//------------------------------//
// The Deep Breath Before the Plunge 
// Story: The Prince 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

A knocking on the door of Celestia's room brought me out of my deep sleep. Celestia groaned and tightened her hold on my foreleg. I agree. I didn't want to get up any more than she did. We could be rather... passionate with each other when we were in the mood, and our wedding was the happiest day for both of us. The "after party" Celestia and I had once everypony went back to their rooms left us rather worn, alicorn stamina or no.

Still, I'm a prince of Equestria. The day after my wedding or not, I had duties and responsibilities, and with everything that had happened...

I gently slid my foreleg out of Celestia's grasp and made my way to the door, running a brush down my coat a few times just so I could look semi-presentable, even though I was pretty sure I knew who this was. I used my magic to open the door, revealing Raining Skies on the other side. We stared at each other for a moment, neither of us saying anything. I merely tilted my head slightly, which she responded to by nodding once. I returned it and leaned down, allowing her to whisper in my ear for a few moments. Once she finished, I thanked her and closed the door.

Whew. Okay. That's one big thing out of the way. Ten billion more to go.

"Who was that?" Celestia groaned from the bed.

"Raining Skies," I replied, checking the wards around Celestia's room. I highly doubted that anyone could break them, but it didn't hurt to be cautious. "Kathyrine is the new empress of Griffonia."

Celestia shot up out of bed, her eyes wide. "It worked?"

"Yes, it seems so."

Celestia let out a sigh. "I suppose that is good. How do you think she'll do?"

I shrugged with my wings. "I dunno. We haven't heard much from Iselin except for the fact that Kathyrine seems to have taken over." I grimaced. "It, uh, it appears she had the wingless and headless bodies of Cromwell and the dukes strung up outside of her palace."

"I see," Celestia muttered. "And what of the families of the dukes? I know the dukes had young children, so what has become of them? Has she taken them as wards or exiled them from the country?"

I hesitated. On one hoof, this was the day after our wedding, and I didn't want to talk about this kind of thing, especially not since Celestia was so far along, and triggering any extreme alicorn emotions could have an impact on the foal. On the other, she needed to know, and would find out with or without my help. I guess it was best she heard it from me. That way I could keep her calm.

Not that it would really help all that much. Celestia has always had a soft spot for the young.

"Uh..." I managed to look my wife in the eye before continuing. "No. She, uh... she killed them all."

Celestia gasped and put her hooves over her mouth. "N-no." She slowly stood up. "Antares, that sounds nothing like Kathyrine. We discussed taking out the dukes and Cromwell, but Byck had a child only four months old!"

"Yeah, he did. Now there's no one who can revive the rest of the major clans. Kathyrine has complete control of the country, or will very soon. Besides, it's her country now, and you know what their society can be like. She's not nearly the first empress to take control by spilling blood, and I doubt she'll be the last."

"It just does not sound like Kathyrine," Celestia said quietly. "I saw her interact with Ara and Veritas. I knew her from the time she was a hatchling. She never wanted to be empress in the first place, now she has murdered children to get onto the throne?"

"Yeah, she has. She has and there's nothing we can do to bring them back. There's nothing we can do about it now. She did what she felt she had to, and now hopefully she can take Griffonia into a better direction." I cast my glance downward. "Hopefully."

"Antares..." I heard Celestia's hoofsteps approaching, and flinched when she put her hoof on my shoulder. "Did you know she would do this?"

I paused for a moment. Again, this really wasn't what I wanted to be talking about the night after our wedding. Still though, I knew she wouldn't let up, and we needed to discuss this at some point.

"I never supported it," I managed to finally say. "But let's just say I'm not surprised it happened."

"Antares--"

"Celestia, she's not our subject!" I growled, snapping my head up to look her in the eye. "She's the empress of her own country, a country that is not under the control of Equestria! It happened, it's beyond tragic, I would have stopped it if she would if I could, but those are the choices she made, and we cannot play policepony and punish her for it by walking into her country and demanding she step down or apologize. All we can do is find out what she's up to now, and how it affects us. She's going to end the war with us very soon, and we can react to her actions." I smiled sadly at Celestia and draped a wing over her back. "It happened. It's terrible that it happened, and we’ll not let it go unanswered. But we're not the rulers of Griffonia, and we're not at war with Griffonia. We're the prince and princess of Equestria, and we're at war with the minotaurs. That needs to be our focus. We can discuss Kathyrine at another date. Right now, we have ponies to keep safe."

Celestia stayed silent for a few moments, chewing over my words. I could tell from her breathing that she was trying to center herself; make sure that she didn't get overly upset, despite her sorrow.

"You are right," she said after a minute. "The war is coming to an end. We need to finish it. We are not finished discussing Kathyrine's actions, however. I cannot in good faith ally myself with someone willing to slaughter children to gain power."

"I..." I sighed and lowered my head. "No. I can't either. I feel it's partly my fault. I should have offered to take them in. That way we could protect them from whatever happened. I just don't know how we could have done that and still kept Kathyrine's attack a secret." I shook my head. "There's nothing we can do about it now. They're dead, and we can't bring them back."

I nudged Celestia in the direction of her door with promises of breakfast. The two of us did need to eat, after all. We'd be more centered and have a clearer idea of what to do afterward. Celestia was right: the war was almost over. One or two more moves by us should end it, but they needed to be smart. We had the means to end the war with minimal loss of pony life, but we needed to pick our moves carefully.

I opened the door to Celestia's room, finding Duckworth on the other side. Her mane was in its usual bun, and a clipboard floated lazily beside her. She bowed to Celestia and I.

"Princess Celestia, Prince Antares, I have your schedules for the day." She slid two pieces of paper out of the clipboard and floated them over to us. I took the paper in my magic and gave it a quick scan. Mostly the usual, save for a three o'clock meeting with President Mando and Sultan Mesud. That promised to be all kinds of interesting, especially now that the war was almost over and we were all primed to come out on top.

"Thank you, Duckworth. Is there anything else?" Celestia said.

"Not at the moment, Your Majesty, no. You have some paperwork that you need to look over in your office, but otherwise you have a normal day."

"Very good. I shall see you at court in an hour's time."

"Yes, Your Highness," Duckworth replied, bowing low to the two of us again before walking away. Celestia and I watched her go, neither of us really sure of what to say. For my part, I merely thought over what I was going to say during the meeting with Mando and Mesud later that day.

"So, food?" I said after a minute.

"Yes. Food sounds lovely."


*  *  *  *


I roared and tore apart the message, throwing the pieces against the wall of my tent and getting even more frustrated when the paper uselessly fluttered to the floor.

"How can this be possible?!" I shouted, slamming my fist down on the table in front of me so hard it left a crack in the wood. "How can that useless, juvenile bitch be on the griffin throne?!"

"W-well, she did have the support of the Equestrians, as the letter said," my squire said weakly. "Perhaps that--"

"Enough!" I growled and began pacing. "This is a mere temporary setback. We won the last battle without them, and we'll win the rest of them without their help, too! I think it's time that we move out again!"

"King Purgle, I also regret to inform you that Clan Charint left this morning. That... that was ten thousand soldiers they took with them."

"I just... I..." I took a deep breath and collapsed onto my throne. That was the third one this week, bringing the total to nine. With this betrayal, my original army had been reduced by half. Whatever. It was still enough to beat the Equestrians!

"And what of Marller?" I muttered.

"He's doing far better. The wounds have already largely healed up, and he's been moving around." The squire grimaced. "He hasn't been saying much, though."

"Let me know when he's decided to stop feeling sorry for himself. He needs to get off of his tail and start talking to his contacts in Equestria again. We can still win this war. We just need to use a bit more strategy to do it." I walked over to one of the tables in my tent and stared down at the napalm canisters we had captured. So far they seemed pretty simple. Pull the pin and throw it. We needed to figure out a good way to get distance once we threw it, though. The pegasi could simply drop them, but I didn't know of any minotaur who could throw napalm far enough to be out of the blast range when it went off. We could try catapults, but we still might not be able to make them go far enough before they went off, and that was including the fact that it would be rather difficult to move the catapults into position anyway.

In short, I needed some good news.

"Is there anything else?" I asked, turning back to my squire. "And scrap of good news you can give me?"

"Uh... well, your clan is still behind you. That's a lot of minotaurs."

"Outside of the few here and there that have deserted," I grumbled. "At least we--"

Another squire burst into my tent, his eyes wide. Something was terribly wrong, and I didn't really want to hear any more bad news today. I sighed and shook my head.

"What now?"

"King Purgle, the most terrible thing has happened!" the squire cried.

"A significant change from the past few days, then. What is it?"

"It's Marller, King Purgle, he's gone!"

"Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"He left the camp! No one has seen him in hours! What's more is that the guards who were with him haven't been seen either! I suspect they helped him leave."

"I see." I turned my back to the squires. "Get out. Get out now."

The two squires muttered my name and probably bowed to me before leaving my tent. Who cares about them?

It just didn't make any sense. Marller was my greatest asset! He was the last minotaur I trusted to be completely loyal to me, and now even he had betrayed me? He would die for this unspeakable act of evil. I'd make sure of that.

I sat back down on my throne and took my sword off of my belt. I promised myself that I'd use this to kill Antares. It was one of the two Nightmare Weapons we had left. There had to be a way to replicate them. If Luna could make one while mad, certainly somepony out there could figure out the process. Maybe even tweak them so that Luna could be killed by one. Maybe, just maybe, the alicorns could win the war. It was a possibility. I needed to make preparations in case that happened. I stood up and went behind my throne, collecting the Nightmare Weapon stashed behind it.

Yes, that could work.

I exited my tent and went over to the tent of one of my most trusted lieutenants. This was a risk, but one that needed to be taken. The lieutenant was sitting by a fire and cooking his lunch when I approached. He instantly shot to his hooves and bowed to me.

"King Purgle. How may I be of service?"

"At ease, lieutenant. I have a job for you."

"Of course, King Purgle. What do you need?"

"I need you to take this Nightmare Weapon," I replied, offering it to him.

"Am I to take the field with it?" the lieutenant responded, taking it with an eager look in his eyes.

"No. This one will not see the field during this war. Here's what I need you to do..."


*  *  *  *


"President Mando, Sultan Mesud, it is an honor to have you here. I hope your journeys were uneventful?"

"As well as one could hope," President Mando, a middle-aged zebra in a sharp business suit, said. "I hope things are going well with you and Celestia. I've heard that she'll start foaling any day now."

"Possibly. We're still not totally sure how alicorns do during pregnancy. This is new territory for all of us."

"And that brings us nicely to why we are all here," Sultan Mesud said, smiling at me. "We must discuss what is to happen to the new minotaur nation now that we are about to win the war."

"Yeah, about that..." I turned to Mando with a frown. "You officially declared neutrality, didn't you? I am not sure why you feel you belong in these proceedings, if you don't mind my saying so."

Mando shrugged. "I don't mind you saying so, but I will point out that a hundred of my valuable berserkers fought and died for your people. Berserkers are not a common soldier in my country, Prince Antares. They take a long time to train. This war halved our berserker population, and I want reparations for that."

"I suppose I can kind of see where you're coming from," I admitted. "So long as you remember that it was the minotaurs who killed your people."

"The minotaurs yes, but they were here fighting your war." Mando gave me a comforting smile and raised a hoof to forestall any further comments from me for the moment. "Do not worry. I am not going to demand land or money from you. You are right: the minotaurs were the aggressors in this war. We merely demand part of what you are going to take from them. Their country is on our borders, after all."

"Whatever reparations might be given are slightly more complicated for us," Mesud chimed in. "Minotauria is not on our borders, so we cannot take some of their land without great expense to ourselves. The only city we would really want is Schunie, and even if we had it, it would take a lot of money to establish a trade route between that city and my country; a trade route that would either have to go through dangerous lands, or your country, Antares. Both are risky and expensive options."

"Okay, so what do you want?" I asked. "You both called this meeting, so you both obviously have ideas for what you want in return."

"We do," Mesud replied with a nod. "We would like the opportunity to study the new weapons you have created."

I shot to my hooves. "Now wait a minute--"

"I think that is hardly the most unreasonable request, Prince Antares," Mando said calmly. "You alicorns are already powerful enough without bringing weapons of mass destruction into play. It is in the best interest of our respective countries that we are given a fair shot to create these weapons. It is merely a defensive measure, Antares. We aren't even saying that we'd use them on you. We would like to use them for the same reason you have: to end any potential conflicts quickly."

"The griffins have been at war on and off with my people for as long as we can remember," Mesud pointed out. "And the same is true of the zebras and minotaurs. Before you brought them onto the field, we didn't know such weapons were even a possibility. Now we do, and we'd like to have them."

"Look, I never wanted them to become common weapons," I insisted. "I just wanted to end the war as quickly as I knew how."

"That is your own foolishness, then," Mesud said. "If you did not wish for such weapons to be known about, you should not have introduced them into the world."

"We are not completely unreasonable about this," Mando said. "We would be willing to give up much of the spoils from this war as repayment, which is a generous offer on our parts, given what we've sacrificed for you already."

"We already generally know what your flamethrowers and napalm does. We believe with time we can create them on our own, with or without your help," Mesud said. "We are not saying that you would use them on us now, of course, but what of in the future? We are not ruled by immortal beings, Prince Antares. The leadership in our countries is constantly changing. What if at some point one of our countries are ruled by a warmongering madman? It has happened before, for both of us. What if you felt you had to go to war with that madman? Hundreds of thousands of Saddle Arabian citizens who would likely want little to do with the war would die."

"Oh yeah, and if that hypothetical warmongering leader had those weapons, what could he do with them?" I retorted. "This argument of 'we only have them in case you want to use yours against us' is something that has happened on my world, and with weapons far more destructive than the ones I've presented. It doesn't lead anywhere good!"

"If that is the case, then why did you create these weapons in the first place?" Mando pointed out. "You say you know where this trail leads, so then why did you begin walking down that path? You talk about these destructive weapons in your world. Tell me: were those weapons created and used to end a war quickly?"

My breath died in my throat. "It's not... I don't... We weren't..."

"I think we have our answer, then," Mando said sadly.

"Look, we can talk about this," I said lamely. "We can destroy all of them, even the blueprints!"

"And just make them again a hundred years later when you feel you need to?" Mesud questioned. "I'm sorry, but that's not quite good enough."

"Again, the alternative is you give us a larger share of whatever you take from the minotaurs, then we still figure out how to make these weapons anyway."

"I..." I sighed and shook my head. "Okay, I get your points. I'm going to be talking to Celestia and Luna about this before I make any commitments."

Mando shrugged. "That is reasonable, we suppose. You are all the rulers of Equestria. It wouldn't be fair to them if you were the only one who made such a large decision."

"Agreed." I nodded to each of my guests in turn. "If there is nothing else..."

"Nothing as of yet. We will know more of what to discuss once the war is actually over," Mesud said as he and Mando stood up.

"I only wish to add that we will be contributing five thousand troops to the final fights, including the rest of the berserkers," Mando said. "Just to make the war that much easier for you."

You mean so that you can justify getting spoils from the war.

"I thank you for your support," I said, tilting my head to him. "Until then, you are all welcome to stay in my palace as long as you need. Feel free to make use of my private dining room before you go. Merely contact my consigliere Time Keeper should you require anything."

"You are most kind in extending your hospitality, Prince Antares," Mesud replied, bowing to me.

"It's my pleasure. If you'll excuse me."

"Of course."

"Thank you." I turned and left my conference room, allowing Time Keeper in to see what he what he could do for my guests.

No, this couldn't happen. I couldn't let my human weapons become commonplace. I could destroy the blueprints. Maybe erase my memory of how to make them. I could do that, right?

But they were right. What of when we needed to fight another Purgle at some point in the future, and he had those weapons? We couldn't fight a war if we were at a severe technological disadvantage.

Either way, I needed to talk to my wife about all of this.


*  *  *  *


I landed in Canterlot a few hours later. I could have made the journey quicker, but I needed some time to myself to think about what I needed to do. Mesud and Mando were right: they could probably create my weapons given enough time and resources. Knowing what I know about their economies and scientists, they could do it. They had the capacity. Heck even Kathyrine could probably make some if she had the mind to.

In short, we had a problem; a problem that was largely my fault.

I made my way to Celestia's throne room, largely ignoring the ponies I passed. They couldn't do anything to help me now. I didn't even think Celestia could. We needed a way to completely erase all memory of my human weapons from the world, something we probably couldn't do. I'd let the genie out of the bottle, and there was no way to get it back in.

Celestia's guards led me into her throne room, where she was doing some paperwork with Duckworth. Celestia looked up and smiled when she saw me come in. I tried to return it, but I just wasn't in the mood. Celestia, perceptive as always, picked up on that and frowned. She got up off of her throne and made her way over to me.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I just got done with my meeting with Mando and Mesud. It... didn't go as well as I had hoped."

"Oh? Why? Did they demand unreasonable reparations from the war?"

"We might see it that way, but they wouldn't." I sighed and leaned my head on Celestia's shoulder. "They want the blueprints to my human weapons. They said they can probably reproduce them with or without our help, but if we don't give it to them, they'll ask for more and more from the minotaurs. That could really hurt them."

"Regardless, we can't merely give Mesud and Mando our weapons. What if they were used against us down the line?"

"And that's their argument, too," I grumbled. "Sure we're allies now, but what about a hundred years from now? They don't want to be at that much of a technological disadvantage, especially given that they don't have alicorns ruling their nations."

"I understand their concern, but I think merely giving them the weapons would be most unwise. Surely we can think of some other solution."

"They won't accept us just destroying the weapons and the blueprints," I pointed out. "They said we could still make them just in time for the next conflict. Besides, let's say we can totally erase all memory and means of production. What then? I believe them when they say they can make the weapons for themselves. Then they could use them on us and we'd be starting from square one." I growled and began pacing around the room. "This isn't right. It wasn't supposed to go like this!"

Celestia tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I know how this went in my world! I saw what happened when countries created more and more destructive weapons as 'preventative measures.' Hey, they have them, so to protect ourselves, we'll have them too! Oh, and just in case that's not enough, let's create something more destructive to counteract that so we could win any fight quickly! Then it just keeps going from there." I wheeled around to face Celestia. "Let's say that both of us have the weapons. I'd have to try to create more destructive human weapons to get the advantage! Then they'd do the same thing, then I'd continue upping the ante until I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'd learned nothing from the mistakes of my ancestors!

"I was supposed to be better than this! I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could introduce a few of the weapons to the world, then hide them away, never to be used again unless we really, really needed to." I scoffed and shook my head. "I was an idiot. I'm just as stupid as my ancestors."

"Perhaps, but..." Celestia paused, likely thinking of some possible retort for my feelings. Something that could make it all better and let me know that I hadn't completely screwed up the world. I guess she didn't think of anything, because she didn't say anything beyond that.

"Face it, Celestia: I messed up. I messed up and a lot of innocent beings are probably going to die because of that."

"You wanted to end the war quickly, and you have," Celestia pointed out.

"Yeah, I created a big problem by trying for a quick solution. The day will come when a pony is killed with a bullet, and it will be my fault. I don't want to see that day, but I'll have to. I'll have to see that day and know that it was my fault."

"Antares, do not be so hard on yourself. Even the best of us cannot truly see what the future holds."

"Yeah, I guess not. Except I already knew where this path would lead, and I took it anyway. I've seen how this goes. We can't stop it now."

"And we will react when that time comes," Celestia said, putting her wing on my back to calm me down. "I cannot say that we ultimately made the right choice. I share some of the blame, too. In my rage at seeing my student and her friend attacked, I allowed you to create whatever you needed to. You are not the only one to blame for this. Purgle himself bears much of the responsibility. If he hadn't brought war upon us, we would not have created those weapons."

"Yeah, and if he hadn't done it, I would have created those weapons when the next tyrant popped up."

"And what should you have done, then? Purgle's forces would have killed our subjects in far greater numbers if you had not brought those weapons onto the field. Now they are divided and demoralized," Celestia said.

"Yeah, so that's a good thing they've done for this war. What about the next one when all sides have them? I've seen what these weapons do when used on a large scale. The next world war is going to be unlike anything we've ever seen before, and I'm the one who made it all possible."

"Perhaps you are right," Celestia admitted. "Perhaps in solving one problem, we have created a dozen more. I'm afraid there is nothing that can be done about it at the moment. Perhaps you are wrong and no one else can create these weapons. If that is the case, we will destroy what we have and never use them again."

"Or try to," I grumbled. "It's like they said: what about the next big war?"

"We cannot play the 'what if' game now, Antares. Once peace is upon us, we can begin preparing for what to do in the event that Mesud and Mando create the weapons we have brought to this world."

"You mean the weapons that I brought--"

"That we brought upon the world," Celestia said somewhat forcefully. "I know it is difficult for ponies like us sometimes, but we must focus on the here and now for the moment. As I said: once Purgle is defeated, we can--" Celestia's eyes narrowed, and she let out a quiet grunt. She brought her hoof to her stomach and groaned.

"What? What is it?" I asked, my eyes going wide. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so. I think little Titus is..." Celestia gasped in pain and slowly sat down. "He or she is--" Celestia let out a pained gasp once more.

"M-maybe I'd better go get the doctor," I said, making my way to the door.

"No need, Prince Antares. I can do it," Duckworth said, moving past me and out the door.

Right, she was there. She's too good at blending into the background. I guess that comes from being as quiet as she is.

"Just hold on, Celestia, it's going to be okay," I said, sitting next to my wife and holding her hoof. "You just need to... um... okay, yeah, your water totally just broke. This foal is coming now."

"Help me up so that I can--"

"No, you're staying right where you are until the doctor gets here," I said, gently pushing Celestia back down. "If you move you could do something bad. I don't know what. Just something bad."

Celestia chuckled and nuzzled my neck. "You are no doctor, Antares."

"No, I'm not," I agreed. "Still, better safe than sorry."

"You could--" Celestia gasped when she felt a contraction. "Fine, then. I guess little Titus wants us to stay here."

"Best listen to him or her," I said, kissing Celestia on the cheek. "He or she knows what she's doing."

"If so, then Titus would be the first of us," Celestia joked as the door to her throne room opened and her doctor ran in.

"What's going on?" Dr. Scalpel cried, running up to Celestia. "Is the foal coming?"

"Yes, doctor, it seems so," Celestia said.

"Okay. Okay. That's sooner than I thought." Dr. Scalpel wiped his brow and opened up his medical bag before turning to Duckworth. "Ms. Duckworth, if you could summon as many nurses to this room as you can, I would appreciate that. I don't want to risk moving her."

"What should I do?" I asked.

"Summon some pillows, or something. She needs to be lying down for this." I complied and Celestia laid back down on the pillows, taking my hoof and squeezing it. "Okay, your majesty, I hate to be asking this, I really do, but I need you to spread your legs. No no, hind legs, Princess Celestia, and I know you know what I meant. Don't make this worse for me than it already is. Thank you."

It didn't take too long from there for the real pain to start. I put a sound spell around the throne room while nurses ran in to help Celestia. She tightened her grip on my hoof as Dr. Scalpel ordered her to start pushing. Celestia screamed in pain, which was odd to hear, but even through the pained screams, I could see her joyful smile. Both of us had taken untold thousands of lives away through the years, but here we were about to finally bring some life into it.

She was still squeezing my hoof hard enough that I began to wonder if she was going to crack it.

"Alright, Your Majesty, just one more push ought to do it! I can see the head!" Dr. Scalpel had one nurse wipe sweat from his brow while I did the same for Celestia. "Just one more..."

With a final pained cry, Celestia gave one final big push. The sound of crying filled the air, but it wasn't from Celestia. The cries unmistakably came from that of a foal. Celestia collapsed back down on the pillows, breathing heavily from the hours long ordeal of labor. I gently removed my hoof from hers. I doubted it would ever work right again the way she had squeezed it.

"Well, doctor? What's the diagnosis?"

Dr. Scalpel gave me a beaming smile, and I could see tears of joy in his eyes. "Prince Antares, Princess Celestia... it's a filly." He held a small filly in his forelegs, and wrapped her in a clean blanked to hoof over to me while muttering something that sounded like "Dr. Syringe owes me ten bits now."

A filly. I had a daughter.

I reached out and gently took little Titus from Dr. Scalpel. Celestia groaned in pain, but managed to raise herself up again to look at our daughter.

"How is she?" Celestia whispered.

"She's... she's beautiful," I whispered back. Titus had stopped crying when I picked her up. I guess Celestia was right: she knew her daddy. I gently lowered Titus so that Celestia could see our child for the first time.

She had dark red fur and a mess of dark blue hair on her head. A small horn poked out from her mane, and I saw her wings before Dr. Scalpel wrapped her in the blanket.

"An alicorn filly," I said quietly while Celestia shakily put a hoof on our daughter's head. "She's amazing."

"I've been waiting for this moment my entire life," Celestia said, tears dripping down her face. "I never thought it would come to be. I always accepted that I would never be allowed to experience this key part of being a mare. And now--"

"Yeah, although I'm not sure that Titus is an acceptable name for her now," I pointed out. "A little masculine, don't you think?"

"Yes, that might be correct. I know we discussed the name Nymeria if she was a filly."

I smiled and nuzzled my wife. "Yeah, I like that. Nymeria."

Nymeria yawned and nuzzled into the blanket. Her yawn allowed me to see the fangs in her mouth. The same fangs as Ara and Veritas. I frowned and gently moved the blanket aside to see her tail. She had a regular pony tail. The movement caused her to open her eyes, and I saw the slitted pupils found in scorpiponies and bat ponies. Seems like she'd gotten a mix between regular pony and scorpion.

I smiled at my daughter. She stared back at me as if she was just drinking in the sights of the world. "Hello, Nymeria," I whispered. "I'm your dad."

"May I hold her?" Celestia asked. I nodded and gently extended my forelegs so Celestia could hold Nymeria.

"Of course. You did most of the work here."

"I cannot argue with that," Celestia said, taking Nymeria out of my forelegs and cradling her to her chest. "Hello, little one." Nymeria nuzzled contentedly against Celestia's chest fur.

And that was it. That's what did it for me. That's when it hit me that I was really a father now. The sight of my wife and child snuggling with each other awoke a need to protect my family. Purgle wanted to stop this. He wanted to kill my wife and child, and that I could not allow to happen. I would burn the entire minotaur race to extinction before I let anyone hurt my family. Purgle needed to die, and soon.

It was time to end this war once and for all.