Steamjacks, Rarity was pleased to learn, made excellent laborers. They could follow simple instructions well enough, and required nothing except crushed coal and clean water. The downside was that they did generate a lot of smoke and lacked finesse, two factors that reduced their utility in mining. Still, a pair of Nomad warjacks equipped with over-sized digging tools performed admirably in Time Turner's mine. Work requiring a more gentle or precise touch than could be provided by six-ton iron-and-steel brutes was carried out by a group of ponies that Time Turner had recruited, apparently at random, with the promise of a share of the diamonds they collected. Between the Nomads and the ponies, Rarity and Time Turner were rapidly accumulating a large collection of gemstones, even considering the shares given to the other ponies, and the large tributes collected by the Menites every day. Within only ten days, however, Rarity found herself wanting to leave the mine, so she began preparations for a return to Ponyville. She wasn't yet aware that a surprise visit from a pegasus pony with a distinctive mane would change her destination.
Time Turner's hoof-drawn map had been fairly sparse, but the pegasus following it quickly concluded that this was because the Bloodstone Marches didn't have a lot of things a pony could put on a map. The mine's location was carefully marked, and the compass rose Turner had drawn was accurate, making it easy to find the way from Caspia to the mine's entrance.
Rainbow Dash found Rarity at the entrance to the mine, standing on the sun-blasted ground, conversing with Time Turner as he fiddled with an immobile steamjack. The pegasus always had trouble keeping the names of warjack designs straight, but she was pretty sure this one was a Nomad. She remembered overhearing Shining Armor asking an engineer about production rates on 'those darn big Nomad swords', and the weapon standing with its tip sunk into the ground definitely qualified as a darn big sword. The warjack itself was difficult to look at in the bright sunlight pounding down on the Bloodstone Marches, having been painted mainly in white, with purple accents. This 'jack, Rainbow concluded, clearly belonged to Rarity. Nopony else, except maybe Princess Celestia, would put so much white paint on a steamjack, and nopony but Rarity would bother keep one so clean inside a mine that was itself in the middle of a desert. Rainbow wondered how long it'd be before her unicorn friend began mounting gemstones onto the thing. The pegasus got as far as thinking that turquoise crystals would compliment the machine's purple detailing before smacking her hoof against her forehead and descending to the barren land.
"Hey, Rarity, what's up?" Rainbow asked as she landed. Rarity gave her a surprised look, followed by a wide smile.
"Why Rainbow Dash, I was just preparing for a trip home. Oh, before I forget, this is Time Turner." The earth pony waved a hoof absently without looking away from his work. He had the top of the warjack's hull open now, and seemed to be deeply engrossed in something to do with its inner workings.
"We've met," the pegasus said. "Anyway, I just got a letter from Princess Celestia, actually. I dunno what's up, but she wants everypony with an Element of Harmony in Canterlot. I guess Fluttershy made some friends the Princess thinks can help out. Problem is, the Khadorans keep giving Applejack the runaround, and Pinkie and Twilight are both still missing."
Rarity bit her lip and frowned. "Still no sign of them, then?"
"Not mane or tail of either of 'em," Rainbow confirmed, "I'm startin' to get sorta freaked out about it, honestly. The Princess has ponies out looking for them, but they don't really know where to start. Fluttershy says Twilight's somewhere in the Thornwood, but that's a whole lotta dangerous ground to cover. I just hope AJ knows where Pinkie got to, she said something about trollkin."
"Speaking of Applejack, you said she's still in Khador?"
"Yeah. The Princess just got a letter from her. Apparently Khadoran officers keep promising to introduce her to the high-ups if she just does 'one more' favor for them. AJ's pretty sure they're just using her for free labor at this point, but she doesn't know how to talk her way out of it. Right now she's in Merywyn, in occupied Llael. I figured since you're a smooth talker you can get those reds to let her come home, sound like a plan?"
"I take your meaning, though I'm not sure how to feel about the 'smooth talker' appellation," the unicorn replied, raising an eyebrow, "and I suppose you'll be assisting the search for Twilight Sparkle?"
"Of course. When you meet up with Applejack, head to Canterlot. We're sorta assuming she knows more about Pinkie Pie's deal than the rest of us, so everypony will figure out how to find her from there. Got it?"
"I understand completely. I suppose I'll need to book passage on a riverboat in Sul. I can follow the Black River right up to Merywyn and seek out Applejack from there."
"Right, well then," Time Turner closed the warjack's access hatch and inserted himself into the conversation, "Glam here seems to be in top condition, all ready for a nice long trip. Be sure to take plenty of coal and water with you for her and-"
"Glam?" Rainbow Dash interrupted, "you seriously named that thing 'Glam?' What kind of name is that?"
"Don't look at me, I didn't name it," the earth pony grumbled.
"It's a perfectly lovely name for the most glamorous steamjack in the Iron Kingdoms!" Rarity exclaimed defensively. Rainbow wasn't sure if she should face-hoof or start laughing.
"You couldn't name it, like, Opalescence the Second or something?"
"Absolutely not." Rarity seemed insulted by the suggestion. "That would be entirely uncreative, and far too long a name to call it by in the middle of a battle."
"Yeah, because 'Glam' is the most creative name ever," Rainbow knew she should just drop the subject, but had the uncontrollable urge to argue that Rarity seemed to frequently trigger, "it just sounds silly to me."
"Oh, yes, and you're the Princess of Gravitas," Rarity stated, voice dripping with sarcasm. Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"Anyway," the pegasus said, "I'm gonna fly back to Caspia to take care of some stuff there, then head for Ponyville to join the search for Twilight."
"All right, I'll see you in Canterlot once you find her," Rarity replied.
Rainbow Dash returned to her tower room at the castle in Caspia to find a pegasus in Royal Guard armor waiting on her balcony.
"Rainbow Dash," the Guard said with a salute -something Dash was still getting used to- "message from the Princess. Your eyes only." With that, the Guard passed her a parcel wrapped in brown paper and bearing Celestia's royal seal, then flew off into the clouds.
A few minutes later, Rainbow Dash burst into the office of the most important person she knew would listen to her -the office of Artificer General Sebastian Nemo, who was briefly in Caspia to check the progress of the multitude of projects he was overseeing. She found the elderly warcaster at his desk, which was covered with blueprints, design notes, tools, and other detritus of genius.
"WHAT THE HAY IS THIS?!" The pony demanded before Nemo could even react to her intrusion, slamming a set of patches into his desk.
"I could ask the same question!" Nemo shouted back, "what are you doing barging in like this-?"
"Cygnaran soldiers wearing those patches attacked Ponyville! And I wanna know WHY!" Rainbow interrupted, hammering her hooves on the desk. The General blinked, then looked at the patches in question.
"Fourth Army, Eleventh Division, Hundred-and-Twentieth Rifle Company."
"I don't care who they were, I wanna know why they attacked Equestria!"
General Nemo sat down, deep in thought. "Fourth Army..." He muttered to himself, "but then... No... Yes... It would have to be..." The General ran a hand down his face. "Finch, take Rainbow Dash and these patches to Rebald, will you? He needs to know about this."
"Yes, sir," Nemo's aid, Caitlin Finch replied, "please come with me, I'll take you to the Scout General."
"Fine," Rainbow grumbled, her urge to keep shouting mollified by curiosity. Scout General Bolden Rebald was in charge of the Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service. Rainbow wasn't sure if going to see him meant Rebald knew something fishy was going on, or if something fishy was going on that the Scout General needed to know about. Either way, she followed Finch to his office, where they found him at his desk, examining a map of Western Immoren that had several small, wooden flags standing on various places for reasons the pony couldn't quite work out. She guessed that they indicated military assets. The officer glanced quickly at the pair before returning his gaze to his map.
"Speak your piece," Rebald said.
"Sir." Finch said, "Ambassador Rainbow Dash just received word that Equestria was attacked by elements of the Fourth Army's Eleventh Division."
"The Fourth Army's Eleventh is reinforcing the garrison at Ramarck," the Scout General replied, still looking at the map, "it's not possible for them to have-" He stopped speaking as Dash dropped the patches on his map, right under his eyes.
"Captain Shining Armor took those off one of the attackers." Rainbow said.
The Scout General stared at the patches for a minute. "Finch? You're dismissed." As Finch left the room, Rebald moved one of the wooden flags to a point in the Thornwood, south of Ponyville. "Do you know who led the attack?"
"They couldn't get a clear look at him, but they know he was a warcaster." Rainbow answered.
"That division doesn't have a warcaster attached," came a voice from the doorway. Rainbow Dash turned to see a scruffy-looking man in a blue greatcoat, with pistols holstered at his hips. A short smokestack, visible behind one shoulder, was the only thing that marked him as a warcaster.
"That they do not, Caine." Rebald confirmed, "Rainbow Dash, this is Captain Allister Caine. He's been helping me investigate internal threats."
"Internal threats?" Rainbow asked.
"Yeah, well," Caine said, "I'll put to you like this: Y'know about old Vinter Raelthorne getting overthrown by King Leto, right? Well, there's some folks out there just nutty enough to want Vinter back."
"Wait, wasn't Vinter the Fourth like, insane?" Rainbow asked, incredulous.
"Yeah, but he did a lot of favors to people he thought he could trust," Caine said with a shrug, "some of them miss him. Or his handouts, anyway. Some of those guys seem to figure Vinter'll make a comeback if Leto has a hard enough time running this show, so they try to undermine him."
"And you think some of those backstabbers got into the Fourth Army?" Rainbow asked.
"The Fourth does seem to have more difficulty maintaining discipline than the rest of the Cygnaran Army," Rebald said, "a number of their officers have been court-martialed lately, it's possible that part of the Eleventh has gotten corrupted, as well."
"So, I'm guessin' it's time for me to head up Equestria's direction and see if I can work out what they're doing so far from their post?"
"Yes, I'll have to send you," Rebald said, "I was going to have you pursue rumors that Asheth Magnus had been spotted near Bainsmarket anyway. An unidentified warcaster with connections in the Fourth Army could easily be him."
"Wait, if they're traitors, won't they react pretty badly to a member of the CRS showing up?" Rainbow asked.
"Most people don't know I work for Rebald," Caine said, "they think I get my orders through the normal chain of command, so don't go spreading this around. I had to lurk around in the hall a while, waiting for Finch to go away."
"Plus, Caine's record isn't exactly clean, so troublemakers and reprobates tend to trust him," Rebald added.
"Yeah, I spent some time with the wrong crowd in my younger years," Caine admitted with a roguish grin.
"He lost his Captain stripe two weeks after making full warcaster for inappropriate conduct," Rebald pointed out, "and he only just got promoted back up."
"Could've done without telling her that part, General," Caine grumbled, rolling his eyes.
"Setting that aside," Rebald said, "Caine, you will go to Bainsmarket, cross the river, and seek out the Eleventh Division. They should be easy to find, they tend to draw a lot of attention to themselves. Once you've found them, you need to determine how deep the corruption runs, and if need be, eliminate it. Keep it quiet, though, if Magnus is involved, we don't want him to know you are."
"Yes, sir," Caine said with a salute, "I'm betting you want in on this, Dash?"
"Heck yes!" Rainbow said, "I won't let an attack on Equestria slide, and besides, I have to make sure you aren't planning to just drop the whole thing."
"Well, then, let's go."