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TD the Alicorn Princess

by BronyWriter

Chapter 15: Trials and Tribulations

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The trial was scheduled for the next day.

Given that it was my first, the other three princesses were all going to be there too so I wouldn't mess up and do something that wasn't proper procedure, or just flat out illegal. I still had to follow the laws of a fair trial, after all, and I would. I did not intend for this guy to get off because I wasn't giving him a fair shot.

Not that he was going to get off anyway. I had personally seen him beating his daughter, on top of the testimony from his daughter and her friend. I didn't see him getting out of this one.

The court date arrived, and the stallion, whose name turned out to be Brick Layer, was led into my courtroom by Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Rapids. His head was bowed, and his ears folded against his head. He was in big trouble, and he knew it.

He was stopped a few feet before my throne, and sunk to his knees in a deep bow. He knew I wasn't going to be particularly impressed by it, and I really wasn't, but I suppose he thought that it didn't hurt to try. I glanced over at Luna, then Celestia, both of whom gave me a single, subtle nod. I returned them and drew myself up to my full height.

"Brick Layer, you stand accused of nine accounts of physical foal abuse of your daughter Dashing Wing." Brick Layer flinched back, but I continued on. "How do you plead?"

Brick Layer audibly gulped, and it was with a great deal of effort that he responded. "W-well... I c-couldn't deny it if I wanted to at this point, your majesty."

I nodded. "Very well. You plead guilty. Because of that, I will go a little easier on you." For the first time, I could see a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes. I mean, I wasn't going to execute him, but I think he just figured that out. "You will still spend a significant amount of time in prison, and you will be restricted from ever seeing your daughter again unless she initiates contact with you, but..." I took a deep breath. "I will not have the words "foal abuser" sewn into your prison uniform or put on your cell door. As much as I feel that you deserve such a thing, you would be singled out in prison and likely beaten. I will not help that along."

Once again, the relief on his face was clearly visible. I also glanced aside and saw approving nods from the other three princesses. Yeah, I figured they'd be support that. Truth be told, as much as I would have liked seeing this guy get what was coming to him in that way, I had done some thinking before the trial, and I realized that doing that wasn't justice so much as... vengeance on my part. Did he deserve something like that? Maybe, yeah, but if I've seen The Godfather enough times that I can quote it, and I have, then I know that you can't let personal matters get in the way of business.

Or justice, in this case. Sewing "foal abuser" into his clothes would be personal, I think, so I decided against doing it. Had he foolishly pleaded innocent, I would have just kept the same prison sentence that I had originally threatened. As it was, this case was pretty simple, and he had pleaded guilty. No need for me to give a punishment that would have been me getting a little revenge. I had no illusions of what would happen to a foal abuser in prison. Heck, it'd still probably happen, but, like I said, I didn't need to help it along.

And... well, that was that, I suppose.

I nodded and flared out my wings, "Brick Layer, I sentence you to ten years in the Baltimare Penitentiary. You will be eligible for parole in half that time. As stated before, you will be prohibited from ever seeing your daughter again unless she initiates contact."

Brick Layer's ears flattened again, but he bowed to me once more. "Y-yes, your majesty."

I nodded. "Good." I turned my attention to Captain Blaze. "We are adjourned."

Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Rapids saluted me and led Brick Layer out of the throne room, leaving just us four princesses inside. Once the door had closed behind them, I frowned and leaned back in my throne. Celestia walked up beside me. "You seem confused as to what just happened, TD."

I took a deep breath and slowly shrugged. "Well... I'm not sure. I dunno, it just wasn't what I was expecting, is all. Back in my world, TV and movies and stuff has always made trials out to be these highly dramatic things, and here..." I lightly scoffed. "It took all of five minutes to get everything over and done with."

"Most court cases we deal with are like that," said Celestia with a nod. "Our ponies tend to be more honest around us. There's a... perception that we can tell when a pony is lying, so things tend to go much smoother."

"Some trials are lengthier, but We think he knew he was at your complete mercy," said Luna. Her and Cadance walked up next to me. "We know it may have seemed anticlimactic to thee, TD, but We assure thee, 'tis a natural way."

I slowly nodded and shifted so I was sitting with my back leaning against my throne. I crossed by forelegs. "I'm glad I didn't blow up at him. It would have been quite easy." I clicked my tongue and looked over to Celestia. "Well, you know the Equestrian prison system better than I do. What do you think will happen to a foal abuser in a place like that?"

Celestia grimaced. "Well, I don't think he will be killed, if that's what you're asking, but I do not think he will be completely unscathed, despite the best efforts of the guards."

"He's gonna get a little knocked around?"

"As cruel as some of those ponies can be, many of them have their own version of an honor code, and harming foals, particularly fillies, breaks that." Celestia sighed and shook her head. "We shall have to see. You may keep an eye on his case if you wish."

I shrugged. "I might." I stood up from my throne. "For now, though, I think I'm going to check on Dashing Wing again.

* * * *

Well, Dashing Wing was quite happy to hear that her father wouldn't be bothering her anymore, and I told her that I'd take a personal interest in her case. I'd make sure she got a good home. I took her and her friend to my personal dining room, and told my personal chef to make them whatever they wanted. They deserved it after everything that they had been through. Shining Star's parents were proud of her, though.

A foal services officer came and took Dashing Wing a few hours later. I told the officer to give me daily updates, and that settled things on my end on the whole. Dashing Wing would have loving parents from now on. I would make sure of that.

Well, after that bit of excitement, life went back to normal. Dashing Wing was snapped up pretty quickly by a couple who couldn't conceive a foal of their own who were a few blocks from her school, so everything really worked out. I got a letter from her a week after that thanking me for everything that I had done. I instantly put a protection spell over it and stored it away neatly.

It was a few weeks later before anything else exciting happened. And boy was it exciting. I woke up one morning and walked out of my room after my morning grooming to see Captain Blaze standing on the other side of my door, his hoof raised to knock. I smirked at him. "Caught you at the right time."

"Something's happened." Captain Blaze beckoned me to follow him, and I wasted no time in doing so. Captain Blaze would always respond with a quip of his own, but the fact that he wasn't here was telling. I walked beside him, my longer legs meaning I could match his quicker pace with ease.

"What?"

"I don't know all of the details, but all three princesses showed up today with their captains." Captain Blaze led me in the direction of my throne room. "I think I heard her say something about griffins, but I'm not totally sure."

I frowned and tilted my head. "Griffins?" That didn't make any sense to me. We were on good terms with Griffonia as far as I was aware. They didn't have any reason to go after us, especially now that our military was a little stronger and there was another princess to contend with and lead the ponies in the event that one or more was incapacitated.

Blaze nodded. "Yeah." We reached the throne room, and he opened the door. "Princess Celestia will explain everything, I'm sure."

I walked into my throne room, and, sure enough, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, Raining Skies, and Night Stalker were all standing in front of my throne, grim expressions on their faces.

Well, Night Stalker always looked grim, but somehow he seemed even more so now.

"What happened?" I looked between each of the princesses. "I heard something about griffins, but nothing more."

"Indeed." Celestia shook her head and turned to me. "Last night, two of the small towns on the border of Equestria and Griffonia were sacked, and their inhabitants were all captured. One escaped, and that is why we now know about it."

My eyes widened, and my mouth dropped open. "What?! I thought we were at peace with the griffins!"

"We are. It wasn't the Griffonian government," said Cadance. "It was likely a warlord with a small army behind him." Cadance flattened her ears, and Shining Armor put a hoof around her shoulders. "I don't even want to imagine what they're going through."

"What would they even want with them?" I asked, walking forward to better join the conversation.

"Slaves, most likely," said Celestia. "I believe they intended to take the two towns quietly, sell them to whomever would buy them, likely Diamond Dogs or other small time warlords, and then move camps so that we would be too late to do anything about it."

I copied Night Stalker's grimace, and rubbed one of my temples. "So why doesn't the griffin emperor do anything about it?"

Luna scoffed, and wore an expression not unlike one that somebody would have if they tasted something particularly foul. "He claims to not have the necessary resources to deal with them. The raiders have been quiet for a few years, but he should have crushed them long ago."

I rolled my eyes. I knew the type. It was somebody else's problem if it didn't affect you directly. Goodie. I shook my head. "Well, I suppose getting their help to deal with it is out of the question, or are we considering that?"

"That is the purpose of this meeting." Celestia nodded to Shining Armor, who unrolled a large map onto the floor. I saw two spots on the Equestrian-Griffonian border that were marked red. "Those were the places that were attacked. Around fifty ponies were captured from each place, so we have a hundred ponies to save."

"And not a lot of time to do it, I'll wager," I added grimly.

Celestia nodded. "A day or two at most. We came here to talk strategy because yours is the closest palace, but we have already begun mobilizing troops in case we need to fight to get them back."

"Which we'd rather not do," said Cadance.

I frowned and tapped my lower jaw, and studied the map. If they were transporting around a hundred ponies, they wouldn't be able to get very far very fast, so they had to have a base close by. I motioned to a spot on the map that represented a forest. "I think the raiders are in here. It's close, and it's hidden."

"It makes sense." Celestia marked the forest blue. "They have tried such things before.

"But that also presents a problem in that the forest will make it hard to move a large army through quickly, pegasi aside," said Luna, "and a small force could not effectively fight them; they'd likely be captured or killed."

"What about one of us?"

That got me some looks. Even Captain Blaze, who usually can guess where I'm coming from when I say something crazy was looking at me like I had just grown a second head. You know you've said something out of the park weird when somebody like Night Stalker has stopped looking stoic or grim and is now looking baffled. I figured a little explanation was necessary.

"What I mean is, why can't one of us alpha alicorns go deal with it? We can find the camp and negotiate the release of the prisoners, and maybe threaten a little imminent total annihilation if they don't comply immediately." I shrugged. "You really think the griffin emperor would begrudge us that? We'd be doing it to get our ponies back. If he didn't like it then he could take a long walk off a short pier."

Despite my explanation, they were still looking at me like I was nuts. I mean, I can kinda see why. Yeah, we alpha alicorns were pretty much immune to most weapons, but waking into a warlord's camp still wasn't the best idea, unless one had the element of the unknown on their side.

It was Celestia who spoke up first. "TD, do you understand what you are saying? You think that it would be best if one of us just waltzes into their camp and demands for the release of the hostages or we'll kill them all?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, what else are they going to listen to?"

"TD, such a thought might have worked a long time ago when Equestria was a more warlike nation, but now is a more peaceful time." I disliked the slight condescension in Celestia's tone, but I didn't say anything as she continued on. "If I or Luna were to do such a thing, they would not believe us. I have not led troops into battle for centuries, and that is quite common knowledge."

I nodded. "Yep. I'm sure it is." A small smirk crossed my face. "But, they don't know a thing about me, and I'm, in theory to them, anyway, just as powerful as you are, right?" I chuckled and spun my hoof. "So let's say I walk into the camp and demand they release the prisoners or I'll destroy everything I see. They have no reason not to believe me, right?"

"Out of the question," Luna snapped. "Thou art not strong enough magically, nor diplomatically skilled enough to take them on. We do not want to put them in any more danger than they already are."

"If you have another suggestion, I'm all ears, Luna." I frowned. "I think the element of surprise is going to be our best bet here; make them think we're holding a lot of pretty sweet cards that we can use against them if they don't comply. The fact that we know where they are would be a pretty good indicator that they can't just hid from us forever, right?" My smirk widened a hair. "I don't think they'd know what to do with a threat from me, but if I had your backing, like if I tossed around that all it would take is a little spark and they're swarmed by the entire Equestrian army, they're going to back down."

"What makes you so sure?" Cadance asked.

"Call it a hunch, but beings that attack civilians don't seem to me to be the kind of beings that would stand and fight against something a dozen times stronger than they are." I shook my head. "I think they'll back down once they realize they've been cornered."

The throne room was silent for a moment as each of the ponies mulled over my words. I could tell that they each had their reservations, but at the same time, given the extremely small time frame, they didn't have a better option, particularly since this one was likely bloodless on both ends. if I was wrong then, well, we'd win and get the hostages back. I had been studying up on some decently powerful magic, shield magic in particular, so if I located the hostages and things got ugly, I could protect them long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Still, I think they'd back down.

Of course, it didn't hurt to make contingency plans either, so I'd definitely be sure to make some of those, and I think I had some pretty good ones there too. Always good to have plans A-Z.

It was Luna who eventually broke the silence. "If thou art to be a leader in this country, thou must knowest how to plan and lead. Should you feel that you are completely in the right, you have Our support in your plan."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"And if it doesn't work?" Celestia shifted her gaze between the two of us. "If our subjects are lost to us?"

"Backup plans," I responded. "Between our guards we have an army, right? Once we know where they are, they'll have a pretty hard time getting out undetected, particularly with a hundred ponies weighing them down. Again, that's why I think they'll surrender. They're cornered."

Celestia turned her gaze to the map, and stared at the blue forest. Slowly she nodded, and I knew I had my way. "Very well, TD. You may take point on this endeavor." She looked back up at me, staring me dead in the eye. "I hope for the sake of us all that this does not fail."

"I don't think it will."

Celestia nodded again. "Then let us begin preparations at once." Celestia wordlessly beckoned the rest of the group to follow her, and they began walking out of the throne room. I, however, held back with Captain Blaze.

"Captain, there's something I need you to do."

* * * *

Thanks to the fact that my army was already at hoof, we were ready to go in three hours. If the map was correct, the forest was a four hour flight from where we were, which did mean that some of my troops would be delayed in getting to where we needed to go, but hopefully everything would come together right anyway. After I got my entire force together and gave them some special instructions and training for an hour, we were off. I flew ahead with Lieutenant Rapids, and the two of us made pretty good time to the forest. We landed at the edge along with a detachment of thirty other pegasi.

I looked over to Lieutenant Rapids and noticed the uneasy look she gave the forest. I gave her a comforting smile. "I'll be fine. Just do your job, and everything should turn out okay."

Of course, now that we were actually at the edge of the forest and about to go through with the whole thing, I was having my doubts about it all too.

I mean, when I said the plan to myself in my head one more time, it sounded ridiculous. I was going to march into a forest to find a camp of bloodthirsty slave trader griffins, demand that they give up their captives, and I was going to do it pretty much alone. Well, in terms of actually being inside the camp, that is.

I turned back to Lieutenant Rapids, and she tried to return my comforting smile. "Good luck. Get them back safely, you hear?"

I slowly nodded. "Yeah. I'll do my best." I unfurled my wings and lifted off to fly into the forest.

If standing outside of the forest looking for the camp of bloodthirsty slave trader griffins whose camp I was going to walk into alone was nerve wracking, then actually flying towards it was much worse. At first, I was wondering how on Earth I was actually going to find the camp, but then I noticed a big mistake that those griffins made that prevented them from staying hidden: tracks. It's hard to move a hundred ponies through a forest and not leave some pretty distinctive markings. Good. It would make things easier for everybody. I was certain that my troops would be smart enough to notice them too, which up the chances of success considerably. Not that I hadn't taken precautions already in regards to them finding the camp if I did.

I figured that the camp would be deep in the forest, and I was quite right about that. I don't know how long I flew through it, but I was beginning to lose focus. All of the foliage was looking the same to me, and I was wondering if I was going in circles. The high, thick treetops meant that not as much sunlight was coming through as normal, which also made it harder to see in some spots. One of the things that kept me alert was the sounds of the birds chirping around me, forcing me to listen to every noise in case it was something out of the ordinary for a forest.

Something like talking.

I halted my breathing when I first heard it, and silently landed behind a large tree. I strained my ears to hear exactly what was being said, or even if I had just imagined it, but a few seconds of listening revealed that I had found what I was looking for. Griffins. Two of them in scrappy metal armor holding sharp metal spears, which they were leaning on as they talked to each other.

"Good haul yesterday," said the one on my right.

"Yeah. I expect some of 'em won't be worth anythin' but ya never know," said the other.

"Just so long as Celestia or Luna doesn't find out before we can unload the cargo, we're fine."

"Or that new one." The one on my left tapped the side of his beak. "What was her name? Antarnet?"

"Close. Antarta," The other replied. "She's the princess of something like..." He shrugged. "I dunno, somethin' whimpy."

"Actually, my name is Princess Antares, and I'm the princess of snark, sarcasm, foal services, and pastries. None of which are particularly whimpy."

The two griffins nearly jumped out of their skin and feathers. The spun around so fast to see who was talking that I'm surprised that they didn't lose some of their feathers in the process. I, meanwhile, gave them a casual smile while they registered that the third most powerful pony in the world was looking right at them. "Good afternoon, gentlemen. I've heard tell that some ponies have gone missing around here. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

The two griffins stared at me in open-mouthed shock for a solid minute before the brain of the one on the right rebooted, and he shakily pointed his spear at me. "W-what are you doin' here?!"

"I already said." I took a step forwards, prompting the other griffin to raise his spear. "I'm looking for the ponies who have been lost." A thoughtful look crossed my face. "As a matter of fact, I believe I heard the two of you talking about how you had them. I don't suppose I misheard you, did I?"

The two griffins, whom I could only presume were scouts, exchanged an uneasy glance. "Er... well..."

"I know you have a camp or a fort of some sort around here." I scanned the forest. "You'd have to to house that many captured ponies. How about you give me a tour? Maybe you take me to see your leader?"

The one on the right gulped, but put on his best brave face. "Now you see here, we don't take orders from pony folk, even if they are princesses!"

I sighed. "If you insist." Before either of them could react, I fired a beam of magic out of my horn and completely disintegrated the spear of the guard on the right, who jumped back with a shriek of terror, and the other one nearly fell backwards himself. I gave them both pleasant smiles. "So, you think you can give me that tour now?"

They both quickly nodded, and I began following them towards their camp. So far everything was going according to plan. The grunts were acting exactly as expected, but the leaders were a whole 'nother ball of wax. If whoever ran this outfit was just as cowardly to bit of strong-arming, then I'd have no issues, but, I knew that we'd have to see.

As it turned out, we were only a five minute walk from the fort. And yes, I mean fort. It was a large fort built with logs, and the ends of the logs that made up the walls were spiked. Now, that wouldn't do anything to a pegasus or unicorn assault, but it did look threatening. Guards similarly clad to the ones that I was with patrolled the walls, also armed with sharp spears. One of them manning the gate saw us coming, and ran over to a nearby bell. He began pounding on it, and the griffins on the wall began flocking towards him.

I stopped when I reached the gate and looked up at the griffin guards. "Hello there. My name is Princess Antares, but I think that you may already know that."

The griffin guards murmured something amongst themselves, but after a few moments, one of them looked down at me. "State your business."

I gave him a wide smile. "Well, I'm with the Girl Scouts, and we're going door-to-door to all of the other evil forts in the area and selling cookies so we can earn some merit badges and raise money to go on a camping trip. I left my Girl Scout hat at home, but I promise I am one."

That baffled the heck out of them. The guards looked at each other like they weren't quite sure what they had just heard, and thus didn't quite know how to respond. I rolled my eyes and decided to throw them a bone. "Another cause we wanted to raise money for is a hundred poor souls who were captured by griffin raiders fitting your description. We were looking to free them, you see."

"Ah." A smirk crossed the guard's face, and he shared a chuckle with his fellows. "You're here for the ponies? Well, I'm afraid we don't have any ponies."

"I didn't say anything about ponies, I just said poor souls."

The smug smile slid off of the guard's face, and he nervously adjusted his grip on his spear. "Uh... W-well, I just assumed that... uh..."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Look, I have an entire army ready to obliterate you at a moment's notice. Just give them to me and we can all walk away, okay?"

The guards on the wall began murmuring again, but there was more than a little fear and uncertainty behind it this time. This was probably not what they had been counting on when they decided to capture the villagers.

The guard I had been talking to uneasily scratched the back of his neck before looking back down to me. "Er... wait right here. I'll go tell Lord Sinosis you're here."

I tilted my head in a small bow. "'Preciate it."

The griffin flew into the camp, and the two griffins who had led me here flew into the air themselves and into the fort away from me. I'm surprised they didn't do that sooner. The griffin guard came back after a minute. "Lord Sinosis will see you now."

I nodded, and the gate in front of me slowly opened up, allowing me to walk inside. Now, I suppose that I could have just flown over, but there were manners to be observed at this juncture. No need to be barbaric as of yet. That was for later.

As it turned out, the inside of the fort was fairly large. Large enough to house a small army and whatever captives they took. I passed by dozens of griffin raiders lounging around, wearing scrounged up armor and carrying second-grade weapons. None of them would hurt me, as far as I knew, but I still wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of them.

I didn't have too much time to think about that, though, as I was rapidly approaching a one of the larger buildings which looked to be a little sturdier that the other ones. The door was guarded by two griffins standing at attention, so I got the feeling that it wasn't the latrine.

Or it could have been for all I knew.

It, of course, wasn't, and I found that out when the door opened, and a griffin dressed in immaculate full black armor, sans helmet, came strutting out, flanked by six stone-faced griffins with spears and wing-blades. Quality ones too, if what Shining Armor's teachings were accurate.

The two of us stopped a few paces in front of each other, and the griffin gave me a smirk, but a small head tilt bow. "It's not every day we get a princess in the camp, your majesty."

I couldn't miss the sarcasm with which he said those last two words if I tried... nor his vaguely UK accent, but I couldn't quite pinpoint it. I pushed those thoughts aside and returned his smirk, but not his bow. "Well, you get visits from royalty when you capture their subjects."

"It would seem so, Princess Antares." The griffin motioned to himself. "I'm Lord Sinosis, By the way. I like to be addressed as such."

"Indeed?" I shrugged. "Well, Lord Sinosis, I take it you know why I'm here and what I want."

"You want your subjects back."

"Yep."

Sinosis snorted and his smirk widened ever so slightly. "And, uh, explain to me your reasoning for why I should? I mean, you're all alone here. We could beat you and be gone with 'em before the rest of you found this place." His smirk turned slightly smug. "Or we could do less savory things to lighten the load, so to speak."

"I imagine you would." I widened my own smirk. "But I don't think you will. You see, you'd incur the wrath of the entire Equestrian army, which knows you're here, by the way, so I don't see you getting out of this unless you let them go."

"Izzat right?" Sinosis snorted. "Maybe they know we're in the forest, but the specifics? I doubt it. You see, My scouts would know if an entire army was coming through to get to us, and we wouldn't be having this discussion in that instance." He took a step towards me. "I know it's just you. Aside from the ones I got from the raid, you're the only pony around."

I was about to respond, but I noticed something. A slight wing gesture from him. It was barely noticeable on its own, but the fact that a few griffins took a few steps closer to me made it more so. "Imagine it: me, the first in my kind of work to collect an actual Equestria princess." Sinosis shrugged. "A dumb one who came to me alone, but you are a once in an era catch for somebody like me."

Yeah, I thought so.

I ignited my horn and tore a spear out of the grasp of one of the guards just in time to use the end of it to crack a charging raider over the head. He fell to the ground, clutching his head, but I didn't have time to revel in that. Sinosis let out a piercing whistle, and griffins began flocking towards me from all over the camp.

Turns out there were a lot of them. A lot more than I thought, which wasn't good odds for me, especially if they all charged me at once. I steeled myself and began swinging the spear wildly left and right, connecting with griffin skulls while taking several blows of my own. I was quickly being overwhelmed, and I knew it. The thought crossed my mind that I needed an exit strategy, and fast. I would need to come back with my guards.

I might have waited a little too long to do that, though. I was tackled to the ground by three griffins, while a fourth took my spear away. In a short moment, I was surrounded by at least a dozen of them, all of whom were taking turns hitting me as hard as they could with the end of their spears and, in one nasty case, a hammer. I thanked my alicorn biology that I was more resilient to weapons. Still, all I could do was lie there and take it. I'd definitely be sore in the morning, probably with some nasty bruises, too.

I don't know how long they wailed on me, but eventually I heard Sinosis whistle again, and the beatings stopped. I didn't groan in pain, though. I wouldn't give them that satisfaction. Even so, I couldn't help but flinch back when I felt my legs being tied together and a magic blocker being slipped onto my horn. I heard Sinosis chuckling as a muzzle was secured over my face.

"And there was me thinking beating an Equestrian princess was going to be difficult." Sinosis snapped his talons. "Get her out of here."

Author's Notes:

Dun, dun, duuuunnn!

... No, this isn't going grimdark, or too dramatic, or anything like that.

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