" The grffoness puffed a laugh, "The base value of the next rank to be addressed will be, at minimum, the highest price paid for the previous rank. Therefore the value of successive ranks will climb exponentially, quickly outpacing the increase in their wages, and so at a point the ransoms become un-payable. As a result, while most early on can be expected to pay their price in gold, later supplicants will get creative in their means of payment."

"That's... actually fascinating!" Twilight said, her excitement turning to a look of hope, "I don't suppose there is a reference manual of some kind on these details?"

"I would imagine that there are at least records of previous negotiations in the records in the Imperial Library."

Twilight's expression melted away as she stopped in her tracks and turned back to look at the griffon on her other side, "Imperial Library?"

"Yes, the Grand Imperial Library, it holds records from as far back as the the great freezing."

"The grea... Hearth's Warming!" Twilight nearly shouted, "You have actual records from the pre-unification era?"

"Yes? Not many, and they are in Old Griffish and Chirp, but yes. The library itself is ancient. Where the pony tribes were divided and chose to flee the ice beasts, for us the coming of the ice beasts served as a unifier. It was the only time the whole of griffondom would stand together until the formation of the unified empire. Prepared originally as the final stronghold, what is now the imperial city has remained inhabited by griffons since before the freeze." Apparently not recognizing that his empress was about to overload, he continued unabashed, "For better or worse, without immortal rulers to maintain our histories, we rely upon texts to keep the experiences and wisdom of our forefathers. The destruction of knowledge, therefore, is a high offense. The imperial library maintains all of the compiled knowledge of griffondom since the coming of the ice-beasts and before."

As he finished, Twilight's look of awe flashed into a face splitting smile, only then to turn into a frown and look of contemplation.

"Ok, so I need to get word to Spike to have the prisoners released, I need to get the guards that came with me off the street, either into the palace or back to camp, and then..." she laughed, smile returning with vigor "-and then that library is mine!" As quickly as it came, the madness evaporated from Twilight's eyes and she set back off at an excited pace.

Not noticing her new advisers lag behind as they followed, she missed as the griffoness whispered to her husband.

"I dare say that she appears considerably more excited at the prospect of the library than she did at becoming empress."

The former emperor looked at his wife with agreeing eyes, yet held his tongue, looking ahead at the mare who, for a moment, put some fear back into his heart.

"She's an interesting one, most certainly."

They made it as far as the courtyard before an armored stallion passed through the front gate and galloped up to them.

"Your- *huh* majesty!" He huffed dropping into a bow.

"Stand up commander, there's no need for that. Now is there a problem?" Twilight dismissed as the comander of the escort unit rose from a deep bow.

"I'm afraid there may be, your highness." He said hastily, a very uncharacteristic event, given what Twilight knew of him.

She frowned, "How so comander? Is something amiss?"

He looked around, looking basically anywhere that wasn't the purple alicorn.

Twilight was growing worried now, even more so as closer inspection revealed what looked like perspiration beginning to dampen his features.

"Permission to speak freely?” he waited for a nod, ”I wish you would have contacted us before your little speech up there. Is what you said up there true?"

"Yes...?" Twilight cautiously answered.

"Horseapples..." She could hear him say under his breath.

"What's wrong comander?" She asked, growing more concerned, and a little frustrated.

With a similar mood, the stallion glared back at her, "What's wrong? What's wrong! What's wrong is I may be supposed to be arresting you at this point!"

That threw Twilight for a loop, "Wha-? What are you saying?"

"I don't know! And that's the problem!" He snapped, though now glaring around aimlessly, as if the answers could be found in the sky or in the stones of the path "This is so unprecedented! I do not know where we now stand. If Cadance and the Crystal Empire is anything to go by, by claiming the Empire you have renounced your Equestrian citizenship! You just instated yourself as a foreign power, and not just that but one that, to the best of my, or anyone else's knowledge, Equestria is still formally at war with! Without consent of the princesses, what you did, or even we may have just done may well be treason!" He looked to be on the verge of a breakdown before his eyes lit up in realization, "Did you sign a peace accord? Please tell me you signed a peace accord, or an alliance treaty of some kind! Something! Anything!"

Her reaction made the situation clear.

"Horeseapples!" He swore.

"It's fine comander, we'll write one up right now!"

"Prince- Empress, you don't understand, you can't sign any treaties for Equestria, you already renounced your Equestrian citizenship!"

"Then you sign it!"

"I'm a member of the Royal Guard, not a diplomat! It would have no meaning! That was what you were here for!"

"Well what can we do?" She asked exasperated.

For a while he stood, deep in contemplation. Finally he stiffened up, his hoof twitching as if he was about to salute, but his hoof ultimately remained planted, "Until I can receive updated orders, my troops and I cannot act within the griffon empire." He paused, "For now we will withdraw until such time as we can bring another princess with us." His hoof again twitching as if compelled to salute, it went again unraised as he nodded and turned.

Twilight could hear the comander's frustrated whispering as he trotted away, only caching "...and hope this one doesn't run off to become queen of the breezies..."

Eventually he was gone, and Twilight was left in shock. Her hoof raised to her chest and was extended as she exhaled a held breath. Rinse, repeat.

With Cadance's calming technique satisfactorily completed, she then took her own stock of the situation.

"Ok Twilight. Don't stress." she took another deep breath, "Don't stress. Despite... that... you only have to send a letter to Spike before you can visit a library older than Equestria. Besides, Princess Celestia will sort this out. She always knows what's best." She then turned and began to re-enter the palace.

Happy to pretend as if their leader's monologue was as internal as she had probably thought it was, the griffon pair again followed behind.

"What now your majesty? I would imagine you are in no mood for a tour at this point, but would you at least like to be seen to the study? We have plenty of quills and scrolls there."

A moment of silence followed, wherein Twilight gave no indication of having heard the former emperor's inquiry. Just as he was about to ask again, she finally responded.

"No, if it's not too much trouble, could one of you fetch some scrolls and ink while the other shows me to the library? I'd prefer to..." she started before pausing and giving up, "Just... could you?"

"Of course your majesty." The griffoness responded, bowing before retreating back and taking off.

Again returning to the palace proper the former Emperor now took the lead, slowly bringing the current empress closer and closer to a place that had so recently been such a point of obsession.

Now she was largely focused on other matters, matters that she managed to cope with better and better as she walked.

By the time the Imperials reached the doors, Twilight had almost calmed down. Of course, this immediately changed upon remembering where she now was.

Before her stood two massive (though not quite as massive as the now-ruined throne room) doors.

The sight sent a shiver up her spine. Cent wood. She could tell just from looking at the dark nearly black fine grain. The most she had ever seen in one place, and certainly the largest single pieces of it.

Cent wood, said to have grown in the waters of creation, it was nigh indestructible. Unable to be burned, flexible and workable, yet unyielding and unbreakable, soft enough to make a bed, and hard enough to be made into swords, but most covetably: inert to magic. In fact, the material was even able to dull the effect of ambient magic in small doses.

Whereas the doors to the throne room could likely have held off an army, these doors could hold off the very forces of nature, and thinking of their intended purpose, that was likely exactly the point.

The sight of the portal would have been awe inspiring enough, but the depiction on the door made it almost spiritual. On the doors were depicted an incredible diversity of forms: griffons, minotaurs, donkeys, what looked to be breezies, all three races of ponies, small dragons, what looked to be something similar to timberwolves, and even some things that she didn't recognize. They all lay in a circle, two of each race, a male and a female. With their eyes closed and heads lying upon the backs of the pair before them, each and every one bore a serene smile, as if asleep in a good dream. A forest scene played around them, creating the image of a clearing, and in the middle of the circle was the sight of a truly majestic alicorn. Clearly not intended to be Celestia or Luna, the alicorn appeared more to be the amalgamation of ideal traits. Her wings were flared, yet she did not look intimidating. Rather, she looked inviting. Her muzzle pointing downward towards an open book that appeared angled toward the observer.

Though enough to bring any artist or scholar to tears, the doors were not the extent of the glory, as the doors' frame was also cent wood, thick and carved with an inscription Twilight couldn't read.

"It's pre-old griffish, or more likely what came before. From when all beings spoke the same language. It was taken from the inscription found on the cover of the Book of Creation, from when the first of the the sentient races came to be." He nodded to the carvings on the doors, "as is depicted here."

"It's..." Twilight truly couldn't summon the words to describe it. From all facets the doors were unparalleled, in their craftsmanship, to their materials, to the history both implied and that must have been involved. If the doors were to be enough to nearly drive her to tears, what knowledge must be contained within.

Swearing, and then Pinkie promising, to bask in the glory of the doors another time, she reluctantly decided to leave them behind for the time being and proceed with what she had come for and needed for tomorrow's court.

Excitedly, but with the utmost care, she reached out with her magic to open the doors, only to be quickly reminded just what they were made from. Unlike previous experience with smaller Cent artifacts though, the doors had the effect of not just being inert, but actually drawing in her magic.

Not even in the mood for feeling abashed at her mistake, she walked forward, putting a hoof onto the door and pushing.

She only got as far as a step in before the sight before her froze her in place.

The library before her was like nothing she had ever seen, both in scale and design.

The room was enormous. "Only" extending a few hundred meters up, the place where she stood was revealed as a balcony over a, immense chamber, going down many times more than it went up.

It also expanded nearer to the bottom, giving the whole chamber an egg-shape. At her level the far wall was hundreds of meters away, and further down the chamber could be over a thousand across at its widest.

The deepest part of the chamber, in the dish-shaped bottom of the egg, appeared to be a green blob, and upon closer inspection appeared to be a grove of trees.

What shocked her more than the rooms size, or even the apparent forest within was its walls.

Books. What had to be tens of millions of books lined the walls. Shelves in the walls circled the entire chamber, only those slightly above the height of the balcony and higher were not currently occupied.

There were no floors save the one at the bottom of the chamber, no ladders or catwalks, though she realized they wouldn't be to the benefit of a 100% flight enabled population anyway.

That's when another facet of the room's design struck her. The room seemed well-lit yet dark, but not because the only light source was the clouded sky through the domed crystal spire skylight. Rather, she noted, it was because of a feature of the library itself.

The shelves were black. Black like cent wood.

Before disbelief could settle in, the former Emperor again spoke.

"Beautiful isn't it?" He asked, "It was designed to be the final refuge. Should even that have failed, it was to be our legacy, preserved until the creator once again breathed life into the world. In fact, this may be where it begins again; they say that the Book of Creation itself is in here somewhere," he laughed softly, "though I haven't found it."

Twilight was hardly listening, hardly able to listen.

"How?" She asked breathlessly.

"'How?' your majesty? What do you mean?"

"How is this possible?" she asked again, this time sounding a little more aware of herself.

"How is what possible?"

She turned to face him, throwing a frustrated hoof towards the chamber, "This! All these books! Records from the pre-unification era! All this cent wood! It makes no sense!"

"Oh? What makes you say that?" he asked, drawing a brief look of disbelief from the mare before a frustrated anger returned.

"We barely have records of the playwright who wrote the Hearth's Warming story hundreds of years after the fact, let alone records contemporary to the actual event! How is it even possible that you could have such things when we didn't even know Luna was a real mare until a few years ago."

"You should know why," he said leadingly, “and I can assure you that there was somepony who knew Luna was real."

"What are you saying?" Her frustrated scowl soured further.

"Think about it. You spoke as if old records are rare? While I could understand many records being lost in the ponies' flight from the old lands to what is now Equestria, how could it even be possible to lose records of the Crystal Empire, Sombra's very existence, or of Princess Luna?"

"What are you saying?" She asked, eyes narrowed.

"Though her method is more subtle, Celestia has almost certainly played a role in the elimination of records that would cause public unrest. She could do this secure in the knowledge that she would be around, and leading the ponies once those threats returned. We, though, rely upon the Imperial library."

Anger mostly abated, Twilight's face now held only disbelief "Celestia wouldn't..."

her whisper was overlooked as he continued, "But much like her, we do restrict some knowledge. Tell me, how many griffons do you see in here right now?"

Though she knew the answer already, a quick scan revealed not a soul.

"Our griffons are simply aware there is knowledge they may not know for the greater good. Some have attempted to break in over the centuries, but what better way to discourage looking into the forbidden, than for the public to not even know it exists?"

Twilight gestured as if she was going to argue, but her raised hoof faltered, her furrowed brow breaking.

Before she could make any further motion, the door behind them moved, revealing the returned griffoness with rolls of paper, some quills, and an ink pot tucked beneath her wings.

Twilight looked to the crystal spire skylight and sighed.

"It's late. I'll send a quick letter to have the captured soldiers released and to have them begin their journey back. You can go to bed if you want. If you need me I'll probably be here all night."

"By your will," the former emperor dismissed himself with a bow, leaving through the doors.

Without much else, she took the offered writing materials from the griffoness and laid out belly-down on the balcony.

"Your majesty?"

Twilight looked up at the griffoness who had not followed her husband.

"If I may be so curious, before we go, may I ask to the condition of the captured?"

Twilight gave a weary smile.

"Don't worry, they are being held just outside my hometown. Sweet Apple Acres was kind enough to let them roost there for the time being and friend of a friend has been providing fish from a river he... well.... lives in. He's a sea serpent." She let out a little chuckle at the memory of Steven's antics, "Anyway, I'll just tell Spike and he'll have them on their way."

The griffoness sat, and then too laid out on the balcony.

"And who is this Spike?" She asked conversationally.

"Oh, Spike is my number one assistant! Well, and he's the interrum captain of my guard. Funny story, Celestia let me use her troops, but when I was to deal with all this 'on my own', apparently meant I couldn't use her captain or top administrative staff. So he went from my assistant to a ranking officer. He took it in stride too. I'm quite proud of the little guy, even if all he has to do is read my orders and reference my contingency lists." The quill flicked away against a scroll as she spoke. "It feels like only yesterday he was just a little hatchling..."

"Hatchling? You have an adopted griffon cub?"

"Oh, no, sorry, I forgot that you don't get much news from the outside. No, Spike is a dragon. My number one assistant, savior of the Crystal Empire, and Banisher of Shadows."

"Crystal Empire? Shadows?"

"He, uh... he's the one who defeated Sombra and saved the Crystal empire."

"A dragon capable of slaying the Slave King? And he is your assistant, overseeing our prisoners? He must be quite the fearful being."

Twilight laughed, "Spike? No, he's a little sweetheart. He's only a baby! Well, for a dragon. He's hardly above my back at full height, not counting his frill." She mused, still scratching away at the scroll, "No, I hatched his egg only a few years ago, he's very mature for his age though."

"You sound quite proud of him." The griffoness noted with a smile.

"I sure am! He's been a great help, and he is certainly responsible... most of the time... I just..." her writing stopped and she looked up to the griffoness, "I just feel bad sometimes about how much I put on him at his age. Especially with all of what’s going on now. He seems to take it all in stride, but I worry he may be under too much pressure."

"I know what you are going through." She said, smiling thoughtfully, "...but despite how it may feel, it's important to not baby them too much. You will know if it gets to be too much. It sounds like you love him very much; I'm sure you are a fine mother to him."

"Mother? I wouldn't go that... well... I don't think he..."

Seeing the alicorn struggle with her words, she helped, "We have a saying, it goes 'it is not who lays the egg, but the one who sits on it.' Even if you are not his dragon mother, or even if you hadn't been the one to hatch him, if you are the one who raised and cared for him you are his mother, even if neither of you realize it."

The two looked at each other for a moment, before the griffoness stood up, gesturing towards the scroll, "Do you want me to fly that out to the pony encampment?"

Twilight looked back to the scroll herself, giving it one last look over before signing it, "No need," she said rolling it up in her magic, "it'll be in Spike's claws momentarily." She lit the scroll in a green flame and the ashes dashed away.

"Well then goodnight Empress, pleasant dreams.”

“Yeah… goodnight…”

As the griffoness closed the great doors behind her, Twilight surveyed the massive library, releasing a heavy sigh.

“Looks like another all-nighter for you Twilight.”

Author's Note

I tried something new with this chapter, tell me what you think.

Also, blog post about a potential side story?

Further discussion: nouns. I think I'm going with a avian theme for female griffons and a big-cat feline for males. i.e. baby griffons would be chicks and cubs for females and males respectively.

Chapter 6

Alone in the largest library she had ever seen, and probably the largest period, Twilight sat daunted for a time, simply basking in the aura of the library. It was a feeling that she had felt once before when being introduced to the Starswirl the Bearded wing early under Celestia's tutelage, but this feeling here was just so much more encompassing. It was a fair bit of time before a mix of excitement and duty broke her meditation.

She shook her head to focus herself.

First thing first, rising up she took wing, scanning the upper shelves and pulling a few before dropping a little lower for comparison.

Her once over of the shelves initially left her discouraged by the lack of order, but only for as long as it took her to sample a few more books from other locations and notice that the publication dates rose as the shelves did.

While she knew it was an unfit system of organization, it at least managed to provide some order.

...or it did until she found anomalies that revealed that someone, or multiple someones, had attempted to undertake the task of organizing sections of the library. Rather than help though, the attempts only introduced more disorder.

A more intent look around revealed sporadically clustered books that were grouped according to seemingly random organizational schemes, alphabetically-by-title she could understand if not appreciate, but the few more recent shelves that followed this system paled in comparison to the obscene clusters of books apparently organized by the color of their spines. Systems like subject and series, seemed to be largely ignored in favor of patterns of book size or even cover material. It just about made her want to cry.

There was still the faint hope though, the gaps between these "organized" sections seemed to follow the overall pattern of time though, with older books being towards the bottom, and newer books appearing closer to the top. It appeared as if the library was simply stocked from bottom to top, with newly added books being added to the open upper shelves, and the books nearing the bottom slowly growing worse and worse in condition.

Her flight to the ground floor also solved another mystery, for when she brushed by the indoor treetops she suddenly began to fall from the air. She managed a hasty landing in the oddly soft soil, but when she recovered and looked up, she then fell to her knees.

Cent. The grove was Cent. She could actually feel it now. Dense living cent. The entire grove was almost overwhelmingly silent, both physically and magically.

She had never before felt such stillness. The currents of magic that typically moved like air around the body were disturbingly absent, giving the grove an alien feeling.

Curiously, she attempted a simple illumination spell. After a second of focusing, her eyes grew wide.

She had experienced being without her magic before, when she had been subjected to supervised burnout training, and later when she had actually burned herself out and needed to wear an inhibitor ring while she recovered. Having experience with the feeling made it no less alien or disturbing though, and it took her a few preventative repetitions of Cadence's breathing technique before she was ready to continue on.

Focusing on getting out of the forest, she trotted ahead.

Despite her crash landing, she kept her bearings enough to know the direction of the nearest shelved wall. The trip to the edge did not take long, and the break in the trees between the copse and the shelf granted her the ability to once again see up the wall of books, having the effect of calming her further.

Knowing the general scheme of the library, she made her way to the edge of the grove, finding that the books on the bottom shelves were nearly decaying away.

Gently, she pulled one of the sturdier looking books from a higher level, finding, to her mixed excitement and disappointment that it was written in Old-Griffish. While Old-Griffish was technically rare, and could even be readily usable as a translation method existed for it, a small part of her had hoped it would have been in the scratchy line-based Chirp. Ostensibly the same language, Old Griffish writing used the common alphabet while Chirp was an early Griffon-specific written dialect.

The transition from one to the other was a mystery among scholars, none of whom could agree why or even when the transition from one to the other had occurred. What did not help resolve the conundrum was the fact that while remaining examples of Old-Griffish were rare, surviving examples of Chirp (at least ones in Equestria) were effectively non-existent.

Still, the book was clearly old, and no doubt a fine example of Old-Griffish, it was just not as old as she would have hoped... especially considering the supposed age of the library.

Returning it to the shelf, she lowered her examination to the books closer to eye level. Finding one of relative suitability, she pulled it from the shelf and cracked the cover to find, after a double-take, the erratic glyphs of talon-drawn Chirp. A page turn revealed much the same, accompanied by a similarly talon-drawn illustration of a mountain range.

It was hard not to get excited, the prospect of finding a full book of text presented the possibility of enough material to actually build a cypher to translate Chirp. Not something she really had the time for now (or for the foreseeable future) but certainly a project for once this was all sorted out.

Lowering the book to her back, she opened her wings to take off, and angled herself in a way that gave the trees (and their magic stealing branches) wide berth. She bent her legs for a push off, but then hesitated.

Looking back to the shelves, she straightened her legs, looking around before cautiously returning the book from her back to the shelf.

Looking back the shelves between the two books she examined, she began trotting alongside the shelf, deep in concentration, doing her best to make out the markings on the deteriorating spines.

After making her way a significant distance from where she began, she stopped, pulling another book from a shelf between the ones she had pulled books from, excitedly finding it too to be in chirp.

She returned it to the shelf, pulling the next to find it similarly in chirp. The next was also in Chirp, as the next, but the one after that was once again in Old Griffish.

With a smile of excitement and nod of satisfaction, this one too was returned it to the shelf. She continued on down the shelf, now specifically pulling books of better condition and glancing briefly at a few pages. After a couple dozen or so of these examinations, she began to become discouraged.

"It would make sense that the transition between writing systems wouldn't be overnight, right?" She asked herself aloud, "So if there is a period of books being published in either language, it would also make sense that some would have been published in both, right? I just need to find one of those and a translation will be a breeze." She sighed, "That would be too easy, wouldn't it."

Deciding to check one more book, she moved on, not feeling any of those around her to be what she needed. All of a sudden one book caught her eye.

The quality of the book was far below what she would have considered acceptable for handling back in Canterlot, and she even hesitated before pulling it, debating simply moving on to the superior specimen a few to the right.

Something compelling told her to go for it though, and so she did, cracking open to a random page to find very dense Old Griffish text on one page, and to her excitement, Chirp on the other.

Hurriedly turning the page, she was again met with the same sight. One more and she had seen all she needed to confirm that this book was indeed a dual publication in both Old Griffish and Chirp.

While a full text of Chirp could be used to make a translation in only months or even weeks, having a direct translation to a known writing system in hoof could reduce that to days or even hours.

With luck and perseverance she could even have a full translation by morning! -er, well, maybe soon... after the immediate court and offerings issues were done. Even still!

With a giddy spring in her step, she pranced her running start, launching herself into the air, the book alongside her in her magical grasp.

Landing once again on the balcony, her little excursion over, she reluctantly deposited her prize to the safety of the balcony, far back by the door where she wouldn't forget it, and it would not get mixed into the piles her next venture would inevitably create.

She gave it one last longing look before she returned to her search for information on how her court was going to, or at least supposed to, go.

Hours of flying and searching, digging through records, and frustratedly returning them had resulted in next to nothing, serving only to confirm her predictions that it would be a long night. Even after figuring out the basics of the Library's "organizational system", she was still far from where she hoped to be.

Frustrated, she once again glared at the current book, hoping that it would be frightened into revealing its secrets, but just as last time, it was not impressed, sitting before her just as unhelpfully as ever.

She had managed to learn a precious little though, namely that it seemed never before had the ransoming occurred in such a structured way, and therefore the process had often taken many months to conclude. The downside was that this also meant many months’ worth of very poor documentation, as she was finding out. The only relevant record she could find so far was a ledger of notes kept by a royal scribe, who only had anything because he had felt the need to record everything. For every note of an offering payment, there were a hundred pages of daily goings-on of the Emperor and the imperial estate.

And so far, after hours of scanning this one immensely dense text, she had only found mention of four offerings. Three of which had been paid simply in gold, all in similar amounts, and the last was combination of gold and crops, which together she managed to calculate to be about the value of the previous offerings.

Her 'success' was not heartening though, and seeing the thousand-some-odd pages left in the ledger, the sparse amount she had learned from it so far, and the height of the moon overhead, she decided to switch to a secondary topic of research.

Placing the ledger aside, she turned to another stack of books neatly tucked nearby and brought them over for inspection with her magic.

Floating before her now were, five books of varying sizes and levels of wear. She inspected the titles she had found while digging around:

The first was a pamphlet-sized softcover "Before the Emperor: a Manual of Etiquette for Imperial Interactions" with a self-explanatory purpose that she hoped would clue her in on what to expect ~~the next~~ later that day.

Next was a smaller, yet thicker book she had pulled due to its title, "A Mate's Duty: To Love a Soldier" which she had hoped would shed some light on pertinent griffon spousal obligations but now upon see the cover depicting a pair of artistic griffon silhouettes touching beaks, she now suspected this "manual" to be a romance novel. She kept it around just in case.

The next was a thick tome with a plain cover and an equally unimpressive name "Imperial Law: volume 236", which she found randomly amongst the red (with gold lettering) books. This one only taken as a reference for possibly finding the preceding two hundred and thirty five at a later time.

The last, unlike the first four whose condition she would rate somewhere between "mint" and "fair", was firmly within the realm of "damaged". It was a large and well-worn "Griffon Body Language" recovered from about halfway down the chamber.

Deciding the rest could wait, she pulled the etiquette and body language books to herself, stacking the others off to the side. For now she would take any information she could get, and publications from within the empire on griffon topics were worth at least a quick perusal.

Cracking the cover on the body language book, she dove in.

"To know yourself is to know what can be used against you. Before you can know your enemy, you must first know yourself..."

Written more as a guide of what to consciously conceal, the book did no less to reveal much on the psychology and physiology of griffon actions.

All throughout there were minor details of how certain actions and inactions were meant to convey different things. Such as in certain social settings, the angle of the head indicates social rank, and that flying indoors was generally frowned upon. Furthermore wing position, claw and talon retraction and placement, feather ruffle, tail motion, and even the movement of one's eyes all carry intricate meaning. Displays of power, challenges, and even mating rituals were faintly addressed.

Before she knew it, her cursory glance had turned into an in-depth reading of the massive tome. So caught up in her reading, she was totally blind to the passage of the moon through the sky, even the rising light of the sun did not break her from the book until the great doors opened behind her.

"Wha? Spi-" She was about to ask before she caught herself, turning to see the former Emperor returned, "Oh..." she looked up to the crystalline sky light finding the sky already light.

He closed the door and proceeded to close the short distance to her. "Your majesty, your court starts soon; I will aid you with your preparations." He said as he nodded to her in a half-bow.

"Oh, preparations? Uh, alright." She said distractedly as she straightened up her books, "Can I just leave these here?" She nodded toward the pile near the railing.

"Of course, that would be best." He said with another little bow, "When you are ready we can make our way to the throne room."

"So what kind of preparations are we talking about?" Twilight asked as she rose, proceeding up to the door, horn lit.

"Not much on your part, precisely, but-" THUMP

He stopped as Twilight once again fell victim to the door's magically inert properties.

A proper gentlegriffon, the former Emperor averted his eyes, pretending not to have seen his Empress ram nose first into the same door for a second time.

"Allow me your majesty."

As Twilight nursed her hurt nose and pride, she spied the spoils of the previous night's ground adventure tucked by the door and levitated it to her back. The others could stay, but this one was coming with her.

Passing through the held door, she missed the widening eyes of the Emperor as she passed, particularly what they were focused on.

"Your majesty, you cannot-!"

Twilight jumped at the sudden exclamation, feeling the book slip off her back.

She reached out a hoof to catch it, but as it impacted her hoof rather than a book, all she caught was ash.

"What!?!" She sputtered, staring at the pile that was once a book, "I just- It just- How did-" she looked up to the griffon for explanation.

"I am deeply sorry I did not warn you, your majesty." He said as he lowered his head to the ground, "Books cannot be removed from the library. Any that are meet such a fate."

Twilight returned, transfixed to the dust pile, a look of shock stuck on her face. Not only had a book just been destroyed before her, something she would mourn on any average occasion anyway, but this! That may well have been the only remaining of its type.

Even if she had the time right now to go looking for another on those low shelves, with how many books she checked and how narrow the band of books that could have what she wanted, there was no guarantee that another would exist.

She stared at the dust pile, hoping lamely for it to reform unscathed like Philomena from her ashes. It did not heed her desires though, remaining as inert as the pile of ash it was.

She had hoped to learn so much from that book, and though now she had learned something from the book, it was not quite the same. Its noble sacrifice would not be in vain though. She would have given the book a noble Minotaur Sailor’s boat-pyre funeral had it not already appeared to have been through one.

"Your majesty? Are you alright?" The on looking griffon asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

Thoroughly discouraged, Twilight nonetheless made sure that the noble ash pile would not be forgotten.

"Yeah, I- I guess... Could I a bag or something for this?" She said, nodding to the remains.

"I will take care of it your majesty, please proceed to the throne room, I think you will understand once you arrive." He said, nodding a bow before retreating off another way, leaving Twilight to head towards the throne room with one final glance at the once-book.

Though she had traveled the path only the previous day, she was still somewhat worried about getting lost as she plodded along. Nonetheless, she made it without incident, the empty halls echoing her hoof-falls in an eerie reminder that the massive complex was abandoned in a way she had never seen Canterlot castle. Even the long abandoned Castle of the Pony Sisters in the Everfree had the sounds of nature to soften the solidarity.

She did notice though, that this changed as she got closer and closer to the throne room, a mild breeze could be felt and the faintest sounds of voices becoming audible.

Depression swayed to anxiety as her focus shifted to the odd change. Now she was somewhat concerned at what might await her: had the petitioners already arrived? What was she supposed to do if they had? Would it be a mob all shouting for her attention? Were they even here for that?

An odd and sudden clarity came as she tried to imagine her reception by mentally reversing the situation.

If Celestia suddenly declared some random griffon to the throne, I can only imagine what the nobility would try to pull!

She shook her head, casting off the thought. They have been absolutely civil about everything so far. Besides, it hardly sounds like a mob, it's more like someone left a window open.

A window open...

She pushed open the door,

"Oh, right..."

An un-seen blush crossed Twilight's face as she looked at the now neat piles that were once the main doors and the empty portal where it once stood. The gaping entrance revealing a crowd of griffons, now silenced by her arrival and watching her like the sharp-eyed avians they partially were.

Trying to stay calm and in-control looking, she did not linger on the crowd too long, rather turning her gaze back to within the chamber.

Upon closer inspection the remnants of the doors, which were once scattered, were now in neat piles as if some griffons had been sweeping up the mess.

In the back of the room were smaller piles of splinters, but as the piles came closer to the door, the chunks became larger and larger. The largest chunks, nearest to the portal, reminded her of the rubble from the dam she helped...

Her eyes grew wide.

Her focus was immediately split as she simultaneously focused on magically reforming the door and meanwhile calculating the viability of translating the spells ability to reform the large into reforming the small.

It would be a challenge, she noted early, but as she continued her preliminary calculations she found nothing to say it was not possible.

Between her calculations and her spellcasting, she did not notice the door behind her open, admitting the throne's former owner.

"Quite impressive your majesty." He said, coming up beside her.

As she moved the final pieces into place, the cracks between them and the door melted away, leaving a pristine set of doors.

"The power of the alicorns is quite the sight to behold." He said, "I'm sure those who were gathering outside will be suitably awed by your casual reconstruction of the palace doors."

"Oh, uh... I hadn't really- Where's your wife?" Twilight asked, changing the subject away from her little unintentional display.

"She is preparing, she will be here soon."

"Preparing?"

"Indeed," the griffoness in question's voice answered as she entered the room from the same side hallway, "It's been quite a while since I've worn this, it took time to remember the tucks."

Horned and beaked head turned alike to the figure, revealing the former empress, though, true to her statement, now unexpectedly draped in swaths of light fabric accented with gold adornments.

Without further comment, the dressed griffoness sauntered up to the throne and draped herself across the bottom steps, revealing her garb in further detail to the alicorn.

"I hope I didn't keep you. Are we ready to proceed?"

Her words were slow to process though, as the addressed alicorn was busy processing the empress's appearance.

Though the manacle that remained around her fore-talon was a thick iron, now to accompany it were gold chains that snaked around much of her figure, also complemented by sheer shimmering silks, seemingly changing color in the light that worked their way around her body, finally ending at the thin veil that draped over her beak.

All-in-all she looked like she had fallen through the costume department of a poorly-researched, yet fantastically funded "Low-Rinse of Saddle-Arabia" play.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Twilight asked, climbing up the throne of the griffon empire, (her throne, she reminded herself) and looking to the two former imperials below.

Either the implication was lost or it was ignored, as both griffons simply nodded.

"Whenever you are ready your highness." The former Emperor directed.

One calming breath, and Twilight's horn lit, surrounding the reformed great doors, and swiftly opening them to the crowd outside.

Understanding the sign, the first supplicant entered.

Author's Note

Getting back into the swing of things.

Question of the day: Anyone got any good griffon jokes?

Chapter 7

Contrary to her expectations, the flood of griffons she anticipated was not so.

There were plenty of griffons seeking her audience, yes, but unlike the unruly mobs of nobles and commoners that fought (sometimes literally) their way into Celestia's day court chamber, the opening of the great doors had revealed an orderly sequence of griffons, sometimes accompanied by young and sometimes not.

Even more surprising, if only because she had not known what to expect, was that the actual offerings were proceeding into mid-day without issue. She had not known to what level she would need to be involved in each offering, but she had quickly discovered that it was actually quite minimal.

For each, the process was nearly identical: after the previous would leave, the next would enter the hall, make a deep bow, give a name for herself and her young (if applicable), a short introduction to the name of those desired released, and when that was complete: an offering.

As said, all offerings to this point had been coinage, and to her subtle relief, not much escalation was occurring in the values, though she knew not if this was because the ranks had yet to increase past the common wing-soldier, unless the ranks were subtly transitioning before her without notice.

Regardless, other than a few words here and there to recognize offerings or subtly reassure the more skittish, Twilight had found she needed to do very little.

Levitating the small pouch of gold to the not-so elegant pile building in the corner, she took the second before the next supplicant arrived to survey her advisers.

"How many do you think we've gotten through so far?" She asked idly.

"Our pace has been surprising, I must say, but still, with how many there are to deal with I fear that we may still-" his words were cut off as a squawk echoed into the hall, followed by an impact and the sounds of a struggle.

Looking to the door, the three beheld a ball of griffons flying through the passage. A few more followed in as the ball hit the ground, the core of which shook off the others clinging to her.

The protests of those shaken off apparently attempting to calm or dissuade the central figure.

"Think of what you-"

"You dishonor-"

Jerking her beak to the speaker who had clung to her wing "Dishonor?" She roared a derisive laugh "A pony would never understand honor!"

And then, like that, the assembly went dead silent as the griffoness's words reverberated throughout the hall.

Time stopped.

Twilight processed the words, the meaning sinking in as the meaning began to sink in. If it were possible, time seemed to move even slower as Twilight's mind tried to process what to do. She could feel the pressure of the room, building up as if to an explosion.

In the molasses that was time, Twilight could see the others processing the declaration just as she had, some beginning to turn up towards her in fear, others transitioning from looks of shock to those of anger, and a few, notably those who had taken physical action to stop the intruder, began to raise clawed talons and paws.

Time folded again as processing took over for perception.

What could she do? What would Celestia do if a pony burst into her court? The scenario broke down as she substituted aggressive griffons for fearful ponies. Ok, what would a Griffon do?

There was no choice.

All at once the pressure released as Twilight came out of her teleport.

A crack resounded as the griffoness's beak slammed into the ground, propelled by the sudden hoof atop her head. The other griffons reeled, backing off whether in shock or deference, but keeping at the ready.

"You dare to mock me!" Twilight shouted to the griffon whose head was pressed beneath her fore-hoof. Twilight confirmed the audience in the hall draw back, though as she would later note, rather than adding to their shock or fear her angered words seemed to calm the crowd.

"You will leave this place and never return. My honor remains unscarred, but should I see so much as a feather from you in my presence again, you will not be so lucky!"

A final press with her hoof brought a whimper from the griffoness, who refused to raise her eyes as she turned and ran.

"Court is dismissed!" Twilight announced as she turned and began walking back up to her throne.

"But-"

"Dismissed!" She shouted, not bothering to look back to whoever had objected.

Griffons fled by claw and wing from the room, orderly, but with appropriate haste.

By the time she was back upon the throne the room was clear.

She looked down to her advisers, who looked back. Outwardly both had stony neutral expressions, but Twilight could see the faintest smirk on the face of the former empress.

Which made her own scowl melt, and slowly morph into as look of horror.

"What did I just do!"

"Empress-"

"I panicked! All I could think about was what you said about how seriously everyone takes honor, and I saw everyone's claws out and I thought they were going to- and that book said a show of- I couldn't- and the I just-" Twilight pleaded as she began to hyperventilate.

"You acted exactly as you should have." The former emperor declared, marching up to the panicking pony, and laying a fore-claw on her shoulder in a calming manner "She insulted you to your face, had you not acted the others would have to preserve order. She likely would not have made it off of the palace grounds had you not done as you did."

"But all she did was- I mean- I attacked her!"

"No, you subdued her, and had you not, she likely would not have been able to walk out under her own power, if at all. Do not discredit my eyesight for my age, I saw what you did there. The one who spoke of honor would have taken her claws through the belligerent's neck had you not intervened as you did. A chipped beak is a favorable trade for an un-severed throat."

Seeing how little his words seemed to affect her, his mate sighed, also climbing the dias, "Empress, if I may presume to diagnose the issue here?"

Looking to the griffoness, Twilight's grimace tightened, and she nodded.

"You think too much. You over analyze your actions and regret them. Even when what you did was best, you try to find faults, even if none existed, and obsess over them. In the moment you have control, focus, and confidence in your actions, but given to reflection, you crumple in the face of impossible idealism. There was no way in which that griffoness would leave here without some recompense, there was no perfect solution, and there is nothing that can be done to change what has already occurred, even if there had been a better path to take."

Though she did not visibly react, Twilight stayed silent for a time. Her conflicted expression changed a few times as she fought herself internally, though she eventually just dissolved into resigned weariness.

"So what happens now?" She asked, "I canceled court and we only got to a fraction of those who were supposed to come."

The former emperor shook his head, "It matters little, the rest will simply do as they would have, and simply seek you out whenever possible, or whenever another of these courts can be scheduled."

"But you said that they have to leave tomorrow because the City's normal population will return! Will they be able to attend another court? How will they seek me out? How will they keep in order, how will they know when to come! I messed it all up!" Twilight whined, starting to sob.

To Twilight's surprise, the former empress backed up, placing a claw on each of her front shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes.

"Did you have any better ideas at the time?" She asked firmly.

"I- Ah-" Twilight sputtered, "No! I didn't! I panicked! All I could think of was a book I read earlier and how everyone looked ready to pounce! I just had to intervene somehow! I had to do something!"

"She challenged you and your response swiftly put her in her place, a fair tactic. But why did you decide to act as you did?"

"Because that was all I could think of that would be fast enough! If I had just stunned her- well, I was worried about what the others would do."

The griffoness smiled, "There you go, you made the best decision you could and acted. There is no use fretting about that. Retrospect serves to aid us in the future, regret serves no purpose. I know you cannot simply dismiss your worries, but rather than regret in yourself, focus on how what you now know will improve you in the future. The next time you begin to worry about something like what you did while saving that upset hen, instead you should focus yourself, on what you will do next time, accepting you cannot change the past."

Twilight nodded at the sage advice, processing it and taking it to heart, before her head froze mid-nod and eyes widened. Jerking to the griffoness, she looked aghast, "'What I'll do next time!' What do you mean next time?"

The griffoness's own confused expression did not comfort the exasperated alicorn.

"Well, I mean next time some griffon needs to know their place of course. Surely some will approach you similarly until your validity as Empress is universally and undeniably accepted. Today has gone a good ways to that, word will spread of much today."

Still stuck on the previous point, Twilight still sputtered, "But I- I can't! I won't! I refuse to lay a hoof on anyone other than to protect!" she began confidently, though it did not last long "But you're right, I will have to do something in the future..." she straightened up, "I will respond, but not with violence. I'll do it peacefully."

"Not to doubt you, your majesty, but how do you seek to respond to threats and challenges without violence?" The griffoness asked, more curious than challenging.

"I'll figure out a way... somehow..." she suddenly looked up at the main throne room doors with a spark in her eye, "somehow... hmmm..."

The griffoness could see the intensity in the alicorn's eyes as she thought, lost to the world, "Well, with your leave then, I'll go prepare a meal."

A fair bit of time later Twilight awoke from her planning by the sound of her stomach rumbling.

"Hmmm... Guess I really do need Spike to tell me to eat."

Though Rainbow's chides were confirmed, she would never admit it. Rather, she decided that as soon as Spike was back with her she would suitably thank the drake for his vigilance in normally not allowing her to eat less than a single ration pack for fear of nerves and then proceed to engage in diplomacy, binge study all night, and hold court the next day culminating in a hoof-fight, all without eating.

She rose from the throne, pacing her way to the side door, to begin the not-so-ideal task of finding the kitchens in this labyrinth of architecture.

When she reached the side door though, the faintest smell of something caught her nose from the right.

Close to ten minutes of wandering later and as it turned out, that something was a fine soup of some indeterminate kind. She wasn't sure what was in it, but its strong smell had managed to guide her almost without error to the kitchens. Or rather kitchen, as the humble arrangement was more adequately called.

Along the way she had wondered if the kitchens would be as massive an arrangement as back in Canterlot, and to her surprise it was, but more so because of her parent's kitchen at the Sparkle household rather than Canterlot Castle's grand arrangement.

"I expected, I don't know, more?" Twilight half-joked as she walked through the door, drawing the attention of the griffoness away from the pot she was stirring.

"Oh, your majesty, I was just about to go get you. The soup is simmering nicely." She nodded to the pot before her, "I'm interested to see if you'll like it."

"I cannot say I can place the smell, though at this point, I could eat anything. What is it?"

"Oh, I'll keep that a secret until you try it. It will let you keep an open mind."

Twilight looked skeptically between the griffoness and the pot, "That makes me-" she froze, ears turning, "did you hear that?" She asked, suddenly alarmed.

The griffoness looked similarly surprised, but exclusively at Twilight's sudden question.

"What did you hear?"

"I thought I heard... knocking?" Twilight looked around but shook her head, "I guess it was nothing, never mind."

The griffoness was just as happy to dismiss the sudden interruption, grabbing bowls from the cabinet behind her and ladling up some soup, revealing the milky-off-white broth with chunks of some kind within.

She placed the bowls on a cart and nodded to the door, "If you would precede me your majesty."

Twilight went to the gestured door, opening it with magic and entering an large, ornate room with finely crafted wood-paneling around, gleaming marble floors, and a few paintings of various elder-looking griffons, all surrounding a massive wooden table. Looks appeared deceiving though, Twilight noted, for while it was enormously built, it looked like it was only meant for a maximum of ten, if the six chairs currently around it and the four in the corners were any indication.

Meanwhile, the griffoness made her way passed the still magically held door into the room.

"Have a seat your majesty," the griffoness requested, pulling out a chair and gesturing to it.

She did so, finding the chair and table built to griffon proportions to be a little large for her still growing alicorn form.

A bowl was placed in front of her and spoon laid beside it.

"Dig in your majesty."

The smell was growing on her and she was severely tempted to do so, but she resisted, looking to the griffoness, and to the second bowl on the cart, "Are you not going to join me?"

"Oh no your majesty, I ate earlier and have been sampling the soup along the way. Besides," she added, gesturing to the bowl, "I think you'll be wanting this soon enough."

Twilight thought about contesting, but the enticing smell before her and the hunger she was intensely aware she was feeling conspired against that thought.

Giving in, she looked down at the soup, magically grasping the spoon.

"Here it goes..."

She said rising up the deeply-dished spoon of broth and chunks to her mouth.

There was barely any hesitation as she partook, returning the spoon to the bowl as she considered the flavor.

It was... good?

She couldn't place the flavor, or even the consistency, but it was good, she decided.

"It's good," she said, looking over to the griffoness to further her comment, but stopped upon seeing the oddly ecstatic smile on her beak.

"You enjoy it?" she asked in a tone that sounded a little too excited for a simple complement on the quality of her cooking.

"Um, yes?" Twilight responded "Could you please tell me about it? Like what's in it?"

"Of course! It's a common dish here in the Empire, though for you I had to substitute carrots where potatoes are typically used. It's most common near the eastern coast, though we've been having trouble with the main ingredient lately due to the recent increase in Minotaur-" she could not finish her thought though, as a massive, and familiar, Crash! resounded through the complex.

"That was the-!" Twilight began to shout before she noticed the tip of griffon tail darting out the door was her only audience, "main doors again." She finished flatly.

She was up immediately, quickly leaving the griffoness in her dust through teleports.

Arriving at the chamber side door, she encountered the former emperor, also apparently intent to find out the source of the commotion.

He kicked the door open and they ran through together.

Her first glance was towards the once-destroyed doors, though re-destroyed was more apt now.

Her eyes raced across the shattered remains, this time the doors not so much obliterated as simply tossed aside.

Of course, then her eyes reached the centerpiece of the room.

Large and grey, she would have thought it a boulder that had rolled through the doors had it not been visibly moving, a head turning down towards them.

It was huge, maybe not the largest she had seen, but a truly massive beast nonetheless. It towered above them with not so much "seeping wisps" as "billowing clouds" of smoke pouring from the edges of its mouth.

Before them was a truly impressive sight, as in the chamber was a full-grown and visibly upset dragon.

Twilight dropped into a bracing stance, preparing a shield to cast over herself and the former Emperor.

He, on the other hand, took a different approach.

"How dare you violate the imperial palace!" He shouted, marching right past her towards the draconic intruder.

A small part of her felt validated at his use of her earlier approach, but the larger part wanted to grab the apparently suicidal griffon and run.

The dragon, turned threateningly, but rather than attack, to Twilight's surprise, he spoke.

"I meant no disrespect, Emperor." He said dismissively, "Though I must say, it is quite nice to have confirmation that the rumors of your death, at the very least, have been exaggerated. Now if only you could put the rumors of aggression and war to rest and I will leave you to your peace. I would hate to have to report to the elders that the Griffons have once again..."

The dragon's booming words died as he broke his staring contest with the Emperor for a moment to glance at Twilight.

"Oh?" He then looked back to the Emperor, this time noticing his shackled claw and considering it for a second.

"Ah!" He laughed, "Ha ha! Alicorns put you in your place already did they?"

He did not respond, merely keeping the gaze of the much-larger being.

"Still as feisty as ever though I see." He then turned his focus entirely to the alicorn, "Goodness, where are my manners? My name is Centraga. I nest in the northern Egglayer Mountains, and am among the senior dragons who reside within the empire." He looked around, "It seems everything is under control here, so I'll just chalk this up to another regime change. No need to convene the elders over this, right?" He asked Twilight knowingly, "Well, I may as well introduce myself to the new Emperor. Have you selected the new Emperor yet?"

The former Emperor re-injected himself into the exchange, walking between the two, though not doing much with the height that the dragon had on him. "You address her now." He said.

Slightly annoyed, the dragon glanced at him, "I see no-" he jerked, freezing as his eyes re-locked on Twilight, and then to the crown still atop her head.

"Is this true? You, a pony, have taken the throne of the griffons for yourself?"

"Yg-" her throat clenched at her first words since the dragon's arrival. She wanted to explain the situation in detail, how she was forced, or that it was a misunderstanding, but under the dragon's sudden intense scrutiny all she could answer was a shaky "Yes".

The dragon stared at her, stone-faced. Seconds passed as Twilight considered trying to explain herself, or better yet, running away, but she did neither.

Eventually the dragon turned towards the open gateway, "The council must hear of this." He said as he stepped away, unfurling his huge wings and taking off as soon as he was past the doors.

Back inside, Twilight took one last wide-eyed look at the former emperor before promptly losing consciousness.

Author's Note

Last chapter someone brought up adding the comedy tag; opinions on this and any additional tags?

Chapter 8

Twilight was content in the wonderful state of blissful not-quite-awake-yet-still-somewhat-aware. Mind empty, she simply enjoyed the wonderful comforts of a real bed that she had not enjoyed since... since leaving Equestria.

And like that it was over and she was back in the world of the living, she jumped up, memory flooding back, reminding her of her unexpected talk with the dragon Centraga and his parting words.

Her body froze as her mind raced.

He was going to inform the elder council! and she didn't get to explain ANYTHING to him!

While it was true that every grown dragon largely lived their life independently, residing wherever they could and owing no allegiance to any nation, there was still what could be regarded as a leading body to the Dragons.

The elder council was not a dragon government per-se, but rather it was a group of the oldest dragons that had taken it upon themselves to keep dragon affairs in order. Since dragon affairs typically occurred wherever there were dragons though, their application of dragon affairs effectively meant world affairs.

They would keep upstart dragons from causing problems, enforce the ancient dragon laws ensuring no adult dragons join sides in non-dragon conflicts, and generally keep world power in check.

Which in this case was the problem.

They had no real legal power, they were just effectively a group of old dragons that got together to make decisions; any decisions made being enforced by the council members themselves.

They may not have technically had political power, and they barely ever actually convened to make any decisions, but when they did, any resolution they made was quickly heeded by any nation, no matter how belligerent.

Some historians would periodically question why, for example, a minotaur warlord would listen to a group of incredibly old dragons on the other side of the planet, but anyone aware of dragon physiology would be quick to tell them just why: dragons can live forever.

They are not truly immortal as they can be killed, and typically are by some incident or another within their first few hundred to thousand years of life. Those that do not though become practically immortal by virtue of dragon nature, namely that a dragon never stops growing.

In their first few decades after hatching it is not uncommon for a young dragon to more than double in size every decade. After that their growth progressively slows but never stops, ever. Even once they have reached the age where they are only growing a few centimeters per year; a few centimeters per year translates into tens per decade, and meters per century. The fact that Celestia had mentioned visiting with dragons who were ancient in her childhood put no real limit on the scope of dragon growth.

Though they are not unable to die, a dragon of the age where his scales are thicker than a spear is long has little to fear in the world, short of madness.

She had not been bluffing when she had indicated that if the war had gotten too far out of the ponies’ hooves that the dragons would step in to stop the griffons and reaffirm the status quo. That said, the tables had now been turned. In the eyes of the council it would look like the Ponies had taken the griffons by force, regardless of who had started the conflict.

What would they do though? That was the real issue.

They could just decide to come and force her to leave. That wouldn't be so bad, she thought, Though the potential for an outbreak of conflict in the power vacuum would still need a solution. At least then she would have a few dragons with thousands of years of experience to rely on for a solution.

...assuming they would care. a dark part of her mind added.

It was true, as long as the issue didn't threaten Dragons as a whole, or put too much power in one race's hooves, the dragons were thankfully, or rather notoriously, claws-off. They would not take action about a griffon internal-affair until... until the circumstances put too much power in some other nation's hooves.

But what then? Without the griffons as a check, what would they do? The question came full circle. What would they do now that they thought the ponies had claimed the Empire?

Twilight's bed-mane had been slowly morphing into frayed madness as her assessment of the situation went on, sharply traveling into full smarty-pants as her mind proposed other possible outcomes.

They could attack Equestria and try to take Celestia or Luna hostage to force an exchange. Or they could come right here and take her hostage. Or both! Who would lead and protect Equestria? Could Cadence handle leading both the Crystal Empire and Equestria at the same time, even for a little while? Who would care for Spike? He could handle himself, but who would be there to love him and make sure he didn't eat too many rubies before bed?

She would not let Spike grow up without her.

The thought gave her chills, an itch rising in her horn and a pressure in her head.

They would care for him right? One of their own? Would they even consider him as such, given his pony upbringing? Would they...

Thoughts of worse and worse conditions played out before her downward spiral was stopped by a staunch realization.

Come what may, NOTHING was going to keep her from caring for Spike. She swore it to the creator and all that she created, NOTHING, no force, no magic, nor the creator herself would take him from her, or her from him.

That was a solemn vow.

The pressure in her head and itch in her horn turned cold and at the same time hot, it was as if she was being doused in ice water at the same time she was experiencing a magical burn out. It didn't hurt, and she really didn't care.

Her vow was all that mattered. Spike was all that mattered.

She pounded her hoof down in absolute resolve to the sound of a deep boom.

With the clarity of purpose only granted to those with a pure goal of the heart, her mind began to clear.

Faintly, she began to recognize the sound of faint sobbing.

Twilight's unfocused eyes attempted to glance around what she now realized was a totally unfamiliar room.

Again she heard.... crying?

Suddenly alert again, she looked down past the foot of the bed towards the source of the disturbance.

There she found no less than a dozen griffons, most of whom were clawing at the door to escape, or hiding under their wings.

Twilight wondered why they were in such a state until she realized that her eyes were glowing, and that she was channeling a large portion of her alicorn power. She even felt a little... actually, now that she was thinking about it, very drained.

She briefly wondered if something about that would explain what she had "hit" because she was pretty sure the soft downy blankets of her bed were not capable of the resonance of whatever she had impacted.

She looked around, finding nothing and no bits of anything either. Maybe it was just her imagination.

She was most certainly not going to dismiss whatever had just happened, but it could wait for a bit. At least until her current situation could be explained.

Of the griffons before her, more peculiar than their actions was their dress. Each wore a frilly black and white skirted dress and apron that looked suspiciously like Prench Maid outfits.

Which would actually make sense if they were- oh goodness they are!

Maids! And maids meant non-supplicant griffons! And that meant...

Twilight leapt off the bed, running to the window and throwing open the blinds.

Outside was chaos.

Not the bugbear-attack/ Discord has turned the streets to soap kind of chaos, but rather the kind of bustle that the City had been eerily missing since her arrival.

Griffons crowded both the streets and the air, looking like Canterlot the last time Cloudsdale had been within flight distance.

The population had returned! -or was at least in the process of returning!

Looking to the sky she found Celestia's charge high in the sky.

"I was beginning to think you would sleep the day away." A familiar voice called from behind her. She turned to find the former Empress walking in amongst the maids, most of whom were taking the opportunity to cower behind her or bolt out the now open door, "And I'd ask what you did to scare your staff so bad, but I've seen your majesty in action." She chuckled.

Twilight was not so jovial, racing up to the griffoness, "Why didn't you wake me up! It must be after noon! I've missed so much time I could have been-!"

"Been what?" She asked, nodding to and waving off the maids who gathered behind her, "There are no pressing issues at the moment. The journey is a two day trek through the mountains given current conditions, so we have until tomorrow for the army to return, there is no telling when the dragons will take action, if they ever will, the minotaurs have been oddly reserved lately, and I doubt Equestria's going to be doing much, so unless a pressing issue arises you have every right to sleep in. Remember, the staff have returned, including the high generals, so there isn't much that you need be troubled with. Speaking of the generals, it would probably be good to introduce you. Would you like to do that after your breakfast? Or lunch if you prefer?"

Twilight thought a moment. "Got any of that soup left?"

"I'm sorry your majesty, but I'm sure the chefs can prepare something for you in a hurry." She said with a bow, "Would you like me to go... have someone tell them to make you something?"

Twilight arched a brow at the odd phrasing of the question, but didn't ask.

"No, I'll go. I need to get acquainted with them eventually. One thing that I've learned from having others prepare my meals my whole life is that you should always be on good terms with the cook."

Twilight was going to finish the statement with a smirk, but it was lost as the statement made the griffoness look like she was about to run away.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh- uh... yes, um..." *Guuuuurgle* The voracious sound of Twilight's days-unfed stomach interrupted the griffoness’s ramblings, shaking her to awareness. "Oh, right, ah... ok then, better sooner than later..."

With that the griffoness turned, marching out the door, a concerned alicorn close behind.

Twilight opened her mouth a few times to ask about the griffoness’s sudden odd behavior and stiff movements.

When she finally built up the initiative to add voice to her miming, all she could produce was an awkward, "Are you alright?"

The griffoness jumped a little at the sudden question, turning with wide eyes, as if remembering the alicorn's presence, "I'm sorry your majesty! I apologize for how I am acting. I shall stop at once."

Seeing that there was still clearly something wrong, but not wanting to press or darken the mood, Twilight tried the opposite, chuckling softly. At the griffon's questioning look, Twilight waved a hoof, "I'm, sorry, I'm just not used to being called that yet. 'Your majesty' has always meant the pri- I mean, Princess Celestia." Twilight sheepishly explained.

"Oh? How did they refer to you back in Equestria then?" The griffoness asked curiously.

"Uh... Twilight mostly?" She shrugged, "The only ponies who referred to me by title were the guardponies at Canterlot castle. Though speaking of names, I just realized that I'm not uh... familiar with yours?"

The griffoness paused and then laughed herself.

"Pardon me Empress," she said backing up and making a show of bowing, her impressive wings extended outwards and down, "I, your humble servant, have not rank nor name, land nor wealth, existing by your mercy to serve you till waste take my body to join my life. This one accepts whatever name you give her, so please you, your majesty."

The speech was given as if rehearsed, and Twilight could tell the griffon before her was not too concerned as she spoke, but that did not mean that she herself knew how to react.

"That's... uh..." Twilight said awkwardly, as the griffoness rose and they resumed walking.

"So then... your name is, or was?" She asked again, deciding to generally ignore what had just happened.

"I was once Sypher Raised, or Sypher of Clan Raised."

"Clan Raised?" Twilight asked, genuinely interested, but also wanting to push a new topic.

"I am- er- was of high berth within the respected clan of Raised, so rather than simply take my husband's, the names would traditionally be hyphenated to show the union of our clans, but we decided against it."

"Ah~, ok, well then, Sypher, thank you for your aid thus far, and I look forward to working with you for the duration of my 'reign'."

"I could only hope to live so long." Sypher laughed.

Twilight wanted to retort, but then thought better of it.

"No reason to start that all again."

As they traveled the halls, Twilight noticed the unfamiliar path they took.

"You'll be dining in the royal banquet hall this time, rather than the private suite." She explained as they neared their destination, "I have no doubt the chefs will be... Well, let's just say they will be eager to prove themselves."

Twilight felt there was something to that statement that should have made her uneasy, but she dismissed it, not wanting to push too hard.

They continued on in awkward silence until a particularly utilitarian set of doors became visible.

As they neared to their destination, the sounds of voices could be heard.

"-the difference between a pineapple and your primaries! I don't care what you were told, this kitchen will only prepare-" The shouting griffon stopped as the door opened, admitting the royal and her entourage.

Twilight looked around the room, revealing not a dining hall, but a kitchen full of chef-hat adorned griffons.

The room itself was much more like what Twilight had anticipated yesterday, resembling closely the large cook-hall of Canterlot castle, only rather than stuffed with ponies, the occasional sheep or cow, and the one griffon kept on retainer, this one was populated with only griffons.

Griffons that were all staring at her, at least the ones who weren't glaring death at the griffon beside her.

"You!" The same voice as before shouted.

Twilight looked to her right to find a griffon in a blood red chef's cap charging up to them with a knife.

On reflex she was about to shoot him with a stun spell, but stopped when a bump from a rear-paw brushed her back leg.

The griffoness, who was his target, it was now apparent, turned to meet him.

"What are you thinking? Bringing her here! And what's this nonsense about warming up-"

"I was thinking," the griffoness interrupted, clearly trying to put up a strong front, but noticeably failing, "that you are making a terrible first impression on your new Empress."

Despite his shortly continued glare, his eyes did wander before widening as if realizing for the first time there was an alicorn in the room. In an instant the loud griffon's personality did a one-eighty, coughing into the crook of his non-knife wielding talon as he turned fully to face the alicorn.

"Your majesty," he said smoothly, going into a bow "I offer you my sincerest apologies, had I known this" he spat with venom, glaring at the griffoness, "had intended to drag you through our kitchens, I would at least have cleaned up some of the mess. In fact..." Twilight looked around surprised, finding none of the mess in question. In fact the place was spotless, achieving the stunning prestige of Canterlot Castle. It made sense though, just as in Canterlot, it's unacceptable (and honestly difficult) to track dirt when you walk on the limbs you prep food with. She had somewhat expected it to be different, but the same rules of non-flight also appeared to be in play. No griffon wanted a face full of stove fire because some griffon on the other side of the stove didn't want to keep his wings closed.

Actually, upon closer inspection, the kitchen seemed incredibly similar to the one in Canterlot, unmercifully so, at least until the refrigeration was considered. In Canterlot, the few ice-chests kept for preserved out-of-season vegetables were stowed off to the side. Here she saw none, or rather, she may have, if her suspicions of the huge grey-silver door on one end of the room were correct.

"...your majesty?"

Twilight's eyes darted back to the griffon still before her. Apparently he had said something while she was examining the room, something apparently requiring a response.

"Oh, eh..." she gave a nervous chuckle.

The griffon continued to stare at her, unmoved, but apparently waiting for an answer.

"Yes?" She asked to mean "repeat that please?"

She could tell that was not how it was taken though, as a sudden tension filled the air and the griffoness beside her cowered into her side. Twilight's eyes widened as the chief raised his knife towards the one beside her.

"Woah!" Twilight said, yanking the knife from the griffon with magic.

"I'm sorry your majesty," he said, sounding sincerely apologetic and a little confused "would you prefer I do it by claw?"

"No!" She shouted, throwing a wing around the griffoness and teleporting past the griffon, knife still floating beside them, "We're just passing through!" She shouted emphatically, shoving past those who failed to give wide enough birth.

The pony and griffon pushed through the far-side doors at just shy of a sprint. On the other side was a grand hall with an enormous table, but Twilight was a little pre-occupied to examine more than that.

She shot a sealing charm at the doors behind them before letting out a sharp breath.

"What was THAT? I zoned out for like a second!" She shouted to the griffoness, hoof pointing to the door that sealed them from apparently mad griffon.

"The head chef is... He thought I deserved punishment." She replied quietly, a claw to her chest in a calming manner, "Whether he only meant to scare me or not, he asked your permission to clip my wings."

She knew of the practice, or at least stories of it from the most Draconian of pre-unification Pegasi tribes. Much like the horn cutting of Unicorns or the partial laming of Earth Ponies, the practice was a horrific dark stain on a history thankfully long past. Even back then it was reserved for only the most heinous of criminals or "traitors to one's tribe". A denial of one’s right to remain one with their tribe, a removal of what made them part of the old isolationist pony societies. In effect it was a protracted death sentence.

"WHAT?" Twilight screamed, bile rising in her throat, "W-WHAT?" She shouted again, unable to articulate beyond her disgusted apprehension.

"I'm sorry I did not warn you. I anticipated such threats from him. He in particular is a believer in the old ways of the Empire. I have no doubt that he blames the Empire's loss on our non-adherence to the more traditional ways of doing things."

"Is he insane!?! Would he have seriously...?" She gagged, leaving left the revolting thought unspoken.

"You must remember, to his eyes and the eyes of the law, it would not have been a crime. Legally, I have no rights, even to my body or life. If you killed me, it would not be a crime, and most wouldn't even bat an eye. He, in particular, would probably prefer it. I do not know if he had actually personally intended to have gone so far, but certainly if you commanded it.”

Twilight blanched further at the knowledge that he at least could have carried out his threat.

Before her, the griffoness deeply bowed, “I must apologize,” she said, "I had somewhat expected something to happen. I didn't expect it to be so... rather, I did not expect for you to see the worst of griffon... traditionalism. I should have said something. I am sorry."

Twilight was taken aback, not quite sure how to feel. Eventually she released a tense breath, allowing herself to relax a little, if still on edge.

“It’s fine... Well, no, it’s not fine. Never put yourself at risk like that again, especially if you knew that something could happen. Like I told you before, if your lives belong to me, I want you to respect them and protect them.” she said it firmly, leaving no room to argue, not that the griffoness would. The alicorn let out a breath, “That said, it may be best that I saw this, it’s better that I see the worst now, rather than be ignorant and make mistakes later.” She forced an unconvincing smile, “Is there anything else I should be made aware of? I don’t want to find out the hard way tha-” She was halted by the door beside her opening, narrowly missing her as she teleported away.

In a flash she was between the door and the former empress fully tensed, head low, and horn pointed at the door, "GET BACK!"

The maids from before that had begun to enter the room piled over each other to flee.

In seconds the door was closed again, and no doubt the griffons were on the other side of the castle hiding under their beds.

Twilight jumped and wheeled her still primed horn as a claw was laid on her back.

"Calm down." The griffoness shushed, adjusting to lay a wing over the excited mare, "They mean no harm."

“Sorry, I’m still just a little on edge...” Twilight apologized.

Glancing at the door to get her mind on other things, Twilight shot a confused look to the griffon attempting to sooth her, "Wait, why do the maids not have a problem with you? I get that the head chef is a particular case, but if things are really so bad, why do they seem to have no issues with you?"

"Because I was able to explain the situation to them. Of all the castle staff, the maids are almost always the best informed. It comes with the territory."

"Wait," Twilight said, raising a hoof, "'Of all the castle staff?' Just how many griffons work in the palace?"

"As you are aware, my empress, the capitol population has now returned, and with them have come the castle staff and imperial entourage. Not counting the generals or any of those who live outside the walls and commute in for their work, there are the servants and maids, attendants and scribes, litter carriers, entertainment, some grounds and sky keepers, the imperial knight unit, and to a lesser extent some others."

Twilight's hoof lowered, "That's a lot of, wait... You said 'entertainment'? What does that entail?"

"Well, most do not live within the palace, such as the patroned artists and musicians, but there are a few instructors and I suppose your harem also qualifies."

"Harem!" Twilight sputtered, "What! Why! How! Why!"

The griffoness stared for a moment, as if unable to understand the alicorn's apprehension, a second later a sly smile crossed her beak.

“Oh!" She yelped, as if suddenly realizing something, "I just thought of a solution to a lot of our problems..." she said, racing to the door, "Get comfortable your majesty, I'll be right back with something to relieve your stress… or rather some griffons..."

By the time Twilight's mind registered, it was already too late and the griffon was gone.

Mental fatigue was already starting to set in, and it was not even the morning meal yet. With a huff, rather than do as her adviser instructed, Twilight stood up tall, square to the door and prepared to dismiss whoever was next to come through, she was stressed, but that did not mean she wanted that kind of relief.

So focused on the door the griffoness had left, Twilight was startled when the door she and the griffoness had entered from began rattling.

Twilight wheeled, dismissing the charm she had put on the door and yanking them open, "Now see here, I do not need a harem, I have quite enough to worry... about..." her words trailed off as she recognized the griffon's white chef hat and the trolley he was pushing, "oh."

To the griffon's credit, he hid his reaction well. None the less, Twilight could feel her face heat up as she realized what she had just said.

"No!" She shouted, "I thought you were part of my harem- the harem! But you're obviously not. -Not that you're not a fine griffon yourself! I meant I'm..."

The griffon gave her a subtly sizing glance before wordlessly continuing to the table, pulling the lid off the cart and placing a bowl at the head seat.

Capitalizing on the event Twilight darted to the seat "Oh! Good! Thanks! I'm starved!"

She shoveled a few mouthfuls of the soup, keeping eye contact with the chef who, seeming satisfied, bowed, turned, and pushed the cart back out.

As soon as the door closed, the napkin from her place setting was wrapped around her muzzle.

"Gah! What is this?"

She had already forced down a few bites for the act, but she would not willingly subject herself to any more now that she was alone. True, she was starving, having only a few bites of... whatever that was yesterday since leaving her camp outside the city. She would eat almost anything at this point, but this was beyond bad.

Examining the bowl before her revealed something clearly not what she had eaten yesterday.

Rather than creamy white, this soup was a murky brown. She poured a little from her spoon, watching it drip down in globs. Whatever it was, it was clearly meant to be this way, with diced carrots, and chunks of...

She actually couldn't place any of the various cubed chunks. Reluctant to bring any of it anywhere near her mouth again, she laid down her spoon and pushed the bowl away, dropping her chin to the table, “It’s going to be another long day, isn’t it?”

It was at this moment, that the door the former empress had fled through opened, and a flock of griffons clad in silks and ornamental chains grouped in.

Momentarily struggling to remember what she had been preparing to say, she was pre-empted by the former empress, once again draped as she had been yesterday, coming before her in a bow, "Your majesty, I have a way to put your mind at ease!"

"No!" Twilight shouted in desperation, suddenly remembering what she had been waiting to say before the fiasco with the chef, "I appreciate the thought, but I’m really not uh… interested… or rather, I don't think I'm in any position to properly utilize or even care for a harem at this time... I...”

The former empress interrupted with a cough as she stepped forward, "I’m sorry, before you continue, maybe it would be best if you first allow me to explain the inner workings of the harem?"

Twilight raised her hooves waving them crosswise, "No! I mean, no thanks! Really, I do not really want to know!"

"No, your majesty, it will really help you-"

"I really don't think-"

"It will relieve a lot of stress if-"

"I'm telling you I don't-"

"Let me explain how they can help-"

"I do not want their help-"

"But they are really good-"

"I don't want details!"

Their back and forth was ended as a griffoness screeched so loud that Twilight was startled out if her seat and off the ground. Reining in her flight instincts, she found one of the griffonesses writhing on the ground. For a moment Twilight thought she may have been injured, but rather than pain, the griffoness was roaring in laughter.

"What? What's going on?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you your majesty. I'm sorry for the confusion, I should have explained before." She gestured to the arrayed griffons, "On the surface, the harem is as you were likely imagining, but that is only on the surface. Unbeknownst to most, members of the Emperor's heremous court fulfill an honored tradition as his confidants and advisors. There is no real physical aspect to it, at least not anymore."

"I'll say," one of the Griffonesses mocked from the back, "if o'l rumplefeathers had tried anything she would have killed him."

"And then probably us!" another stage whispered to those around her, earning an eye roll from the former empress.

"In truth it is an occupation not much different from advisors, though they represent ears to listen and mouths of advice without the political entanglement that comes with a ranked and appointed role. They exist outside the system, only serving as unbiased advisors, rather than the generals and those who are relegated to their own tasks. They are well-educated, trustworthy, and discreet members of the Imperial order. It should also be mentioned that they are also protected by the authority of the Emperor."

"That is why I dressed as I did yesterday, as few would violate the veil," she said, running her silken adornments through her talons, "even if they didn't understand the situation." She said before turning to the cloth draped around her back, "Well, that, and I wanted to see if it still fit. I haven't gotten to wear it since I married."

"Wait," Twilight said, rolling a hoof in the air, "You were in the Emperor's harem before you married him?"

"Yes, it is very common for a wife to be selected from the harem, though not a rule." She answered matter-of-factly.

"We are the most eligible bachelorettes after all!" One of the griffonesses added, making a suggestive pose.

Twilight looked to the group, conspicuously avoiding lingering her gaze on the one posing, "I don't understand. So the harem is... not a harem? It's actually some kind of... secret advisory group?"

"To most, the Emperor's harem is believed to be just that. But secretly, it represents a collection of trusted advisors. At one point in history, the practice of harems was common to powerful and important figures. Even Celestia and Luna were known to have small herds. The practice of harems as advisors though, is a tale traced back quite a while in Imperial history to Emperor Primary III and his delegation to the Minotaurs.

"The story goes that Emperor Primary III was not the most intelligent of leaders due to a youth as a war orphan during a time without services to care for him. He did not have a formal education, and was reportedly illiterate, but what he lacked in education, he made up for with being clever. After taking power during an uneasy peace with the Minotaurs that had lasted since his predecessor's conflict, the very conflict that orphaned him, Primary III was unexpectedly invited to the Minotaur King's palace for negotiations.

"Seeking a more steady peace, he agreed, setting off with a large party of guards and various other staff.

"Upon arriving, he was invited to the court hall to meet the King.

"As it turns out, the Minotaur King had secretly discovered the Emperor's lack of education and illiteracy, and had planned take advantage of him.

"Upon reaching the hall, the Emperor was immediately swarmed with gift-givers and was led to the king who welcomed him with open arms.

"The Minotaurs, whose culture had firm gender roles, and backed by some of the emperors subtle hints, disregarded the harem, seeing only a collection of breeders, and allowed him to take them with him into his chambers.

"As the Minotaurs expected, the Emperor would have been dismayed, and would have had no choice but to agree, but he had suspected such treachery beforehand, and rather than bring an actual harem, he had collected as many high-ranking and therefore well-educated females as he could; politicians wives, notable public servants, even a general who had been made privy to his plan and volunteered herself, all with his vow not to touch them.

"Now in his chambers they all helped him to rework the treaty.

"The next day, the Minotaur king did not even bother to read the reworked treaty before signing it.

"Only later did he realize his mistake, and by then he was forced to comply with it out of pride. That is one of the reasons the Minotaurs have disliked the Empire since.

"Though eventually the rules changed somewhat, including that only the unmarried could join the harem, for obvious reasons, the practice persists to this day."

Absent mindedly Twilight raised her hoof, "If one who is already married cannot join the harem, then why can you join it again? I'm pretty sure you are married."

The Empress laughed, "Technically correct, but widows may join," she said with a sly smile, "and it just so happens that my husband is technically dead, so I'm just taking some liberties in skirting the rule. I also have an ace, should it come to it." She said with an intensification of her smile that made Twilight's skin crawl.

"What is it? Do I want to know?"

Her smile grew, "Oh, nothing much, just the fact that I took the liberty of planning the addition of another member of your harem. One more suited to the harem of our new Empress."

She kept eye contact, looking for recognition, but when after a second she found none, she shrugged, "You can come in now dear."

Shock, fear, and a host of other emotions crossed Twilight's face as it dawned on her.

The dumbfounded mare's mind grew only more chaotic as the doors opened and the emperor marched in as if in a parade formation, no emotion on his stiff features as his silk-wrapped and veiled form moved into the room, reaching a point and standing stoically.

Twilight didn't- couldn't make a sound, but the others had no such problems, a few sending wolf whistles, which were firmly ignored by the large griffon.

It took a while, and a few false starts, before Twilight's mind re-booted, "P-please tell me you're kidding."

The former empress laughed after a second of letting the alicorn sweat, “Only a little bit."

The other griffonesses quickly dismantled the Emperor's adornments, leaving a bare griffon behind.

"With your permission, I would like to have him added to your harem along with myself, at least on paper."

Calming down a fraction, Twilight returned enough coherence to ask, "Why?"

"I recognize it may be presumptuous of me, but I ask this because it offers us a little more safety. Despite what I said initially, being a ghost is truly a position where our lives are forfeit. Seeing how you reacted to the Chef's threat against me, I assumed it would ease your mind somewhat if we were to at least complicate acting against us. Hopefully dissuading any such attempts again. Furthermore, it allows us a way to act as your advisors through the harem practice, without it appearing that we, the unfit, have your ear...”

Twilight silently processed what the griffoness said, coming to a conclusion with a nod, "Alright, I guess what you said makes sense. I reluctantly accept you into my... harem."

A cheer went up amongst the other griffonesses, with some coming up to pat the former empress on the back in congratulations.

"Now that leaves only two issues before you can meet with the Generals." She said, falling back into her advisor voice, "First is food" she looked over to the table to see the pushed aside bowl, "or did you already eat?"

Twilight gagged, "No, I can't say that I've eaten."

The griffoness raised a brow to the answer, but carried on nonetheless, "Well, then we can either ask the kitchens for something else," Twilight grimaced at the suggestion, "or we could have something brought in from outside. Sample some local cuisine perhaps? Or perhaps you have a request?"

"As long as it's not that," she said, pointing a hoof to the offending bowl, "I'll take just about anything at this point."

"Fantastic, we'll be back by the time you are done with the second issue."

"Second issue?"

"Of course your majesty! It wouldn't do for our Empress to appear before others of merit in such a state!"

Twilight somewhat wanted to be offended, but her confusion won out, "What do you mean?"

"You didn't have showers in your camp correct?"

Twilight looked down at herself, about to respond before it clicked and her eyes shot to the griffoness. It was too late though, as she was already being herded away by the harem to the laughter of the former Empress.

One unpleasantly intimate bath with a pack of wet bird-cats later and Twilight was all too enthusiastic about getting to the meeting, or anywhere at all that didn't have overzealous claws trying to find out this new thing called 'pony' as if they had never seen one up close.

...which now that she thought about it, they may never have.

Despite the issues of personal space, she had to admit the post-bath preening was enjoyable. There was just something about opposable digits that improved the experience over hoof, mouth, or magic.

She inspected her wing tip, never before could she remember her feathers being so even, not even when she had first attempted with her rulers and combination square.

"If only I could take them with me..."

Apprehension and hot shame flooded her as she realized what she had just thought to herself. Hastily returning her wing to her side, she bit into her scone, savoring the uncharacteristically intense flavor.

"Liked it that much did you?" The griffoness laughed as they walked side by side down the hall, her own scone having been consumed long ago in one bite "They are talented, aren't they?"

Twilight blushed, "Yes, honestly it was the best preening I've ever had... It's just..." she trailed off, "Maids? Chefs? A harem? I can't say I'm not used to castle staff, but are they all going to be so...?" She trailed off, letting the words hang "I'm doing my best, but I don't think I can handle too many more 'eager' griffons."

"They all just want to prove themselves to you," she replied, "and stay on your good side." She added, with a laugh.

"Well they are not doing too good a job of that," Twilight grumbled, though her mood was noticeably lighter, "for a bit there I had talons where no pony wants talons."

"I doubt any others will be so intimate with you," Sypher said calmly, before slyly adding, "...unless of course, you want them to be?"

Twilight just shook her head, dismissing the griffon's attempt at humor.

"I'm just trying to get a hold of everything, but every time I think I understand the situation, something else comes by to prove... me... Of course." Her statement ended flatly as the pair rounded another corner, nearly running into the group of maids, who upon seeing the alicorn, turned and ran.

Twilight face-hoofed as the griffoness beside her laughed, "Don't worry, they'll come around eventually. But first!" She opened a door that the maids had been exiting, "It's time you meet your generals!"

Author's Note

This has been done for a while, but I just keep making increasingly minor changes to it and then still thinking "it's not ready" or "it's still not good enough"... ugh...

That's the kind of thinking that makes stories never update. Well NO MORE! It is done!

Anyway, PSA time:

Griffon names are hard. Please donate names to the name-a-griff foundation that gives names to underprivalaged characters.

Chapter 9

Stoning her features and building her courage, Twilight released a held breath before surrounding the doors in her magic and swiftly pushing them open.

In her mental preparation she had expected within the room to find an important-looking table with a series of middle-aged griffons. She was therefore quite surprised when, for the first time in what felt like so long, her expectations actually lined up with what she found.

Before her sat another immense, solid-looking square table that filled the middle of the room. Despite its size, only eleven chairs sat around it, of which only eight were filled by griffons.

Around the outside of the room were short shelves in front of walls adorned with elaborate paintings of important-looking griffons bedecked in medals. On one side of the room, the shelves held a large number of identical boxes, and on the other wall the shelves held stacks of rolled up paper. The shelving on the box side had nothing resting on top, leaving the finely polished surface clear, but the shelves with the paper had yet more paper on top, in the form of enormous rolls multiple meters in length, suspiciously similar to the size of the central table.

The table itself looked like it could seat dozens more than its current occupants and probably hold a Hearth Warming’s feast for the whole capitol. It would not be mistaken for a feast table though, as what was on it showed it was clearly not for dining.

Directly in front of each griffon were papers and folders. Some had only a few folders while others had stacks. One seat had one of the boxes from the shelf placed atop a veritable mountain of paper. Slightly inward of each seat’s papers were intricate individual inkstands with matched quills, each finely crafted and bearing a small crest that Twilight could assume was representative of the griffon to whom each belonged. Sitting beside each stand was a full glass of what looked to be freshly poured ice water. The back of Twilight’ mind absently made a connection between the full refreshments and the presence of the maids, but was too preoccupied with the final thing on the table.

The last thing to be seen on the table was the most impressive. In the center taking up ninety percent of the surface, was an enormous map of the empire. Though calling it just "a map" was like calling the library down the halls just "a library" or Celestia just "a pony". This map was a work of art. As intricate in detail as any map Twilight had seen in her trips spelunking the archives in Canterlot; the map depicted every hill, every valley, every border, stream, town, port, fort, village, glen and dale, cop of trees; every feature of even the most trivial note was each represented in fine detail. It was as if she was so high up in the clouds that she could be looking down upon the entire empire.

The map was not bare though, with its immensity partially covered by a large number of finely crafted silver-grey models.

The two largest models depicted cloud cities, which sat suspended above the map on thin glass legs, which held the mobile city “aloft” while simultaneously not obstructing the map itself.

The mobile nature of the cities justified why they were not depicted on the map itself, and rather added as a flexible feature. What it did not explain was the purpose of the remaining figures, which overwhelmingly depict griffins in armor, though she could spot some other non-griffons pieces too.

Twilight had seen a similar setup in Canterlot’s guard barracks, though that one only depicted Canterlot and had fallen into a dusty state of dis-use, only to be periodically cleaned off and used for war games, or to coordinate searches for lost fillies and foals. This one looked nothing like that one. The variously arranged figures of armed and armored griffons shined as if from recent polish, clearly depicting the undoubtedly up-to-date arrangement of griffon troops inside the nation.

To be sure, this was a quintessential war room.

A small part of Twilight felt an immense satisfaction that, for once, she may actually be able to “play this off” or at least be convincing enough as a ruler that on the off chance one of these generals was feeling less than content to be following a pony, that her actions here and now would dissuade them.

Strong and bold. she told herself Just like last time. That was the practice run. These are the griffons that matter! she said psyching herself up.

Go!

Perhaps three seconds had passed since she had opened the doors, enough time for those inside to react to her presence, but not so long as to feel hesitant.

On her mental mark, she began marching into the room, wings extended and with all the confidence of the juggernaut she was supposed to be. I’m an Alicorn, and I run this place now!

She marched in, making her way to her seat.

She could tell it was to be her seat, the seat of honor, due to its positioning at what could be considered the head of the table. Before it sat several implements of direction, including a pointer stick and a long wooden hoe-like object that looked like it was used for moving around pieces on the map.

Reaching the seat, she hopped up, waited a moment, and cleared her throat, finally looking around to examine the griffons themselves.

She could now clearly see that most of the eight generals present were in line with her expectations. Each appeared significantly older than herself, though not old enough to be considered elderly. In fact, several appeared to be in condition to fight, though she expected such things were behind them in any context other than training and discipline. The only outliers from her predictions of what a griffon high-general would look like were the griffon with the high stack of papers, whose eyes darted around as he fidgeted in his seat, and the one across the table from him, whose dark black feathers accentuated his younger appearance and whose frame was much slimmer than those to his left and right.

“Now,” Twilight began, intentionally trying to sound firm, “What is the situation?” She made a show of surveying the map with a slow sweep of her head, mentally noting all the particularly dense clusters of troops.

“Empress,” the griffon to her immediate left said, drawing Twilight’s attention to him and the nest-with-eggs engraved ink-stand before him, “May I be the first among us to congratulate you on your masterful maneuvering and swift conquest. A brilliant strategy through and through.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, half in act and half genuinely.

“It was far from perfect.” she said challengingly, “My original plan failed to account for the necessary time and area required for the storm to build, nor had I planned a proper way for the prisoners to be dealt with following the surrender. Should I have the opportunity to employ the same strategy again, I would need to plan the storm’s path over the geography better, as well as scale the storm’s power relative to the size and composition of the enemy’s forces, as well as their footing on the terrain.”

The explanation was only the beginning of the critique she had done the night after the event. Her words lasted only a few seconds, but she could tell that the generals were suitably impressed. Reactions ranged, most were still stony-faced, but a few gave up their own pretense and were wearing grins.

Before anyone else spoke, Twilight heard a hum from the door, “It seems everything is under control here.” The former empress said, starting to close the door.

“Where are you going?” Twilight said flatly.

“I could never intrude upon-”

“No, come here.” she cut her off, patting the side of her chair with a hoof.

The griffoness obeyed, traveling to her master’s side like a trained dog.

The griffon had lowered her head as she approached, but Twilight could still see her smirking, bringing the slightest hint of one to her features as well.

If there were any objections to the former empress’s presence, the generals didn't say anything.

“Now!” she announced from her chair-throne, “What is the goal of today’s meeting?”

One of the smirking griffons was first to recover.

“Standard defense, your highness, we must sure our defenses during this time. Others may see this time of uncertainty and attack.”

“Uncertainty? What is uncertain?” Twilight asked, her tone challenging, but inside she was genuinely confused.

The griffon’s composure faltered for a moment, “No- I meant no disrespect, your highness.” he straightened himself, “Surely your plan accounts for this, but some may still worry what other nations may try for the short time we are not at full strength.”

Plan?

Another of the smirking griffons, this one with what looked like either a lit wick or a stylized feather on his stand, was quick to add, “Of course, we are more powerful than ever before, but they may not realize the new extent of our power!”

“New power?” Twilight asked, this time verbally as she calmly raised a brow.

“I refer, of course, to your majesty!” he all too happily announced, “between your wisdom and your power, the Empire has never before been as secure as it is right now! Even the slave king would be a mere annoyance to us now!”

“Especially,” the former empress said from her position beside Twilight, “since the re-awakened slave king was already defeated a second time by our Empress’s son.”

Looks of shock crossed the beaks around the table.

“Is this true, your majesty?” one wide-eyed general asked.

“Well, yes,” Twilight responded truthfully, “but I don’t know about the ‘son’ part. Spike is my dragon assistant. I did hatch his egg and raise him though.”

Surprised looks turned to even broader smirks.

The second griffon to speak, a blue-grey plumed individual nodded to the one with the largest stack of papers and the box, who stood up, and began scanning the additional boxes behind him.

“We were unaware of such, pardon our unpreparedness.” the blue grey griffon entreated.

The searching griffon gave an “ah!” and pulled out another box, checking its contents before placing it on another of his paper towers.

“Now?” he asked the others, who nodded, before pulling down the first box and opening it.

He removed something from the box and handed it to the griffon with the burning feather insignia, who in turn approached Twilight, bowing as he raised the object to her.

Twilight took the object, finding it to be a small metallic figure like those on the map, but rather than a griffon, it depicted a pony with both wings and a horn.

“It’s... me?”

“Yes your majesty! It would be beyond us to place your piece for you, so we thought it best if your first military action as Empress was to be the placement of your own piece!” the griffon with the papers excitedly explained.

Twilight stared at the piece in her hoof.

“Oh, that explains it,” she said calmly, taking it in her magic and placing it amongst the forces in the capital city, “I was wondering why there was so many pieces on the map. I had forgotten that the government itself was a military structure. These pieces represent Government officials don’t they?”

“Very perceptive your highness, that is correct, figures with bases indicate officers or other noteworthy figures, freestanding pieces indicate troop counts. As you can see, most of our forces are off the table at the moment, though a sizable contingent of reserves is assigned to and kept by each city, should the need arise. We try to keep a rather even distribution of reserve forces, excepting the eastern coast and southern borders, of course. We keep triple contingents in those areas.”

“Once the field army has returned, we had anticipated a doubling of all forces, and a further bulwark of the active army sent to reinforce the coast.

“While doctrine would have us place more peace-keeping forces within the capitol for the time being, with your highness now leading us I doubt any would be foolish enough to try a coup’.”

“I doubt even the dragons would be able to do much with you leading our forces! Not to mention,” he nodded to the griffon who had opened the second box, pulling out another figure, “one of our own!” he reached far from his seat over the table, placing the figure of a rather frightfully depicted dragon, “To think, an Alicorn and a Dragon leading the armies of the Empire! A sight to behold!”

While Twilight couldn’t fault the General for his enthusiasm, she did feel a little tempering of his expectations was in order.

“Well, don’t expect too much out of Spike.” she said with a chuckle, “While he is shaping up to be a great leader, but I doubt his particular skills will be in military command.”

“Oh? Not much of one to stay back and give orders? Understandable, I remember making the transition from spear to quill myself. I still long for my early years when I could volunteer for a courier’s mission all the way across the Empire. The wind beneath my wings for days on end was an experience I cherish.” he sat wistfully for a moment, “Oh, but don’t worry, we’ll just from a personal regiment for him and place his alongside yours! I can only assume you are eager to inspect your Imperial Guard unit. You have the keen eyes of a warrior!”

She was honestly taken aback by the… complement? She wanted to disagree with him, to protest somehow, but held her tongue. Instead she gave an ambiguous smile, which seemed to encourage the general.

The griffon replied with a conspiratorial grin, “Your highness, you are amongst allies here! There is no need to be modest! Surely you can share with a story or two of your experiences in combat?”

Twilight pondered the request.

Should I? I don’t want to think that combat should be our primary policy, nor do I really want them thinking of me like that… but… ok Twilight, you are setting this up for stability… and for them stability is power... and it’s not like you DON’T have any stories… but to be sure...

“What would you like to hear about?” she asked.

The general to her left looked to the others before turning to her, “Do you have a favorite? A conflict that stands out amongst the rest?”

“Well,” she said calmly, “for me the most un-conventional or rather what you would call a conventional fight, was with Tirek. We couldn’t use the Elements, so it was just a one on one fight. We ended up destroying a bunch of the Gallop Mountains by the time it was over, but that was mostly on accident. I would have to say out of all of the enemies I have faced, that fight was the most… intense.”

While she spoke Twilight noticed a disproportionate amount of surprise from the generals at the mention of Tirek.

“You defeated the First of the Minotaurs?” the blue-grey plumed general asked, nearly breathless.

“First of the minotaurs?” Twilight repeated quietly to herself. She almost dove out of her seat when a beak whispered into her ear, “Tirek is the first order being of the Minotaurs.” Calming her heart as she remembered the presence of the former empress beside her, she sat back and racked her brains for an explanation.

Before it came though, the generals were showering her with praise, “Surely if you have defeated the Consumer of Essence in single combat then we have nothing to fear!”

“Truly, our new Empress is undefeatable!”

The commotion turned inwards and the generals began animatedly speaking amongst themselves, only the griffon directly to her right remaining focused on her.

“If I may be frank your majesty?”

After a moment Twilight realized that he was actually waiting for permission, which she gave with a quick nod of her head.

The griffon closed his eyes and bowed his head to her, “I had not known what to expect when I was made privy to the situation at hand, but now I truly believe that you will lead us to unprecedented greatness.” he raised his head, and made a show of looking around to the others at the table, “We have much yet to discuss, but nothing that truly requires your esteemed presence. The majority of administration is merely keeping everyone doing what they have already been doing. If there is another call upon your time, you have appropriately made your mark here.”

Twilight recognized the offer and quickly decided to take it. “Then I will take my leave.” Twilight responded, nodding to the griffon before standing. To be fair, she knew perfectly well that ceremony almost certainly dictated that she make a show of departing, having everyone bow and such, but with the former empress at her side she simply trotted out of the room, not disturbing the generals still absorbed in their now much more animated discussions.

With no further fuss they were out of the room with the door closed behind them.

“That was Ikendar. While all generals of the council technically hold the same rank, he is the one they all defer to. He carries a great amount of weight throughout the Empire, and I am sure you will be relying on him a lot.” the former empress giggled, “And I think he likes you.”

Twilight blushed despite knowing that was not what she meant.

Twilight released a breath, “Well, how was that?”

“Perfect your majesty. I had no doubts you would, but making the impression you just did with the generals will lend to good things in the future.”

Twilight nodded, but then looked to the Empress when she remembered an earlier point of confusion, “So what was all that about the ‘first of the minotaurs’?”

“Oh? I was wondering what term you ponies used for them. It’s what we call the Original Children, the High Order.”

Twilight stared at the griffoness with a continued look of confusion.

The griffoness returned her own look of befuddlement.

“The guardians of the races? The… You are an alicorn, how do you not know of this? The beings of each race tasked with their guidance, and therefore given great powers and immortality?”

Twilight was stunned silent, this was the first she was hearing about this, something that the griffoness was noticing with increasing concern.

“When the creator made all life, she appointed some of her children to lead their respective races to prosperity. In doing so, she granted each a portion of her unending power. Of course, it worked out better for some than others, but… You really do not know of this?”

“NO!” Twilight all but screamed, ”How do YOU know this?”

The griffoness recoiled at her liege’s outburst, genuinely frightened, “The journal of the Eggless! It is one of our greatest treasures. An account of the first High Order, of those originally picked by the Creator herself before her departure, the Original Children.”

“I need to see it!” Twilight said with a seriousness that she would not have realized herself capable of had she not felt as she did right now.

Her sudden quest for ancient reality-shaping knowledge was sidetracked before the pair could turn the next corner though, as another booming cry could be heard throughout the castle.

“Twilight Sparkle! Great Betrayer! Come now and face righteous judgement!”

Twilight wanted to slam her face into the walls until the whole palace collapsed. Not only was this voice appearing at a pretty important time, it was also one she recognized.

“What in the high hay does Luna want?”

Author's Note

A year huh? Feels like longer. If you chart this stories update progress exponentially, I may actually finish before the heat-death of the universe.

...sorry for the delay.

Credit to TheGreatEater and A.P.O.N.I. for motivational support.

Lots more to come.

Interlude 2/2

"Ah! Sister!" Luna called as she made her way into the throne room where the alicorn of the sun sat reading.

"How goes it for our wayward kin? Has Twilight yet secured the head of the Emperor? I cannot express my joy that she has proven herself a hooves-on mare, much unlike our niece."

"Oh?" Celestia responded, not looking up from her reading, "You do not like Cadence's rule?"

"Nay, it is not that I dislike, rather I find her so... uninspired. The strength of an alicorn! The power of compulsory attraction! An artifact of nigh-limitless power attuned to her own! An empire right upon our borders! A husband plucked from the highest point of our defenses! I had seen so much potential! I thought she had the ambition to make a move, yet she sits content over her meager city of an 'empire'," she sighed, "such a disappointment... truly the ponies of this era lack all ambition." a moment passed before Luna caught herself, "Make no mistake, I appreciate the peace you have fostered, and that the nobles of this day are more content to spend their time competing over fashion than the land and lives of ponies, but now and again I find myself missing the struggles of yesteryear. The thrill of watching a rebellious noble realizing his carefully crafted schemes merely danced in our hoof! To watch their spirits fall as they realize their armies are meaningless against our might!"

"Hmmmm" Celstia mused, still focused on her reading, "Well, anyway, I suppose you'll be happy to note that we have received word of Twilight’s exploits in the Empire."

Luna perked up at that, "Truly? Has she ended the poor whelp of an emperor? ...no, I suppose she would just as soon preach to him the value of friendship beyond borders, the goody little..."

"The commander reports that she has taken the Empire by force, placing herself atop the throne as Empress. Apparently there were already preparations in place for her coup' and she has already consolidated all of the former emperor's power around herself. She has reportedly also taken the former Emperor and his family as trophies of her conquest and made a proclamation of her hegemony to her subjects not hours after arrival. She also sent command for the immediate release of our prisoners." Celestia reported, still without breaking from her reading.

Luna stood agape, jaw hanging loose before the slightest curl from the side of her muzzle spread into a full grin. "She-! I take it back! The calculating mare deceived even me! Ha! I knew that mare would bring ambition back to Equis! Little did I realize how triumphantly!" Excitement plain as day on her face, the darker alicorn was practically bouncing on her hooves. "Sister! How stand we on this? Despite the potential your former student as shown, surely we are not going to allow the empire to re-arm?"

"Hm? Oh, Twilight herself has been in charge of the prisoners affairs after their surrender. She has had Spike leading their oversight. As such the correspondence from her to him was instant. I have received word that the prisoners were released before the reports had even reached me."

Luna's grin before paled at the sheer excitement that now radiated from her.

"Then she truly means to-! She has-! Oh glorious day! I feared that she would be a stick in the mud forever! Her ruse casts shadows upon even the rise of Sombra! She will no doubt be the greatest adversary of this millennium! So cold her ruse, so calculating her plot, so perfect her execution! I suspected nothing and we spoke not weeks ago! Sister! I cannot bear it any longer! I shall make to meet her challenge at once!"

Luna turned, shadows coalescing into the dark-blue armor and a sheathed blade of no less threatening countenance than of a thousand years prior. "TO ME SOLDIERS OF THE NIGHT! A FOE OF TRUE WORTH HAS PRESENTED HERSELF UPON THIS DAY!" She shouted into the halls, "TO ARMS!"

Back in the throne room Celestia stoically finished what she had been reading. She sat back for a second, eyes closed, but then with a sigh she pulled out a parchment and quill, "Dear Empress Twilight Sparkle...

Author's Note

The next chapter is scheduled to coincide with the release of Half Life 3.

With this top-shelf level of productivity, I should start a Patreon.

(Actual update sometime this week.)

((I shouldn't have said that...))

Chapter 10

Twilight wanted to just ignore it; pretend that she hadn’t heard the familiar Royal Canterlot Voice literally shaking the walls.

The instinct only lasted a second though. She knew that running away from the situation would not help her, and so she kept marching towards the exit.

She looked longingly down the hall that would have lead towards the library, but held back the sigh she wanted to release.

The former Empress guided Twilight to a courtyard of sorts. Flanked on all sides by the high walls of the palace, the grassy patch had some sort of wooden stage built up against one of the far walls, but she paid it no mind. As soon as they were clear of the doors, both took wing.

Once airborne, the owner of the booming voice could be easily spotted. Though only a speck in the distance, the wings of an alicorn could be clearly seen amongst what looked, from this distance, like a swarm of flies.

“Come Twilight Sparkle!” Luna shouted across the length of the city, “Come so that we may see if you bear the power to do what none other has before! Face me, so that I may prove your folly or acclaim your might! Come!”

Now Twilight could only fight to keep an exasperated grimace off her face.

When it rains trouble, it pours. Twilight hoped this would be resolved quickly, but deep down she knew better.

Meanwhile her companion was reacting quite differently to the situation.

“Empress, the Alicorn of Night has come in the company of her Special Guard! The generals are already in assembly, I suggest we allow the city guard to buy what time they can while we muster our forces!”

Twilight squinted at the specks in the distance impressed by how much better the griffon’s avian vision was compared to her own. She could only barely make out the difference in size between Luna and the others, let alone identify them. Nonetheless, the former empress’s assessment of Luna’s companions seemed accurate, if the predominantly blue-tint to the specks was any indication

Twilight looked to the agitated female, before giving her a tired smile.

“No, don’t worry, I’ll just go see what she wants. It is probably just that Friendly Fire’s report reached Canterlot and Luna misunderstood. How about you go see about preparing lodgings for her... entourage? This should not take long but I doubt they’ll be heading back tonight.”

The griffoness nodded dubiously, but Twilight had a lot more experience dealing with Luna. If nothing else, Luna was a pragmatic mare, and Twilight was confident that if she just explained the situation…

“Yield knave!” Luna shouted, firing another blast of magic at Twilight, who was forced to dive to evade the incoming shot.

“Luna! What is this about? Why are you attacking at me? Can we-” Twilight shouted as another blast was avoided, “Can we talk about this?”

“Nay! Only a fool allows the sweet words of a deceiver to poison them during a fight!”

“What are you even- Wah!” she gasped as she dropped to avoid another close shot, “Why are you even here? I’m telling you that whatever Friendly Fire said is not the whole story!”

“I know not of any Companionable Combustion, nor does his fable inspire me!”

“Then why-!” Twilight shouted as she dodged yet another shot from the hovering, armored alicorn, “-are you here attacking me?”

“Sister has told me of your treachery! If you vie for power you should have known this would come to pass! Did you think that fleeing this far would take you from our sight? Nay! There is nowhere you can escape the moon!”

“Celestia said what? What are you talking about! You KNOW what I’m doing here! YOU WERE THERE WHEN I LEFT!”

“Yes! Even I was taken by your deceit! But no more! You show promise, but you are a thousand years too young for this! Now yield to me, so that you may be pulled from this path before those who may seek greater punishments for your crimes arise!”

Luna’s attacks had started as soon as Twilight had approached, much to her surprise. Only experience and a little bit of luck had allowed her to avoid the other alicorn’s first shot, and despite her shouted pleas, the elder mare refused to stop her attacks.

Seeing the bare aggression, many griffons who had remained impressively restrained in the face of Luna’s appearance, had taken wing.

Now, as Twilight continued to dodge shots of magic, she could see that they were building up into a rather sizable force, encircling the thestral unit that had yet to take action.

Both sides of the standoff were looking to their leaders, but while Luna was wholly focused on Twilight, Twilight was able to see what was happening behind the lunar mare.

As she continued to dodge attacks, she scanned the gathered griffons who were likewise watching her.

As she looked at the situation, a plan began to form.

“You cannot win by dodging alone! I shall not tire if that was your plan!” Luna shouted, yet another blast coming from her horn, which Twilight evaded with increasing ease, “Finish this like an alicorn! Fight me like a mare!”

Twilight dove back, separating herself from Luna, before turning tail entirely and bolting back towards the palace.

The move had the intended effect, drawing Luna forward into a blind chase. Alicorn and greatest threat out of the way, the griffons filled in, cutting off and surrounding her forces.

Twilight kept her eyes forward, racing towards the entrance to the palace.

“Don’t do this Luna! I don’t want to fight you!” She called over her shoulder.

“Tis not your choice! You will fight, or I will drag you back to Equestria in shame!”

“I’d love to go back!” Twilight shouted over her shoulder in exasperation, “but I can’t right now! There’s a lot going on, and I need to be here! You can help though! So if you could just-!” her words stopped as she finally saw fighting break out behind them.

Both mares turned, looking back over the surprising amount of ground they had covered. Such a distance separated from their forces that it was hard to make out specific details of the fight, but it was clear that while the slightly smaller dots representing the lunar pegasi had formed aerial defensive postures, the slightly larger griffon dots were harassing their formation lower and lower.

While Twilight would have preferred to have ended this entirely without conflict, she was quite happy to see that despite their feints and harassing, the griffons had thus far not actually violently engaged the thestral unit.

Realizing that her plan had been figured out, Twilight looked to see how Luna would react. She was actually surprised by the shock and… was that fear(?) on the older mare’s face.

With only the slightest pause, Luna had doubled back, charging at the fray with horn lit.

“Luna, wait!” Twilight shouted as she made chase.

“Thou shall NOT harm my charges!” with the cry she let loose a beam of magic.

Twilight teleported ahead, using a personal shielding bubble to reflect the beam off into the sky.

Changing tactics from before, Luna shot forward to engage Twilight.

Twilight’s response was to keep up her shield, even as Luna’s horn pierced the bubble’s shell.

Only a hair separated Luna’s horn and Twilight’s throat when Twilight ejected her shield, the shock wave sending Luna tumbling.

By this point, separated from their commander and outnumbered a good ten to one, Luna’s accompanying forces had been driven entirely to the ground and surrounded. The group of perhaps a hundred blade-wielding thestrals now stood surrounded by hundreds of griffons, many armed with only their claws, but a number also brandishing wing-blades, swords, and even a few crossbows.

Twilight was worried the mob may do something extreme, but had little time to weigh her options as she was struck by a spell from the still tumbling Luna that made her whole side go numb.

The frost spell was not particularly damaging itself, her pegasus aspect naturally resisting the element, but it certainly didn’t help the stability of her flight.

Luna finally managed to right herself shortly before she would have crashed through the roof of a building, Twilight too having to lower to shake the frost from her wing.

“You talk of peace, yet your actions speak louder! You have captured my knights and your soldiers keep me in their sights!” Luna shouted back, firing another bolt of magic at her, which she again deflected with a shield.

Twilight looked down to find some of the griffons on the ground around the lunar pegasi were, in fact, aiming their crossbows up at the hovering Alicorn.

Twilight groaned to herself, “For goodness sake, stop it! Stop aiming your weapons at Luna!” Twilight shouted down to them with enough magical amplification behind it that it actually made Luna’s hover fumble, sending her next shot way off course.

On the ground an officer turned to the acting field commander, “Sir? We’ve been commanded to stop, should we secure the prisoners in the dungeons in the meantime?”

“No, she commanded us to stop aiming at Luna.”

Back in the air, Twilight was still narrowly avoiding what shots she could, and flashing up barriers for those she couldn’t. Clearly Luna was at no risk of running out of steam anytime soon. At this rate she would actually need to fight back just to not fall out of the sky from exhaustion.

Just as she was about to make one last plea before starting to send her own stun spells, Luna suddenly broke focus, looking down, eyes widening.

There was her opportunity! Whether there was actually something on the ground distracting Luna, or if she was just trying to draw her attention away, it didn’t matter because Twilight wouldn’t let the opportunity pass. She released her own blast of magic, an ice spell much like the one she had just received.

As it connected, Luna’s wings froze up and she was sent tumbling.

Unlike Twilight who could afford to lose some altitude when she had been hit, Luna was only just above the buildings as she began her uncoordinated fall. Twilight swooped to catch her, but the bad angle and exhaustion conspired against her, having Luna reach the ground seconds before Twilight could catch her.

For a brief moment she panicked, hoping Luna had not splattered on the ground, but was relieved to see her from rising almost immediately.

As she landed, she cautiously approached the dark mare.

“Clever ploy,” Luna spat, a smile on her face despite the blood coming from her head and dripping from her mouth, “Play innocent until the right moment, distract me, and then strike.”

Twilight was stunned silent by the sight of Luna’s wings, one was bent at a wrong angle and both had the majority of their feathers frayed and broken. She was clearly not taking flight again soon, but what was worse was the tip of her horn was missing as well. Probably only a fraction of an inch, barely noticeable, but until she could get it re-filed and adjust her spell focusing she was without the use of her horn for anything more complex than a light charm.

“Medic!” Twilight shouted, looking back to both the thestrals and the griffons, before turning to check the larger mare’s vitals.

A pair of griffons escorting one of the thestrals arrived in seconds.

Twilight moved to let the thestral over to the downed alicorn.

He began prodding her and feeling head and neck, leaning her head over carefully, he pinched open one of the alicorn's eyes and shaded it from the sun with a hoof only to pull his hoof away again a second later, “She has a concussion..." he said, carefully resting her head on the ground before prodding her barrel, articulating her legs, and inspecting her busted wing. “-and I would say any other normal mare would be losing this wing, but I see it’s already starting to heal.” he said before twisting it with a sickening crack. He inspected it again, opening it and closing it naturally, though twilight could see it articulating in places where there were no joints. Twilight could feel bile rising into her throat.

The medic nodded, closing the wing, “That will need splinted.” he said gesturing behind her. She turned to see he was speaking to an arriving team of griffon medics that were arriving on the scene. A griffon with a medic's armband dutifully began bracing the wing.

As Twilight watched on, one of the griffon medics began poking at her, and while she wanted to force him away, or at least turn his focus to Luna, she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

“And her horn looks fine.” the thestral medic said, bringing back Twilight’s attention, “Though you’d probably know much better than I princ- uh, Empress.” the thestral medic said, standing.

Twilight looked down at the tip of Luna’s horn. Yeah... She’s going to need to settle for the rounded look for a while, at least until enough has regrown for it to be re-profiled. Twilight chuckled in a detached way as she pictured Luna with the rounded tip favored by parents for their unicorn children and those who prefer to not put holes in their pillows or stab their special someones by accident in the night. She had kept her own horn rounded until Celestia had recommended she go for the more “alicorn-esque” pointed look. Twilight now wondered if it was actually about looking majestic and powerful, or if it was just because Celestia’s own horn would look silly without it’s nearly absurd needle-pointed length.

As twilight mused, the object of her musing stirred.

"Luna! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to fall like that! Well, I did, but not like this!" Twilight rushed forward to support her as she stumbled.

"Nay Twilight, pay it no mind." Luna said with a casual tone incongruent with the state of her body, "Rather, A celebration is in order! I had not expected you to best me like this! Though to use such under-hoofed tactics! Again your persona of an innocent mare led me astray, and I even knew of your ruse!"

Clearly Luna could see the confusion on Twilight's face, because she continued with the tone of a parent not fooled by their child's lie.

“You knew you couldn’t best me in outright and honorable combat, so you used my retainers to distract me. Celestia would curse you for under-hoofedness, but only because she has grown soft!” she let out a short laugh, “I accept my loss, and deem it honorable! You have bested me in single combat, and I accept your intention and aim! Make me proud Twilight Sparkle! I desire to see you claim all Equuis in your name!”

Luna painfully lowered herself into a full bow, “I accept you, O Twilight, Empress of Griffondom. May your conquest continue with the blessings of the moon.” she rose, wavering on her hooves, “I must return to Equestria, but you may hold my knights in my stead. T’would be ill fitting for me to do any less. I pray you will guide them well.”

Twilight just stood there, first in concern, but that was quickly overcome with burning frustration as the blue alicorn turned and began limping off.

Seizing control of her senses Twilight shot forward.

“Oh no you don’t!" she shouted , throwing a barrier around Luna, "I am NOT letting you just walk away after all this! Firstly, I am not letting you wander off while in such bad condition, and secondly you owe me an explanation! Tell me what's going on!"

"There is no need to keep up appearances for me Empress, not only have I seen through your ruse, I have already been swayed to your cause! Though..." she said, turning her head to examine the state of her wings "You may have a point about traveling in such a state. My legs may be bruised and tired, and my wings may be far from fit to fly, but there is yet one more way for me to return! I wish you the best Twilight! I shall spread the word of your conquest!"

With that, Luna charged her magic, and before Twilight could alert the larger mare to the apparently unnoticed state of her horn, the magic she had been channeling released in an explosion that sent Twilight sprawling.

"Oh no no no no!" Twilight chanted as she recovered, noticing a distinct lack of Luna in the area. She moved to the site of the explosion, scanning the ground and air with her horn.

"Ma'am?" a worried voice asked, it was the thestral medic again, "What happened?"

Twilight allowed her horn to fade and released a sigh of relief.

"Luna tried to perform a long-range teleport without adjusting her spell focus for her damaged horn. The teleportation succeeded, so the spell's landing site was clear, but who knows where she ended up, and with how ill formed the spell's execution was, I doubt she-" Twilight stopped herself, bringing her hoof to her chest and taking deep breaths, "Luna is probably lost, and in no doubt worse shape than she started... which was pretty bad to begin with."

She exhaled again, this was just another worry on her plate. She would need to tell Celestia, and then attempt to trace the-

“Mistress! Are you alright?” A familiar griffoness called out interrupting her thoughts. Twilight shook herself before nodding, “The generals pass along their congratulations for your masterful dispatch of this situation. Masterful forethought, how did you know that Luna would turn her forces over to us? Speaking of which where is Luna?"

"She teleported with a broken horn. She's probably on the other side of the planet, knowing my luck."

Twilight looked over to the thestrals who looked tired, but otherwise no worse for wear.

"Oh, well, okay then." she dismissed casually, "Then would you like me to escort these... guests? prisoners? to their quarters? I prepared rooms, but if we need, the dungeons can fit them."

Twilight put a hoof to her temple and massaged her aching head, "Sure. Please take our guests to some decent accommodations. And bring their commander to me in a few hours. Preferably after I've had a nap. I'll need to speak to them about what just happened."

"As you wish my empress" the former empress said as she bowed before the nearby griffons began carrying out her orders escorting the thestrals away.

In a daze Twilight stood there just allowing herself to process where she was and what was going on around her. With detached amusement, she realized that she was almost becoming comfortable, the chaos around her was becoming familiar. It was as if the life of panic-induced struggles to save the world, or a species, or just herself was now becoming trivial.

Ever since the Emperor's letter- No, really this had all begun that fateful day before the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration when it all really began. Things had just picked up the pace since the arrival of that letter.

She sighed, watching the thestral unit being peacefully marched off.

They were soldiers, trained specifically to fight! Luna’s personal unit no less! Trained by an ancient warrior from a time where there were real wars that held the fate of nations in the balance! And yet she, quite seriously, had seen more combat than any of them. Maybe even Luna herself by this point.

Granted, things were much different back in Luna’s day, but that doesn’t mean that the fight with the Changelings or Tirek were any less pivotal.

She was, quite possibly, the most battle-hardened being on the planet. There was the possibility that Celestia, or maybe that ancient dragon Centraga, may have been in the running, but history was only spotted with eras of occasional war, never before had there been such a quick progression of threats fit into a single lifespan.

...or at least that was what the histories she had read seemed to say.

Recent events had cast significant doubt about such record’s legitimacy though.

So much of history seemed to have been “one thousand years” ago in the history books back home. So much, in fact, as to be profoundly suspicious… inconsistencies she had dismissed as errors on the parts of the writers and historians now seemed conveniently similar…

Perhaps before anything else came up, or even if something else did come up, it may be time to read that journal and do some duly needed and well deserved research.

She let out a sigh. She wanted Spike back. She had left him behind when she had come to the Empire, making up an excuse to keep him out of harm's way, but now she wished he could be there with her, adding his particular insight and juxtaposing commentary to her ridiculous circumstances.

And a hug.

She really could use a hug right now.

“Twilight!”

Twilight’s eyes went wide, tearing up as if by divine providence her desires were answered.

She watched as a griffon landed before her and the purple and green fixture of her life hopped off of the griffon's back.

They met half way, Twilight scooping up the equally excited dragon into a firm hug.

“I missed you Twilight! Things were crazy back in Equestria! The drill sergeant guy said I was in charge and made me give orders, which was actually kind of cool, but then ponies started showing up and started asking me about rationing and reparations and work camps and wing clipping and a whole bunch of stuff! I just told them all that you would handle it when you got back, but then you didn’t come back with the soldiers and your letter was strange and then Princess Luna passed by us with her thestrals and wouldn’t speak to me…”

He squeezed tightly against the lavender alicorn he knew could handle any situation, his rock in the crazy life he had been born into.

Twilight squeezed back, clearing her throat so her voice wouldn’t break when she spoke.

“I missed you too Spike.”

The little dragon laughed as he nuzzled into her neck.

“Sorry Twi, I know it’s only been a few days, but you have no idea how crazy it’s been...”

Twilight just laughed, rolling her eyes, and placing the drake on her back as the pair made their way back to the palace.

"I may have some idea."

Author's Note

I've been staring at this chapter so long I'm blind to it.

I don't know why, but this chapter just feels wrong to me.

I may come back and clean it up a bit later on, if I can figure out why it bothers me so much.

Interlude 1/2

Captured and humiliated.

Though the attacking army of the griffon empire had not lost much more than some feathers, the 'prison camp' where they loitered was no less somber. Their predicament was disgraceful and they all knew it. Though none would contest the decisions of their commanders, the unspoken consensus was that their actions, by surrendering, had sealed their fate, if not by the Equestrians that now held them, then by the Empire upon their return. Death? Probably not, but that was of little comfort to the army that failed to even reach the lands they sought to conquer.

Nevertheless, whether their fates were to be met at home or abroad, they all silently but resolutely awaited their fate. They would not do their families the disgrace of cowering in the face of their punishments.

"Alright, listen up!" The familiar voice of the prison camp's commander rang. The voice was familiar, not conveying any of the disconcerting over-friendliness of the troops that had actually captured them. Those troops who had seemed all too eager to share their blankets and rations with the soaked, frozen, and starving army, even before their commander had been relieved of his blade. At least this commander's intentions were clear. "You disgraceful pile of feathers call yourself an army? Prove it and fall in!"

Though a hint of trepidation could be felt, the griffon ranks did form in a respectable amount of time. Apparently satisfied, though hardly showing it, the commander continued,"You lot have received the grace of Equestria, and are about to be sent back from whence ye came. Sir Spike has been tasked with leading you lot back to the Empire, you listen to him well, and if a single scale is out of place when you get there, well… let’s just say, you don’t want that.”

He turned walking back to the rear of the platform, allowing Spike to come forward.

“Uh, hey... So, I’m supposed to lead you back to the Empire, but uh… I’ve never been there, so… anyway, we’re leaving ASAP, so you’ve got like an hour to pack up and be ready to go.”

The disciplined griffon force snapped to a salute, the sudden synchronized action startling the little dragon.

Claws remained raised as Spike stared awkwardly across the formation.

"Uh... at ease?"

The griffons' claws returned to the ground as the camp commander came forward again, "You heard him! Get your sorry flanks in gear because you're getting the feather out of Equestria! Dismissed!"

Ranks broke and the Griffon troops began collecting their things from the trees they had been roosting in and under.

"Sir?"

Commander Eichenwald, leader of the expeditionary force and de facto field commander of the failed Equestrian operation, looked to the young griffon behind him.

"Sir, do you really think that they're just letting us go?"

The commander did not respond.

"So what happens now?"

"Now? Now we go back to the Empire, lick our wounds, and see just how powerful the empire can be with that mare on our side."

Author's Note

Short chapter, but hey, you know that side story I talked about in the AN of chapter 5? The one with short side-stories for more world building and background info? It's here.