Prince Sugar Hoof of Equestria

I had a lot of letters come in from both the nobility of Equestria, and of foreign countries. Griffonstone, Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, and even one from the storm king himself. His is the one that worried me.

"Master?" Birch asked.

"I've been prince for a day, and I've already been declared war on." The storm king has declared war and could attack from anywhere at anytime.

Nobody said anything, but I still knew what I had to do. I'm to protect Equestria from all that would threaten it as part of my debt to it.

"How many treants are combat ready?" I asked, turning back to Birch.

"three hundred million, far outnumbering the storm king's army." He said, smiling.

"How do you know the amount of soldiers the storm king has?!" I asked, shocked how a tree who never leaves this one location could know.

"The tunnels stretch across the world, master, and nobody suspects a tree of spying." He said.

"I will be busy for a while, I see." I grunted and looked over to Poplar.

"How many researchers can you spare?"

"We work by your will, master. As such, none of us are really working on anything."

"I need two things, I need some of you to go into Equestria and scour the Everfree forest, we never did find what was causing the life magic leak. Take twenty guards to protect you and carry what you find, but bring me every magical item in there."

She wrote it down before asking, "What's the second thing?"

"Explosives, If there's to be a war, we will be unable to go without bloodshed. We must prepare." I had been in many battles, some skirmishes, but never a war.

"Perhaps it's time to summon the knights?" Birch suggested.

"No." I said simply. Summoning the treants have caused enough problems.

All wizards have three thralls, for a life wizard, that's the fairy, the weakest, the treant, the middle, and the knight, the strongest. They go up in cost by how strong they are. A fairy can be summoned simply and they aren't very useful or strong, but they can summoned for basically nothing. A treant requires a tree strong enough to sustain life, and a knight requires a living animal be sacrificed.

Don't get me wrong, The treants have never done anything outright bad... to me, at least. Sure, their mannerisms get a bit tiresome, but they're blindly loyal and obedient. Assuming I don't leave anything to interpretation, all will be well.

"You mentioned I had prisoners yesterday, as well? Ones who no longer wanted to leave?" I asked Birch.

"Yes, master. Shall I call them in?"

"Please."

It only took them an hour to reach the throne room thanks to the teleportation systems around the caverns. They wore bright smiles as they approached and I could tell immediately that something was wrong. Canines and insects entered the room and kneeled.

"You called, my prince?" They said, never losing their smile.

I looked at Birch with a glare, "What did you do?"

"They did not know you, master, so we taught them the same way we learned."

"You let them ingest my magic?" I asked, alarmed.

"Yes, it's proven quite the hit." Birch smiled, thinking this as a success.

"Birch, that kills people back home! Other people are not able to digest another person's magic!" I waved my hoof frantically.

Poplar replied, "We have been looking them over since they arrived, and there has been no signs of weakness or sickness in them, besides the mutation, that is."

"You are not to feed anyone my magic from now on." I ordered, I will soon have blood on my hooves, but I do not want it to be the blood of innocents.

Court ended thankfully, and I had a migraine. Trying to find the secrets of immortality was easier than running this place. Gilded Spear and I relaxed in one of the many bathhouses, with the tub more than big enough to allow both of us to float mindlessly in it.

"Your treants are a lot more violent than I thought they'd be." Gilded Spear said. "No offense."

"None taken, it was my fault anyway, the planet's natural magic threw me for a bit. I didn't anticipate the treants gaining sapience.

"You didn't make them this way?"

"No, when I made the first twenty, they were no more intelligent than mindless beasts, but now... the magic here does something to them. I shudder to think what it would do to the fairies or knights if I tried to make them."

We sat in silence for a minute, enjoying the noises that came from the water.

"So... war." He said, which I grunted at. "What's the plan?"

"I don't have one."

His head rose from the water, "A plan is kind of important, Sugar."

"I've never been to war, All I know about it is that one side kills the other side and whoever is still alive wins."

His head slowly fell back into the water as he resumed floating.

"Even without a plan, you have plenty of treants that can fight, but the storm lands has the most technologically advanced society."

"You like cheesecake." It wasn't a question, ever since I stole the power from the elements of harmony, it began feeding me certain information.

"Yeah... how did you—"

I turned to the treants who stood guard. "Fetch a cheesecake for Gilded Spear." He bowed his head and left.

"You didn't have to—"

I interrupted again, "Would you like a massage too? I'm sure the treants won't mind."

His mouth was held open, "Uuhhhh..." He said dumbly.

With him quelled a bit, it allowed me a chance to think.

"I'm blind out here beyond what my treants tell me and what harmony tells me, I need spies so I can keep up." I started with annoyance. "Plus, I've got a war to plan out, since I've never even been in a war, I'm mostly just playing it by ear." A treant returned, carrying a large cheesecake. I enchanted it with the food enhancements before sliding it over to Gilded.

"Well, I guess I am a little hungry." He said as he took a bite, I looked away to continue listing off all the things I need to do.

"I'm to manage an entire desert, with multiple small settlements here and there. They'll need order, food, water, medicine, I haven't even started manufacturing medicine."

I looked back at Gilded Spear, he sat back on one of the benches at the edge of the pool, the cheesecake now nothing but crumbs and his mouth filthy with cheesecake residue. "Good, I take it?"

"That was the best cheesecake I've ever had." He said wistfully.

I got out of the pool and made my way to leave before I noticed that Gilded wasn't following me. Looking back, I saw him still sitting on the bench.

"Come on, we've got work to do."

"I'll catch up, just give me a second."

"I didn't intend for you to eat the entire cheesecake, Gilded." I turned back to the guards, "one of you, carry him." A treant nodded before going over to Gilded where he sat and picked him up.

Gilded Spear had fallen asleep in the treant's arms. I didn't disturb him, but he was still going to keep me company, even if he was asleep.

"Most nobles and royals have spies, that's completely normal." I said softly as I sat in my laboratory. "A spy... is someone who secretly collects and reports information... the treants are too large..." I thought about summoning a fairy for a second, "A fairy would be too bright."

"I need something small, something inconspicuous, something nobody would suspect as a spy." With my hoof on my chin, I thought about my conundrum before coming to a realization.

"Insects. That's what I need.. they're everywhere, nobody would suspect them." I bolted out of the room to gather the supplies I would need to create my own spy force.