All told, we captured one hundred and sixteen griffins pretty much without a fight, and not a drop of blood spilled. The blood dripping out of the helmets of the guards? Fake. I think the griffins thought that it was the blood of the scouts that my guard captured before coming over.

We stripped them of their weapons and armor before holding them in the very holding cell they forced the ponies into. We had a celebratory meal with the rescued ponies, and they were quite grateful for it. They looked much healthier after it, anyways. Of course we fed the prisoners too, and better then they fed the captives. We weren't total barbarians.

After that, we got them all ready to march back to the rest of the Equestrian army so that we could figure out what to do with them from there. Given that we weren't a very long way into the forest, it was quite a reasonable walk, and within four hours, we were all out.

I led the way, and thus was the first to see the princesses and the captains, all geared for combat in the event that I came back with less than stellar news. I was quite thankful that Cadance and Shining Armor didn't wear matching battle armor like a "cutesy couple."

The six of them ran up to me when they saw me come out of the forest, and I saw more than a little relief in their eyes.

"You have returned." Celestia looked behind me and smiled when she saw ponies coming through the trees, laughing and smiling. "You were successful, then?"

I smirked at her and nodded. "Completely. I got every single one of 'em back without a scratch. I asked them when we were on our way back. No casualties on their end."

"Did it come to battle?" Luna asked. "We see there are prisoners, but were there casualties?"

My smirk widened ever so slightly. "Not a single one on either side. All one hundred and sixteen griffin raiders are now our prisoners, and none of my guards have a scratch on them."

"I see." Celestia's gaze trailed over to the griffin prisoners, who were being directed by Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Rapids. "Well, we shall have to discuss what is done with them, be that trying them ourselves, or hoofing them over to the Griffonian government."

I shrugged. "To me we gotta debrief with their emperor anyway. I mean, we did technically take our entire army into his lands." A grimace crossed my face. "Although I want to have some frank words with him about that."

"We'll talk more about that later," said Celestia with a wave of her hoof. "For now, tell us what occurred in the forest."

I spent the next ten minutes recapping everything that I had experienced what I had done while dealing with the griffin raiders. The princesses and captains were silent while I told my story, but I could see that they had a few reservations about the way that I did things. Eh. Let them. It worked, didn't it?

When I finished they were all quiet for a few moments before Celestia spoke up. "I do not understand: why exactly did you not simply intimidate them from the very start? The intimidation dance would have worked well at any time correct?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. It would have worked much better at night when things were more confusing for them. They would have been able to see more of my guard in the daytime, and I didn't want that. I went in during the day to keep an eye on the captives, but my guard was always there if I was in a tight spot. I just had to overload the horn blocker and send up a flare."

"You said you had a tracking spell on you?" said Shining Armor.

I nodded. "Yeah. I thought that they would put me with the captives, which would mean that my army knew exactly where the captives were inside the base, so they wouldn't have to spend time searching the base for them. They could just go there right away. Also, if I'm in the base, they're focused completely on me and not them."

"So why did you go in alone?" Cadance asked. "It seems to me that you could have just walked in with a token guard and promised them that they would have been obliterated if they tried to hurt any of the hostages." Cadance shrugged. "I dunno, you can even do that at night and have them run like they did. It just seems like the quicker option."

I returned her shrug. "Well, I wanted the element of surprise, and I wanted to check on the captives as soon as possible. Also, doing it that way, with the haka, shows that my guard is not to be trifled with, and is a force to be reckoned with."

Cadance looked a little more mollified, but Celestia was still slightly frowning. I tilted my head slightly at her. "What?"

She sighed quietly and shook her head. "It's not a big detail this time as your plan worked, but I feel that you took some unnecessary risks." I opened my mouth to retort, but she forestalled me with a raised hoof. "I understand that you had backup plans for your backup plans, and I cannot deny the effectiveness of your force's haka, but you could have combined that with your natural Alpha Alicorn power. You could have had the whole thing wrapped up in ten minutes and had the exact same result."

I frowned and glanced over at Luna who nodded. "The Royal Canterlot voice as well as some subtle environmental changes would have worked to great effect. We understand that you wanted to psychologically manipulate them into doing your bidding, and that is indeed the best way to non-violently achieve your goals, but presenting yourself as weak from the start is counter-productive, we feel."

Despite the fact that I really liked my plan, and even more so that it worked, I could see their points. As a princess, presenting myself as weak, even to somebody I was about to thoroughly thrash, probably wasn't the best idea. I mean, it didn't get everyone killed or anything, but... well, I coulda been simpler about it.

Celestia must have noticed my slight discomfort, because she smiled at me and put a hoof on my shoulder. "This was your first true crisis, and, while your plan was not flawless, you showed that you could lead your ponies without resorting to violence, and you kept everypony safe. For a first effort, it is not bad at all."

I perked my ears back up, but that feeling of "you didn't do as well as you could have" didn't leave me. I mean, it worked though, so it's not like I screwed up so bad that everybody got killed. I guess I just had to work on it a little more for next time.

If there was going to be a next time in this regard, and I had some definite ideas about that. Although, I was beginning to doubt myself a little on that front after their deconstruction of my plan to get everybody out. I sighed and glanced over at the POWs.

"What's going to happen to them, then?"

"We will be meeting with Emperor Aepnet soon to discuss that," said Luna. "'Tis likely that Aepnet will take them back to their lands to stand trial for what they have done, with a little input from us, of course."

I frowned slightly at that. "And what exactly would their deterrent be?" I shook my head. "I mean, if he's throwing them, in jail for five to ten years or something, what's going to stop them from just starting it up again once they're out?"

Going down that trail also led me to think more on me allowing myself to get captured. Again, I did it to look after the captives to make sure they were safe, but let's say Sinosis does get out and builds up a military force again. He could have a perception that I personally was weak, as he captured me when I didn't have my army around, as far as he knew, but he did. Maybe he'll think that if he gets me alone somehow he can grab me again. Then I'd have to use violence to get out, and that could get all kinds of ugly.

Sheesh, I wasn't used to the idea that my actions now could have repercussions for hundreds of years down the line. The joys of being a princess, I suppose.

Well, I couldn't think about that right now. I had to think about how to deal with this Aepnet guy and the fallout of the raid. Heck, the guy could be mad that we moved roughly a quarter of our army into his territory. Sure it was to get our subjects back, but he might not see it that way.

"So do we go hard on them?" I asked. "I mean, not even just the raiders, but Aepnet too? From what you said before we went through with this, he didn't really crack down on them, even though he knew this was a problem."

Celestia's expression turned grim, and she sighed. "Well, I'm unsure as of now. Part of me wishes to gauge by his temperament. If he is apologetic and wishes to make amends by cracking down harder on this in the future, then we will allow it after the trials of the raiders."

"And if not?"

"Then we do not go easier on him." Luna grimaced and looked towards Celestia. "Thou knows as well as We that Aepnet is not a ruler who would willingly turn his troops on his own subjects, especially for the sake of our own."

"Well, then we make him." I looked in the direction of the forest. "We were the ones who did all of the work, right? Well, say that the forest is now Equestrian territory, and that goes for any griffin land we have to go into to get our ponies back. He's going to crack down on raiders much harder if he feels that he has territory to lose, correct?"

"Certainly, but it would also deal a heavy blow to future diplomatic relations with him." I could tell that Celestia didn't want to sound like she was patiently explaining something obvious to a child, but that was kind of how it felt to me. "Aepnet is a paranoid leader, and he would see that as the beginnings of an invasion, and he would likely muster up his forces, looking for any excuse to take it back."

"And it dominoes from there," I finished. Yeah, I guess I could see where Celestia was coming from. Still, it was kinda sucky that we'd basically say "hey, deal with this so we don't have to do it again," and he'd respond "okay" and then not do anything.

Well, we didn't have to wait too long for everything to go down. After another ten or so minutes of discussing what was going to happen, a chariot came speeding towards us, pulled by six griffons wearing dark green armor. On the back of the chariot was a griffin that, if I had to guess, was middle-aged, based on the gray feathers that he was starting to get that were standing out against his normally brown ones. He wore a large, gold and jewel encrusted crown on his head, and a red and purple velvet cape fluttered behind him. A rather pompous grin was plastered on his face, as if he was saying "oh yeah, I'm better than all of you just because I'm me."

Another griffin was sitting beside him on the chariot, this one not wearing anything. She was resting her head in one of her claws, and had a look on her face that told me that she would rather be anywhere but here.

The chariot touched down in front of the eight of us, and the two griffins on the back got off. The emperor and the other griffin, maybe a servant or something, walked towards us, and stopped when they were just a few feet away. He widened his pompous grin ever so slightly, but tilted his head in a bow to Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. He rather conspicuously skipped me, and I know that the other three princesses, and the captains, noticed.

"Princesses, how are you this fine night?" said Aepnet. He motioned over to the other griffin. "You have met my daughter Kathyrine, correct?"

Kathyrine rolled her eyes and tapped her claw on the ground. "Every time you meet them you force me to come along and every time you introduce me to them, Dad." She snorted. "I think they know who I am."

Aepnet's smile faltered slightly, but only for a moment. He turned his attention to me. "Well, have you met Kathyrine, Princess...?” He trailed off as he stared at me, but his smile quickly returned double. "I have just realized that we have never formally met, Princess Antares!" He extended a claw, and I slowly reached a hoof up to shake it. "I do wish it was under better circumstances, but it is lovely to meet you all the same."

"Great, another one," Kathyrine muttered. "You gonna try to marry me off to this one too for an 'alliance with Equestria?'"

I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that until I saw Shining Armor take a half-step towards Cadance out of the corner of my eye. Well, that was a little awkward. I'd have to get the full story on that one later if they were willing to tell me. I had to focus on the here and now, though. We had an emperor to chew out a little.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too. I hope everything tonight goes... well."

Aepnet nodded. "Indeed that is my hope. In fact..." Aepnet glanced back at the captured raiders, all of whom were staring at their emperor with looks of total horror on their faces. They knew they were in for it now. He looked back to me. "Why don't just you and I talk about everything? Surely we don't need four princesses to talk about something as silly as a little border dispute."

"This was more than 'a little border dispute,' Aepnet, and thou knows it!" Luna snapped. "Your subjects captured and attempted to enslave over a hundred of ours!"

"Yes, and I am sorry about that," said Aepnet with a tone not unlike somebody talking to a child having a temper tantrum, "and we will work out the details of it what happens next, but, as I said, why do we need all four of you?" Aepnet turned his head back to me with that pompous smile I was really growing to like. "I have heard some accounts of what happened, and it sounded like Princess Antares settled getting your subjects back on her own. Surely only the two of us need to talk."

It was pretty apparent what he was doing. He saw me as the weakest of the four, despite what I had just pulled off. I think he knew he'd get a pretty raw deal from Celestia or Luna, and would get politically trounced by both at once, but somebody like me who was just starting out? I think he thought that he could play me like a violin.

Well, considering my whopping zero time logged in international politics, he might have been right. On top of that, we hadn't one hundred percent figured out what we wanted from Aepnet yet. I mean, there was still a small part of me that wanted to add the forest to Equestrian territory since we were the only ones who had bothered to do anything with it recently, but Celestia already pointed out that might be a bad idea. Still, I had to learn this stuff at some point, right? Doing it with Aepnet while the other three were right here was probably the best situation.

"Okay, we can talk," I said carefully. I glanced back at the other three, who were looking suspiciously at Aepnet. I tilted my head in a slight nod. "We'll be close, though."

"Excellent." Aepnet chuckled and jovially slapped me on the shoulder. "We'll have this whole matter sorted out in no time, I'm sure."

I glared at Aepnet, and he seemed to deflate a little. I wasn't yet familiar enough with him, nor did I like him enough, to allow him to slap me on the shoulder like that. Kathyrine must have noticed, because her perpetually irritated expression turned amused. I rolled my eyes and beckoned Aepnet to follow me a few feet away from the main group. Both he and Kathyrine followed.

"So, what were you thinking should be done about this whole thing?" I looked over Aepnet's shoulder to the captured griffins. "I assume you have some ideas."

Aepnet shrugged. "Well, obviously I would like to take the raiders back to my country to stand trial." His expression turned to one of obviously fake sorrow. "I am appalled that this happened, but I am glad that your methods resulted in success."

"Yeah, yeah, I read the story of Gideon in Sunday School," I said with a wave of my hoof. "It worked, but we have to move past that, right? We're talking about our prisoners." A slight glare appeared on my face. "What assurances do we have that this sort of thing isn't going to happen again?"

Aepnet chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, Princess Antares, you must have more faith in me than that. You see, I know that we've let the problem get out of claw, but now that you've... made your point, we'll try harder to keep this thing from happening again."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Well, we'll increase security on our borders for one. Crack down on griffin raiders when we find their camps, make an example of these raiders..." He sighed, and it was the kind of sigh of somebody who thought they were doing a great chore for no reason. "I will make sacrifices for the peace of our nation."

Now, based on what Celestia told me, I wasn't going to get much more out of the guy in terms of concessions, without some strong-arming. He was clearly doing this for his own interests, and I didn't trust him nearly as far as I could throw him, which, considering my new powers, was quite a considerable distance.

"So... how many troops are you going to put on the Equestrian border again?" My eyes narrowed. "And how long will they be there?"

Aepnet shrugged. "Who knows? Nobody really knows how deep the infestation runs. You could have gotten all of them for all I know."

"Yeah, that's another thing." My glare hardened slightly. "Why exactly didn't you deal with this before now when you knew it was a problem?"

"The raiders had gone quiet, and have been for a few years now, at least in terms of attacks on this scale." Aepnet snorted. "What, you expect us to attack them when we have no reason to believe that they've done anything?"

"But you're going to pound down on them now, right?"

"Sure." Aepnet looked back at the captured raiders. "We wouldn't want any more nasty incidents like this, would we?"

"Good, because if you don't we're going to have to deal with it again, and neither of us want that, right?" I took an imposing step towards him, much to the amusement of Kathyrine. "Do you really want a quarter of our army moved into Griffonia again?"

Aepnet's eyes widened for a moment, but they quickly hardened into a glare. "Now see here! You can't go around threatening me! I have already said that I would make amends for the situation, and that should be good enough for you!"

I scoffed at him. He was beginning to get on my nerves more than a little bit. "We're the ones who had to deal with it in the first place! What, you think I liked going into that camp to get my subjects back?"

"Yes, you got yourself captured, I heard," said Aepnet coolly. He chuckled quietly and idly examined his talons. "It is embarrassing that your army had to come bail you out, is it not?"

"It was part of my plan!"

"I'm sure it was." Goodie. There was his condescending tone again. "You're new at this, so you overstepped your bounds in terms of what you can do. You did a fine job of creating your army, though."

"You weren't even there," I snapped. "And I didn't see you doing anything more productive!"

"Indeed." Aepnet sighed and shook his head. "I can see that you are getting worked up about all of this. A little failure on your part isn't something to be embarrassed about. Not on your first military campaign. You won, and that's all that matters." He clicked his tongue. "I suppose I had better go talk to Celestia then. She might have a better perspective on the whole thing."

Before I could say another word otherwise, Aepnet turned tail and walked back over to the other princesses. I know that Celestia didn't miss the glare that I gave him, and neither did Kathyrine who just rolled her eyes.

I sighed and growled at the same time as I watched him go. Captain Blaze must have noticed how frustrated I was, because he walked up to me, also glaring slightly at Aepnet. "Didn't go well?"

I scoffed. "No. I don't think he ever intended to just talk with me about what happened. He wanted to know if he could get one up on me." I angrily bit the inside of my lip. "Well, I've figured him out too, so I'll just have Celestia teach me the best ways to deal with him."

"Smart, I guess," said Blaze. "You're going to have to deal with a lot of beings trying to get one over on you, so it's good to learn now, I guess."

"Yeah," I grumbled. I shook my head and looked back at the raiders. "Yeah."

Author's Notes:

BTW, I've started laying some of the groundwork for the first few chapters of Life of a Non-Brony. Also, I have decided to add TD vs Equestria Girls to this universe because, as I think we all can agree, Equestria Girls would be improved with Captain Blaze and Lieutenant Rapids helping TD solve everything with their sarcasm powers. .