No Way
Every single eye in the field was on our dear old friend Aepnet, and he knew it. Being outed as the "mastermind" behind the sacking of the two border towns in front of three goddesses of pony kind, a fourth princess, four guard captains, and the army of one of said goddesses that just took out a griffin raider army without so much as a scratch? Bus. Ted.
So, what do I think of all of this? That this Aepnet moron was behind all of it just to figure out what kind of ruler I was going to be? Hoo boy, you'd better believe that I was not happy. If my glare had physical power behind it, it would have begun leveling mountains. Aepnet was in for it now, and I don't think that he had any illusions about that.
Our dear chicken-y ruler audibly gulped and alternated his glances between the four of us princesses, and I can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that the rest of them were just as mad as I was. "Er... i-it's a lie." Aepnet whispered. "Sinosis is simply lying to you to lessen his own punishment, I swear it."
"Really?!" I stomped towards Aepnet and flared out my wings. "Well, that's easily cleared up, then! I'll just send Lieutenant Rapids to the fort to collect every single scrap of paper that Sinosis wrote on, and if none of them are from you then I'll know he's lying."
"I hid them!" I turned my head to see Sinosis crawling towards me, but Lieutenant Rapids put a wing blade to his neck and he froze. He sat back down on the ground, but looked me directly in the eye. "I hid them in a place where you'll never find them! Set me free and I'll show you where!"
I smirked at him and shook my head. "Don't think so, buddy. You've plea bargained enough. If the documents you've described are there, my army will tear down the fort log by log looking for them. We'll find them."
"You will not do such a thing in Griffonian territory!" Aepnet snarled. I turned back to face him and he now, in a frankly ballsy move, had his wings spread. "You already moved your army into my country once, Antares! You will not do it again!"
"Oh? Won't we?"
Yeesh. The pure venom behind Celestia's voice freaked me out a little bit inside, so Aepnet stood no chance against it. His wings drooped and one of his eyes twitched, but he could not bring himself to turn and face her. I couldn't really blame him, as mad as I was. The looks of pure fury that Celestia and Luna both were giving him would have struck him dead on the spot if they had such powers. Heck, maybe they did and just weren't willing to do such a thing. Either way, Aepnet could have no illusions about how bad this had gotten for him.
"You hired a group of slavers to capture a hundred of my subjects for the sole purpose of figuring out what kind of ruler Princess Antares really is?" Celestia took a few steps towards Aepnet. They couldn't be heard, even though nobody else was making any noise at all. "That. Is. An act of war, Aepnet."
Aepnet let out a small squeak and I saw his pupils shrink down to pinpricks. Even Kathyrine's normally smug smile was completely gone, and she had taken a few steps away from her father. I think she thinks he's about to be incinerated and doesn't want any of her feathers singed off in the blast.
Well Aepnet did finally manage to speak again after a few seconds of flapping his beak up and down like a fish out of water. He managed to fold his wings back at his side and scoot away from Celestia. I think he thought that he'd be safer around an angry me than an angry Celestia.
"I-it's a lie, I assure you," he said quietly. "Celestia, I assure you that I had no more to do with it than you did. Sinosis acted of his own accord independent of my wishes."
"I pray for your sake that he did," Luna growled, coming up on Aepnet's other side. Kathyrine flinched when she saw Luna approach and ran towards me of all ponies, hiding behind me while Celestia and Luna stared down Aepnet. I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't want to be even indirectly in Aepnet's position either, and I think she thought that she might be in some trouble as his daughter. "If that is true, then you have no reason to fear a small team led by Princess Antares and Lieutenant Rapids going into the fortress to search for any such documents. You may even have griffins of your own close by! Refusal gives support to the fact that you had something to do with it!"
"I will not allow it, I say!" Aepnet snarled. "Let us just be done with this! I will take the raiders back to Griffonia to stand trial by our laws and we will both go our separate ways on the matter!"
"A claim such as his cannot go unheeded, Aepnet, no matter how uncomfortable you are with having Equestrian soldiers within your borders." Celestia walked up beside Aepnet, really highlighting their height differences. He was a good five or so inches shorter than she, and it would take all of three seconds for Celestia to leave him as a scorch mark on the ground. "We will be investigating the matter quite thoroughly, and we will find out the truth of it. Should it be discovered that you were behind it, there will be severe consequences."
Aepnet fluttered his wings again and took a step forwards away from Celestia, but still did not make eye contact with her. "You wouldn't want to go to war, Celestia. Your ponies don't know war! It would break a four hundred year old treaty between our nations! W-we have weapons that can hurt alicorns!"
"Oh Dad, just shut up and give them whatever they want," Kathyrine muttered, but it was really far too late for that. Aepnet had already crossed a big line with Celestia and Luna. Even Cadance was starting to back away from the three of them.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME?!" Celestia screeched, the power of the Royal Canterlot Voice nearly blowing off some of Aepnet's feathers. Said turkey king yelped and sat on the ground, covering his head with his arms. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A MANNER, AEPNET! I AM CELESTIA, THE WRATH OF THE SUN, AND I WILL NOT BE THREATENED BY THE LIKES OF YOU!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Aepnet squeaked. He flared out one of his wings as if to use it as a shield against Celestia and covered his head with the other. "Y-you can look in the fort for the documents! I don't want to go to war with you; just leave me be!"
Wow, if he hadn't more than likely brought this on himself I'd almost feel sorry for the guy. I know I'd feel bad if he was innocent, but if there really were documents in the fort incriminating him in the whole thing, then he brought the whole thing down upon his own head and deserves no sympathy. Besides, it's true what Luna said: if no such letters exist then he has nothing to fear from letting us search the fort for an hour or two. Not allowing us to at least take a cursory glance around the fort, and taking the raiders for himself when by all rights they're ours to deal with? Looks mighty suspicious to me, and I knew that Celestia and Luna agreed.
Well, now that Aepnet was willing to do whatever we wanted him to do, he folded his wings and raised his head, still not willing to make eye contact with any of us princesses, but not cowering either. Celestia too had calmed down, and her own wings were folded at her side once more. She had moved in front of Aepnet and was staring down at him, unmoving.
"Here is what will happen. Princess Antares will take a hoof picked token force of her guard to the fortress of Sinosis and she will search it top-to-bottom. Any evidence that you had anything to do with what happened today will not be ignored."
Aepnet gasped for breath and quickly nodded his head. "Y-yes, Princess Celestia. I will not interfere."
"Good." Celestia turned to me and nodded to Lieutenant Rapids. "You may take whomever you desire to search for any documents linking Aepnet to this. Let me know if you find anything."
I inclined my head in a small bow and beckoned Lieutenant Rapids to me. She saluted and beckoned two guards to follow her while I instructed Captain Blaze on how to handle the griffin prisoners. We took two more guards and were about to go off to the fort when I saw somebody coming up to me out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw Kathyrine coming up to me with two griffin knights. Lieutenant Rapids glared at her and fluttered her wing blades, but I signaled for her to stand down.
"Something up?" I asked when Kathyrine was close enough.
"Yeah, I'm coming with you." Kathyrine motioned to the forest. "I don't trust whatever's out there, and I want to make sure that this gets handled right. I know my dad won't get it done correctly, so I want to make sure that it does."
I raised my eyebrow and glanced over at Lieutenant Rapids who shrugged. I tilted my head in a return shrug and looked back at Kathyrine. "Okay, so you want the job to get done correctly, huh? What does that mean for you exactly? How do I know you're not going to try to find the evidence first then smudge it or destroy it?"
"How do I know that you're not just going to go plant something?!" Kathyrine retorted. "You could be out to ruin my dad's name in front of both of our nations!"
"If you'll pardon me for saying so, he's already done that by cowering in front of Celestia and not cooperating," I responded flatly. "Still..." I shrugged. "I know that I'm not going out to sabotage him in any way, so you can come along if you'd like." Kathyrine nodded and began walking, but I held out a hoof and stopped her. "But you have to call me the second you see something. We're out here to find something on your dad. If it's there and I find out that you've destroyed it, you're as guilty as he is, understand?"
Kathyrine scowled at me, but nodded. "Yeah. Whatever. Let's just get this over with, okay?"
I nodded, and the group began walking into the forest. Given that there were only nine of us instead of a few hundred, the going was a lot faster, especially since we were in a hurry to get back to the fort. Both of us wanted to be done with this as soon as possible. After a few minutes of silence, I glanced over at Kathyrine and smirked at her. "You know I don't want it to be your dad any more than you do, right?"
Kathyrine turned her head to me, her eyebrow raised. "Oh yeah? Why's that?"
I scoffed quietly and nodded. "Yeah. Put yourself in my position: you've only been a literal goddess for a little while, and a situation arises where some of your subjects are kidnapped by slavers, and you have to go get them. Would you like the situation to be that some dumb slaver just got bold and in over his head, or a foreign ruler who is putting you through a test, and how he interacts with you depends on how you do?"
Kathyrine bobbled her head in an affirming nod. "I can see that." She gave a scoff of her own. "I thought I was going to have to find out about that myself for a moment. I thought your dear Princess Celestia was going to obliterate my dad, making me... uh..." Kathyrine stopped in her tracks and put one of her claws on her head. She took several deep breaths and leaned her head against a nearby tree. "Uh... hold on a minute."
I frowned and motioned for my soldiers to stop. They obeyed, allowing me to walk up to Kathyrine. "You okay?"
Kathyrine waved my words away and gave a single nod. "Yeah. Yeah now I am. It's just kinda hitting me how close I came to becoming empress of all Griffonia, that's all." She took another deep breath and put her claw down to look up at me. "You're new, so you might not know, but the second the old emperor dies, the griffin next in line is the new ruler. No formal ceremony, no meetings, the heir is the new griffin automatically. It's a dynasty preservation law that my grandfather or great-grandfather, or somegriffin like that, thought up. So the moment my dad became a scorch mark on the ground, I'm the new empress of Griffonia, and let me tell you something, Antares... heh... I do not want that right now. I did not wake up this morning expecting to be an empress starting up a war by sundown."
I flinched back and flattened my ears as the implications of that for both of our countries hit me. Heck, the whole planet might have been affected by that one. The griffin emperor killed on Equestrian soil after he possibly ordered the kidnapping of a hundred ponies, and his heir, the now empress, is right there? Ouch. I'd have really picked the perfect time to ascend there. I thanked my lucky stars that Celestia was a little more level-headed than that. Still, not to disrespect a favorite Earth comedian of mine, but my guardian angel must be an alcoholic.
Seeing that Kathyrine was still a little shaken up by seeing Celestia like that, I gave her a comforting smile and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Look, if it helps, she was never going to. One, she's not that stupid politically, and two, she values life too much. You're talking with a guy who punched her three times, the third time resulting in a full-on brawl between the two of us, and she never thought about it. I doubt she was going to ever hurt your father. Besides, we don't have proof yet."
"Yeah." Kathyrine took another deep breath and ran a claw through her head feathers. "Yeah, I guess. Let's just get to the fort and get this settled once and for..." Kathyrine's worried expression faded, and was replaced with a vaguely confused one. "Wait, did you say 'guy?' You're a princess, right?"
I paused for a moment while I figured what she was getting at. When it clicked, I grimaced and began walking back towards the fort, my guard falling in behind me. Kathyrine took wing to catch up to me, and when I glanced at her I could see the beginnings of what I could assume was her trademark smirk on her face. "Yeah, you're a girl, right? Unless Equestria is an even more backwards country than I surmised and 'princess' is a gender neutral term."
I growled quietly and shot Kathyrine a glare. "I was male before I ascended. I was blasted by the Elements of Harmony after helping write some new magic in my human form, human being the species that I was before ascending to a pony goddess of untold power."
To see the sparkle in Kathyrine's eyes, one would have thought that I just told her that I was erasing everything that had happened today. Her face split into a wide grin, and she flew into the air to hover on her back so she could look at me while flying. "So... you were a male human, or whatever you were called, and now you got blasted by pretty jewelry and you're a girl pony now?"
"Yes, and I would thank you not to--"
"Oh this is too rich!" she crowed. "I mean, I've had some pretty boy nobles try to hit on me, so I know how much you guys like your shlongs." Kathyrine cackled and rubbed her claws together. "Oh boy, that must hurt."
It occurs to me that I haven't been trying hard enough to get my gender back. I'll have to focus on that when I have some free time, though I really don't have a lot. Having said that, I'm glad that Kathyrine didn't know Rocky Horror Picture Show, otherwise she'd probably start singing that at the top of her lungs. Having said that, when I look at her, I can still see a little bit of tension in her stance, as much as she's trying to hide it. Maybe her laughter is less about me specifically and more about everything that's happened today. I know when I'm stressed I tend to--
"Princess Antares, I see smoke!"
I was snapped out of my thoughts by Lieutenant Rapid's call, and I looked into the sky where I saw her pointing. Sure enough, a plume of black smoke was bellowing from the distance, and it didn't take a genius to figure out where it was coming from specifically. I gasped and spread my wings. "Come on! We've got to move!"
The rest of the group needed no second prompting. They kicked into overdrive to make it to the fortress before everything we could be looking for was destroyed. Heck, worst case scenario the fire spread and got out of control, burning the whole darned forest down. That wouldn't be very good.
With our increased speed we reached our destination after another five minutes. To my horror, my fears about the source of the smoke was confirmed.
The fort was on fire.
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Really good chapter. I did find a typo though.
Mas should be mad.
Can't wait for the next chapter! Keep up the good work!
Weeeell, crap... this is going to get tricky...
To burn evidence? Classy move.
Aebnet think on 2 steps forward. Smart bird.
The fort
the fort
the fort was on fi-re.
We don't need no water... wait, fuck.
A-nngry li-itle gry-yphon,
SEND 'EM TO THE MOON.
Did nobody think to leave a couple guards behind to make sure the fort wasn't tampered with or to search it already?
Unless he buried it in the woods, the slaver is the only one who could testify, but his words aren't sufficient. Well shit.
Well, if they find any proof that he is guilty it seems like he is... wait for it... wait for it... TOAST!!!
.......
SHUT UP IT WAS FUNNY!
3805761 For what reason? They got all the hostages out, and that's what they were there for. What other reason would they have to search anything?
3805766
Because whole place is area of international crime. Ofcourse it should be bordered and placed on guard 24/7.
Wouldn't one think that as an alicorn one can restore burned paper?
Just asking.
3805769 I suppose, but remember, TD is new at this. He doesn't think about that. To him he goes "hostages are out, we can leave the fort." Why doesn't he think deeper? Because he's a dishwasher and window washer who was not trained to deal with this. I'm sure next time anything like this happens, yes, he'll think ahead a little more, but for his first time out all he cared about was the hostages.
3805776 That would depend on how burned it was. If it's a pile of ash made up of ten different scrolls, probably not, but maybe somebody could do something with slightly singed.
3805780
And that is why any armed forces always have military criminologysts in their regiments. And commanding centers have legal departments for investigations and other legal matters. I wonder, why none of guards didnt tell TD anything on that matter. Im sure, there is always some military advisors with legal anв criminological knowledge near TD (*wink*). She is princess after all, its standart to have some.
3805809
Speaking Russian, are we?
Yes it was a mistake on TD's part, but they've been at peace with Griffonia for 400 years. Nobody saw this coming, especially when they got Sinosis' whole army.
3805840
There is no peace, even in candy land. Always armed bands of diamond dogs , wild dragons, rampaging minotaurs, changelings, crazy alicrons and agressive fauna. After all if you want peace - be ready for war.
Im more than confident that pony armed forces have experience in dealing with such case.
Even if there was peace with Griffin Kingdom. There is always confrontations with other races.
3805840
And dont tell me that Celly do not have spys in Griffon court. She sure should see that coming.
3805766 You asked for it.
Why searching the fort? Securing things like maps, routes, or plans of upcoming raids, who they were going to sell the ponies off to, potential accomplices, looking for any potential holdouts, even raiding it for stuff to take back since they technically conquered the fort. It's reasonable to believe they would have their stuff hidden or locked away somewhere it wouldn't be found.
They should have raided and searched the fort, overturned it even. It was an oversight on everyone's part.
Now that I'm done with that, the situation at the end has me even more curious because it seemed incredibly fishy that I think TD would also pick up on immediately. This took only a second to figure out.
Who was the one to set the fort on fire? (Time to get Sherlock Holmes up in here on you.
)
Assuming if I read this correctly, it was late at night when the fort was captured and it's morning or early morning when they meet Aepnet roughly a half mile away from the fort.
There was neither a triggering or time delay device that set off the fire. It wasn't an explosive that set it off or they would have heard it. If the slavers were taken by surprise, they would have potentially caused an accident in a store room that spilled over a candle or lantern. The Snarkasta guards would have long extinguished their torches by the time the prisoners were freed. Unless it was a large fort with plenty of spaces for something to start, that wouldn't be possible with smoke and fire being easily detected. Since no explosives was used, a torch (potentially the ones used by the Snarkasta guards or slavers) or a spell (unlikely because gryphons) would have had to be used in order set the fire.
There's a lot of unknowns and the answers may be impossible to search for, even though some clues could be found among the rubble.
Sinosis was going to use the files as a bargaining chip in the event that he would get caught, which he did. Torching the fort would mean his bargaining chip is destroyed and he's likely going to be sentenced to death now, so it likely wasn't him or his cronies. He wouldn't be so stupid as to set fire to the place holding his one chance at escaping.
Now, neither the pony guards, prisoners, or slavers would be stupid enough as to torch the fort by accident or on purpose. Why would they at all? They would try to tamp down the fire immediately.
The only one that benefits this at all is Aepnet, and for so easily getting caught in front of all 4 alicorn princesses, his daughter, and Sinosis outing him as the Mastermind, he's stupid as fucking shit and doesn't have much foresight past his beak. (And yes, I read Wanderings. He's a scheming little shit through and through, but he's too much of a dumbass to have survived at all.) He didn't know about the evidence being collected by the slaver, or if he suspected, he would have sent out a stealth group to torch the fort just in case. He's incredibly stupid, but someone in his chain of command would be smart enough to predict this and keep the line of Power secure. That and potentially going after the slavers friends\family in case they had documents to the crown as well would raise even more suspicion. Aepnet is clearly guilty as shit for Obstruction Of Justice, the only thing they can charge him with.
If it wasn't a spell, explosive, or accident, it could only mean one thing... There are Gryphon Kingdom soldiers who snuck to the fort, potentially used the torches again, and quickly started the flames before going back into the trees. It also means there are smarter and more powerful foes behind Aepnet who still want him alive for some reason. The best explanation is someone knew that if any evidence was found, it would immediately mean WAR after 400 years of peace against the most powerful nation on the planet. There's only one course of action TD can take now.
HALF OF YOU! PUT OUT THE FIRE! THE REST OF YOU! SEARCH THE WOODS! FIND ANY GRIFFONS, BREAK THEIR WINGS, AND BRING THEM BACK HERE! THE GUILTY PARTY WILL BE TRIED HARD FOR DESTROYING EVIDENCE!
It's incredibly dangerous to deal with the Gryphon Empire, not because of Aepnet, but someone wanted him alive and had the mind to carry it out.
I may be over analyzing quite a bit, but you can see how much this fic has peaked my interest.
3805780 And that is why he failed at the 2nd most crucial part of this. You always have to think ahead, it's never truly over.
At first, I thought it might have been a power struggle to keep Aepnet alive, but not so now that Tulip has brought up the 400 years of peace. I think somebody within the Gryphon empire just saved their entire nation from going to war against the most powerful nation on the planet with the wrath and might of some of the most power beings in existence. Many MORE lives were saved by burning that fort, than finding any evidence.
This would also mean that Aepnet is now on an assassination hit list now for doing something so recklessly stupid as to endanger their entire civilization. He's going to be dead soon, anyway.
At least that will be a comfort to TD that it was (not) as good that he didn't find any evidence .
3805896 Yes, I have an answer as to who set the fort on fire. No, it wasn't Sinosis. That would be stupid because as you point out, those documents are his bargaining chip. If you've read Wanderings as you say you might have an idea.
Also, do you think they didn't search the fort at all for those reasons? Of course they did. They would have had to. I more meant, why would they look for hidden documents between the emperor and this slaver when they had no reason to know they existed, documents that Sinosis would have taken great pains to have hidden exceptionally well. If they didn't find it because they didn't know to look for it, they wouldn't have continued looking for something they didn't know existed.
The whole point of this is that TD is making mistakes. You want to know why? Because he's a dishwasher/elementary school teacher who is now an immortal goddess who rules ponykind. He's not going to be anywhere near perfect the first time out, which, if you recall, that's what this is. This is his first international affair period. He's stumbling, he's making mistakes, he's overlooking things. Why? Because he's new at this. Will he make such mistakes in the future? Most certainly not, because now he know what to look for and what to do. You know, character growth.
3805849 You're preaching to the wrong dude. I, as the author who has put TD through a crapton of dangers and is nowhere near done, knows all of this. TD is a dishwasher who has never been right in the middle of political stuff where it's his job to solve it, and doesn't. Be honest, if I had him get everything right away, that would be unrealistic. I've got to have him make mistakes, otherwise he's not going to learn or improve. You think he's going to remember stuff like this for next time? Heck yes. Why? Because he's felt the sting of making that mistake and he's going to find out that it cost him. You know, character building stuff. He was focused on the hostages and the prisoners, not that Aepnet would burn the fort down the second he thought he wasn't looking.
On top of that, he had an army's worth of POWs to transport, and limited solders to do it with. He has to have men to 1. make sure no POWs escape, which is going to take up most of them. 2. make sure that the hostages are okay, help out with wounded, young, elderly, etc. 3. any miscellaneous thing he might need more troops for such as scouting, messengers, etc.. That doesn't leave a ton of soldiers for fort guarding duty, especially when you consider the fact that no help will be able to come in time should the fort actually be attacked with that few soldiers guarding it, and TD can't stay behind to guard it. He has to help lead everything.
Long story short, TD prioritized, found that fort guarding was low on his list, and found it was a mistake. A smart move would have been to leave a token force, then maybe send reinforcements once they were out of the forest.
Well shit
I very hope so.
I see you have necessary perspective, but its not shown in the story. This is why questions appeared.
I still wonder why TD do not have any advisors. Ceretainly there wont be any critical mistakes if he had another mind working on it.
Wow aepnet is an idiot
In the alpha timeline he tries to force TD into marrying his daughter... In THIS variation... He risks International peace to test the new goddess on the block...
Someone needs to lock him up
Wait, they didn't even give the griffins a heads-up that they were going to rescue pony civilians in griffin territory?
They sent a fucking army.
That's a true act of war.
3806017
Mistakes always happen, advisers would give him additional ideas but they are still fallible. If you have an adviser that makes decisions on your behalf, then he's not an adviser. So in the end it's still up to TD's judgement, which was just explained. I'll admit, however, that there's much less to argue about if his thought process actually appeared...
...but I didn't personally really consider it and the story flows naturally as it is.
Mistakes happen. As someone else has already said, though, burning the fort was kind of a dumb move on Aepnet's part. He's already refused to cooperate, even after being explicitly informed that it only made him more suspicious. Therefor, burning down the fort immediately afterward before any investigation can occur... They know someone doesn't want anything found out in the investigation, and that that someone doesn't want the truth to come out. Aepnet has the most to lose.
...the slaver guy didn't mention any names, though. If it wasn't Aepnet who ordered the raid, then it would hardly be a bad mood on this mystery individual to further incriminate him. We know Aepnet is a jerk, to say the least, but we don't know that he's responsible. His refusal to cooperate is suspicious, but not enough by itself to mark him as the culprit.
On another note: I would have had the slaver join the search team. 'Show us the way to the documents, if they're real then we can reduce your sentence and, depending on the investigation, let you off.' Or something like that. He can refuse, but he has more to gain from helping, really. In my opinion a refusal to help would, in fact, lend credence that there's nothing to find.
Well, I know who most likely lit the whole blasted thing on fire. As BronyWriter said, it's pretty easy if you've read Wanderings (or in my case, edited).
If you're clueless, reread the Gryphon chapters. Naturally, they're the only relevant ones to this.
3805896 Or, stepping away from namby-pamby land where everything is sugar and gumdrops, they damned their whole country by making it blindingly obvious that there was something being kept secret. If they wanted less bloodshed, they could let the griffon emperor stand trial and get imprisoned/executed. The guy made an act of war in the first place by kidnapping 100 or so ponies from their land just to see what kind of macho the new princess has. Ending his rule is the most painless way to handle things.
You don't destroy something before people search it if you don't have anything to hide. Furthermore, if you DO have something to hide, and you destroy something as large as a fortress that few people know about, it makes it blindingly obvious that you've got something to hide.
Don't think you need the am
Not sure if the semicolon is needed. A period works fine.
I think the sentence would work better if it was past tense. "Having said that, I'm glad that Kathyrine didn't know Rocky Horror Picture Show, otherwise she would probably start singing that at the top of her lungs". That's just me.
I do like Kathyrine. I wonder, are we going to see her in Life of a Non-Brony? She seems like someone TD would hang out with on an everyday basis.
3806466
i.imgur.com/41TUmIK.jpg
3806671 That's not from the Gryphon chapters of Wanderings. Try again.
3806683
Really? That chapter (20) sure seemed like it was full of Gryphons.
First off: Celestia can be scary. Holy shit man.
Second: Kathyrine is a character I enjoy reading. Kind of like another TD. (Who, in case you haven't guessed, is the reason I'm here)
Third: Aepnet is so screwed. And I'm okay with that idiot getting torched like the fort did.
Good chapter is good.
*logs onto fimfiction.net and notices a story has been updated*
*clicks on button to view updated story*
*sees 'TD the Alicorn Princess' in the update list*
"no way"
*i scroll down to go read the chapter*
*sees the chapter name and laughs at the irony*
If it turns out that Aepnet had something to do with that fire, I am going to rip a hole in the fabric of space and time, jump into this Fanfic, and then I will punch him.
The ponies are retarded in this chapter. Shit is about to get all kinds of real now. This is not good at all. It is awesome though.
Hmmm.
3806855
I want to know who downvoted this delightful comment so that I may complain loudly at them.
Mhh, the question is, do they really have weapons that can hurt alicorns? I mean, we know from the fight between TD and Celestia that they can get hurt by physical damage. If the Griffins know how to make gunpowder and high-quality steel, I could imagine them having something like a cannon.
CRAP JUST GOT REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL
3805762 Made me laugh...
Oh my god, the griffin king better not get away with this that asshole!!! D:<
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Eh, technically, it's a true statement. A broom could hurt an alicorn when you start swinging it at their head... not that it'll do any real damage before they take it from you and ram it somewhere the sun don't shine. But to try a weak threat like that? That's far more stupid than brave and he keeps digging his own grave deeper with every word.
Celestia is not going to smite him in a blaze of firey death. She values life way too much for that. More likely there'll be a new statue in the Royal Garden, the "those that annoy the princess" section.
"Wait, you though someone carved all those statues you see?"
3806327 no cause the princess's needed proof, the fort burning is getting rid of said proof so nothing will happen. I'm looking forward to the next chapter though!
After reading I just got a crazy hypothesis come to my head.
What if the fire was accidental?
Think about it. Some careless bandit put a scroll too close to a candle, and once the candle had burned long enough the flame would be low enough to ignite the scoll. This would cause a delayed reaction much like this.
Never make fun of a person losing their genitals. Ever. Kathyrine you just fucked up big time on my list. And you were so good in Wanderings...
3810643 Take another look at the description in that scene. Kathyrine still has some tension behind her when she's doing that. She's not doing it to make for of TD and be a jerk specifically for kicks, she's doing it to relieve the tension she felt. She probably wouldn't have laughed if she hadn't just gone through such a big scare. It's not to excuse it, per se, but she wasn't doing it just to be a jerk.
3810651 I guess that's okay... kinda. I would still murder-stare the shit outta her though. i1.ytimg.com/vi/K5pZlBgXBu0/hqdefault.jpg
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I said that because it makes them look even more guilty. I, too, am looking forward to seeing how this part ends.
Because of the whole 'keeping the peace' thing I was wondering for a moment there that if TD did find something he would hide it, claim there was nothing when he got back to Celestia only to give it over to her later in private.
However I'm not sure if TD would be that politically astute.