//------------------------------//
// March to the Front 
// Story: The Prince 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

"Apple Bloom?" 

I gently placed a wing on her back, something that garnered absolutely no response. She hadn't stopped staring at the wall since she'd been admitted, as far as the doctors knew. Celestia began working on mending Apple Bloom's legs with the same spell she used on me when Luna broke my spine. Still, Apple Bloom did not budge.

"Apple Bloom, can you hear us?" I said, stroking her back with my wing in what I hoped was a comforting manner. "We have something to tell you about Applejack."

"Go away."

The reply came out as barely a whisper. If the room had much more noise, I wouldn't have heard it at all. Apple Bloom took a deep, shaky breath and nudged my wing off.

"Don't wanna anymore," she said, not raising her voice.

"Apple Bloom, I know this hurts, but we actually have good news." Apple Bloom's ear twitched, and she curled herself up into a ball, now that Celestia had healed her legs. "Applejack is alive, Apple Bloom. She's going to be okay."

For the first time since I came in, Apple Bloom looked over to me. Her eyes went wide, and I saw tears brimming in them.

"Sh-she's not gonna...?"

I smiled at her and shook my head. "She's alive, Apple Bloom. You're not going to lose her. I'm not gonna lie, she's hurt really badly. But she'll recover. I swear it."

Apple Bloom whimpered and tears began streaming down her face. She sobbed once and leaped forward, latching onto my foreleg and weeping. I wrapped a wing around her and gently nuzzled her head.

"Don't wanna lose anypony," Apple Bloom moaned. "Can't lose AJ."

"And you won't," I said. "You and your family and Sweetie Belle and her family and Scootaloo and her family, you're all going to be protected. Nothing will happen to you at all, I swear. You'll want for nothing while you're in our care."

Apple Bloom squeezed my leg harder as I felt the fur becoming wet with her tears. "Just want it to stop."

"I know. We do too," I said, looking up at Celestia. I could see tears in her eyes, too. "We're going to do everything in our power to make sure that the war ends quickly. It's gone on too long as it is."

I let Apple Bloom cry for a little while longer. She needed to let it all out. She needed a time to cry in sorrow and relief in equal measure. I couldn't use magic to erase her memories of seeing Applejack shot, but I could help her through it.

After a few minutes, I quietly cast a sleeping spell on Apple Bloom and tucked her into bed. Her fully healed legs meant that she could go be with Big Mac and Granny Smith once she'd woken up. They were both talking to the doctor about Applejack's condition at the moment.

Which, truth be told, wasn't that great. The doctors had decided to put her in a magical coma so that they could see if the arrow had hit her brain in any way. Plus, her body needed to get over the shock of being shot like that, which would take time. Then, of course, was the matter with her eye. They'd already removed it. The arrow had done too much damage. We already had ponies working on making her a fake one.

I nuzzled Celestia before the two of us walked out of the room, closing the door behind us. We nodded to the doctor who was standing outside, making sure nopony entered while we worked.

"So what now?" I muttered as we made our way out of the hospital. "I know you've said that I have a blank check to make my weapons, but that's going to take time, which I'm not sure we have. That's not counting the fact that we've just started moving troops to the front."

"What have you completed?" Celestia asked, putting a sound spell around us. "Do you have anything usable to take to the front?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I have some napalm. Not enough to wipe out their entire army, but enough to do some serious damage. Given that we already have traitors in our ranks, I don't see how we can start mass-producing stuff like that without the blueprints getting out."

"So we can only fight with what we have currently, is that what you are saying?"

I nod. "It's how it looks right now. I will, of course, be working on it throughout the war, but for right now, we don't have enough to win it in one go."

"But enough to decide a battle?"

I bobbed my head. "Possibly. Depends on the size of the battle. Are the siege weapons ready to go?"

"They are."

"Good. That will give us a distinct leg up."

We exited the hospital and used our combined magic to teleport to my palace. We reappeared in my throne room and, to my extreme annoyance, a few dozen of the southern troops bowed low to me.

Not that they were allowed in here anyway.

"Prince Antares!" Tulip said, smiling widely at me. "It is a delight to see you again. I hope the Elements are well?"

"Well enough," I responded. "Though I have an important job for you."

"Yes, Prince Antares," Tulip said, bowing low. Sheesh.

"No need for that, Tulip. I need you to be quick about this: I need you to find a set of twins known as the Flim/Flam brothers. I have need of them."

Tulip's smile faltered slightly. "But... didn't they hurt your friend Applejack by trying to take over their farm?"

I narrowed my eyes, but spoke with complete calm. "Perhaps I misheard you, Ms. Tulip. That sounded suspiciously like you questioning one of my orders."

Tulip yipped and ran right out of the throne room, babbling apologies that I didn't really care to hear. Hopefully once this stupid war was over the southern soldiers would go home and I'd be through with all of this nonsense about being worshiped to that extreme. They would leave me alone.

The ones that survived, that is.

I sighed and motioned for the southern troops to leave my throne room. They did so without question. My guards shot them smug looks. If I wasn't careful, there'd be major strife between the ponies who had been with me since the beginning, and the ones who worshiped me. To make matters potentially worse, I'd side with my guards every time. Tulip didn't really seem to understand that.

She would.

"Now, to business," I said, turning back to Celestia. "Our troops aren't quite ready to fight yet, but I think--"

The door to my throne room burst open, and Time Keeper ran in, his eyes wild. Gosh darn it, Time Keeper. Knock! Every times you burst in, something bad happens.

"Prince Antares, Princess Celestia!" he cried, sinking into a hasty bow. "They're here! The minotaurs have begun their attack on the western border!"

"You are sure of this?" Celestia said.

"We have confirmation from the Saddle Arabian scouts. There is no end to their army, Prince Antares! We're doomed!"

"Calm down, Time Keeper," I said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Now, are they here yet? How much time do we have?"

"A day or two, if that," Time Keeper said, his eye twitching. "I don't know if we can get our own army in a position to block them!"

"Leave that to me," I said, beckoning Celestia to follow me out of the throne room. "We have to move now. I'll go to our main training camp and oversee preparations there. We'll do everything we can to move out tonight."

"I've sent the trains to move our troops. We might be able to just make it, though that depends on the speed of their attack." Celestia grimaced. "I wish I could be out there with you, but we both know that can't happen. I will try not to dwell on it. I'll go get Luna and send her with you."

"Sounds good," I responded.

The two of us stopped and looked each other in the eyes. Both of us tried to hide our fear but, yeah, that didn't happen. Celestia leaned in for a kiss and nuzzle.

"We will make it through this, Antares," she said, leaning her head against my shoulder. "I have seen much in my long life. Enough to watch maniacs like Purgle rise and fall in more cases than I'd care to admit. He will merely be the next in a long line."

"I hope you're right," I mumbled. "But for now, if he is going to fall, we'll have to help him on his way however we can." A thought struck me, and I tapped my jaw. "I just thought of something: we need to focus more on the griffins. If we can completely take them out of it by installing Kathyrine onto the throne, we'll be in good shape. I don't even care if they join the war. Just so long as we know that we won't have a griffin army marching on our eastern border."

"Shrewd," Celestia replied. "While you and Luna defend our western border, I will do everything that I can to get Kathyrine installed as the next empress of Griffonia."

"Well then, best of luck to you."

"And to you."


*  *  *  *


I stared out into the veritable ocean of tents and a slight grimace creased my face. Until then, the war had seemed like some sort of distant threat. Here, looking at all of the soldiers in front of me, it kind of hit me that this was actually going to happen. Not all of these ponies would survive the war, either. Heck, I might not survive the war. There is no way that they wouldn't use whatever Nightmare Weapons they had. Given that Luna had her immunity to them, we'd do our best to have her neutralize them before they could get to Celestia or I. Cadance could be killed by conventional means, so we'd have to really work on keeping her safe. Not that she couldn't hold her own in a fight, she totally could, but she didn't have the strength that Celestia, Luna, and I did.

My appearance sent a shockwave throughout the training camp. Ponies began running around like ants, trying to make things look good for me. I'd already started sending orders through the camp that it was time to go, and various junior officers had already begun trying to round up their charges. Several senior officers charged toward me and began chatting away at me like some kind of ocean wave. Wonderful. It took me a few minutes to get them to calm down enough to let them know my orders.

Basically those boiled down to "we needed to leave yesterday."

Ponies began strapping on their armor and moving into formation. I could see that many still hadn't gotten the particulars of getting armor on down, so they had to be helped by more experienced soldiers. Officers barked at them for being too slow. Several hundred non-combat ponies ran around packing up tents, which normally the soldiers would do themselves, but we were just running out of time. We'd already moved around thirty thousand troops to the front, which was where Luna had been stationed in case I couldn't get there with the rest of them in time. Still, even between those troops, the zebras, Saddle Arabians and buffalo, we'd be outnumbered ten-to-one if they brought their full might down upon us.

Which they probably would. I needed to get the rest of these ponies to the front, and soon. Luna had means to contact me if they arrived quicker than expected. I still needed to be at the front lines to direct the best use of the napalm. I'd given Luna a crash course on it, but we'd both feel more comfortable if I was the one directing its use.

I wanted to say that I quieted them all down for a few minutes while I gave them some big rallying speech. You know, some William Wallace Braveheart thing that would be used to inspire my soldiers throughout the war. It'd be a nice thing, but we couldn’t do it. It would just be wasting precious time.

After a few hours, issuing orders became routine and I allowed myself to emotionally detach from the situation. A lot of these ponies would be dead before the war was over, even with the weapons we had made. I was stupid in that I didn't focus more on making a ton of napalm. It's not to say that we didn't have a fair amount. We did, but for the size of the minotaur army, what we had amounted to a drop in the bucket. I only hoped that the psychological aspect of seeing fellow soldiers burned alive with sticky fire would be enough to cause some serious problems in their ranks. They wouldn't want to fight an opponent with weapons like that.

I hoped. I really had to cling onto that. I wouldn't be able to tell until we actually entered battle.

My actions almost became mechanical as I watched our army load into trains for the front. Those that could fly were already in the air. I regretted that we didn't have a means of moving more troops faster, but we worked with what we had. We had a circular train track from point A and point B, and that allowed several trains to circle around, picking up and dropping off ponies at much higher speeds than we could normally accomplish with just one or two tracks. All things considered, things went well enough, though it would still probably take a few days before the last of our army made it to the front. That doesn't even count the ponies still in training.

Once I was content that things could run smoothly without me, I flew to the front, giving words of encouragement to the pegasi soldiers I passed. It almost felt like flying among a flock of birds returning from the south at the start of spring. Although these birds wore armor and carried weapons and could talk.

Maybe I should look into weaponizing birds somehow. It wouldn't be the first time it happened in war.

I touched down at the base camp of our army after a flight that lasted a couple of hours. Already the soldiers were setting their tents up or running drills under the command of unit leaders. I flew over to the highest ranking one I could find. Valiant Shield, as a matter of fact, who recently enjoyed a promotion to a captain of the army. Tulip was quite proud of him.

"Captain Valiant," I said, causing him to turn around and salute me as a greeting. "Things are going well here, I hope?"

"As well as they can be, Prince Antares," he replied. "We have scouts reporting in every half hour on the movements of the minotaur army. From the looks of things, they'll be here sometime tomorrow afternoon, if they rest for the night and keep up their pace."

"Anything we can do to buy some time?" I asked. "Anything feasible, that is."

Valiant shrugged and began walking with me in the direction of our main defensive position. "It's hard while they're actually on the move to poison their food supplies and such. We have been doing things like that whenever possible, with a few casualties on our end unfortunately, and not really enough to show for it." Valiant sighed and pulled out the list of high priority targets that we'd given to all officers, complete with the red X through the griffin general we'd already taken out. "We haven't gotten any of these. The griffin general had his own private tent, which made him easy to pick out. The minotaur leaders don't do that, as far as we can see. Any tents they have look exactly the same as the other ones, and that doesn't count the fact that their army is massive."

Valiant's mouth went thin, and his ear flicked. "I've seen the pictures, Prince Antares. Even though I have, I still can't believe just how large their army is. If the front line of the army started here..." He pointed to a spot a few feet in front of us. "Then it would stretch all the way to the horizon and keep going even further. That's on top of the fact that we've spotted a few diamond dogs. We're not quite sure what they're using them for. The siege weapons are ready to go, and we have a decent amount of arrows and such, but even if we used up all of our ammunition and hit something every time, we'd still have a giant army to deal with."

"Well, that's why I brought along some of my human weapons," I replied. "They're used to dealing with things like catapults and arrows. What I'm bringing..." I smirked. "They'll run for the hills once they see what it does."

Valiant shot me a weak, but hopeful smile. "I really hope you're right. If we can make it so that they don't set hoof inside of Equestria, that would be for the best."

"Agreed."

Valiant and I continued to walk in silence for a few moments while I observed the goings on of the Equestrian army. The one prevalent tone that I noticed throughout the camp was one of unease. Not total fear, I think my human weapons gave them hope that I had some trump cards up my sleeve, but all of them realized that any one of them could die tomorrow. Heck, I could die tomorrow if things went completely wrong. Or worse, they'd capture me and use me as a hostage somehow. They could absolutely chop off my horn and wings if they used a Nightmare Weapon. Horns could always grow back. Wings not so much. I inwardly shuddered at the thought.

Granted, if Celestia found out they did something like that to me, she'd go straight to the front, pregnant or not.

We reached the front defensive line, which sat about four miles away from the main camp. We'd chosen it because of the hills that we could set up on that overlooked flat plains. It would literally be an uphill battle for them to overrun our position. We knew they'd come our way, simply because that's where our army was. Purgle thought he could beat anything that we throw at him, so he sent his troops straight at us to prove it. Pride can be such a fun thing to manipulate sometimes.

Of course, that also meant we had a few hundred thousand minotaurs coming with the intent to kill us all.

No one ever said this was going to be easy.

Still, we weren't totally stupid. Luna had taken some troops north, while Cadance took some south, just in cast part of their army split and tried to flank us. There's only so much stupidity we can milk from pride after all, and we couldn't completely rely on it either.

About half a mile out, several groups of ponies worked on another little surprise I had in mind for the attacking minotaurs. Something that would definitely slow them down, provided we completed it in time.

I was just about to go down and check on their progress, when a zebra with messy hair armed with only bladed greaves and a bandoleer holding several containers of potions walked up to me. She shot me a toothy smile and inclined her head in a bow.

"Good afternoon to you, Prince Antares. It is a pleasure to see you here."

"I'm glad to be here," I replied, subtly casting a spell to confirm that I was actually talking to a zebra. "I am also glad that you are here. We need all of the help we can get, and your reputation does precede you."

"Aww, you flatter me, Prince Antares," the zebra said, her grin letting me know that she did, in fact, appreciate the flattery. Well, I meant it. Her and her fellows were coming to fight and die for us. "I see it as my duty. If that rotter Purgle actually did some damage to you and, paradise forbid, you lost the war, there's no way he's not coming after us next. Me and the rest of us are just doing our duty to our country, even if President Mando doesn't believe that."

"Well, I'm sure he has his reasons for not wanting to get involved in a global war," I said with a smirk. "And he has told us that he thinks we'll win."

"I'm sure you will," the zebra said with a nod. "Glory would also be a nice little bonus for helping you out. I've never known a berserker who looked at a big fight and didn't want to join."

"Yes, I know," I said. "I have heard stories about your kind, Ms...?"

"Oh, how silly of me," she said, inclining her head in a bow again. "My name is Grina. I'm the leader of the zebra volunteers. I've been fighting battles for about twenty years now, but me and the rest of them haven't really gotten the opportunity to fight in something like this." A manic grin crossed her face, and I noticed Valiant take an uneasy step backwards. "That jerk really has it coming. We're quite excited, if you must know the truth. When we're not training over here, we're playing poker with those cards you gave out."

Ah, yes, those. That's something else I took from Earth militaries. Basically we'd produced thousands of packs of playing cards with the pictures of the minotaur and griffin leaders we wanted dead on them. We'd been especially diligent in hoofing those out to the cloud snipers we'd trained. Guess the berserkers got their hooves on a few packs.

"Memorized their faces, have you?"

Grina nodded. "Sure have. Cut off the head of the minotaur and the body dies. A leaderless force is a disorganized one, and a disorganized force folds faster than a poker player with a ten high."

"That is the idea," I admitted. "I guess we'll be finding out how well all of our preparations end up working sometime tomorrow then.

"Sure will," Grina said, her grin widening. "And here you are right in the thick of things. I like that about you. It's a weak general who leads from behind. You've gotta get so close to them that you can spit in the eye of the enemy! That's the way to do it!"

"It's an easy way to get killed," Valiant muttered.

"I'm sure the grunts you're sending to the very front line would certainly agree," Grina said with a nod. "Somebody has to be the front. It's a crappy job, sure, but if you're equal parts smart and lucky, I think things will work out."

"Maybe," I replied. "Though there are no certainties in war."

"I know. That's why I like a good fight so much!" Grina said, bouncing up and down, causing a few of the potions on her bandoleer to clack together. I began to wonder if they might break. "One thing I will say, though. Warfare isn't going to ever be the same after tomorrow. Two of the most powerful nations in the world, militarily speaking, are going to hit each other with everything they have, and some of that everything is stuff nobody has ever seen before. It's enough to get the blood pumping, that's for sure!"

"I suppose," I muttered, looking back over to the ponies preparing the battlefield. "I also look forward to seeing what you bring to the table."

"You shouldn't be disappointed," Grina said. "Zebrican berserkers have been doing this kind of thing for thousands of years. We fought Celestia and Luna to a stalemate once. We can handle a bunch of cows with delusions of grandeur."

"I hope so," I said. "However, while this conversation has been interesting, I'm afraid that I must go check on the progress down there."I tilted my head at her. "If you'll excuse me."

"Say no more, Prince Antares, I've got ya. I'm looking forward to seeing how well it works just as much as you are. Should be all kinds of fun. I'll see you on the field tomorrow."

Grina trotted away, allowing me to head on down to each of the sites we'd begun work on. Once the ponies working saw me, many of them saluted or bowed to me, but quickly kept on working. I scanned the sites and decided they needed my help. I turned to Valiant.

"Valiant, if you could please gather another hundred or so ponies to come help us down here, I'd appreciate that." I ignited my horn and picked up a shovel. "We'll need all of the help we can get." Valiant saluted me and ran off, leaving me to get to work with the rest of them.


*  *  *  *


We finished around late evening. The sun hadn't quite set yet, but it would in an hour or two. Celestia was keeping the sun up a little later than usual for this time of year so that we could get more work done, but she needed to set it sometime. We did get it done to my satisfaction, so that was an obvious plus.

Having said that, if I wasn't an alicorn, I'm positive I'd need to go back to my tent and just collapse on the ground. I'd done enough work as a human to know what would leave me sore in the morning. Being an alicorn meant that I could have kept going for a few more days straight. Best that I didn't, though. I wanted my magic to be at full power for the next day.

I walked through the camp where most of the soldiers were eating dinner. Vegetable stew and bread. It reminded me that I felt a little peckish myself. I hadn't really had breakfast or lunch. I found the nearest food line and proceeded to wait my turn. Several soldiers insisted that I take their spot, but I refused. They worked just as hard as I did today. I couldn't be more proud of them.

After about twenty minutes, I collected my bowl of stew and slice of bread and looked for a place to sit down. I looked for any troops that looked especially nervous, and struck gold when I found one. A rather familiar one, actually. I moved up and sat down next to her.

"Hey, Cheers. How's it going?"

Cheerilee yipped and almost dropped the bowl of stew that she'd been picking at but not really eating. I caught it in my magic, allowing her to snap to attention with a salute.

"T-TD, you startled me!" she said, not dropping her salute.

"I hope that basic training hasn't changed you too much, Cheerilee." I motioned to the spot next to me with my head. "Sit down. You're far too tense right now."

"Gee, I wonder why," Cheerilee muttered, taking her seat again as best as she could with her armor. I floated the stew back to her and began working on my own bowl. "I could only die tomorrow. Then who'd help my students?"

"Hey, none of that now," I said, putting my wing on her back. "I can't lie to you and say that this is going to be easy, but I truly believe that you're going to get through this. You'll be back to your students, and this war will be a distant memory."

"I really wish that I could believe that, TD," Cheerilee said, leaning her head on my shoulder. A nearby officer glared at her for it, but stopped when I glared right back at him. "Let's say I do survive: I'll have probably killed some minotaurs to get to that point. I'll have seen friends die. Not just from Ponyville either. I connected with some of the other ponies during basic training, and I don't think we would have gotten through it were it not for the support that we gave each other. Can you honestly tell me that they're all going to survive? Or that you can somehow save everypony you drafted from Ponyville?" She looked up at me and must have seen the look on my face, because she flattened her ears and turned her gaze to the ground. "I'm sorry, TD. I shouldn't be so bleak."

"It's fine," I said quietly, staring into my bowl. "I can see why you'd feel that way." I didn't want to tell her that she was right. Her morale seemed low enough as it was.

But yeah... she was.

My gaze trailed from my stew to the crossbow strapped to Cheerilee's back, and the knives at her side. Combine that with the armor she wore and she just... didn't look like Cheerilee. It didn't help that her mane had been cut considerably to meet military standards for mane length. Not a buzz cut like in the movies, but more of a pixie style. Something that wouldn't interfere with her helmet. But no, she was still Cheerilee. Just Cheerilee with a short mane, armor, weapons and the knowledge of how to use a crossbow and knives to kill other things.

"I'll help you however I can," I said quietly. "They're all going to burn. Each and every inch they move into Equestria, they're going to pay for it with more blood and death than they thought possible from us. I will kill Purgle personally if I can. He's not going to make our fellow ponies afraid ever again once this is over. No one will, I promise you. You won't have to be afraid. They're going to attack, and they'll come to understand why that's the worst thing that they could have done. We'll win this war, I swear."

I looked over at Cheerilee and saw, to my surprise, her shivering. She looked at me in a way that... I dunno. I couldn't really put my hoof on it. I didn't like it. The closest thing that I can connect it to would be the foal abuser I arrested when I first ascended. She didn't seem to be afraid of Purgle. She looked scared of me.

"You've changed a lot, haven't you, TD?" she whispered. She flinches back and holds up a hoof as though I'm going to slap her or something. "N-not that that's bad, of course. Y-you have a nation to rule now, and we're at war. That would change ponies, or humans. You should change. I mean, you're getting stronger and... Purgle's trying to kill us and..." Cheerilee's ear twitched. "I'd follow you anywhere, TD. You know that. All of the ponies here would. I know w-we're going to win. You're right. Things are going to go back to the way they were. Of course you're right. You're a prince. You're right all the time. It's--"

"Cheers, I appreciate it," I say quietly, trying to hide my pain. "We'll be fine tomorrow."

"Of course." Cheerilee says. She sets down her half-eaten bowl of stew and gets to her hooves. "It's getting late, TD. I'd best get back to my tent. I want to be well-rested for tomorrow, right?"

I look up from my own bowl and realize she's right. The sun is going down. Some of the ponies have already started lighting torches and fires.

"Yeah," I reply, setting my own bowl down. "You rest easy, you hear? Things will be fine."

"Okay."

Cheerilee turns around and walks into the crowd of soldiers, and it isn't more than a few moments before I lose sight of her completely. I sigh and pick my bowl of stew back up. If she'll actually get a good night's sleep, I'll be rather shocked. Hopefully she can get a few hours, then let adrenaline do the rest for her. She's kinda lucky. She's an archer, so she just has to point into the crowd of minotaurs and shoot.

I light my own fire and eat in relative silence for a few more minutes. No other soldiers sit down to eat with me, which I'm not really sure how to feel about. I want to be approachable to them, but at the same time, I don't want to scare them like I just did with Cheerilee.

So it makes perfect sense that it's not a pony that takes Cheerilee's place next to me.

"You ponies make some nice stew, I have to admit," Grina says, plopping down next to me. She's still wearing that bandoleer. "You look lonely, though."

"A prince's life is lonely," I reply, echoing a statement Celestia has said a few times and switching the gender. "I'm fairly young, so I'm still more attached to the mortals around me than I probably should be."

"Aw don't think like that," Grina says, taking one of the potions out of her bandoleer and dumping the contents into her stew. "In fact, you surprised me, working alongside your troops like that out there, almost as if you were one of them. Don't think they haven't noticed."

"I suppose."

"Well don't suppose. Realize it." Grina mixed the potion in with the stew for a few moments before taking a bite. She seemed to like the result, because she nodded in approval. "And you're not completely alone. You've got Celestia and Luna, haven't you? And you're about to become a father to boot. That's very crowded loneliness, if you ask me."

"It is, actually," I confirm. “Celestia, Luna and Titus are the exception. Heck, I don't even know if Titus will be immortal or not. I might have to watch my own child wither and die in front of me, just like everypony else except for Celestia and Luna, and that's if nothing completely unexpected happens. I can't begin to imagine what it was like for Celestia to rule for a thousand years without another immortal there with her."

"Maybe you'll find out, maybe you won't. Maybe we're all going to die, maybe we kick some serious plot and end the war tomorrow." Grina took another few sloppy bites of her stew before continuing. "I'm always amused by how serious alicorns can be. Or any race that lives a long time. I'm a berserker. My whole job is to charge straight into battle and kill as many things as I can and hope that somebody doesn't score a lucky hit. We are literally the first zebras that the president calls when he needs something. We try for some tactics, but in the end it boils down to ‘I am going to get close enough to the enemy that I bite their face off if I must.’"

I turn to her and raise an eyebrow. "And have you ever bitten someone's face off in battle?"

"Sure. You do what you have to do to win." She must have noticed my look of discomfort, because she shot me a smile. Not a particularly happy or friendly one, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. "The average life expectancy of a berserker during a time of conflict is pretty short. As such, we don't tend to play the long game like you alicorns do. We could get shot in the face with a crossbow bolt tomorrow protecting somezebra. We could get in a one-on-one with some nasty diamond dog and both end up dead. It's happened hundreds of times, and it'll happen plenty more even once I'm long gone. Why would I worry about tomorrow when I've got today to worry about?"

Grina slurped up the rest of her stew and tossed the empty bowl aside. It landed a little too close to the fire, so I used my magic to pull it back. Grina looked at the bowl for a few seconds, almost studying it, before starting the conversation up again.

"However, even though we focus on the now, we are still aware that one tiny little event or action could have serious consequences if we're not careful. Even if those consequences aren't readily apparent in your lifetime."

"I'm guessing you have some example in mind."

She smirked at that. "Sure do. It's one all zebras know from a young age." She glanced over to me. "You hear about the hats?"

I frowned in thought, but nothing about her statement really clicked. "No. I don't think so."

"Well, you've got pony things to deal with, I guess, so you wouldn't have focused as much on silly things zebras did long before your great-great grandparents were born." She paused for a moment. "That is what you call them, right?" I nod, allowing her to continue. "Good. I wasn't totally sure. I can never tell what human stuff matches with our culture. Anyway, the hats." She slid a water bottle out of a side pouch and takes a long pull from it.

"So there were these two zebra nobles, you see. This would have been a few hundred years after Celestia banished Luna. They didn't like each other much. Didn't really speak to each other. They always wore the most outlandish hats that they could. It used to be tradition for zebra nobles to wear hats. Didn't really matter what kind, just so long as you wore one. Now, both of these zebras were very important in the court of our king back then, so while they didn't talk to each other much, they did see each other a lot. I guess one of them must have gotten it in his head that a bigger hat meant more prestige. Just some way to make himself look better."

"So I take it he showed up to court one day with a bigger hat."

"He did. He did at that. Very expensive thing. Must have set him back a little bit. The other noble saw what he was up to and came to court the next week with an even bigger, more expensive looking hat. It kind of went on like that for a little bit, until the other nobles started doing it too, because it amused the king. It got to the point where the bigger and more outlandish and expensive your hat was, the more prestige you had. Some nobles even suffered neck pain from some of this absolutely bonkers hats that they'd wear."

She took another swig of water and shot me a knowing grin. "The ambassador to Zebrica at the time even got into it, if only to fit in and command a little respect. He picked this odd pointy hat with bells on it."

"Starswirl the Bearded?"

"Yes, yes, that's the one!" Grina said with a nod. "Starswirl. I think he knew how dumb it all was, but until his dying day, he wore that hat. I read something of his once about it, and he said he kept the hat to remind himself that even if something seems important, that doesn't mean it can't be absolutely ridiculous and a waste of time." Grina shrugged and screwed the cap back on her canteen. "I personally think that, for all of his talents, he just liked putting bells on his clothes."

"Could be either one," I agreed.

"Right. But even he left before things got wickedly out of control. See, the nobility was spending all of this money on hats. I'm sure many of them privately thought it was stupid, but when in Canterlot..." Grina waved a hoof. "It didn't really matter in the end. The big problem came when the hats getting more ridiculous eventually coincided with a rather nasty depression. Zebra nobles kept spending more money on these hats, while at the same time, commoners were barely getting enough to eat. It made for a rather angry populace." Grina shifted onto her back and propped herself up on her elbows. "A being will put up with a lot. They have to. All bets are off the table when they can't feed their families. That's when things get really bad. It led to a giant revolution in the end. Very bloody. At the end of it, well... we don't have a noble class anymore, and we have a president instead of a king." A wry smile crossed Grina's face. "And you know the funniest part? The two nobles who started the whole darned thing had been dead for a hundred years by that point."

I didn't respond right away. I merely stared into the fire and chewed over her story. It sounded ridiculous, but then again, a lot of stuff does in hindsight. Knowing Canterlot's nobility, I wouldn't put something like that past beings with more money than sense.

"The reason I bring that up is this," Grina began, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Beings with influence will always create a bigger ripple than they think they do. Tiny actions that they don't really think twice about could have consequences lasting centuries. You went out there today and worked in the dirt right alongside your soldiers like it was the most natural thing in the world. You may think that the only thing it came out to in the end is that you all got the project finished. You'd be wrong.

"I've been listening to the troops around here. Even the ones who weren't out there today. They can't stop talking about it. They noticed that their prince is getting right in the middle of things instead of holing up in a warm tent a mile from the field. They noticed that you stood in line with them instead of having a servant bring you something. They noticed that you're eating the same things they are instead of importing something better from Canterlot. They noticed that you're eating with them."

I raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked around the fire. It was just the two of us. Grina rolled her eyes. "What, you think that just because they noticed that you're eating among them means that they're completely comfortable just casually strolling up to a literal god and chowing down on stew with him? You've got a ways to go before that happens." Grina stood up and put the stew bowl on her back. "But you've started going down that path. That'll change the war, I think. Your soldiers trust you more now. They'll fight harder for a prince that they believe will fight just as hard for them. That path will lead to several others, many of which you won't realize are there." Grina's confident grin returned. "But, that's for you alicorns to think about. I'm not going to stay up late pondering that kind of thing. I'm gonna sharpen my weapons and go to bed. Then I'm going to wake up and think about the minotaurs I'm gonna kill!"

Before I could respond, she trotted away, leaving me alone next to the fire.


*  *  *  *


I awoke early the next morning to a sunbeam peeking through my tent. I briefly wondered if Celestia had something to do with that before realizing that no, probably not. I yawned and got to my hooves. I could already hear the sounds of ponies moving around outside. I'd need to ask for a report on how close the minotaurs were. Hours away, if the initial reports were correct. We'd need to work fast to get into position, but I figured we could make it work.

I turned away from my tent flap and to a stand in my tent. The one that held my armor.

Gah, my armor.

I sighed and walked up to it, igniting my horn and taking the helmet off of the stand. Most of the armor was made of lightweight steel lined with mithril. It reminded me of the full plate armor that medieval knights wore. It had been tailored to me specifically and hit with as many enchantments as possible. Comfort spells, protection spells, spells that ensured that nopony but me could put it on, healing spells... basically with the cost of this armor, I could have been able to buy my hometown. The worst part was that we still didn't know how well this armor would hold up against a Nightmare Weapon. Would the magic in the weapon nullify the magic in the armor? I didn't know. I hoped not. The armor had taken a full eight months to make. The armor itself had been painted red with a black scorpion on the breastplate. I guess as some kind of intimidation thing.

Well, no sense wasting the day. I didn't like the idea, but Celestia would kill me if I went into battle without it. Plus, I do have to admit that the armor itself was comfortable and not restrictive. I began strapping it on.

In terms of weapons, the armor had wing blades that came with it. We'd worked at getting them so sharp that, combined with the sheer power that alicorn wings have behind them in the first place, I could probably cut an unarmored minotaur in half with little effort. They weren't my main weapon, though. Merely my backup weapon. No, my main weapon got a little more creative than that.

When Celestia asked me what kind of weapon I felt most comfortable wielding, I didn't have to think twice. Most ponies opted for swords. I did not. My main weapon comprised of a rather large war hammer, actually. The best part, though? It wasn't a typical war hammer. No, the actual hammer part was a mix of steel and diamond, which we'd fused to the staff I'd gotten at the Gala, Reginald. So, if by some means the actual hammer part was destroyed, I'd still have a pretty fearsome weapon to fight with. Plus the memories that had carved themselves into Reginald made for a pretty awesome looking weapon, if I do say so myself. One hit with that would destroy the target. Of course, I also had a short sword at my side just in case I needed it. So between that, my hammer, my wing blades and my magic, I felt that I'd be fine.

I finished strapping my armor on and exited my tent to thunderous applause and cheering from my soldiers. They chanted my name and began following me as I made my way to the front. Officers began molding the mass of soldiers into something that looked like an organized fighting force, ordering the troops to go where they had been assigned. I took to the air, my armor doing little to actually restrict my flight, and raised my war hammer above my head, triggering deafening shouts from the troops below me. I flew ahead of them to lead the march to the front.

The minotaurs would arrive soon. For the first time, I felt like we might actually be ready to meet them on the field.