Alaric the Visigoth chieftain, disembowler of innumerable Roman scum from scutum-bearers to spatha-holders and leader of his Germanic tribe of righteously proud warriors, scratched his beard and turned to his wise man Vermundo whose hands were filtering through the viscera of slaughtered poultry. Alaric waited until the black-coal-smeared wise man finished fanning blood after a sufficiently holy amount scattered across the weirdly brilliant-green ground. Then Vermundo rocked on his haunches and studied the omens.
"This Roman cock has nothing to say," he said at last.
Alaric nodded at the truth.
Vermundo wiped his hands against the grass and creakily got to his feet.
"The Legatus legionis favored this one," Alaric offered Vermundo an arm to brace himself against. "Roman he called it--the fool.1 Treated his divining bird better than the foederati." He looked back at his men, Visigoths and other oft-demeaned barbarian folk he had freed from their brutally contracted service to vicious Roman legions.
Author's Note (1): This Legatus Legionis followed the going trend of his Emperor:
"At that time they say that the Emperor Honorius in Ravenna received the message from one of the eunuchs, evidently a keeper of the poultry, that Rome had perished.
"And he cried out and said, 'And yet it has just eaten from my hands!' For he had a very large cock, Rome by name[.]
"[A]nd the eunuch comprehending his words said that it was the city of Rome which had perished at the hands of Alaric[.]
"[A]nd the emperor with a sigh of relief answered quickly: 'But I thought that my fowl Rome had perished.'..."
—Procopius, The Vandalic War (Wikipedia entry for Honorius, citing III.2.25–26)
Vermundo looked at the pleasantly unearthly sky, then back again at the savaged bird. "Unless,"
Alaric waited.
"Unless it says everything by saying nothing."
Vermundo walked around the gore, in a circle. "Of course. Of course, " he nodded.
Alaric nodded again.
Vermundo looked up. "We are not in Raetia anymore.2"
The ground shuddered, and then, from the North, they saw the explosion--and, between a mountainous foothill, the crystal towers.
Author's Note (2): Or Kansas.
More on different types of chicken divination at this link. The Visigoths are intentionally not practicing the less violent Roman type of Alectryomancy that Emperor Honorius favored.
"I don't want to go to the Crystal Dance." Flurry Heart, heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire, glowered at her quadruped father, Shining Armor.
"Dear. Dear, please--"
"I didn't like it last year and those Crystal nobles tried to kiss me."
"You can brush them off--"
"Dad. No. They should know better."
"At least I'm not advising you to kiss their cheeks and lead them on."
"And for that I thank you, Dad." Flurry Heart rolled her eyes and sauntered over to her mirror. "Mom's just terrible."
"She is the Princess of Love--"
"Eww," Flurry Heart stuck her tongue out. "And ick. That isn't love."
"Not romantic love in this situation. Fraternal love for one's subjects."
"Playdough's philosophy is garbage."
"Dear,"
"I mean, like, no one feels agape--unconditional sacrificial love towards mom--thank you Sunburst for that piece of useless esoterica, even though she's a Goddess."
"Prick her and she doth bleed--" Shining Armor quoted a famous playwright.
"Ugh,"
"And she's a Princess, not a Goddess."
"Whatever, Dad."
"Her power is--" he gulped, "overwhelming. But she's not as... sturdy as Celestia."
"Uh, huh."
"Or yourself."
Flurry Heart nodded. "I'm a Goddess."
"You may be theoretically indestructible but you didn't create the world. You don't raise the sun or the moon like Princesses Celestia and Luna."
Flurry Heart stomped her forehooves. "I will!"
"I am sure, Darling," Shining Armor nodded.
Flurry Heart slumped back with a sigh. "Like, how do you put up with it?"
"With--"
"Mom. And the dances."
Shining Armor shrugged his broad shoulders. "I knew what I was getting into."
"Look Dad. I'm not a Princess of Love or Friendship like Aunt Twilight or anything. I'm a Princess of--I don't know."
"You're a Princess of the Crystal Empire and that's enough, sweetheart. And if you please fill some few itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie duties of State, we'll all be even happier--especially your subjects. If anypony bothers you, we can have that pony put in lockup. They've been warned."
"They don't learn their lessons."
Her father shrugged. "We haven't tried lockup yet. We haven't wanted to. It will have consequences. But yes. Misbehavior has gone on for too long--"
"I don't see why either of you put up with that pony that keeps Prench kissing mom."
Shining Armor frowned and gritted his teeth. "They're from a different era, Dear. It was... customary for certain groups of nobles that had especial connections to the Crown to exchange those... peculiar greetings to demonstrate submission and to ensure obedience. Or so I've heard... and read in that etiquette book from the Pre-Sombra era."
"The ones my age aren't from that butt-backward time," Flurry Heart noted.
"They're raised by ponies from a different era, Dear. A thousand years ago when the Crystal Empire disappeared, subjects kissing nobles on cheeks to show respect was standard."
"Blah-blah-blah. I know that Dad. It's been jabbered at me from you, from my Crystal Pony tutor who won't stop that disgusting ringing meditation and his equally disgusting--"
"Tinnitus--you really should call him by his name. And you should get used to the feeling. We can't just come and change all the crystal ponies' traditions in a few years. They really get the feeling that you don't like ruling them--and may not really like them at all." Shining Armor sighed. "This is partially my fault. I recommended Sunburst to be your Crystaller instead of a local. And he studied their lessons, but he didn't have the culture. He was too cerebral--he said things... that's why we appointed Tinnitus--"
Flurry Heart scowled deeper.
"We have to aspire to greater friendliness and cater to the Crystal Ponies' preferences since we are only distantly related to them. We saved their country, but ponies' thankfulness fades over time. And they want respect."
Flurry Heart narrowed her eyes at her father and cleared her throat. "Aaaaaand... I don't want their respect if it requires them to treat me weird like that. I'm Royalty. I should be building my legend like all the other alicorns! I shouldn't be stuck up here in court. I should be hunting monsters and blasting them to pieces! Like in the Ballad of Celestia! Or The Nine Labours of Luna! Spear through the eye! Instead, I'm putting up with kissing garbage and then Tinnitus tells me the other day I should date crystal ponies and should consider a friendly 'hook-up' with nobles at the Crystal Dance--ugh!" Flurry Heart smashed a hoof against a wall, spreading cracks radially from its harsh-pressured center. "I can't stand this!" Her cheeks flushed red. Then they pulsed redder as frustrated magical energy built up.
"Dear--"
"Nope!" She flexed her wings and flew beyond her unicorn father's grasping reach. And she blew off her magically-enhanced anger toward the sky, incinerating the ceiling. Crumbling concrete and drywall and plaster fell around her father's flared shield.
After a quick glance to ensure her father was safe, Flurry Heart flapped south, excising her building negative energy. Straining her ears, she could barely hear her father's call for: "Code Flurry-Six. Code Flurry-Six," which meant she'd thrown a tantrum and repair services were required, but nopony was seriously injured.
If she didn't set some distance between herself and the palace, though, she couldn't guarantee that anypony would remain in a healthy state. Disaster had happened before and she didn't want to spend any more time in restorative justice sessions or with her psychiatrist than she was already forced to endure. (ed. - Twice a week, two hours a session except alternate Thursdays which were three hours.)
She was about to blow her top when she saw a glistening to the south. Increasing her speed and her lung intake, she breathed stronger and deeper until her vision picked up a curious sight.
Bipedal creatures swarmed at the edge of a small copse of hardy tundra trees--hundreds, perhaps thousands.
Flurry Heart circled the queer creatures, studying their armor and spears--like those borne by the Crystal Guard, but cruder--some rusted and with peeling paint. Many of the creatures' faces were covered by twisted, ugly metal-encased things, like the mind-controlling devices that encased Crystal Ponies when they had been enslaved by Bad King Sombra.
Flurry Heart narrowed her eyes, snorted, and juked to a side as a spear sailed short of her height. She flew higher. Another spear sailed toward her, and it was easily avoided.
Flurry Heart circled again and gathered her magic. She centered it into a disarming blast, a forceful magic strike, and loosed her magic at the aggressive biped who had first assaulted her, then separated the beam toward the second spear-tossing biped, her magic fanning between them both like a colorful prism. Both bipeds fell--stunned. Before the spears of the many incensed bipeds could find their way toward her, she flew to the Crystal Palace to warn the Crystal Guard.
"Sombra's army's back!" Flurry Heart announced, breathless with adrenaline and less coherent than usual. "Evil slave helms on bipedal monsters!"
Shining Armor led the charge and the negotiations.
A salvo of spears was tossed at his ponies, but he easily deflected them with a discharge of his magical shield. Once he was in hearing range, he shouted: "I would parley with your leader!"
A call went out up and down the bipedal creatures' line.
"You speak Gothic?" A voice asked.
"I understand the first two of your words."
"You speak my language?" The voice, lilting as it expressed the question, elaborated.
"Ah, Gothic--that is your language? I speak Equestrian, but for whatever reason, I suppose our languages are the same."
"Why do you monsters speak?"
Shining Armor shifted and tilted his head. "We're ponies. Not monsters. Perhaps our languages have different connotations for the term?" No response came. Shining Armor licked his lips, then continued. "We've never seen creatures like you."
The speaker turned toward a taller long-bearded creature who whispered into his ear. When the whispering finished, the speaker grunted and continued speaking to Shining Armor. "Romans ride creatures like you."
"Who?"
"The Romans. Our enemies."
"We are not your enemies."
"Then, what are you?"
"We bear you no ill will. Yet, you assaulted us!"
"You look as monsters of lore."
Shining Armor sighed. "Will you lower your weapons?"
The speaker listened again to the long-bearded one, whose words Shining Armor could not discern. When the long-bearded one finished, the speaker nodded, then raised a foreleg and lowered it. His followers followed suit. Shining Armor reciprocated.
"Why have you come to our land?" Shining Armor asked.
"Not by choice but by chance."
"Perhaps we can help you return to your origin?"
"We would welcome that assistance," the speaker said. "We have a duty to visit retribution on the Romans with haste. If we fail, our families will suffer more."
"The same Romans who ride creatures that are like us?"
"Indeed. They mount and ride those horses. It is why we carry the spear." He jostled his long shaft.
"To protect you from being similarly assaulted." Shining Armor frowned.
"We will die before the Romans take us."
Shining Armor's tail flattened against his backside and he swallowed hard. "This is quite the outrage. And it happens often?"
"The riding?"
"The riding."
"Every day."
"By Celestia," Shining Armor whispered, then he whinnied and continued. "May I accompany you to see this oppression with my own eyes?"
"Of course," Alaric said.
Shining Armor called for Princess Cadance. Together, they accompanied Alaric to where he and his army had entered Equestria.
"And what is this?" Shining Armor approached the gored chicken.
"Roman," Alaric spat.
"This is a Roman?" Shining Armor asked.
Before an answer could be supplied, Princess Cadance posited her own theory. "Did the Romans do this?" Princess Cadance's voice tinged with deep disgust.
"The--" the bearded man at Alaric's side whispered to him, interrupting Alaric's statement. When the bearded man was done, Alaric re-started. "The Romans did."
"Savages," Cadance hissed. "We will arrange a burial."
The chicken was carried away by cot-bearing pegasi.
After some time, Shining Armor and the Princess re-opened the shimmering magical portal that had intermittently flickered between the worlds. Without incident, it held for long enough for Alaric to lead his men into the gap.
His men safely back home, Alaric returned, gesturing expansively with a declaration that: "It succeeded!"
"And now," Shining Armor looked to his wife, who sighed, but nodded. Shining Armor completed his thought: "I will accompany you to see for myself the treatment of these 'horses'." Then he joined Alaric in stepping across the threshold.
Hours later, Shining Armor returned to the Crystal Palace, a contemplative expression across his face.
"These Goths fight a righteous battle," he told his wife.
Flurry Heart, roosting secluded in palace rafters behind a banner commemorating the fourth Crystal Empress, amplified the sound of her father's voice with her magic and strained her ears, cursing the damage that cacophonous disco parties had done to her eardrums. Since she was an alicorn, her ability to listen could recover to acceptable acute levels after acclimation to softer sounds, but that took a while.
"It is not our fight."
"We could be helpful to them."
"By harming creatures?"
"By preventing both these creatures and their oppressors from suffering even more harm."
"Pray explain, Dear." Cadance's voice raised to a questioning tone.
Shining Armor walked around the room, his hooves scratching on the tile. Then he whacked a hind hoof harshly against the floor. "Sorry about the rock." Flurry heard a clink as he dislodged a stone that had caught in his frog.
"Dear?"
He cleared his voice. "Many Visigoths, and creatures that look much like us but which appear to lack our intellect, were enslaved by Romans who forced them to fight--like Sombra's hideous helms forced our Crystal Ponies to wage war. These Visigoths found their loved ones had been harmed by the Romans so they took up arms to punish them and to ensure that outrages would not happen again."
"Punish how?"
"By despoiling their most famous city--Rome."
"How does this right the wrong?"
"It will send a important message and will prevent more deaths... on both sides. The Romans will be intimidated into laying down their arms."
"I see."
"And they want us to accompany them."
"Waging war?"
"Our magic can save lives. We stun Roman soldiers. Then the Visigoths have no need to stab. Instead, they loot to recover a 'bloodprice' and damage buildings to send a message. The Romans have never seen such strong magic as what we possess--nothing they have can stun creatures. We will win this war!"
"It is not our war."
"Please understand, Cadance," Shining Armor explained. "These creatures' struggle is like what our Crystal Ponies suffered. The creatures were sent to us so we who have experience with this struggle can save them from their personal Sombra."
"You should not endanger yourself."
"Worry not." Flurry Heart sensed the magical shimmer of her father's shield magic. " Our soldiers and I will be protected."
A long pause followed, finally punctuated by: "Fine," and the sound of Princess Cadance trotting away. Flurry Heart could just barely hear her mother's whisper over clip-clopping against marble: "Do as you must."
"Dad," Flurry Heart asserted.
Shining Armor sighed and turned to face his daughter.
"I wanna go with you."
"It is too dangerous."
"It's too dangerous to leave me here on the night of the dance, Dad. If some pony smooches me, I'll blow my top. And the ceiling."
"You need to control yourself--"
Flurry Heart tapped the wall with a wing.
"Threatening me?"
"No," Flurry Heart frowned. "But remember that my psychiatrist said it'd be good to channel my aggression into productive pursuits--to 'get out' aggression in productive ways. And I'm supposed to be an alicorn Princess. Alicorns fight monsters. Defeat evil. I'll stop the Romans, free slaves--reduce bloodshed. Romans will lay down their arms--they've never seen magic before! They'll get the message and so many creatures will be free."
"Your words have a ring of familiarity..." Shining Armor frowned.
"Do they?"
Shining Armor sighed and leaned toward Flurry Heart, whispering. "Fine. But if Mom asks, you forced me."
Flurry Heart rolled her eyes and flew past her father. "Great. I'll get my armor."
Vermundo had sent notice to the Visigoth camp followers to take the pack beasts as far back as possible to minimize chances that the ponies would realize the Visigoths also used equines for labor.
His words were heeded, with much grumbling from those who had not traveled across the portal to the strange land and who had not seen Shining Armor during his brief journey across the barrier between the worlds. But they had seen the army disappear, leaving their steeds and support. Mystery upon mystery had beset the camp followers. So, they trusted the magic-worker.
And that trust paid off.
Ponies came through a portal as had been promised.
On the front lines before Rome, Flurry Heart's magic pierced right and left and knocked down several Roman equites astride their horses.
"Go free, simple cousins," she shouted, then denuded the equines of their heavy saddles and protective gear. The horses spooked, providing bare recognition of the aid. Several trampled their incapacitated Roman ex-owners.
"They're--" Flurry's father was aghast.
"I know...." Flurry Heart laughed.
"We should stop--"
Flurry Heart shrugged. "Romans deserve it, Dad."
They feasted in the Pantheon, supping on grapes and lettuce, carrots, beer, and other delicacies.
"I'm glad we could provide you a mostly bloodless victory," Shining Armor noted, sniffing the air and taking in some of the black smoke that was permeating the city and that had snaked its way into the structure from its open central skylight.
"The Romans will think twice about crossing us." Alaric stood and closed his fist to the sound of wide acclaim from both Visigoths and ponies that beat their hooves against the ground and tables--a beating which echoed majestically around the acoustically excellent Pantheon walls.
"We will not be slaves again. We smash this Roman tradition! Soldiers will be free! Families will be free! We stand for ourselves. We rule ourselves as we desire."
Flurry Heart's head perked up and she downed a foaming beer in one gulp while her father politely focused his attention on his host.
"For thousands of years, the Romans have wronged others. Now is our turn to make them heed humility. They only respect strength, and strength we have shown!" Visigoths and ponies cheered the chief.
Once Alaric was seated and the feasting resumed, Shining Armor spoke to him. "Very good! Were these Romans provided enough notice to vacate their dwellings before the immolation started?"
Another drink appeared before Flurry Heart.
"We did what we could," Alaric smiled. "Men are in the streets driving Romans from their homes while we feast. When we finish, it will be their turn to enjoy."
Flurry Heart drank the beer and wiped its foam from her mouth with agile feather manipulation.
"So..." Flurry Heart said, leaning forward on the table, toward Alaric. "Would you say that Roman 'tradition' is wrong. Despite having hundreds of years of precedence?"
"Very wrong."
"Dad?" Flurry Heart's eyes grew wide, staring straight into her father's gaze.
"Just as wrong as Sombra's traditions."
"Then why do you accept other wrong traditions!"
"Ha, ha, not the time, Dear."
"Like ponies forcing themselves on others--"
"Dear, that's a misleading characterization--"
"When you thought the Romans were forcing themselves on horses by 'riding' them, you were all ready to burn Rome to the ground."
"No one's riding you, Dear."
"Uh, huh. And they won't be." Flurry Heart flared her wings, then boosted herself and flew to just beneath the open-air center of the Pantheon.
Alaric raised his hands. "Please, calm, stay and celebrate. Have another beer."
"Nah," Flurry Heart said, then belched. "Reached my... limit."
"Thank you for keeping to what we discussed," Shining Armor said, forcing his expression to be even.
"I drank like five more when you weren't looking."
Shining Armor's snout creased up.
"It's not like the water's potable," she sneered.
"There is always posca." Alaric, face reddening, sneered, holding up the awful vinegar drink that Romans provided to their slaves and soldiers.
"Just kidding Dad," she had a hollow laugh. "I only had two beers." She winked. "Yeah, yeah--that's over the limit. But magic is thirsty work... I don't want to have a disgusting hangover and mouth-herpes like you and Mom."
"Flurry--"
She rolled her eyes. "Like, you two are stupid. Tradition to drink yourselves dumb with nobles and only stop your headaches after drowning yourselves in a bathtub of coffee."
Before he could respond, she flew up and out the Pantheon's central hole. Dark smoke permeated the horizon, trailing in and out of Rome's beautiful buildings. She surveyed the horizon, then majestically flapped toward a nearby smoke column.
Shining Armor heard guffaws from the Visigoths' table and watched them point at his retreating daughter. "What is so amusing?" He asked Alaric, a tinge of danger filling his tone.
Alaric frowned. "I did not laugh."
Shining Armor shook his head. "No. But they did. What were they laughing about?"
"Why worry what simple soldiers think?" Alaric waved one hand and offered Shining Armor libations with another.
"I would ask a boon to humor my request."
Alaric smiled, toothily with an edge to his voice. "You three--what were you laughing about?"
The men trembled. After a few moments, their quickest or bravest spoke. "We were talkin' about the building. How it looked, Chief."
"What?" Shining Armor asked.
The speaker looked at the unicorn. "It looks like a butt hole. Rome's. Here at the center. Before they got that new one ripped out in Mediolanum. "
"Ah," Shining Armor nodded.
Alaric smiled and started to speak, but the other man continued. "And that pega--pony flew up it, like a Visigothic soldier thrusting a--" he looked down his tunic.
Alaric interrupted him before he could finish. "Spear. A violent analogy for what we have done to Rome."
Shining Armor nodded. "I see why you may have thought that could carry offense given my daughter flew where the sun shines, or does not in this case. But, I respect all cultures, rough though their words may be. Do not over-worry yourselves."
Alaric and the men laughed in relief. And another course was served.
"Could I have something different from beer to drink?" Shining Armor asked, eyes turned to the ceiling. "I wish to have my full faculties in case..." His words trailed off.
Alaric waved over some posca.
"Posca... you mentioned before it is your traditional drink?" Shining Armor sniffed the vinegar. "It smells slightly alcoholic."
"It has some small amount. Nothing we would not provide a child. It keeps us healthy."
"There is no clean water? Not to criticize this drink. I gladly imbibe it."
Alaric frowned. "Beer is for warriors. Posca for families. Water is unsafe. There is little that is clean although from what I saw of your land, perhaps the situation is different elsewhere. You do not have posca?"
"There's a medication by that name..." Shining Armor downed the posca. "A laxative."
"It does have that effect."
Flurry Heart watched, leaning forward, as Visigoths stabbed toga-clad Romans who she had stunned when the Visigoths' central host had beaten their way to the Pantheon. One soldier stopped stabbing after glimpsing her.
"Don't worry," she waved. "I could care less about monsters."
The soldier laughed, then his squadmates joined and he waved her over. "Would you like to do the honors?"
"Sure!" She alighted without hesitation and took the proffered spear from his gauntleted hands.
"Stab through his neck," the Visigoth helpfully offered while Flurry Heart turned the spear over, getting its weight. The moaning toga-clad Roman already bore several stomach stab-wounds.
"Cool," Flurry Heart smiled, and, with a wink, penetrated exposed skin and ended the Roman's life.
"I think he was a Senator," a Visigoth commented.
"And you're a true Goth." the jovial stabber smiled, then he rubbed the coal-paint surrounding his eyes and offered its smear to Flurry Heart.
She grinned. "Cool." She took the black paint and spread it around her eyes and beneath them.
"Now you look like a proper Visigothic warrior, brave pegasus."
"I'm actually an alicorn," she laughed. Then she whacked the Visigoth on his back with a wing. He grabbed her slapping wing with a scowl and his spiked leather gauntlet scratched the hide beneath her feathers. Then, he released his grip.
"Oh," he said. "Please forgive me. I am... I was a slave and when men touched me--"
Flurry Heart's scowl softened. She flexed her wings--the penetration would heal momentarily--alicorns like her were sturdier than simple ponies.
"I understand," Flurry Heart nodded.
"I apologize--"
"No, no need," Flurry Heart hoofed the spear back to its bearer with a smile. "You'll never be touched like that again."
"It is why I fight," he nodded.
"It is... good to end that tradition," Flurry Heart said.
"We throw down Rome--we change the world."
Flurry Heart swallowed and cleared her throat. Then, in a light tone she said "Keep up the good work!" then flew back to the Pantheon, returning through its convenient central skylight.
She alighted beside her father. "We need to leave our ceiling like this. Easy in, easy out."
"It would certainly be cheaper than repairing each time. But the floor will be covered with rain unless the weather team arranges for a weather-gap..." her father trailed off. He blinked, noticing her face-paint.
"Got an opinion?" She raised one eyebrow and faced him straight-on.
He pursed his lips. "The look is... interesting." His eyes flickered toward the Visigothic warriors, still adorned with similar eye paint.
"Yup," she turned her head to provide him a glimpse of all angles. "Didn't have a mirror, but it's probably right."
Alaric laughed. "You look like a true Visigoth."
"Do I?" Flurry Heart bared her teeth. "As vicious as one of your soldiers?"
"Of course. You struck down many."
"But that was just stunning."
"Killing or not does not change the vicious inner heart of a Visigothic warrior. Defeating one's enemies demonstrates true viciousness! Killing happens in war, but you ponies made widespread deaths unnecessary."
"Did we?" Flurry Heart leaned forward, breathing hot and hard. "Did we?" She winked.
Alaric held his breath, flinching not a bit from her hot pony breath.
"As I was saying," Shining Armor patted Flurry Heart on her back and tugged her back a little. He continued speaking to Alaric. "We should leave now. We know little of how these portals work other than they may be connected to a particular celestial congruence that ends in a few hours. So, we must be going." He gestured to the pegasi and private unicorn guards enjoying the feast.
"Your help has been invaluable, friend Pony. What can we give to you in return?" Alaric gestured to a growing pile of glittering loot being assembled in a corner of the Pantheon.
Shining Armor suddenly felt his stomach. The posca had hit. "Your... place of retreat?"
Alaric frowned, then he saw the hoof at stomach. "Ah, over there."
Shining Armor hurried to receive relief.
"And you, brave Visigothic pony?" Alaric asked Flurry Heart.
"I want your gear," Flurry Heart said.
"And I will give you all the gear you so desire!" he announced.
Back in the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart was admiring in a mirror her gifted helmet, spiked leather gauntlet, spiked collar to defend her neck and cheeks from unwanted attentions, strange-smelling leggings she didn't realize came from the hide of a living creature, and coal-paint highlighting her face, her eyes dancing with glee.
She frolicked around her room making thrusts with her spear, reliving the battle. Then her father's voice was shouting through her sound-muffling enchanted crystal door. But since she had attenuated her ears over the past day, hearing him was no trouble. She'd have to listen to more loud music to fix that.
"I suspect you prefer to rest since you've already drawn your bath. But, if you change your mind, Mom wishes you to know there is still time, Dear, for you to make an appearance at the party, at least to send off the guests. It would be appreciated... especially since she doesn't know you accompanied me."
"Is there?" Flurry Heart smiled, and with her spiked leather gauntleted forehoof gripped her spear tight. "I'll come. I can't wait to meet traditionalist nobles probing with unwelcome goodbye kisses...."
"Dear?"
"Thanks for the trip, Daddy. Now that I've 'gotten out' my aggression and had some new experiences... reflected on how we've thrown down Sombra but aren't out of his historical shadow yet...."
"Dear?"
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll come. I've... calmly reflected on some great ideas of how to politely interpret my traditional role while greeting my subjects." She smiled at the spikes on her forehooves and the vicious collar encircling her neck.
Author's Note
"There was no general slaughter or wholesale enslavement of the city's inhabitants ... Most of the buildings and monuments in the city survived intact, though stripped of their valuables" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(410)
Rome has ponies to thank for the reduced level of violence. 
