Game of Thrones
I admit it, I did not spring into action right away. I saw that the fort was on fire and I did not call my snarcasti-guards into action to put it out.
Sigh.
I froze.
No pun intended.
I stared in utter shock, my mouth hanging open at the blaze of wood before me. All of the evidence against Aepnet is burning in that blaze, and I'm just standing here, watching it go.
But only for a moment.
I closed my mouth and spread my wings, pointing to the fort. "Rapids, take Winters and Cyclone to the sky. Gather as many rainclouds as you can to put out the blaze!" Rapids saluted and the three pegasi took flight. "The rest of you: I want unicorn squadron A to control the blaze while unicorn squadron B keeps the building from collapsing!" I ignited my horn and opened the door to the fort, where the blaze had not yet reached. "Let's move!"
I'd like to say that it's a testament to how well I train them, but if we're being honest, almost all of what they know comes from the military ponies that the other three princesses lent me, so I can't really take credit for how fast the guard snapped into gear. By the time Lieutenant Rapids and the two privates came down with a gigantic storm cloud, the fire was already mostly contained, and I could tell that the fort would not suffer much structural damage at all. In fact, buy some new boards for a few areas and it would be ready for action once more. It seems that we arrived just in time to prevent any real damage, then. Whomever had set the fire must be close by if it was so small by the time we arrived that we had no trouble subduing it.
I shot a beam of magic out of my horn that called the attention of everypony to me. I raised one hoof to hold it. "Okay, I want the forest searched for whoever did this. The fire was relatively small, so it was set recently. Lieutenant Rapids, go back to the main group and get everypony that can be spared to help us. Aepnet won't give you trouble now."
Rapids smirked and saluted. "You never know, Princess Antares. Given his track record, he could have forgotten that he's in big trouble right now."
Unfortunately that pissed off Kathyrine who let out a snarl and took wing, spreading her full wingspan in front of Lieutenant Rapids. "That's my dad you're talking about, featherbrain!" She pointed a claw towards Rapids in a threatening manner. "Back off!"
Rather than do so, Lieutenant Rapids snorted and crossed her forelegs. "Yes, because that's going to cancel out the fact that we're all here. In case you didn't notice, princess..." Rapids cast a sideways glance my way. "Er... not you, Princess Antares. This one." She looked back at Kathyrine. "Your dear ol' dad is the reason we're all here. If he wasn't such a 'brilliant political mastermind' I wouldn't have to say those things about him."
"Oh yeah?! Where are these papers?" Kathyrine snarled. "We haven't found any yet! If there are no papers then Dad is innocent!"
"Yes, yes, and we'll all feel really awkward when that happens," Rapids said with a wave of her hoof. "For now we--"
"Enough! Both of you!" I snapped, flaring out my wings. "Lieutenant Rapids, I gave you an order that did not involve being snarcastic to Princess Kathyrine! Would you please go back to the main force and gather reinforcements, please and thank you?!"
Lieutenant Rapids continued locking eyes with Kathyrine, seemingly unfazed by the latter's glare. After a few seconds she saluted me and flew off. I rolled my eyes and shook my head before looking over to Kathyrine. "Sorry about her. She... well, that's just kind of something that my guard does. It's called the snarcasti-guard, after all."
Kathyrine gave an irritated scoff and waved a talon. "Fine. Whatever. Let's just find what we came here for so that we can exonerate my dad, okay?"
I gave her a single nod and motioned to my guard. "Okay, I want you all to spread out in groups of no less than four and search the entire compound for any trace of these letters that this Sinosis freak told us are here. Any trouble arises signal us at once."
I glanced over at Kathyrine who was glaring at the retreating form of my lieutenant, but she needed to get over it right now if we were going to get this done. I beckoned her and began walking towards Sinosis' quarters where the documents would most likely be. I also had a unicorn guard named Tracer Arrow follow us, on top of Kathyrine's griffins.
We walked into the quarters and Tracer Arrow took point. She levitated a piece of parchment over to her and scanned it with her bright orange aura. "Okay, now I figure that Princess Antares knows this, but to save some time, I'm going to be using my special tracing talents to see if there are any hidden compartments in this room." She put the parchment down but did not extinguish her horn. "Basically I scan an object and my magic directs me towards any similar objects nearby. If I can sense that there is parchment in the walls or under the ground we'll likely have our letters."
"If they're even here," Kathyrine grumbled.
Tracer Arrow shrugged. "If they're not I'll find that out too."
"What if there's some protective spell over any hidden compartments?!" Kathyrine snapped. "You could be completely wasting our times!"
Tracer Arrow snorted and a hint of a smug smile appeared on her lips. "Yeah, because I'd be a really good object tracker if all it took to block me was a simple protective spell." Tracer Arrow chuckled lightly and pointed her horn at the desk to scan it. "I'm pretty high level. It'd take a spell akin to one of the princesses or even Princess Celestia's student to cast one strong enough to block..." Tracer Arrow's smug smile faded, and it was replaced by a subtle frown. She sat down in front of the desk and knocked on the side. "Huh. Interesting."
I frowned and walked up to her. "What? Is there a problem?"
"Maybe." Tracer Arrow narrowed her eyes and licked her lips with the tip of her tongue. "It's just that I think I found what we're looking for, but I can't be sure. Inside this desk is a large stack of parchment that seems to be of some import, else it wouldn't be hidden, but therein lies the rub. It's not hidden very well, and it's the closest thing to hidden that any parchment is in this room. I specifically set my magic to trace parchment with writing on it, so it's not just a stack of spare writing paper." Tracer Arrow tapped her lower jaw thoughtfully. "Hmm. My only hesitation in breaking open this desk is that it seems... well, too easy. These documents could very well be the most important ones in Griffonia right now, and I'd wager that our dear friend Sinosis is aware of that fact. Somegriffin of his means could have hidden them a touch better, don't you think? Even a hole in the ground is better than this."
Now that she put it like that, this was a troublesome idea. I'd hate to find the documents only to have them destroyed and my guards possibly injured by some trap behind them. Having said that, Sinosis did see these as his insurance. If these were ruined by some trap he laid then all of his words about Aepnet are hearsay.
Sigh. As rude as Lieutenant Rapids had been in her conversation with Kathyrine about her father, I was in full agreement of her perspective on the matter. I'd rather be in court giving foals money for school plays or raising teacher pay. This, to me, is just stupid. Still, we have to get this done sooner rather than later. I ignited my horn and scanned for any magic. "I can't feel anything. It just seems like all it's protected by is some wood."
Tracer Arrow nodded and tapped the side of the desk again. "Yeah. It's too easy. It's almost like--"
"Oh for goodness sakes, you're taking all day with it!" Before I could do anything, Kathyrine shoved Tracer Arrow aside, balled her talons into a fist, and slammed it into the desk hard enough to leave a gaping hole where the letters were. Tracer Arrow squeaked and flinched back, covering her head with her forelegs as if expecting some kind of explosion, but... nothing happened.
No explosion, no cloud of poisonous gas, just... nothing.
Kathyrine snorted and began pulling the papers out of the desk. "You ponies are a bunch of weirdoes. Seriously, if there's no magic that you can detect then just go right in."
Kathyrine's barbs stung me a little, but I decided that it wasn't worth it to get into some big argument about it. I shook my head and ignited my horn, levitating the papers away from Kathyrine and towards me. Kathyrine was adverse to the idea and let out a loud roar and swiped at the papers, but I held them away from her.
"Give those to me, Antares!" Kathyrine stood up and spread her wings. "Those are not yours! How do I know this isn't some sort of frame job of my dad?!"
"Seriously?! What reason would I have to frame your dad in this elaborate of a fashion?" I moved the papers away as Kathyrine swiped at them again. "And if I may say so, you're not helping his case by trying to get them. How do I know you won't try to alter or destroy them? Maybe if your father was dumb enough to put his seal on one then you scratch it off or something?"
Kathyrine pawed at the ground, a snarl etched on her face. "You give those to me, Antares. I can take them if I have to."
"Hey!" Tracer Arrow ignited her horn and rushed in front of me. "You do not threaten Princess Antares. Ever."
"Get out of my way!" Kathyrine screeched.
This was not good. It was turning volatile faster than I would have liked. Kathyrine threatened me, which got Tracer Arrow on the defensive, which caused Kathyrine's guards to see that as a threat to her, and now they were closing in around us, their wings extended leaving no doubt that their wing blades were of good quality. I could last in a fight for a decent while with these guys, but for all of her skill, Tracer Arrow wouldn't be able to, and I couldn't take on all five griffins long enough for Tracer Arrow to escape. Not that she'd want to. She'd be right in the middle of the fight.
Well, it seemed to be fight or flight, and Kathyrine wasn't listening to reason right now. I put more power in my horn and engulfed both Tracer Arrow and myself in my aura. With a loud 'pop' we teleported out of Sinosis' quarters and into the main courtyard where more of my guard was gathered. Even Kathyrine wouldn't favor those kinds of odds. I had teleported far enough away that I would have a few seconds to scan the papers to see if they were legit before Kathyrine came barging out of the building to demand that I hoof them over. I quickly looked down at the topmost paper while Tracer Arrow recovered from the surprise teleportation.
"ANTARES!!!"
My gaze flickered up in time to see Kathyrine barreling towards me as fast as she could, her guard flying straight behind her. My guard reacted quickly and formed a defensive perimeter around me. Unicorn horns were alight, pegasus wings were flared, their wing blades gleaming in the sunlight. If it came down to it I'd have to fight on the side of my guards. It would be a massacre.
Fortunately I had better ways to deal with charging griffins. I put the papers down on the ground, securing them with a hoof so that they didn't go anywhere, and ignited my horn. The charging griffins found themselves engulfed in my blue aura and they stopped like they had hit a brick wall. They had limited movement, but they weren't going anywhere.
Well, Kathyrine, for her part, was taking full advantage of the fact that she had limited movement, and was thrashing about like she was an animal trapped in a cage.
"Let me go, Antares! Let me go or I'll bring an army to march upon Baltimare like you've never seen! Framing my dad is an act of war and you know it!"
This wasn't going to be very fun.
Slowly I walked over to Kathyrine, a grim expression on my face. When I was close enough, I flipped the papers over and showed them to her. "That's your dad's seal on the bottom, right?"
"NO!" Kathyrine snarled. "No it's not!"
Even through the denial, the second her eyes landed on the seal I saw recognition in her eyes followed by a brief look of utter horror. She was fooling herself, and even she knew it.
"Kathyrine..." I flipped to another paper. "This is also his seal, is it not? This is his signature at the bottom?"
"Stop it!" Kathyrine screeched as she put her talons over her ear holes. "I'm not listening to these stupid feathering pony lies anymore!"
My aura faded away and the griffins gently fell to the ground. Kathyrine hardly noticed. She was too busy denying what was right in front of her. I for one wasn't going to make her listen anymore. She got the point. She knew as well as I did that Aepnet was behind all of this. I gave her a sympathetic look and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Kathyrine, I'm sorry. I don't like this anymore than you do. Please believe me when I say that."
"Stop it!" Kathyrine batted away my hoof and for the first time I saw tears welling up in her eyes. "Stop feeding me these lies."
"Kathyrine--"
"SHUT UP!" Kathyrine flinched away from me and extended her foreleg as if to block my advance, a single sob escaping her throat. "Stop it! I don't want to be empress, Dad!" Kathyrine's eyes snapped open when she realized what she had said, and she looked up at me, her wide eyes brimming with tears. "I... I don't..."
I shifted uncomfortably and flattened my ears. "Uh... look, I won't... tell anybody, I guess. If it helps."
Kathyrine sighed and visibly deflated, her shoulder slumping and her head lowering. "Doesn't matter, does it? That proves Dad is behind it all. You're probably going to demand that he steps down or you're going to throw him in prison, meaning I have to lose my dad and become the feathering empress." Kathyrine let out another sob and rubbed her eyes to wipe away the tears. "I know the dukes. They're gonna want war because of this. They're gonna try to get the throne away from me. Maybe kill me for it. Dad may be dumb, but he has enough smarts that he can keep them at bay." I may have imagined it, but I thought that I saw a shudder go through Kathyrine. "I, however, don't really."
"Kathyrine, I can help you out. I know Celestia and Luna aren't going to want to see you murdered." I sat down in front of her, unsure of whether or not I should give her a wing hug or not. I opted for not, given what I knew of her temperament. Even so, Kathyrine didn't seem to be comforted.
"You think Griffonian affairs are any of your business? You think that just because Equestria is ruled by literal goddesses that you can just step in and play police whenever you want?" Kathyrine slowly shook her head. "No. I'm feathering on my own on this one. I know you can't just ignore what Dad did..." Kathyrine let out a low moan and put her head in her talons. "For feather's sake, why would you do this to me, Dad?!"
I didn't have an answer.
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I have a feeling that something else is going on. That was way too easy.
3921081 Few things more embarrassing than a first that isn't even a first. Irritating for me too.
Well, Looks like Equestria has the same reputation the United states has. Can't say I'm surprised.
I imagine that there's someone else playing this little game right now.
3921120 What makes you say that?
Well that king REALLY screw up big time all just to test TD, what a big moron
3921140 Well, there was the fire, but chances are it was ordered by the king. The documents themselves seemed a little too easy to find, as stated. And finally, TD is going to need another antagonist to fight now that the king will be arrested.
Oh dear... I was wondering why she was being so transparant. I mean, she clearly knew daddy dearest was guilty as sin, she said so out loud in front of God(esses) and everyone for Murphy's sake! She was panicking.
Yeah, nice job Aepnat... Real nice.
Katherine doesn´t give a shit about her father, does she? It´s all about being forced into an unwanted position.
3921223 She does. Remember she said "I'd lose my dad." She does care about him, though she knows she is a political chess piece to him, so how much is up for debate.
Unfortunately that pissed off Kathyrine (Just a little thing I noticed. Only got this one correction.)
I must be expecting too much from Sinosis or Aepnet, I mean you can detect magic but what is to stop the letters being cover with a chemical that reacts with air to burst into flames? Or just causes a large fireball? Maybe Sinosis was ordered to destroy the letters but didn't so to have a bargaining tool if he was captured, but why didn't Aepnet have the letters destroy themselves after a certain amount of time after being read? Griffins need to get gud at all this espionage and cloak and dagger business.
3921361 There is a reason, of course.
I like how you're doing a parallel-universe thing with the canon-TD-verse and this one, with all the same characters. Tell me, we gonna see some changeling action? Maybe some peeps from Saddle Arabia?
I think it's supposed to be importance. Unless they were imported of course.
Well the ending was a bit of a downer.
3921620 It's her verbally short-handing importance. It was intentional.
3921620
It’s a perfectly cromulent usage of the word.
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Poor Kathyrine... she deserves a dad that isn't a massive dumbass.
Interesting. Where will it lead to? Maybe TD and Katheryne will concoct a scheme using Aepnet to find out the true culprit. Yeah, I can see that happening. The two return to the others, claim they didn't find the documents and release Aepnet and watch him continuously.
3922029 True culprit?
You know... with a chapter title like that, I expected some main characters killed off in this chapter.
why do i get the feeling that those papers are forged, created to frame apnet
3922064 Hinting at the possibility of someone pulling strings and using Aepnet as a pawn.
3922029 Uh... that's assuming that Aepnet is actually innocent which, judging by his behaviour in TDverse canon and his behaviour here, he's not. At this point it seems most likely that Aepnet had ordered the fire and assumed that it would destroy the evidence, and the whole "this is too easy" was just paranoia (and overestimating Aepnet).
Too short for hoe long it took to come out.... Least we got some thing.
3922529 I've been having some personal life problems. I hope to knock out a chunk of Life of a Non-Brony too today; maybe even finish it. The chapter.
3922550
Aight, good luck with your problems, and thanks for giving some of your time for us, and thanks for not going author elitist on me as well. Some authors would get very pissed if someone said that.
I....Have on thing to say:
Well, to be fair, his dad is an idiot.
>>>"You think Griffonian affairs are any of your business? You think that just because Equestria is ruled by literal goddesses that you can just step in and play police whenever you want." >>>
Princess TDantares blinked and looked through the 4th wall to Gandalf, Goku, Yoda, Superman, Thor, and God... all of whom nodded. "Uhm, yes?" he finally replied to Kathyrine.
3922321 Clearly, it was Celestia, since she's always the evil tyrant behind these nasty affairs.
3921192 who says he needs a new antagonist? Or rather, a pony-threatening antagonist. Another one like Prince Blueblood, but more competent, would be good enough.
3921428 there is always a reason, even if that reason is stupidity.
I want to read this chapter, but I need to go to bed...have to work tomorrow.
3924018 I have school tomorrow and I'm staying up as late as I need to to finish the next chapter of Life of a Non-Brony. I'm actually almost done with it. 95%, I'd say.
"You think that just because Equestria is ruled by literal goddesses that you can just step in and play police whenever you want?"
Yes, they do!
Little grif just unlocked very important revelation. Yes!
Literall goddesses politicaly is much effective then aircraft carriers or tactical weapon.
I find your new profile pic .... disturbing
great new chapter I love seeing how gods react when it comes to playing God. especially when said gods are far from perfect
maybe because your father is a dumbass, Kathy?
Ha ha ha haa gods not using their power. Ha ha haaa
Aww, Kathyrine...
3924400 What is even more "politically effective" than having a country ruled by goddesses is having a King so badass that he not only defeated a dragon horde but managed to fight the armies of Hell back to the fires they came.
King Davy: Tis true.
That ... is actually a very good point.
6032111 America needs to learn this lesson.
6961518 that we do.
I've been actually half listening to my history vlass, and found that we jumped right into WW1 just because some foreigners sunk our boat and 1700 pasengers.
What's more, we tend to jump in the middle of massive disputes just because we think we are some super neutral diplomatic superpower.
...well...now we've got Trump.
._.
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Well, no. Maybe if you more than half listened then you would know that the sinking of the Lusitania was only a short term cause of our entrance into ww1. The real causes were the unrestricted sub warfare waged on passenger and commercial ships, the zimmerman telegram and the overthrow of the russian monarchy. The sub warfare was a problem because it gave no advanced warning to the ships being torpedoed. Western warfare has been defined by the rules of engagement that assure minimal casualties all the way back to hellenistic times. The uboats didn't give people warning when they sunk them which violated international law and caused greater casualtues. The Zimmermann telegram forced the issue onto a previously isolationist America. Basically, the brits intercepted a telegram from the german ambassador to Mexico promissing them Texas and the other territories taken by the US in the Mexican-American war if they pre-emptively attacked us. Obviously it brought vast public outrage on Germany because we were declared nuetral in the war until that point. The third reason for us entering ww1 was the removal of the czars in russia. They were a despot regime and the US didn't want to sully its name by allying itself with it. It would ve like us today allying with Iran. We dont hate the people, but the government is no good.
I get upset whenever people oversimplify and misrepresent history. Sadly its one that is frequenting more and more people with the rise of the drive-by culture that we take on important matters. Most people here would probably say WWI started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The theme of the US policing everywhere is one that mostly shows up post WWII with korea and 'Nam. You are correct in that recent American forign policy has been interventionist, however you are not correct in your assertion of events leading up to The Great War.
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You just defended all of us Americans on this site with your point and it would be funny if the papers said this2.bp.blogspot.com/_Umc6s6J3SPs/THfunRlzi1I/AAAAAAAAABs/pHLd7mypetc/cake.png
8233157
Western military traditions have rarely sought to specifically minimalize casualties via rules of engagement historically, they often sought numerous goals completely different to that. The 'rules of engagement' of the medieval period for example never sought to minimalize casualties but rather to uphold the prestige and status of nobles and the class system of the time, where position in society directly correllated to how well treated and respected an individual was in an army. Peasants were poorly equiped fodder, the farmlands of invaded kingdoms were often pillaged and left destitue in the name of maintaining the invading or defending armies and minimizing casualties was only really a concern when fighting numerous battles in a campaign, otherwise if the army came home with enough peasants left to tend the fields everything was fine. Attempting to minimizing casualties via rules of engagement is a more modern development in Western military tradition, largely due to the downsizing of armies, a shrinking of the pool of eligible recruits, increased training times, the realization of the true horrors of war and the rise of the influence public opinion has in democracies, especially on the topic of war (look at Vietnam for example). Of course, armies have always tried to reduce casualties, but that modern fixation on minimizing causaulties using specifc rules of engagement is just that, modern.
The reason why unrestricted submarine warfare irked the US is because it led to Americans being killed on boats sunk on the way to Europe and because it infringed upon American maritime rights (this is a serious topic in American history, wars like the War of 1812 started for this exact reason. Also,the British infringed upon US maritime rights during the war too, but they didn't kill anyone).
The Zimmermann Telegram drove home the point to the American public that Germany was hostile to the nation and, most importantly, the people, which drummed up enough support for Woodrow Wilson to 'safely' declare war, though the war definitley did not kill American 'isolation' for good. The biggest problem with what you state is with the overthrow of the Tsar and his government in Russia. The United States was and would later be perfectly willing to ally ourselves with people who make us seem like complete hypocrites and we would've been perfectly fine with theoretically allying ourselves with the Russians. The reason why the overthrow was so important is because of the ideology of one Woodrow Wilson. To sum it up, the man was one of the two/three major individuals responsible for modern American foreign policy, specifically the elements involving American Exceptionalism and protecting democracy. Russia had become a democracy and Wilson saw it as his duty to step in and protect it in its infancy, which was a major factor leading to Wilson's desire to get involved, beside the Entente being major trading partners with the US before and during the war.
I should also point out that the US has always been extremely interventionist when it refers to the affairs of countries in the Americas, both before and after the Great War, the Monroe Doctrine being the origin point.
Note: I just read when you posted your comment and now realize this is pointless necro, but it is 6am and I spent the time to write an essay of a comment, so meh.
10372201
If it's any consolation, it's a great essay