Leonidas stirred a bit later than usual, he felt something warm pressed against his chest and under his chin. The beautiful mare sleeping beside him was still fast asleep, they did have an exhausting night. He nuzzled her gently and she nuzzled back. Leonidas finally got her to see him as an equal, at least temporarily. He ran a hoof along her neck, still she had not removed the collar. While he thought she looked good in one it still said that she was nothing more than property, and she was more than a slave to him. To him Luna was a good and kind mare that did not deserve to be owned. He was glad that she ended up in his house as most Spartans would have abused her.
Luna moved, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. She smiled at him and he smiled back before pulling her into an even tighter embrace. Luna happily curled into him and allowed herself to be taken. She felt his breath on her back and his hoof on her neck. She bagan to nuzzle him lovingly as his hoof stroked her neck. But it could not last forever as she wanted it to, they both had work to do. Leonidas got up and Luna followed suit.
Leonidas donned his armor and cloak while Luna kissed him goodbye and went about her daily chores. Leonidas put on his helm and went down to the barracks to plan the next strategy they were going to use. He looked down on the map of Greece to see how far Thebes had come in their direction. Thebes had conquered much of Greece and were continuously pushing towards Sparta. Leonidas was really getting tired of their games and decided that they would send three fourths of their entire force to annihilate the Thebes and send them a message. Don’t f@ck with Sparta.
“Your majesty,” a soldier said coming into the barracks.
“Yes soldier, what is it?” Leonidas asked looking up.
“It’s a Thebes messenger, he demands to speak with you.”
Leonidas looked more annoyed than surprised, he expected Thebes to send a message demanding their surrender.
“Where?”
“In your courtyard sir.”
Leonidas wasted no time, he left the barracks and headed for the courtyard. He walked down the streets to see many of the Spartan citizens tense or ready for a fight. Even the mares were angry at first second and third glance. He went up into his courtyard where a crowd of Spartan Warhorses were gathered, he saw Luna among those gathered but she was just trying to get to the well to draw water.
Leonidas stopped in front of a group of ponies most of them wearing hoplite armor and carrying spears, shields and swords. One of them was not armored but armed with a sword. This stallion was the actual messenger and the others were escorts. The messenger quickly bowed politely before handing him a scroll.
“Greetings King Leonidas of Sparta,” The messenger said, “I am Kadmos of Thebes and I am here on behalf of my king. He has demanded your emmediate and unconditional surrender. We have been pressing on against you and so far have only been slowed slightly. I suggest you take it.”
Leonidas looked around at his citizens, to the left many of them nodded, he looked behind him, they nodded to. Finally he looked to his right to see Luna standing there, the stallions around her nodded and she did the same.do it.
Leonidas did not need further convincing, he turned to the messenger and smiled. He reached across and drew his sword, decapitating the messenger in the same motion. The hoplite escort barely registered what happened before they were being hacked to peices by the other Spartans. Short and bloody.
“Thebes has our awnser,” Leonidas said.
He then turned to the Spartans around him, “Thebes believes that it can just conquer us and have no trouble. That means that they will be a lot cockier than normal, giving us the advantage. In two weeks time we march into Thebes, and we will paint their streets red with their blood.”
The crowd of Spartans cheered. Leonidas looked at Luna, who was smiling in approval.
*****
The ship came into the Spartan harbor discreetly. It wasn’t that hard as all the inhabitants seemed to be at the center of the city, and they all seemed to be cheering. Celestia was a little surprised to find that Sparta had no walls for all their military prowess. The eight of them got off the ship and went to the forest outside of Sparta to plan their next move. They went far enough in that their presence would be obscured but not so far as they lost sight of the road. They sat in a circle to develop a plan.
“First things first,” Twilight said, “Scouting. Rainbow, can you fly overhead and look for Princess Luna but also take note of the city’s layout. It would prove useful.”
“Consider it done.” RB said.
“The rest of us can stick to the outskirts of the city and look for Luna there,” Celestia added, “We also need to asses her situation and then work on a rescue plan accordingly. Twilight, you still remember that memory restoration spell right?”
“Yes I do.”
“Good because we will need it.”
“After that we need to get as far from this place as possible. From there we can try to find a way home.” Twilight concluded.
So Rainbow took off into the sky to study to city from above. She looked at the ponies inhabiting the city, they weren’t ponies, they were too big. They looked to be about twice her size from that distance, generally speaking. She did a couple rounds around the city and still there was no sign of Princess Luna. She was about to give up when she saw a blue mare with a waving blue mane and tail. Rainbow flew in closer to make sure, it was Luna. She was drawing water from a well in the middle of a courtyard of stone, off to her left was a lot of blood.