A week after they had left the Crystal Empire, Cadance and Shining Armor had left Twilight's castle, since it was perhaps the most obvious place in the world for Amaryllis' agents to look for them. Hiding an alicorn and a unicorn of impressive height and stature wasn't easy, but with magical help it was achieved, the two settling down into an isolated cloud-home that hovered in the air six miles from Cloudsdale. Everything they needed would be brought to them by Twilight Sparkle herself via teleportation, and only the three of them plus Cheval and Flurry Heart would know where they were. Amaryllis finding them was as impossible as they could make it.

A week after they had left the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart and Cheval had reached the Badlands Changeling Hive. One of the words in its name was now a throwback and had been for years, for with the Protean Throne gone and no longer draining magic from the land, the lands surrounding the Hive had transformed into lush savanna, and the Hive itself was overgrown with moss and flowers and vines that turned it into a riot of colors. As the two sisters stepped from the sky-chariot that had brought them, they were met by King Thorax, Prince Pharynx, and Chrysalis. Flurry Heart was welcomed with open arms and embraces from all three. Cheval was looked at with and could taste something she hadn't expected and couldn't understand: pity.

A week after Cadance and her family had left the land now known as the Crystal March, a dozen crystal ponies in the capital, members of the Society for Equestrian Harmony, had been rounded up by Robust Core and the Crystal Guard by the authority of Queen Amaryllis, suspected of having robbed or aided in the robbing of the land of the Crystal Heart and aiding in the flight of its renegade former rulers. They were marched to the empty dias where the Crystal Heart had been on display and, in full view of the city, executed for treason. The intent was to show the crystal ponies cost of treachery to the Northern Changeling Hive. But some of them, hearing their fellows’ protestations of innocence and ignorance, wondered instead if it was the cost of allegiance.

Author's Notes:

No, people who didn't want me to write this in the first place, I'm not going to write a sequel despite deliberately setting up for one, you won't have to suffer through that. I hijacked a fic already, I'm not quite enough of an asshole to hijack an entire series.

So...I've gone on at great length elsewhere as to why I don't buy Amaryllis' military successes since Courtesans, or Flurry Heart, Savior of the Empire. Most notably earlier in this story from Flurry's own mouth. I could honestly go on for...hang on, let me check my notes...at least another two pages.

But that's my worldbuilding issues, and it's obviously not the major point of divergence. Cheval is.

Why did it feel more "real" to me that Cheval admits what she did? Fundamentally, it's simple. Amaryllis told her she's a liar, and Cheval hates Amaryllis and everything she represents. The tragedy of A Foreign Education is that in Cheval's attempt to become her own mare and get out from Amaryllis' shadow and stop hurting her family, she instead became more and more like Amaryllis.

But at the same time, Cheval (supposedly) isn't stupid, and had Amaryllis herself tell her, to her face, that she was becoming like the Queen, and advised her on how to be a better liar, a better Queen. It's one thing for a teenager to make stupid mistake after stupid mistake when those mistakes follow one right after another in a way that clearly is spiraling out of their control and they just don't want to admit it. It's another when a teenager, out of defiance towards some authority figure they resent, makes a transparently dumb choice that they were told was dumb.

But it's a whole other thing entirely when Adolf Hitler walks up to a teenager and says "You remind me of a young me. Keep it up. And keep on after those Latinos, it reminds me of what I said about Jews," and the teenager doesn't realize that they're doing something fundamentally wrong.

Basically, I don't buy it. I don't buy Cheval hiding what she did from her family. Not because she's necessarily sorry, but simply because Amaryllis wants her to, wants her to be a better liar.

Here’s the thing about a smart character: you have to show them doing smart things if you want the audience to believe they’re smart. Cheval and Flurry in A Foreign Education didn’t do that, even once, at least not in any way that matters. For all of Flurry’s supposed intelligence in the original fic, she blunders into choosing a power she could never realistically hold on to (and frustratingly unlike Cadance’s plan at the end of Courtesans we’re never given even the slightest sense of how she intends to do it - nearly everypony goes on about how she could save the Crystal Empire but no one stops to say how). Likewise original Cheval makes dumb choice after dumb choice after dumb choice even when directly confronted with those choices, recognizing how dumb they are, and having ample opportunity to make intelligent choices. Do you know what you call someone who only makes dumb choices? You call them fucking dumb, no matter how well-spoken they are or reflective they seem.

From Cheval’s change, the other changes fall into place. Being honest with her family necessarily means hurting them with what she's done, or in other words, catastrophically failing in everything she'd tried to accomplish by going to Griffonstone to begin with (becoming her own mare, escaping Amaryllis' shadow, stopping hurting her family). She is, from her perspective, left as nothing but dead weight for her family. Which helps Amaryllis, so of course she'd want to try and remove herself from the equation, first by hoping to get them to hate her and send her back to Griffinstone, then in trying to kill herself.

The other major change, Cadance finally deciding to get out while the getting's good, likewise feels more natural. Amaryllis' ultimatum gave as an option Cadance taking Cheval - in other words, even if it was nominally "optional", Amaryllis has now directly targeted Cadance's family, and also revealed at least something of what she really wants. Why would Cadance choose to remain, given what we know of the loyalty of crystal ponies? Why would she stand stock still as a noose tightens around her childrens’ necks? Why would Shining Armor?

The two of them were already bad leaders. I saw no reason to indulge in the idea that they’re bad parents, too.

Anyway. Like I said, I'm done. I mean, I know where I'd go with this, personally, but again: I'm not enough of an asshole to hijack an entire series.