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DanishDash
Why do I write? Because it's fun! :D
DanishDash
Joined 20th Aug, 2019 ·
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Bro, you can't leve it here! I want mooore.
Welp, pony Caesar is marching against three alicorns. Twiggles is only a pacifist until her buttons are pushed, and he's about to push all the buttons. Not sure she's the one who hasn't thought this trough fully.
12028103
Nah, its Twilight who hasn't thought this through. Imagine if you will that you just a normal pony general who was told to take his army and go secure an area to keep your home safe, and after 8 years of fighting in a hostile region along with hostile tribes of other races, that you finally secured that area and made it safe for your people. You will have lost plenty of soldiers, some of them friends or something more, and then after finally securing that hardwon peace, you get told that your new boss wants you to throw it all away because it doesn't suit their agenda.
That my friend is not only a colossal slap in the face for the general, but also a slap to the face to every single soldier that fought, and a grave disrespect to those that gave their lives to the cause.
When the legions march onto Canterlot, naturally Twilight being Twilight will want this to be peacefully be resolved, will hear the general out, but he will lay it all out for her that what he did was for the good of Equestria and the two original princesses, Celestia and Luna, not for some mare that got lucky and ascended and was given a crown without proper training or education in the game politics and rulership, and that his mission was appointed to him by them, not her, and that her request to mark him a criminal for carrying out his orders from the Sun and Moon is ludicrous at best. Yes Blueblood will naturally then say that his 'extended' actions of going deeper into the west and the actions he did will be called into question and seen as barbaric, but they were necessary to secure a lasting peace in a region that was dubbed 'The Unexplored/Discovered West' and to keep Equestria safe from whatever that may become a threat to it from that direction.
SO in all, this is all just Twilight being Twilight, not reading the room or its context for what it is or asking the princesses why he was out there in the first place with full knowledge instead of what little she was probably given.
Also Celestia and Luna are retired, which means they are just normal civilians now who I think also depowered themselves to feel more normal and just shuttled it all out to Twilight. So only one powerful alicorn against an army.
Curious if there will be a sequel.
12028129
Maybe one day.
If I am honest I was just in the mood for some Roman style history. I also read the Sleep Experiment here on the site, and I thought the more calculated Twilight was interesting to explore just a little. Making it vague enough that it is left to the readers imagination. There is potential, but I also like it as a short story, but perhaps in the future.
12028103
I think Twilight going to in for surprise this is going to be civil war. Her era of Harmony is going to start with blood of her own ponies. She handled this very very poorly. And that assuming that she has the stomach to fight if she does not it going to end with her in shackles.
I got to I hate how you left this as a cliffhanger... You can and have done so much better. I am disappointed in the ending. After reading the comments... I don't see you making a sequel either, nor an epilogue... So disappointed...
12028168
I'm sorry you feel that way. I hope other stories, if not mine, then somebody else's will be more to your liking. Thank you for at least giving it a chance.
12028175
I do like many of your stories, but this one just left a bad taste in the mouth as the saying goes. It has a great set up and is eazy to fallow. Still it felt like just when we are getting through the opening act you just leave it dead.
12028178
I can understand that. I just wanted to write a short story, and leave some things up to the imagination. But like I said, I'm not opposed to writing more one day, but this is just what I wanted to write for now. If I do continue with this story, I hope you will give it a look.
12028182
If you do I will. At the moment I didn't believe anything else for this story is in the works.
12028191
Well I wouldn't say nothing is in the works, but I just released this one. I want to see if there is any interest in it first before I commit myself.
12028125
"Imagine if you will that you just a normal pony general" just LOL
"go secure an area to keep your home safe" he was ordered to conquer territory (but you certainly have a way with words, do you work in politics?)
"finally secured that area and made it safe for your people" He didn't. If you can't even leave your camps intact or the enemy will come and take your stuff... things aren't exactly safe and you're far from accomplishing your task.
"You will have lost plenty of soldiers, some of them friends or something more" That's what it means to be a soldier, he chose that life.
"your new boss wants you to throw it all away because it doesn't suit their agenda" And? Orders only need to be followed if you agree with them?
Celestia and Luna being 'de-powered' is neither FIM canon, nor an established fact in this fic.
It's three alicorns in EQ plus Cady as an ally in the north. And if Twi doesn't want to shoulder vaporizing them herself, she doesn't even have to.
She could simply delegate the task to her most powerful assets, like Celestia did before her.
What his orders under Celestia's rule were doesn't matter. Twilight is his sovereign now and he has to obey. He's a soldier of Equestria, Twilight's Equestria, not a god damn merc.
She asked nicely. He ignored her. She asked again. He made up excuses. She gave him a direct order. He disobeyed.
There is nothing "ludicrous at best" about labeling him a traitor. He is a traitor. His hurt feelings do not place him above the law.
Ponies want peace, he said so himself. Twilight gave them that peace. A rouge general and an army of traitors marching on their home to stage a coup isn't going to hurt her politically. She has two experienced former princesses at her side to make sure that this story is told the right way and Bluey is going to raise hell in the senate w/o the need for prompting.
But your little rant about Twi just getting lucky and getting everything handed to her is rather telling. I'm not surprised you'd side with the traitorous warmonger.
Celly and Luna may vaporize this guy for Twilight, so she doesn't have to get her hooves dirty so early
12028193
That I can understand and I hope you will provide me wrong.
Greater context of the world this is set in aside, there has never been a kingdom forged without blood. When Twilight was in the peaceful lands of Equestria proper, The General and his soldiers were fighting and dying to make peace possible.
Its stated in the story that it was necessary to continue beyond what was asked of them. Bloody, yes, but also efficient since he didnt need any financial help from the homelands.
Its established early on that Blueblood, the ever popular punching bag of 'Bad Nobles/Aristocrats' was very vocal about Romulus' wrong doings, likely never having fought in conflict or done much for peace himself.
Its also stated that if they leave now the minotaurs will just take over again and the allies they had made will also be left alone and severely weakened if not completely open to reprisal. Not to mention any chance of stability or reconstruction being completely removed for likely the whole region.
Adding to that are their allies, never a good idea to leave your allies in the lurch like that, so even if they were able to defend themselves, they would likely take a very dim view of Princess Twilight,- if not the Equestrian army as a whole- at the very least. And if they cant defend themselves, than an army of minotaur would just be building up on that boarder. And since THEY were not interested in 'peace talks' in the first place, they would just be buying time at best, or taking what ever is offered to them and build up anyway. Remember: you cant buy off people who want power.
On top of THAT, peace isnt for only one nation. This gets into the greater context of the world as we dont know what lead Romulus to start a war going west, but we do, and we know that Deer were involved. There is much to rebuild and secure as was stated. leaving now would undo ALL of that(it would all mean nothing) and just make things worse.
Twilight cant just vaporize the incoming army without showing her way of doing things is just a farce, and that her idea of peace and harmony is a lie, it just compounds or highlights everything mentioned above. fewer allies, more enemies, and less people to support her. The 'traitor army' isnt going to stop after this kind of insult and defacto declaring that their lives are meaningless at best, and criminally wrong at worst(Never punish people who help you, even if you dont agree with it).
Romulus is making the best and smartest moves here. if he attacks and loses,either to Twi going 'full war mage' or using assassins, hes made Twilights Ideology out to be that farce if not just plain wrong, And showing that a dangerous army attacking wont be stopped by mere diplomacy. Just like the Minotaurs would, and showing atleast once race, the Deer, what kind of leader she is, one that will turn on her allies once all is said and done. And if he wins, he wins BIG(ideally). He would have access to the treasury and significantly more resources to rebuild after the war in the west, New allies ready and willing to support him after everything he has done, and death/ imprisonment (maybe) of all his political enemies so he wont have anyone in a high court to oppose him.
Naturally there would still be 'loyalist' rebellions, political backlash from allied nations viewing this as a coup, and all the issues that would come from not having 'The orbital friendhip cannon', but from his view (and again this is all in the greater context of the world), this is the only thing to do to do right by those who have fought. Twilight has no 'win' here. only survival until the next war that WOULD be coming.
This story does not have enough context to be fully fleshed out, and it paints Twilight as a Naive/ Overly optimistic simpleton. Its written well enough to be the end of the first story, or as a narrative filler for between story 1 and 2. If it gave more context or depicted what started all this it could be the second part of a three part story. Its written well enough that I want to see what happened before chapter one, and or what will happen when he attacks canterlot. 7/10 will put into my 'good reads' bookshelf, but this REALLY needs either another story for either before or after.
12028256
Wow, you have grasped a lot of subtext, and details. I'm honestly pretty amazed. Not that I think my writing is so complicated that no one will grasp them of course, but you have really nailed a lot of things I was going for. Makes writing this story really worth it, and it makes me pumped towards writing a sequel.
You even spotted the hidden political move Romulus made by forcing Twilight into a hard choice that will define her rule. Not to mention the point about the allies, and the signal it will send if they were to abandon them.
Thank you so much for this comment. It really puts a lot of fire in hands to actually continue this story beyond of what I thought would happen.
12028265
There's no subtext to grasp. It's in every history book out there. It's why Caesar succeeded.
The difference compared to the historical events this is based on is that Twilight has the means to stop him.
And an army marching on your capitol because they don't agree with the recently brokered peace will put everything she does into perspective.
'The message' will be a different one. As long as she has Celestia and Luna's support, he won't be able to frame her as unfit to rule or a tyrant.
Interesting story, I'm hoping there will be some sort of sequel.
kinda be interesting to see how he deal with discord
12028307
You are certainly free to have that opinion, but I think the world depends on the writer. I could write Twilight is evil, or Celestia and Luna has just peace out. I can write Twilight is being used by the nobles, or she is possessed by Discord. Anything can happen!
I made the story, and felt I wrote it in the way stated below. But if you got another message out of it, then good for you. That is the beauty of story telling. You got this out of it, and others got another thing out of it.
But I am happy there is such engagement in the comment section! Thank you for participating, and for reading my story!
Well if he does things right, sieze Ponyville and the girls and threaten there lives that could keep Twilight or Celestia and Luna from directly attacking. Besieging Canterlot would be a short lived affair with food being a issue. I could see Blueblood as the Pompey expy or maybe Shining Armor would have that role? Than again he might be a better Brutus.
12028195
"Imagine if you will that you just a normal pony general" just LOL - Laughing at someone’s opening statement in a mocking manner is not a conducive way to begin a counterpoint
"go secure an area to keep your home safe" he was ordered to conquer territory (but you certainly have a way with words, do you work in politics?) - If we take this in the context of Roman history, conquering territory WAS their way of making their homes and peoples safe. One of the whole reasons Caesar chose Gaul to conquer wasn’t just because of his governorships up north, but because Rome had a very long and painful history with the Celtic peoples. They’d sacked Rome before, had sided with Hannibal, had sided with the Cimbri. In that context, Rome secured the western borders of the Italian peninsula by just conquering Gaul entire. Also, again, mockery is not conducive to making any legible counter-argument.
"finally secured that area and made it safe for your people" He didn't. If you can't even leave your camps intact or the enemy will come and take your stuff... things aren't exactly safe and you're far from accomplishing your task. - The whole point is that his job isn’t over yet. The war is over, now it’s time to win the peace through occupation, laying down the required infrastructure projects (Roads, aqueducts, sewers, etc.) and setting up proper governmental authorities in the area for growth, development, lawmaking, tribute and policing, not to mention that they have ALLIES over there that need to be kept safe. It’s what Caesar was doing with newly conquered parts of Gaul every year during winter, when the legions were in winter quarters.
"You will have lost plenty of soldiers, some of them friends or something more" That's what it means to be a soldier, he chose that life. - When soldiers join up, they know there’s a chance they may be killed, but there’s a difference between dying in the service of an objective and dying for nothing at all. Were you a general and, because of politicians back home who’d seen nothing of the battlefield, you were forced to give up all objectives the army had fought, bled and died for, you would absolutely be hacked off as hell, as would all the soldiers in the army and the relatives of the dead soldiers back home.
"your new boss wants you to throw it all away because it doesn't suit their agenda" And? Orders only need to be followed if you agree with them? - The legality of these orders are questionable. He was explicitly given a time limit till his command expired, they’re breaking their own rules to bring him back early because they’re afraid that within half a year, he’ll have turned the newly conquered territories into a well-governed province and, thus, make it MUCH harder to prosecute him. One of their talking points in court would likely be that his conquests only opened the doors to more violence, can’t argue that if his conquest is not only successful but also profitable.
“Celestia and Luna being 'de-powered' is neither FIM canon, nor an established fact in this fic.
It's three alicorns in EQ plus Cady as an ally in the north. And if Twi doesn't want to shoulder vaporizing them herself, she doesn't even have to.
She could simply delegate the task to her most powerful assets, like Celestia did before her.” - I guarantee you, that will only backfire HARD. From what we can see, the people view Romulus quite favorably, assassinating him would turn everyone against her. It also blows up her own goals of ushering in the new era of her reign with peace. Again, the legality of all this is gray. Romulus is being insubordinate by refusing his orders and marching to Canterlot with his command intact and with his soldiers by his side. However, the orders he was given were themselves questionable, you can’t break your own rules when it’s convenient for you I’m afraid. Romulus’s command was supposed to expire in 6 months, they gave him less than 2 weeks and when he wrote back in protest as well as to point this out, they went with the nuclear option and just abandoned all pretense, ordering him to lay down his command even before those prior 2 weeks he was given were passed and submit himself to a rigged trial.
What his orders under Celestia's rule were doesn't matter. Twilight is his sovereign now and he has to obey. He's a soldier of Equestria, Twilight's Equestria, not a god damn merc. - Since when is the country the monarch? Is Equestria an absolute monarchy? His orders under Celestia absolutely matter. Celestia wasn’t overthrown, dethroned or driven out in a coup. It was a succession of power and to suggest that his orders under Celestia don’t matter, that Twilight’s own will applies retroactively, opens up a can of worms everywhere. Who’s to say others who had their own mission under Celestia can’t suddenly be put on trial for carrying them out simply because Twilight deems them improper under her rule even though they were not done under her rule? By disregarding Celestia’s own orders and part in Romulus’s conquest, you call into question Celestias own judgement and I do not think Twilight has the stones for that. It’ll probably also make her enemies of those nobles and powerful elite who still revere Celestia.
She asked nicely. He ignored her. She asked again. He made up excuses. She gave him a direct order. He disobeyed. - Again, he is NOT obligated to obey requests and he sent back missives explaining why. Then he was called back before his command was legally expired and threatened with arrest and charges of high treason if he refused. Remember, he didn’t refuse outright, merely protest and she immediately went with the nuclear option and escalated things further.
There is nothing "ludicrous at best" about labeling him a traitor. He is a traitor. His hurt feelings do not place him above the law. - Canterlot is the one to talk when they themselves are breaking their own lawns and regulations to bring him home before his command legally expires. Again, is Equestria an absolute monarchy where the monarch IS the law? If not, Twilight’s own feelings don’t put her above the law either.
Ponies want peace, he said so himself. Twilight gave them that peace. A rouge general and an army of traitors marching on their home to stage a coup isn't going to hurt her politically. She has two experienced former princesses at her side to make sure that this story is told the right way and Bluey is going to raise hell in the senate w/o the need for prompting. Aha, a senate? So they’re NOT an absolute monarchy or even diarchy. Twilight didn’t give them peace, she’s opening the doors for further rebellion, loss of all they spent the last 8 years bleeding and dying for and throwing their allies, the deer, to the proverbial wolves. We don’t know WHAT Celestia and Luna might say about this, but it brings up an interesting point. Celestia and Luna have retired, this would nominally be Twilights first crisis to handle. If she needs to go running back to Celestia and Luna for help because she can’t fix it on her own, it speaks REALLY bad for her ability to rule and undermines her own capability as a princess of Equestria, something her OWN enemies could use against her politically. Moreover, it’s not as easy as you’d think to control the narrative. Romulus likely himself has friends back home who can derail her attempts to paint him as the villain, put their own little spin to make HER look incompetent, not something a newly crowned ruler wants.
If we may assume Twilight to be the equivalent of Pompey and Blueblood to be the equivalent of Cato, we can expect Romulus’s march on Canterlot to blindside them both and for recriminations to start flying about as people play the blame game.
So another "hard" man making a "hard" decision to satisfy his hardness condition.
History is full of them. Most end up murdered by people they pissed off on the way to their thrones.
A pity you won't be continuing this; it would be fun to see this buffoon treated like the monster he is.
Twilight's been getting pretty good at stopping those.
12028256
How was murdering other races on the frontier "making peace possible"? That hasn't worked... ever. It certainly hasn't worked for the real world events you're wanting to reference; at present, the world is considerably more dangerous than it was twenty five years ago, and a whole lot of it can be laid at the feet of people like Romulus.
This story is an interesting thought piece, and for the easily swayed, it's going to get the ooraah emotions flowing. As an examination of the dangers of charismatic individuals bathed in the blood of conquest, it's great.
For not accurately showing that such individual tend to usurp and destroy far more than they do create and secure, it's forgetting that world doesn't have neat little "happily ever after" points. Not even the world this story is nominally set in has those.
The "and then" is always important.
Romulus's "and then" is going to be executed as a criminal or couped and murdered by a confidant.
Julius Caesar quote (without training they lacked knowledge without knowledge they lacked confidence without confidence they lacked victory)
The story and some of the comments make me scratch my head for kind of the same reason.
Why is it that authors and commenters alike depict Twilight as overthinking and micromanaging every aspect of a situation when Celestia is in charge, making Twilight deal with her problems - yet when Twilight sits on the big chair she is treated like an infantile naive moron who traded in her brain for a bigger crown thingy?
People brought up many tricky facets of the situation, but why should we assume she hasn't thought about any of that?
Why would you believe she has no clue what's going on in the west and does something completely inapropriate just because she can now? Does she not have political and military advisors? Would she not ask the other alicorns and her brother for advice about something she knows they have experience with? If she's so against the war then she definitely knows for what reasons Celestia had continued the war effort until now.
It's silly to assume she made those decisions willy-nilly just because it's the more friendship-y way. She isn't dumb.
Did the 'Princess of Friendship' really not consider her 'allies against the Minotaurs' role in this?;
Or is it perhaps possible that in the bigger, political picture 'the enemy of your enemy' isn't necessarily your friend merely because they bolster your ranks on the battlefield now and then? If they were nice, trustworthy neighbours, they would've forged an alliance with Celestia long ago.
It's as if there was a group of people in the fandom and on this site who enjoy seeing Twilight fail.
Bit of a bummer I ran into this right after I finally decided to register.
Oh well, still glad I read this I guess. I found and read a couple very interesting articles about the fall of the roman republic because of it.
Since they're leaving anyways now they're making the past 8 years mean nothing AND they're traitors. If making their time spent there actually matter was important to them they wouldn't abandon it for a coup :P they just regular ole traitors
I am not a pacifist. I need to place this as my first statement because it is true. This story feels like something that at least from my opinion wasn't thought through enough in concept. It feels even more anachronistic than Equestria already is. We are shown that legionnaires and Greco-Roman soldiery is a thing of the past that at latest existed about a century or so before Celestia and Luna took control of Equestria. We se this in Hearts-Warming Eve.
If anything we see that despite guns not being depicted an Equestria at war has more in common with wars in the early 20th century with us seeing the Sombra Timeline and Equestria's usage of modern fatigue WWI Tank Crew military uniforms and prosthetics. And their extensive use of factories for canned rations.
While I have written a piece on Twilight being somewhat naïve, I never tried to portray her as stupid. In fact her ideals are portrayed in a somewhat good light.
If there was a war Twilight and her entourage would gladly go over to the Equestrian Legion in the far west and break the news to them themselves. That and she would come with the Minotaur Chiefs and other representatives with written evidence of successful negotiations and diplomacy. She isn't the type to disregard soldiers specially with her probably coming from a military family herself if we go by Shinning. If she where to go there herself for peace talks and order Romulus and the Legions, to stand guard and help her it would not only be far more in her character, it would actually be effective.
12028256
The review here basically says all I have to say.
12028419
Exactly.
12028391
I feel you have come to some conclusion about the world around you already.
Don't forget that most of the charismatic people end up in acting and entertainment. Not leading armies and politics. There is overlap, of course, and type casting someone is one of the most harmful things to equality today.
I kinda like this story, but not in the fully like because it feels like a proof of concept for a natural political story about Twilight coming to power.
Because we don't have enough context to really... know about Romulus. Since we're following him, do we really know what he says is needed? Is it truly needed? Or is he being fully truthful in this narration?
And we also don't know fully what Twilight is thinking. On one end, the earlier speculation about Twilight using this as a political gambit to remove foes would be in line with the chessmaster/genius Princess Twilight that she was being trained as. On another hand, it could also be Twilight genuninely overlooking the feelings of the soldiers in favour of focusing on another part of her grand plan. Both, seems reasonably possible in my head.
Overall the stories has a good concept. But I feel like the pacing and wider context is missing for it to be a good story. So hopefully we'll get an expansion on it, because Romulus is quite a charismatic guy to read about.
A grave miscalculation on Twilight's part. The loyalty of the military lies with Equestria, or, at the very least, with Luna and Celestia. If one was to impose such drastic changes to society as to basically claim veterans are evil and should be put on trial, one would need an equally loyal and efficient army.
The council are nothing but squabbling aristocrats, fattened by the luxury of peace and plenty. Perhaps, Equestria needs a civil war to shake it out of its thousand year stupor.
Wonderful story, thank you for writing it!
Oi!
I was asleep for a few hours, and I come back to find the comment section on fire! Haha, no, but it is great to see some interesting debates and arguments going around.
To those of you who are disappointed/want more of this story, I will look into it. Honestly, I didn't think there would be this much interest in this story. I just wanted to write a short story depicting a tense situation that left some things to the imagination, like the motives of Twilight. I can see there is a lot of debate about that.
I'm happy that people are so passionate. Just please guys, keep it civil, and lets not take things too far, or go on any personal attacks. This is just a story after all, and people take away what they take away.
12028507
Yeah, that is what I was going for. I didn't want to paint Twilight as a moron, or a naive fool, or anything like that. I wanted to keep it vague, and mysterious so to let readers decide for themselves.
But I feel I should probably make a sequel if people really are this invested now, hehe.
The stability of a nation depends largely on the military, it is certain that Romulo is not the only one extremely dissatisfied with the decisions made by the council, and this will probably cause very serious discontent throughout the army, in any case if Romulo wins or lose, he would undoubtedly have dealt a mortal blow to the army's loyalty to the government.
Romulus is rebel, it's certain. Traitor? Much less certain.
He literally got informed, that for crime of doing exactly, what he was ordered to do, even if he took next steps, which weren't illegal, to make sure, that his duty will be done completly, he is going to branded worst criminal in staged court without any way of defending himself, while also very questionable acts are done to secure him being unable to defend himself. Acts, which are destroying everything, which he was ordered to do, making years of sacrifices moot and practically betraying allies, he made and promised to protect.
This is basicly, how you make anyone rebel against you. Twilight turned completly loyal and patriotic great general rebel in first months of rule, by cornering him for totally arbitrary and personal reasons. She basicly took throne and in first months created civil war out of nowhere. In history, she would be recorded as 0/10 ruler just for this.
12028612
Hey Ironwall.
I deleted one of your comments, not because it was offensive, but it was the same comment twice, and I figured it wasn't your intent.
12028626
I had sudden connection problem, when sending, so no wonder it duplicated comment, thank you.
This was a pretty interesting read.
I think an important distinction between Romulus Invicta here and the historical Gaius Julius Caesar is that Caesar did actually violate Roman law. Not only by going off on his own and conquering Gaul, but during his time as Consul. But Consuls were immune from prosecution, as were provincial governors. He’d been banking on the ability to run for Consul again in absentia, to cover his own ass. In contrast, Romulus is presented as having only ever been a general, and while he did wage war beyond his mandate, he has a much stronger defense than Caesar did.
Seriously. Caesar spent his year as Consul tap-dancing all over Roman law to benefit his own allies and interests.
Additionally, Twilight’s actions here aren’t happening in a vacuum. If she just became sole ruler of Equestrian, then the country should still be recovering from Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow going ham with the Bewitching Bell. And that recovery necessarily shapes the political landscape Twilight is operating in. Since the show sidesteps what that would actually look like, the author here actually has a pretty free hand in developing that aspect of the world, and what ramifications that would have for Twilight and her decisions.
…I would like to amend my earlier statement. “Interesting” was underselling things—I now realize I’m straight up fascinated lol. I don’t know if the story itself needs a sequel, but I know for damn sure I’d read one.
12029016
This is really good observation, but to be honest, late Roman Republic was so insanely corrupt and degenerated, that you would have very serious problem finding high rank politician then, who WASN'T bending and breaking law to own gains, plus political fight then was extremly brutal, with Sulla's dictatorship being no so far away thing. Generally, if you read some about it, you stop thinking "Why it collapsed?", instead "Why it collapsed so late?".
But yes, Romulus here isn't shown to do any actual corrupt actions, so he is much more clean, than Ceasar was.
Yeah genius move Twilight, when your just appointed ruler and have low loyalty levels try to immediately start arresting high respected army leaders, sure nothing will go wrong
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Twilight's magic is strong, but I doubt the elements of harmony can stop a united army also fighting for their own sense of harmony, also even if Twilight decided to full out destroy the army with her pure alicorn magic she would likely need to kill thousands, as she has never killed anypony before I doubt shes going to be willing to do that
Also Equestrians army is likely less loyal to Twilight then they are to Celestia and Luna. after all they did serve for 1000 years, even if the legion looses its a terrible look for Twilight having a rebellion withen like months of becoming leader
these guys aren't likeable, but I think that was intentional, he went beyond his orders, he stole land, then when asked to come down preacfully he refuses, worst part is after complaining about leaving the land to be lost, he then leaves the land to go to war, also pretty sure Twilight would win, mainly because most of equestia's alleys tend to be close friends with her or people close to her, I think equestia would be over ran with a bunch of forces trying to get twilight back on the throne, plus the alcorns are still in play with her
Now I want more.
Loved it. This kind of historical fics are great. I hope you bring us more of this.
I loved this story, and now I have a craving for more of this roman pony it was soon good, hee, think if he established his own domain in the western territories with a ponyfid roman gods~
Well, it is a awesome story real good one~
Milites Equestris, procedite!
Honor, gloria, vigor, potentia
Senator et agricola
Canimus et canimus: