“Arc, you need to take my place as president.”

For most figures of import such a sentence would be incredibly exciting, perhaps even life-defining or at the very least intriguing. For Arclight it brought back horrible nightmares.

“River, for the last time… I don’t want to relitigate what happened when I headed the coup back then, nor do you. I’m the reason the federation is in the state it currently is and you know that,” He responded, making an unseen grimace that was nevertheless audible.

A tense silence filled River Swirl’s phone booth and his office. He ground his hoof into the mahogany desk and frowned whilst his long-time friend sighed over the phone, presumably somewhere private in Griffenheim. Her flight home was only a few hours away from departing, another few from arriving back in Rijekograd. He knew what she was talking about, and she knew that he wasn’t interested.

“But it would be different this time Arc, wouldn’t it? You wouldn’t have to do anything against the democratic institutions of the federation to place yourself in charge. Tartarus, I could hand it all over to you right now; most of the government would rather work for somepony that will keep them safe rather than me or any other elected president anyway. The River Federation needs you more than the republic did back then. You dealt with the communists before and you can deal with the nationalists now, you don’t even have to stay in control for long! You’re already running the show when I’m not there anyway!” She begged, trying desperately to convince him even now.

“River, please. Just because congress trusts me again after all these years doesn’t mean that the citizens do. Remember the outrage when I was reinstated as head of the OHS? Or even further back when I was given a minor job there after everything I did? Everypony wanted me dead when it reached the tabloids and that sentiment hasn’t gone anywhere. Me taking over now would only result in more chaos, even if I could deal with the dissent in the short term. The answer is no. In fact, if anything, I should resign. Regardless you shouldn’t be using a public phone to discuss this sort of thing, even if the griffons claim that they don’t tap the lines.” He volleyed back, careful not to shout at his incredibly stressed president.

They both sighed and took a moment to breathe. What concerned Arclight most was that she was starting to raise more and more valid reasons to oust the government, the list of which he could only see getting longer as time went on.

“You know just as well as I do that the only thing keeping the federation alive right now is that our citizens at least think they have a voice. I and I alone am responsible for how rushed and unstable the political system is, but it’s also the only thing keeping this place from falling apart right now.” He went on, reminded of how his war with the empire had likely tainted the river’s future forever.

River stayed quiet this time. She knew he was right, but it didn’t mean she was anywhere near as calm as he was. The death threats, the heart-wrenching letters and the many many petitions she had read over the last year alone would have driven her insane if it wasn’t for him. She couldn't put up with being jeered at and nearly attacked in the streets whenever she went outside, nor could anypony else brought into power by another election.

“I won’t make the same mistake twice. The circumstances may be different, but that doesn’t mean the outcome will be. I will not pre-empt a revolution by usurping the government, even if it would give you peace of mind. I will do all in my power to keep you and the country safe, but I will not overstep my jurisdiction unless it is absolutely necessary.” He finished, brow furrowed and bottle of whiskey now uncorked.

“What if it gets worse?” River asked weakly.

That question caught him off guard. Technically it was his duty in extreme cases to do what she was asking of him, but he’d been trying his best not to think about that. It certainly could get worse, in fact it almost certainly would.

“If it gets worse then… I’ll do what is necessary to keep the federation intact, whether that means a handover of power, enforcing marshal law or just suppressing riots; but I will not take the power I need to do those things.” Arclight answered, half admitting that he was at least considering the idea.

“That’s… That’s good. Thank you. I’ll see you soon wont I?” She asked quietly, seemingly calmed.

“As soon as you land, madam president.” He reassured her, before the line cut on her end.

The brown-coated pony leaned back in his chair and took a swig of the whiskey which he’d just poured, fortunately having completed his work for the day already. He would have quite liked to meet Emperor Grover, River did say that he seemed like a nice kid back when she was making arrangements with his aunt and uncle. Gabriela and Gerlach were truly lovely when he’d met them in passing too, so it wasn’t a surprise that they’d made good parents and raised a talented son. Well, nephew technically speaking. Didn’t really matter.

Instead he was stuck here. For whatever reason River had saddled him with her paperwork whilst she ‘enjoyed’ the trip to the city of the world’s desire. Really it had been a lose-lose arrangement where neither of them got what they wanted. She would have been much happier quietly trawling through her work and he knew it, but she was the president and he couldn’t be seen taking her place in times like these.

Arclight opened a drawer in his desk and brought out two items, memoirs that he liked to keep around for times like these when whiskey was in hoof; a framed picture and a written copy of the declaration of war that had brought them all here. The picture was of he and River, about fourteen or fifteen years ago when everypony and their mothers were saying that they’d get together. They’d both had much fewer lines under their eyes back then; and he’d been one arrogant bastard. That was probably why nothing had ever happened between them in retrospect, it used to be a more ‘I tolerate you and we share interests so we might as well get along’ type friendship. These days he was much more bearable; he couldn’t help but grin a little, knowing how far he'd come.

The Not-So-Great War the griffons liked to call it. It certainly hadn’t been eventful for them, but it very much had been for him. It had been for everypony in the riverlands. Just after that picture had been taken was when he had forced her out of office in an anti-communist security coup. After that he’d tried to create a series of client states to act as a buffer zone between the griffons and the federation. But no; his younger self didn’t feel secure with just that. He just had to declare war on the resurgent empire.

The declaration was cleverly written, playing off the invasion as a necessary security measure for not just the Riverlands; but the entirety of Griffonia too. There had been some truth in that, though he had been wrong to be worried. Arclight kept the transcript to remind himself of his mistakes and all the ill that they had caused. He remembered having such high hopes for the conflict, which were then dashed within just a few weeks; his forces crushed and his allies in the coalition trampled beneath the Reichswehr for which their own disorganised and overconfident troops were no match. They lost their right to a significant army, lost territory and lost their buffer zone. All they gained were economic woes from lost military investments and mass unrest which didn’t disappear until the rushed federalisation. Even that only really existed for economic reasons to try and prevent a complete financial collapse as coalition states borrowed to try and recover their dwindling economies. Now it came back to bite them as that same rushed system could not provide them political stability, nor could it enact sweeping change across the constituent states when necessary.

He sighed again and drank the rest of his glass in one go, pouring out another in quick succession. He really had deserved to get fired, imprisoned; even court-marshalled and shot for the suffering he had caused. But no. He’d been demoted to an agent, then promoted steadily until he’d reached the top again. Once they’d seen what destruction and death the empire had wrought, which his media had greatly exaggerated for recruitment purposes, ponies started to see things his way. He wasn’t the boisterous anti-empire pony that had gotten hundreds of thousands killed in wars which led to their own economic collapse anymore, but now everypony else was. Nationalists cropped up left right and centre. Not separatists, but anti-griffon racialists; irridentists and Chevalists clamoured for reprisals against the griffons that had so wronged them when he was the one that caused all of this suffering and hatred.

He closed his eyes and gripped the glass tightly, not wanting to look at the alcohol shaking inside his prized crystalware. Deep breaths, deep breaths… Fuck, what was he supposed to do now? Wait till things got worse and be forced to oust the government again? Would he really have to do that?

“Fucking dammit!” He yelled suddenly with a tortured tone, throwing his glass at the wall and watching it shatter into pieces against a bookcase.

Arclight stood and stared at the broken glass, teeth clamped together and eyes wide. Fifteen years of his life spent trying to be better than he used to be, just to be forced into making the same mistake a second time. It would have been comical in its irony if it wasn’t so agonising. He slumped back down at the desk and sighed, hitting a button on the pager to his right.

“My apologies for the noise, can you send up a janitor? Yes, Thank you.”

~*~

Grover lay in his four-poster bed, staring into the ceiling. No bad dreams; that was good. He had half expected Nightmare to torture him in his sleep, though thinking about it she was probably out of the country by now. Teleportation magic performed by an alicorn would be more than capable of bringing her and her husband home before dawn. What a relief.

His alarm sounded a minute-or-so later which he promptly slapped and turned off so that he could lie in peace for a little while longer. Today he would be performing some royal duties officially for the first time, but he needn’t get up for a few more minutes. Besides, he wouldn’t need any introductions to most of the tasks; he had been doing administrative work for his aunt and uncle for years already now, partly in practice and partly to earn some pocket money. He used to not understand why they got him to do little jobs in return for idols; but now that he was older, he realised that they were teaching him the value of idols to the commongriff. He would not be an extravagant emperor, nor a greedy one. He had Gabby and Gerry to thank for that. Mum and d… Uncle. Mum and uncle.

If his second alarm hadn’t gone off just then he would’ve cursed Sombra out loud for reminding him of that little nagging insecurity last night. Grover rolled his eyes to himself and got out of bed, taking off three sheets before he could lay a claw on the lovely carpet that furnished the royal chambers. It was a wonderful room, used by every emperor before him; but it often prompted his mind to think about the clawprints he followed. Maybe he’d ask for a smaller room. That sounded nice.

He’d barely wrangled a morning shirt and a pair of trousers over his plumage when somecreature knocked.

“Breakfast is served Grover, come grab it whenever you’re ready!” Benito’s familiar voice barked out through the heavy wooden chamber doors.

“Just coming!” He nigh-on shouted back.

The golden-feathered griffon barged through the entrance to his room moments later, having to adjust his glasses upon colliding with Benito and hugging him. Standing on his hindclaws was not exactly something the young emperor was an expert at, but it was something he had gotten used to from being around Benito and his compatriots. He still remembered learning to do it, actually.

“Oh! Good morning! Sleep well?” The aged hound managed, almost being winded by the boy’s enthusiasm.

“Very. Went to bed tired, so I slept like a log.” He happily admitted as they started to walk down to the dining room, falling back on all fours to go into stride.

“Hah! Yes, I can imagine; your aunt always came back from parties exhausted. I take it you had fun, trying to keep up with the more experienced partygoers?”

“As much as I could’ve, it’s exhausting.”

“You’ll get used to it, I’m sure. I did sneak a peak into the hall a few times, you seemed to be doing just fine to me.” The old dog gave out, smiling and giving his young friend a pat on the shoulder.

“I… Yeah, thank you.” He returned, hoping that Benito hadn’t seen his brief talk with the Crystal King; he knew that some guests had been looking.

“Congratulations on your first dinner party of many.” His aging friend said simply with a grin.

Hopefully no more with Sombra in attendance.

~*~

Last task of the day, unless anything else reared its ugly head. Benito had mentioned at lunch that the KG, Kaiserlicher Geheimdienst was a mouthful, might have come across something interesting; but he hadn’t looked worried. Hopefully it wasn’t anything bad.

Grover rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock one last time before his guests entered. The economic council were very experienced griffons and some of the oldest members of the Empire’s key institutions at this point. Quite the crowd to please and one that made him particularly nervous as some individuals harkened back to Eros’ brief stint in power. Still, he was prepared. In fact he’d spent a good few weeks getting ready for this particular meeting. What happened here today would define the empire’s economic policy for the immediate future; and he wanted to get it right first try.

Right on cue, the door opposite his chair opened; first revealing Hephaestus III, the archon of Eyr. Whilst he had no influence over government policy, his aunt and uncle had almost entirely secularised the empire by his ascension, the archons were still well-respected figureheads. With Eyr as the god of bounty, prosperity, good harvests and many other such things, his archon had found himself as what was essentially a spokesgriff on economic policy. It wasn’t an intentional result of church reforms, but nocreature had any complaints.

“Your majesty,” He made out, calmly and clearly.

Though they had spoken in the past on several occasions, they weren’t exactly close friends. Unlike those that knew him well, every member of this council bowed deeply before they took their seats at the table. Some he had met, others he had heard of and a good number were entirely new ministers altogether.

Grover sat back in his surprisingly comfy chair as they took their places down the length of the conference table. Let’s see… Hermann Eisenkopf of Reichswaffen and Ceron Greytalon from Krähe-stahl he knew as soon as he saw them; a few others he recognised by name besides. The gold-feathered griff at the table’s head was glad to see so many other regional delegates and even some ponies besides the normal Herzlander griffons. This was the audience he wanted.

They all had an air of nervousness about them, wondering why their emperor had arranged to meet them immediately after his coronation. On top of that, what plans could this child have? They knew he was left-leaning as monarchs went, much like his carers, but a lot of them had never spoken to Grover before, let along held an economic discussion with him. Grover was likewise concerned, partly because he was going to have to speak to them all when he was less than half their mean ages and partly because he wasn’t sure how they would take his proposal.

“Right then. Shall we begin?”

A collective round of ‘ayes’ followed as his majesty stood up and presented a large number of papers. Last inside was an assistant that he has requested, mostly for distributing the files that he was just showing off. It was documentation of current economic statistics as well as a detailed report and plan for the future. About thirty pages long including his own comments.

He could already see some wide eyes as the envelopes were passed around to every member of the council. Some picked up the papers immediately, but he held up a claw until everycreature had their own copy of the proposal.

“Forgive me my liege, but was your coronation not just yesterday? Surely you cannot have compiled a proposal in such a short amount of time.” One griffon gave out in a heavy Wingbardian accent.

“Oh, no. Of course not. These papers are something that I’ve been working on for quite some time, they had been long finished before my birthday. Part of my studies involved writing a critical evaluation on the economy of the empire which is what these papers are largely based on. Of course I would not be so naïve as to only write such myself and so I consulted several renowned economists about both my findings and my writings. One of which, as you might assume, is here with us today. Before you read these, I would like to extend my gratitude to Equity Snowfall for her help in my paper which should be going out to publishers for review in about… Ten minutes.” He gestured to an appropriately white-coated pony that sat some way down the table, who received some applause.

Almost the entire table was surprised at this point. No emperor before him had been quite so independent at this age, which was hardly a surprise considering his upbringing. Gabriela had suggested this kind of power play to assert himself, but he had come up with the routine. Not only had he revealed his competence, but also demonstrated that he wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo if necessary by relying primarily on a pony instead of a griffon to help him.

“Now, please; take a look.” He added, with the entire table now eagerly ripping into the documents.

Of course, Equity had already most of it; so instead she looked down the table and smile at the emperor, who grinned right back. She looked as pleased with herself as he did.

As they went through the files, he could see a few nods; some muttering and a lot of consulting the numbers that he had provided. Some spoke between each other and some even raised questions to the emperor, who answered them without issue. A little while longer and he calmly stood up again to speak.

“As you can well see from the statistics, perhaps the greatest economic issue that the empire faces today is that of internal integration. Our industry may be innovative, but it is not efficient unless we provide a good supply chain with which to support the appropriate amount of growth for such industries and the underdeveloped markets of certain areas. Those of you who have tried to do business in the north, our clawhold in Equus and the frontier in particular will know just how difficult it is to move goods from one place to another; or indeed that in some places it is outright impossible. Speaking Herzlander is one thing, but being able to reach the Herzland is another altogether. I do not seek to radically change the policies of Gabriela and Gerlach, I merely seek to refine it and properly reintegrate the empire’s old holdings in the process.” He explained with the undivided attention of evercreature present.

“And your proposals for such are detailed here?” Greytalon managed, eager to expand his steelworks to other parts of the country.

“Correct. I’ve split the document by mode of transport. Rail, road, airline as well sea routes and ports. Plans for state rail lines to be used by the public across the nation have been segmented into contracts which can be distributed amongst smaller rail companies are detailed within. Besides those can be found plans for railways for the transport and distribution of goods. The other transport modes are split similarly, with public transport kept broadly separate. Bare in mind that both sides of each transport mode will be connected in case of network faults, however they should be kept mostly apart for the sake of easy administration. Any questions?” The young griff asked, clasping his claws together.

“Do you have a name for this project?” Came the deep voice of Hephaestus, he had to put this in the papers after all.

“Actually, I do: Netzwerkunternehmen. All in favour, raise your appendages as appropriate.” He finished with a warm smile.

As he had hoped, about two thirds of the room raised their claws and hooves. He breathed a very large sigh of relief, seeing no need to hide his relief from those that had just agreed with him.

“Fantastic! My estimates for this project, assuming that we do not utilise any form of mass mobilisation to complete it, are about five to seven years. We will prioritise the areas of the network with secondary military applications in the hopes that, should war come, we will be ready and waiting. I am trusting this council to work in their utmost to achieve that goal, if not exceed it; but I will still require a meeting with you all present at least once every month, preferably once every fortnight. You may use the rest of this time to discuss amongst yourselves your concerns; or anything else you deem relevant.” He finished, letting the discussion go on and taking a few more questions.

Some griffons asked him about economic ramifications of investing in the railway should the project not yield results, others wanted to know about potential ticket prices and one of the ponies even asked whether there would be tariffs on subject states using the rail line. All questions were dealt with quickly and Grover finally relaxed back in his chair once more as talks continued before him.

He felt as though he had a semblance of control again, after last night.

Author's Note

Kaiserlicher Geheimdienst -> Imperial secret service
Netzwerkunternehmen -> Mass transit project

Got help from a German friend for these so blame him if they're not quite right.

Oh boy, the federation is exploding and Grover is balling. I felt as though it was neccessary (if not something I will look to repeat) to demonstrate Grover's competence in some aspects of governance for the future so that his decisions and ability seem grounded when he has to make potentially tough political choices. Probably not the most interesting chapter, but things are moving along.

As always, hope you all enjoyed.