open An Arrow to the Wing (1x1 with Catpone Cerberus)

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Innocence is bit of an exaggeration, that went away when my mother broke my bones for the first time ." Ruby stated with a painful laugh, kinda odd how she seemed to laugh more when she was close to dying "And you didn't take away anything else but the re-experience of the event, the original is still there." "There is no returning to what was, that would require a memory wipe of some sort, which I won't agree to." "That is why I seek to leave the Homelands, things won't change as long as I stay there."

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Ember and the crow both looked Myra with a 'seriously?' look before Ember addressed Arrow "The first thing would be to find a place that is still standing and serves coffee." she said with slight humor in her tone "Though more seriously, when is later?, I'll probably leave back to Equestria soon since there's nothing more for me to do here, so is it before or after that?"

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"The lost city of night would work. The city is abandoned lots of history to uncover. Perhaps we could form a nation there, although you aren't keen to ruling a nation, you could be a figurehead and I could do all the ruling. Replace your old high position for a new one."

"Or we could live on one of the islands, plenty if prey for us."

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"I'd say after honestly, I don't think dragons drink coffee and their taverns will probably kill us because the drinks are built for dragons that, and I don't drink anymore."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"Does that city have a castle?" Ruby asked "One of the only things that's good about the whole civilization thing, the lower levels are surprisingly cozy." "Though as you said, you would need to handle all of the boring political stuff." not only because it was boring, but because Ruby's skills in politics were 'I get what I want or someone dies.'

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"I guess we'll see then." Ember said as she got up and sheathed her weapon "Anyone have anything more to say?" she was getting ready to take off, she truly had nothing more here to do, so she would be heading home if there was nothing else.

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus 

"I'll handle the politics. Some of the nightwings in the Rainwing Kingdom would be interested. Most, actually. We'll call it a land of opportunity. I've talked about this in the past. With it abandoned, it is ready to be claimed. I've had this idea for a while, visited Queen Thorn the queen of the sandwings to negotiate taking the talon peninsula as well. She has agreed and will send a notice to the Sandwings there. If they choose to move, they will be compensated in full."

"So, we'll have some sandwings that don't move. An army will be necessary for defense of our land. If you're willing, we could marry and crown you as queen. You wouldn't actually have to do anything, you'd just have a high title with perks."

Mentioning the high title with perks wasn't Quasi trying to get Ruby to marry him, he was just making things clear for Ruby.

"That is a choice left up to you. Though, I'd like to spend my life with you in such a relationship. I won't try to force you, I wouldn't even if I was able to."

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"Nothing as of now. Hopefully we meet again, Ember."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"While I don't necessarily have anything against it, since something like marriage means nothing to me, why would we need to do things in certain way? It would be our nation would it not? Thus only rules that matters are those we decide." Ruby pointed out "I'm not fan of titles as you may know, I'd prefer be called by a new name by those below me.....Bekisnhlekil (deathbringer), Queen Bekisnhlekil if you insist on a title." A name used for her kind by some, she liked it, not the version of it on the inferior language that ponies and others used, but in her native language, she felt it fit her "The Great Bekisnhlekil." it may have sounded like an odd name since it was just another word among others, but as one could tell from something like Ruby's original name, that's how her kind named things. "They could call me The great one until they learn to pronounce it." 
"Those with permission from me would still call me Ruby, since Bekisnhlekil would only be my royalty name."
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Ember simply waved her hoof and took off, after a minute or so, a huge murder of crows took off from all around the area and headed to the same direction, there was lot more of them than it had first seemed. Something resembling an Equestrian dragon took of in the distance too, may have been random dragon heading home to Equestria, may have been someone following Ember, who knows, there wasn't really way to tell

 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"This way feels more... official to me. Plus it will make the citizens recognize you as queen even more, and thus giving your title more value to them, for non-divine mortal beings like us, a title is only as valuable as the society says it is, otherwise, it is merely self proclaimed. Similar to titles in your land I presume."

"The title does suit you, given your strength. It'll earn you much respect when the find out the meaning of it. Many of my kind have false titles that don't match them, but yours is genuine."

"It'll be a lot of work, we'll be a monarchy, with direct rule from myself. If I somehow die or step down, we'll have a system of checks and balances to ensure no corrupt leader shows up and takes away the rights of the people. A democratic monarchy."

The dragon was thoughtful, looking at some fallen scales he happened to pick up from dead dragons in Ruby's land.

"Hmm... maybe some animus magic? It stopped working for a time but worked ever since those portal opened. We could turn this into armor and duplicate and manipulate it a bit for our army. Use some bones to duplicate and turn into weapons. We'd actually be pretty terrifying."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"As long as I have any interest on the nation, nobody will take the rule without my permission." Ruby stated "I may not be interested in ruling as something to do, but I still expect the title to actually mean something, any wannabe ruler can come to try take the position from me if they dare." "How I see it, you would be more my voice than anything, since I'm not the most diplomatic creature out there." "For the army, while I don't care for armor an weapons, I'll let you do with that what you want, it is important to have enough intimidation power that others leave us alone, which is ultimately what I want." she coughed a bit in painful manner and spit out the taste of blood from her mouth before she continued "Foreign policy could simply be, 'leave us alone and we don't wipe you off the map.' " as to be expected from Ruby, the wording could use some work for it to be a good stance in politics, but it was the simple statement on how she felt about it, all she wanted was a place where others didn't try to harm her constantly, or constantly cry to her about morals and rights and whatever

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"It's a new nation, we need to have a good standing with other nations. And I think setting up a constitution and a council to uphold it is in order. That means if someone says something bad about you, you're not allowed to punish them. That includes peeling their skin like an orange."

"I intend to liberate the nightwings, not enslave the them. A bill of rights is non-negotiable."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I can only wonder how 'I want to be left alone' translated in you mind into slavery." Ruby said, her tone and expressions didn't change much during the conversation, as pain and tiredness was above everything else "If you would have listened the many times I have spoken and paid attention, you'd know I don't believe in such things, in fact, quite the opposite, you can't find a potential leader more set on freedom, I oppose strict authority, and  I may be a hypocrite, but I'm not bad enough to become what I oppose." "As long as someone doesn't bring the nation in war or otherwise cause problems to it or me directly, I couldn't care less what they do." 

"While I'll leave politics to you, I won't accept just anything, we are not making a nation that's like every other, if there will be a nation, it will be such that it is build to those like me, those who have been cast aside by everyone else, those who neither the so called evil or the so called good creatures of the worlds accept." "I will not take part in the wars of others, or take sides based on made up morals." "I understand certain laws are necessary to keep order, but those will be the laws of that nation, not the laws of other nations." "You're easily manipulated, and that's why I won't give you full control, we will be small in size, so we need to make sure we are big and powerful elsewhere." 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Catpone Cerberus
it posted double

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Then our interests align. The nightwings have been cast aside. They said any nightwing wanting to live among rainwings had to earn it, my kind was told to live separately. Though the casting aside wasn't intentional, it was a byproduct of her decisions. It was because the nightwings were just at war with the rainwings just before being taken over. They didn't trust my people, they tried to right a wrong with a wrong and failed. Even with that, I'm on good terms with the rainwings and intend to keep it that way."

 

He also told Ruby a plan he had.

"I have a plan to increase our small population. We'll sample blood from nightwing volunteers to get the genes from nightwings, combining male and female genes, with animus magic we will make these samples into new nightwings and ensure the a good ratio between young and adult nightwings so our population will remain steady. They will also get the intelligence for the age they represent, with knowledge needed. Adults will be have good education upon creation. Babies will be... babies. And children will have some knowledge but not more than the average child and not below."

He looked thoughtful for a moment...

"Many nightwings will do anything for their kind, so many will agree. After a few days, we'll have a good population and the project will be finished and never used again, that will ensure we will have a very good military with proper numbers."

"I also intend to take cells from volunteer unicorn horns and create magical gauntlets for a certain type of troops. Will be useful against firearms. We'll use magic from Equestria to make up for our technological inferiority. Trade with the Equestrians will be helpful for our nation."

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"I'll leave that to you, can't say I would be much help." Ruby said, she didn't understand much of what Quasi explained, she got the idea but that was pretty much it "I may have some old unicorn skulls laying around somewhere among the pile of trophies if they're any use." they weren't as much trophies as they were something that she had forgotten to throw away "I'll also be looking into my kinds magic bit more as I have use for few spells, so I can also see if there's anything that could be useful for a nation." unlikely, but it didn't hurt to look

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

"Your transformation spell may be useful for espionage. Is it possible that use of Equestrian magic could make my kind capable to use your spells? Equus nations and nations in my world, we can defend against... but what about Earth with their superior technology? Sure, ground troops we can fight but, tanks, vehicles, yes. But... their boats and jets. Their missiles and bombs. We can't compete with that. Their jets are too fast, some faster than sound."

He looked thoughtfully.

"Airships, we need really big airships with the help of the Equestrians. They'll need REALLY powerful armor, magic should do it. Big naval ships too. We have special plants that explode and we can make bombs out of them."

"In other news, a few days ago, the jackals were forced to leave your land when Moonwatcher got vague prophecies of would could go wrong in the unlikely even your kind is wiped out. What would happen isn't clear, we just know it's bad. The Americans flew some jets and did airstrikes on the terrorists making them leave. Though, I doubt the terrorists would've made it very far since they lack the resources for a proper campaign on your land."

Quasi some how managed to do his research. Probably something to do with his dream visitor.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
"No, our magic is too different to be used by any other creatures." Ruby simply stated "And what comes to earth or whatever, we simply make it so that it's not worth it, there won't be anything worth the expense." while she hated earth, she didn't see any reason for them to bother with the little nation that they were to become, even the greediest and conquest minded creatures needed some reason to want something after all. She didn't comment on ships of any kind, she didn't know or really care enough about that, that would be Quasi's problem.

"You know I don't believe in prophecies." 

[Lucid_Nightlight 923]

@Catpone Cerberus

And with that it was settled, a new nation was to be made. He'd talk a little bit more but, eventually the conversation had to conclude. When Quasi and Ruby came to the Rainwing Kingdom, the nightwings would cheer upon their arrival. To them, Quasi was a legend who killed the evil Darkstalker and Ruby the one who killed Gladia. Symbolically, a declaration of independence was signed and given straight to Queen Glory of the Rainwings, though already predetermined, Glory gave her blessing for the nightwings to leave if they wish. And many nightwings did leave, a vast majority left.

They would arrive in the City of Night, and after negotiaton, the Sandwing Queen Thorn would give up the peninsula. After 7 days of the process of using blood to make new nightwings of different ages, a standing army was built, along with something not seen in his land, a navy, with the help from Equestrian magic that was part of a trade between the two nations.

After these things were done... Quasi would propose to marry Ruby, so that she would officially be crowned queen.

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Sky and Myra would return the United States as heroes. Ace Armstrong was killed in action, after getting gas masked sent to them, the navy seals recovered the body, though this was a couple hours after his death and not after the war was won. For his sacrifice, Ace would be given the medal of honor, an honor that was extended to the bounty hunters. Sky for his actions on the aircraft carrier also got the medal of honor.

With this, Sky and Myra would soon get something even more valuable than the medal, a daughter they named Casila.

Sky would go on to try and hire Ember's services, he had the sufficient amount of money to do this. If she accepted, together, they would fight the jackal terrorists, and soon the jackals fell. And after the jackals fell he'd retire to Dasonia, where the alpha died of illness, Sky and Myra would be crowned alpha and beta.

If Ember didn't accept, Sky would just go and retire to Dasonia and eventually Sky and Myra would be crowned. In this scenario, the jackals would fall after many years of fighting with the United States, as the jackal's battle was hopeless for them. (What really happens depends on you, I don't wanna control your characters as they aren't mine)

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Arrow was rewarded with Equestria's highest medal for his actions in the war. He would seek out Ember, in hopes that they would hang out together. He'd go into the reserves so, he had a lot of time on his hooves.

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History would repeat itself in some cases, the U.S. would set up their embassies in Equestria and nations that allowed it. And Equestria would take it's seat in the United Nations and eventually NATO and all that stuff.

The Dragon Lands with some help would recover from the civil war, one of the deals in the surrender was that all Fironians would be forgiven for their involvement in the war as long as they were just civilians or normal soldiers. The general who launched the attack on the U.S. would be taken into U.S. custody and after a trial, the Fironian general would be executed for his attack that killed millions.

The victory against the Fironians would become a national holiday in all involved nations, in the U.S. it would simply be schools were shutdown for that day or whatever, for Dragon Lands, there was a feast of gems. For Dasonia, there would be a huge festival that took place over a week. For Equestria, it would be a festival that took place for a day.

The Nightwing Kingdom ruled by Ruby and Quasi would have another holiday that would celebrate the founding of the nation that took place over one week.

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In the end though, this wasn't the end of all war, people would fight wars were fought, Equestria would occasionally have some big villain show up and the villain would be defeated. Some things would never fully change. Though Equestria's military was soon no longer the joke it once was. It became a strong military that nations would think twice before attacking. Not the sole superpower of all the worlds but, they could defend themselves well and attack if they needed.

Life went on.

[Catpone Cerberus 23,594]

@Lucid_Nightlight
Ruby didn't seem to much care for the cheers, though part of the reason may have been that she was again carrying her belongings with her, as she had gotten them from the Homelands before heading to Quasi's world for good, she had left most of bones she had gathered during her life there, but she had taken some with her, among a fresh and intact roll of scales she had taken from the dragon that had taken over the territory while she had been gone, she didn't tell why she had taken it with her, but it was for her own use.

While Quasi dealt with the boring politics of forming a nation and building an army, Ruby spend her time reading books, looking into her kind's magic, only pausing when her presence was required somewhere, though as to be expected from her, she never even tried to act like she enjoyed being bothered, important or not. When they eventually moved in the castle, Ruby repurposed the dungeons as her throne room, leaving the actual throne room for Quasi, since he would be the one doing most of that stuff.  She wasn't big fan of the close cooperation with Equestria, and made it known, but she understood the necessity of it for now, so she just avoided interacting with any Equestrians.

She didn't find anything to help the nation itself, but she made three spells for herself, two with permanent effect, and one more situational one, the first and most important was mental protection which made her mind basically invite-only, protecting her from any attempts to read or manipulate her mind against her will, it was powerful enough to allow her to finally remove the piece of jewelry from her horn. Second was specific type of magical protection, a sort of a nullifying layer of magic, made to counter anything magical made to be physical, meaning that magic nets, barriers, chains, or anything else similar meant to keep her trapped would be ineffective. The last one was a simple muffling spell for her ears.

Ruby accepted the marriage proposal, but she again reminded Quasi that to her it meant nothing special, and that it was only for sake of convenience. She adopted the name 'Queen Bekisnhlekil' after that, though she insisted that Quasi would still call her Ruby when not on official business, as she disliked titles, even when she was the one with a title.

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Ember returned home after getting her business done with the clients, she then decided to take a long break, as the war had taken its toll on her, though that wasn't the only reason, she had gotten an odd feeling when she had gotten home, she didn't know what it was, but she knew there was something she should have known but didn't.  She took Sky's job, but she made it clear that it was strictly business and that she still had no interest in becoming friends, and that until it was in name of business, she had no interest in seeing him again after that. 

She made true of her promise to meet Arrow after the war was over, and as she had said, she was lot more...normal when not on the job, and since she had decided to take a long break, she had plenty of time too, though the feeling never left her, but she didn't express it to Arrow or anyone else, expect her therapist of course, but what was said in therapy, stayed in therapy.

As Equestria got involved with other nations and worlds, Ember's connections grew in numbers, and she soon enough had access to information and equipment from all worlds, though this again was something she kept to herself for obvious reasons. But while it brought her things too, Ember was still against the whole thing, even with Equestria getting its military together, it to her still was something that would bring more harm than good. Even though she was on break, she still was involved in the world of crime and bounty hunters, and in weird twist she made a momentary truce with the criminals she had for so long chased, as there was now a bigger threat to worry about, criminals from the other worlds, and the whole Equestrian underworld, both sides of the unseen war were now focused to keep them out, though thanks to the military now being actually useful, it was bit easier to deal with. 

She didn't like the celebration of the victory either, refusing to celebrate it, stating that there was nothing to celebrate about unnecessary war.

 

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In a short time lot can change, but there is those things that do not, Ruby will always dislike most of others, and Ember will always dislike powerful organizations and anything they do.