Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

Ch68: Rivalry

Markus trotted through the halls of the Royal Palace with his thoughts far away from where he actually was. Well, actually not far enough for him, as he was thinking about the balcony he would be standing on in just a few minutes, holding a speech to all of Canterlot and even all of Ponykind, through the new television technology that he may or may not have played a role in creating.

After he revealed himself to them, Twilight and Rainbow were very clear that this secret was the worst idea Markus ever had, so they demanded of him to reveal himself to the entirety of Equestria. He denied at first, however Celestia and Luna somehow caught wind of that little argument and took Twilight’s side. Luna in particular threatened that if he didn’t reveal himself, she would do so for him and that, since ponies highly valued honesty, they wouldn’t be very pleased to hear that. With such a convincing argument, Markus had no other choice but to adhere to Twilight’s and Rainbow’s demands and publicly reveal himself.

Still, even when he was standing directly in front of the door, he still had his doubts, but as an experienced officer, he knew that when one had unnecessary doubts, the best way was mostly to (literally) push past them. And so, he finally stood on the balcony, overlooking a grand plaza with thousands of ponies gathered to listen to him. He gulped down his last bit of hesitance and started to speak.

“Ponies of Equestria!” His voice echoed throughout the plaza and the few mumbled conversations in the crowd immediately died down.

“I, Prince Mortis, the alicorn of life and death, have a confession to make. When I first revealed myself, I have neglected to tell the whole truth about my arrival in these lands and that because of a reason. In truth, I have been here for far longer than I had implied at first. In fact, I have even neglected to reveal my true identity.”

When he finished saying that, he enveloped himself into a plume of black smoke and transformed into his old human self. As soon as the smoke lifted and his body was revealed, one could hear the whole crowd gasp and fall into chatter.

“Yes, it has been me this whole time. When I sacrificed myself to destroy the leader of the Bloodmoon cult, I apparently also activated a part of me that has been slumbering for my whole life. It would seem that – even though I come from an entirely different universe – I have been an alicorn all along and when I took my place through my sacrifice, those powers had been awakened. I took my place in the plane between life and death and through a ritual, performed by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I had been brought back to life.”

Markus looked over the crowd that was now looking at him with expressions from questioning to suspicious, to even accusing.

“I do not expect you to trust or even believe me. However, I will ask you to forgive me, for if I hadn’t kept my existence a secret, then my earlier efforts might have been in vain. I promise to all of you that I will strive to become a royal figure, at least comparable to the likes of Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Cadence and that I will put the interests of Equestria and of the ponies inhabiting it far above even my own life.”

Markus finished his speech with one last look over the silent crowd, before he turned around and vanished back into the Castle. As soon as he did so, he was intercepted by Rainbow and Twilight, who were carrying their foals on their backs. Both of them apparently knew on instinct that Markus was their father, so they had little to no difficulty to warm up to him. Then again, they warmed up to Starlight even when she basically held them hostage, so that doesn’t necessarily say much.

“MARKUUUUUUS!!!” A male voice suddenly bellowed through the hallways and when Markus turned to see, where it came from, he saw Shining Armor and Princess Cadence storming towards him.

“HOW DARE YOU scaring my sister like that?! What were you even thinking?! And why didn’t you reveal yourself earlier?!” He shouted angrily.

“Aww, did you miss me that much? I’m sorry Shiny, I’ll make a note to tell you next time.” Markus teased.

“NEXT TIME?! You’re planning on doing that AGAIN?!”

“Calm down, Shiny!” Cadence tried to calm. “Although, I have to agree with you: That was very stupid of you, Markus. I’m sure there was a far better solution than blowing yourself up in front of your marefriends.”

“Yes, I’m sure there was, however I didn’t see that other opportunity and thinking would’ve cost too much time.” Markus argued.

“Still, you’ve got to think about us as well, when you’re doing such things.” Twilight said.

“Oh, I did think about you. In fact, you were the only thing I was thinking about and that whole maneuver was only done, so you could live another day. And just so you know: I will do that again, should the need arise, as long as that means that you will get to live on.” Markus said.

“But how do you want to protect us afterwards if you’re dead?” Rainbow asked, drawing all attention to her. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, on the contrary actually. I think none of us would’ve expected such a logical argument to come from you, Rainbow. Huh… Well, dying isn’t really an option for me anymore anyways, so this discussion was pointless from the beginning.”

---

A few days later, the first royal council was held, with all the alicorns of Equestria present. The reason: rivalries between the guards.

“As you all know, Equestria currently has four different guard sections. The Royal Guard, led by Shining Armor, The Solar and Lunar Guard, which are semi-directly led by Luna and myself, as well as the newly formed Shadow Guard, which is led semi-directly by Markus.” Celestia explained.

“Yes, we are well aware, dear sister. Now, what would be the problem?” Luna asked impatiently.

Celestia gave an annoyed look over to her sister, before continuing. “As you are likely also aware, there have always been rivalries between the guards, which had been resolved by separating their areas of exertise. The Royal Guard became the primary military and police, while the Solar and Lunar Guard specialized in covert operations during daytime and at night, respectively. Now, we have the Shadow Guard, which seems to fill in all four roles at once, which has sparked those rivalries anew.”

“Ah… so what’s so bad about that?” Markus asked.

“You ask what’s so bad about that? Rivalries are not the way of Harmony, Markus. They will only lead to conflicts at a later time, so they must be doused as soon as possible!”

“On the contrary, dear Celestia. I think that rivalry is one of the most harmonious things to be.” Markus said, drawing questioning looks from the remaining four alicorns. “What, have none of you ever had a true rivalry? The barely suppressable need to outdo someone or somepony else? The addictingly delightful feeling when one actually manages to do so?”

Twilight sheepishly looked away at that. “Well, umm, there was that one time…”

“And now that that’s behind you, what do you think you’ve gained from it? Do you feel like you’ve improved? Have you maybe grown through the experience?”

“Now that you say it… yes, I actually think I’ve gained quite a lot of valuable experiences.” Twilight noted.

“Exactly. Rivalries push ourselves to go beyond our own limits and are a key factor to development, no matter which kind. However, I agree that we will need some way for them to keep up this rivalry without escalating it.”

“This sounds like you already have something in mind.” Cadence pointed out.

Markus confirmed this with a small smile, before saying his idea out loud: “Competetive Wargames.”

“Competetive… what?” Cadence repeated.

“Competetive Wargames. Think of it as the Equestria Games for the military. The participants compare their might in a series of disciplines, however instead of sprints and hurdle races, there will be day and night combat in different types of terrain, as well as VIP protection and a military parade as an opening ceremony.” Markus explained.

“I see. So you suggest that instead of trying to negotiate between them, we should let them brawl it out with only a few rules in place to keep them from killing each other?” Luna summarized.

“I knew at least you would understand what I am talking about.”

“Indeed, for I have made the exact same proposal when this problem arose the first time, two thousand years ago.” Luna said, giving her sister a slightly bemused look.

“Indeed you did and since we already had that discussion once, I think we should—“

“Go through with it this time.” Markus cut in.

“No, we should not. Letting our ponies pitfight each other is not only long out of fashion, but it is also brutal and utterly disharmonious.”

“And this way of thinking is the exact reason why you would’ve lost the second gryphon war without me.” Markus claimed. “The gryphons were not only well trained, but they also had the mindset necessary to fight effectively. Your guard, on the other hoof, was only really trained in police duty and was so utterly blinded by the idea of peace and harmony that they mostly even refused to fight beyond holding their ground. That is actually one of the few positive things I can say about General Pillbox: He ordered us to attack – even if it was likely only to get rid of me…”

A moment of silence ensued, where everypony was giving each other unsure looks, with the exception of Markus.

“I actually think that Markus might have a point, aunt Celestia. Having them practice some actual combat every now and then might be exactly what our guards need.” Cadence finally said.

Celestia looked around and saw that everypony seemed to mostly agree with Markus. With a sigh, she nodded and agreed as well. “Very well, we shall hold these ‘Competetive Wargames’ then. Markus, I suggest since you are the only one familiar with this concept, you should be the one to prepare them.”

“I’ll help!” Twilight piped up.

“Yes, I was actually already expecting that.” Markus said. “Thank you, Twilight. Your organization skills will certainly come in handy.”

“… what does ‘handy’ mean?”

---

“’Competetive Wargames’, huh?” Mystic mumbled after she had joined Markus and Twilight on the train back home. “So basically we are going to fight the other guard sections in a sporty fashion, eh?”

“Indeed. So far, I’m thinking about day and night fights in open and urban terrain and in the forest, after which each section will have to protect their respective VIP from attacks by the other guards, which will double as a competition to capture a P.o.I. All that will be opened by a military parade.”

“A parade? Heh, admit it, you only added that because you wanted to show off our new toys.” Mystic teased.

“Perhaps…”

“New toys? What do you mean with that?” Twilight asked.

“Recently, we received a shipment of new equipment, which none of us could really make head or tail of, but when we saw that there was also a written order by the prince for me to prepare the founding of Charlie Company, we all understood what had happened. For the most part at least, we still have no clue when or where our dear Markus here had the time to develop and build this stuff.” Mystic explained.

“So, did you fill out the forms like I asked you to?”

“Oh, yes, I did, except… there was a minor problem: what should I fill in for the type of unit?” Mystic asked.

Markus gave her a half-sided smile and answered: “Motorized Infantry.”

Comments

[Mighty C]

Almost there, almost at the nicest chaper in the fic.

[Wapish]

Markus gave her a half-sided smile and answered: “Motorized Infantry.”

I smell blitzkrieg tactics

[badbog187]

So who style of fighting are you going to use Ramos Patton or Montgomery style

[damnaion]

yay you and this is alive.

[Night_Striker]

ah yes nothing screams more firendship the a good ole smacking your hated companion in the face and laugh it off the next day and beeing best friends

[Ryan_606]

Markus gave her a half-sided smile and answered: “Motorized Infantry.”

I already know what's coming

[Hawkx1]

You could also do like another fic did and if they are “killed” their body gets teleported out and a life-sized dummy with the same weight gets teleported in. Give them the penalty of carrying their wounded out or have a harder time later

[Munro]

that there was a nice smack on the back of celestia's head xD

[Booster Spice]

Motorised Infantry are going to have any Silver Shadows?

Marcus can all go about the new artillery, when this baby reaches 88mm, youre going too see some serious hit?

[Moonlit_Stardust]

Markus gave her a half-sided smile and answered: “Motorized Infantry.”

Soooo, are we looking at American Deuce and a half? German Opal Blitz? Imperial Japanese Type 94 Isuzu?

Also I am waiting for him to employ Bicycle infantry and staff the units with volunteers for the smaller settlements that don’t warrant full time deployments.

Also someone needs to beat Celestia with a “Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual” book, as while defense is all well and good, without offense there is no path to victory and only a slow path to defeat.

[Foxtrot315]

And with the motorized infantry doctrine you basically beat out most other combat doctrines.

[Theresa]

Celestial is very stubborn. It only when the vote isn't tied and totally against her does she give in.