A rough draft chapter. It's just intended to address some of the concerns of the original one. I banged it out in about an hour.

Celestia inhaled the warm fumes of her tea, a slight smile crossing her lips as the heavenly scent washed over her. She raised the cup to her lips and took a delicate sip, nodding in approval at the skill of her tea maker. A perfect job, as always. She set the china cup down on the small table before her and looked up at her guest, her smile not leaving her lips for a moment.

"It is quite good, King Turgis. Are you sure you would not like me to pour you a cup?"

Kind Turgis, a minotaur king almost as tall as Celestia, draped in wolf furs, raised a hand and shook his head. "No thank you, Celestia. I'm fine."

"Suit yourself." Celestia took another sip before continuing. "Now, then, tell me how you're doing. I heard you're moving some troops near my border? I must say that I was surprised to hear that, but given that one of my subjects assassinated a duke of yours, I can't really fault you for being a little angry with us."

Turgis sighed and drummed his fingers on the armrest of his chair. "No, and I am glad that you see my side of things, Celestia. My people are quite outraged at the death of my nephew. He was a very well-respected leader."

"By me as well."

"Indeed? Because there are rumors that you are the one who ordered the attack."

Celestia frowned and put her teacup back down. "Me? Oh King Turgis, I am shocked! I do not assassinate others. My tactics are not so underhooved as that."

"Nevertheless, you know that our countries have not always had the happiest of pasts. My council wants war for this, and I'm inclined to favor that."

"I supposed you might." Celestia grimaced and refilled her teacup. "And that would be too bad."

"We are in agreement there. Your country cannot compete with mine militarily, and mine cannot compete with yours magically. The question is, who has the upper hand or hoof in other areas? My military is has grown stronger in the past few years."

"And I am impressed for it," Celestia said with a smile. "Though, have you heard that this year's graduating class from my school for gifted unicorns is probably my most talented yet overall? I am so glad that I implemented that combat magic club. It's so popular amongst the students."

"I have heard of it, yes, and I believe I saw a friendly sparring match during my last visit." Turgis glanced down at a plate of crumpets that had been put out for us, before thinking better of it and shaking his head. "Should we go to war, I look forward to seeing how well they do when they are being throttled by my troops and their horns have been smashed off."

"Without their horns they would be in a tight spot," Celestia admitted with some unease.

"And they'd find themselves in that spot when facing an army of my size and strength. Our ranged troops could take out your pegasus air force, and I am eager to face your earth pony shock troops on the battlefield." Turgis shrugged. "Of course, if our ranged weapons do not work, our alliance with the griffins might. I'm sure they'd love to get involved in a war against you that they'd think they'd win."

"And I am certain of it too." Celestia took a dainty bite of a cucumber sandwich as she formulated her next answer. "I suppose then my next tactic would be calling in the Saddle Arabians to aid me. A god superpower makes allies, King Turgis, which, incidentally, is why many see you as a superpower."

"Indeed, Celestia. However, as the griffins and Saddle Arabians are innocent, I'd like to keep them out of this if possible." Turgis shrugged. "But if you brought them in, we'd bring in some dragon allies."

"And we'd respond in kind," Celestia said with a small sigh. She shook her head and waved her hoof. "But war is not won by brute strength alone. Could you feed that army you're sending?"

Turgis smirked slightly and nodded. "In the last few years we have developed several major cash crops that can be grown quickly enough to feed a fighting force, yes. With a quick attack of one of your cities we could hold it effectively for some time." Turgis leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I'll be honest, Celestia. I don't need to beat you militarily to win. I know I can't, given your powers. I just need to hold out long enough for you to give up." Turgis' smirk returned. "You know, like the Diamond Dogs did when you went to war with them a hundred years ago?"

"A fiasco that I vowed to learn from," Celestia muttered. "And I like to think that I have."

"And you are not the only one. Your ponies died by the thousands, and as a good leader who cares for her subjects, you couldn't stand it. You ended the war. It hurt to lose like that, didn't it? It gave the rest of us a blueprint."

"As I said, I have learned from that as well. So you would take Vanhoover? Well, I could easily send a flying force over the clouds to bomb one of your cities, particularly if it was a military target."

"Something that would trigger retribution."

"And so on and so forth..."

Celestia shrugged. "So what about economically? Say you win this war. Wars are extremely expensive, revenge wars doubly so. You and I both know that you could never get in a position to sack Canterlot, and it is an equally ridiculous notion that I would ever march to Schunie to raze the place. On top of the innocents I would kill, my forces would be so decimated that it wouldn't be worth it."

"Economically..." Turgis shrugged. "Well, yes, wars are expensive. But again: we count it as a victory if the expense is greater for you. That is the nature of war, is it not?"

"Yes, yes it is." Celestia's gaze flickered from her tea to her guest. "And you are certain that that is how it would play out?"

"Reasonably, yes. If I wasn't, I would not be here."

"Can you tell me with one hundred percent certainty?" Turgis fell silent, triggering another sigh from Celestia. "So I think all of our cards are on the table here. So what I am hearing from this is that if we engaged in a war, the casualties on both sides, both civilian and military, would be massive. Potentially in the tens of thousands. Our economies would be devastated, and it would really be one big, bloody staring contest that might draw other nations into it. Am I hearing that right? The first one to blink comes out only slightly better?"

Turgis tightened his jaw and slowly tilted his head. "I... suppose if you wish to put it like that. Yes, that would be the case."

"So you don't wish to resolve this a little more peacefully?"

Turgis clicked his tongue, but slowly nodded. "It might be best."