This story is a sequel to TD the Alicorn Princess
Prince Antares, formerly the human TD Powell, has ascended to rule Equestria alongside Celestia and Luna to form the Equestrian Triumvirate. Taking his residency in Baltimare, Antares comes into his role as smoothly as he can, given the circumstances.
But not all is right with the world.
A warmongering king in the newly formed minotaur nation has just allied with the griffin empire, a country that recently gained a leader unfriendly to Equestria. Now Antares will face his first true test as an alicorn prince of Equestria. He must lead his peace loving ponies into the hells of war, and face an Equestria that will never be the same.
Edited wonderfully by Strike89
Buy a print copy of the original here!
YES!!! Instant Fave. Also... FIRST!!!Sorry... I was just a bit excited...
Surprised I can get so much hate from one comment...
5875635
Woo Fav for the laters!
5875636 You know, I think I'm going to start reading this series. It seems like a good intro into the whole HiE thing.
Oh hell yes.
5875657 You will not be disappointed in the slightest. Most everything TD is damn solid.
IMMA FIRIN MAH L-, um, I mean, I'm watching this.
5875636 Sorry.
LET THE SLAUGHTER BEGIN!!!!
Flamethrowers, machinegun, tanks, grenades, grenade launchers, missiles, possibly nukes... whatever it is the Minotaurs and Griffins will be getting killed by, I'll be happily sitting on my couch, eating popcorn and "squee"ing at the whole thing. This will have to be the best story I will ever read... now I'm just waiting. I will be patient, though, BronyWriter.
But if you don't publish more chapters soon, I will feast on your SOOUULL!!!
I am so happy that the sequel is finally underway and can not wait to see how it develops the only bad part is now I actually have to wait for the part of it to come out.
Let's get this started.
Title: "The Princess"
Thank you so much for finally updating this story. The speech that Amtares gave was magnificent and I really liked the way he matured as a ruler by being impartial and even willingly offering to fight at the front lines. I hope the next chapter comes soon because this one put me at the edge of my seat. Also, Purgle is a bastard.
The Game of Thrones theme was playing in my head as I was reading this.
I want to see dem human weapons. ;D
And so it begins...
>Johnny get your gun
They gonna need someone like Johnny Gat in this war.
Yes, I know this is "Johnny got his gun", anti-war drama.
Pregnancy Celestia. ..
Hype, butIalsowishTDwasstillaprincesscauserule63fietishisreal...
And it begins again!! Yes!! The war aside I can't wait to see our scorpion ponies grow up. Great potential for future oc's just like the bat ponies.
Bludworth could still be alive, just stashed away in a deep, dark hole in the ground. But more than likely he really is dead. Shame really; I liked him both in this story and the regular Nonbrony stories.
Totally called that the poison wasn't deadly. The hallucinagetic property of the poison is rather interesting. Still good thing Antares learned a lesson from this world's draft. That leaving opportunities for the rich to weasel out of it will leave bad blood between classes that is honestly still felt to this day.
Oh, HECK YES!
I love this fic so far. I wonder what kind of weapons Antares has up his sleeve.
Tracking because it looks good. Let's see how good it can get before the epic scene where P. is K.O'd by P.A.
Holy shit, I'm so hyped for this story, you don't even know!!
5875787 There's nothing like a nuclear deterrent.
But, for real though, please explain at some point why the three alpha alicorns just fucking rush in and kill the officers. Like, I know they're not completely invincible and everything, but seriously... I find it hard to believe that they (Celestia in particular) can't destroy the leaders utterly and/or fend off the armies by themselves with their magic. Hell, Shining Armour managed to shield the entirety of Canterlot from a horde of attacking changelings, and it only broke after he was COMPLETELY brainwashed.
I'm not saying you don't have an explanation, I'm just saying I feel like it needs to be iterated (or possibly reiterated). When my gut says "they're fucking alicorns, why do they even need an army", it's hard to sympathise with the war preparation.
I wonder what strategies the ponies shall use. Play it safe and defensive for the most part, or go on a first strike designed to permanently cripple the military, essentially what Pearl Harbor very easily could have done. Either way Blood shall be spilt.
Trenches, mortars, lines of defense, heavy defensive points. and airbases.
Though with pony civilization well aware of magic from the beginning i always wondered if they were not strangers to concepts found in Combined Arms Tactics?
Though if this war is to end quickly, there has to be a way to severely break the enemy's morale.
Judging by the title, would there be any references to Machiavelli?
5876335 I would agree and I do agree if I'm following my head cannon that Celestial is more powerful than she was depicted being in canterlot wedding. However if I have to follow the cannon version where she is basically portrayed to be a tall pony that happens to know the spell that moves the sun who can be beaten by a single changling feeding off of a single pony then yes I have to say that they would need an army. I really hope I don't have to follow the cannon depiction because that would be unexciting and dull.
TLDR; I agree, explanation would be nice.
I'm calling it right now. The Minotaurs are going to take the Russian's share of casualties in this war. Griffons are going to turn halfway through when Fromme gets himself killed and Kathryne steps up. It'll be all vs Purgle on his own by the end with a fragmenting Minotaur state and Antares will be the one to end it personally.
"Yes we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitors, up with the stars;
While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And we'll fill our vacant ranks with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom!
So we're springing to the call from the East and from the West,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And we'll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom."
5876335
5876441 Remember: both sides have weapons that can kill alicorns. Many of them, too. So if they try that and the worse case scenario happens, Equestria is out its irreplaceable monarchs. Also, remember the scene in the first story where TD was surrounded by griffins and beaten. It did hurt him. It wouldn't have killed him, but did hurt. So if the three princesses (Cadance doesn't quite count since she's mortal, so a stray arrow to the neck would do the job) charged into battle against an army of half a million, eventually their magic would run out and they'd be captured. And that's on top of there being no guarantees that killing Purgle would end the war at this point, given minotaur culture.
So basically, too much risk for not a defined reward.
5875740
5875804 Yes, yes, it's started. What did you think of the chapter itself?
5876335
So what do you do with an army of tens of thousands who just went into full on Jihad mode after you martyr all their leaders? Do you think they're just going to go home? These minotaurs are fighting for an ideology. Just killing the leadership isn't going to do anything but foster another wave of violent nationalism, one worse than the last.
Just look at the Middle East. One leadership head dies and five more crop up to take their place.
But, you might say, what happens if Celestia and Company wipe out the open-field army too?
Well, then they get creative, and the last thing anyone wants is a creative enemy that absolutely wants you to die.
5876441
Eh, think of it like this. She can only be in one place at a time, so what happens when she's tied up annihilating one force and another charges into Equestria and burns down half the country?
This question, in a lot of ways, isn't about power. It's about numbers.
Taking this point of view, if Celestia, Luna and Antares were to take the field alone, yeah, they might well slaughter what comes to fight them, but the easiest tactic at that point would be to divide and conquer, just in reverse. This is an army in the tens of thousands, a number a lot of people don't really... grasp in realistic terms. Break it down into raiding parties of 2-300 troops and scatter them across the countryside and by the time the three Alicorns are done murdering them all there wouldn't be much of a country left.
And that's not taking into account the weapons designed to kill Alicorns. They are an effective counter to Alicorn immortality, and even killing one of the big three would be devestating to the war effort.
So... yeah. Armies and soldiers are kind of important in this regard.
5876335 5876441 One other explanation for needing an army is that, while Celestia, Luna, and Antares are extremely powerful, and probably could wipe out any opposing forces they come across with ease, there are still only three of them, and they can only be in a maximum of three places at a time. Even if they could be everywhere, they would get tired fast.
Now what is TD gonna do to avoid World War II?
Hahaha YES!!! This pleases the Dark Gods immensely.
Must admit, your universe is growing that's cool. writers are also literally amazing, 1k words at least is a hard thing to accomplish
I did something here that I never do- I gave this story a favorite before I even read a word. I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed. I can only hope this pans out, but I know it isn't going to be easy.
Oh, and I noticed some missing end quotes in Antares' speech to Baltimare, namely at the end of each paragraph.
Eager to see how this war pans out, as well as the battle scenes we'll no doubt be seeing at some point.
5876977 The no quote at the end of the paragraph thing is how you do it, actually.
Soon...fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/027/a/f/lyra_by_xeroseis-d4ns7pq.png
5876702 10/10 would read again.
I'm just wondering if Antares is going to give the ponies machine gun tech, and if yes, is he going to give starter machine guns like the British Vickers and American Gatling, or go straight for the kill with beasts like the German MG42 and the American M2 Browning.
5876792 almost eradicate the minotaurs, so none of them will have the balls to start another war?
5877078 probably nothing like that. it would be kinda tricky to handle one of those as a pony. probably more explosives.
Wonder if he has the will to use biological and/or chemical weapons? One way could be sabotaging the food supply.
5876792 Hey hey hey, let's get through WW1 first.
5876539 May have some defecting early if the gryphon princess makes a public appearance talking her father's murder and the treachery involved.
5875635 Downvote that little shit to oblivion. At least give an opinion on your comment, man.
Relevant: listened to this while reading: Soldiers of the night.
That being said, human culture does focus more on war and the strategies involved, so I can see Antares having more experience/information about wartime strategies than most of his generals. Art of War, anyone?
5876995
Oh, ok. I guess I'll take this as an opportunity to improve as a writer, then! Silver linings, and all.